MEET REBECCA CROWTHER

Rebecca at work

Careers in Art & Art History:
REBECCA CROWTHER
Monday, February 24, 6-7:30pm
Kadema Hall 170

To help students think about life after graduation, the Art History faculty is inviting our recent alumni back to Sac State for conversations about finding a great job.

The first conversation is with Sac State alumna Rebecca Crowther, Photograph Archivist at the Center for Sacramento History, who will tell us about her CSUS graduate education in photography and art history, her career search, and her job.

Art in Chicago

There wasn't much time to see art while I was in Chicago last week for the College Art Association conference, but two world-class art museums were within walking distance of my hotel: The Chicago Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago MCA), so I visited both. On view at the MCA is a provocative and convincing exhibition titled The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology, organized by Dieter Roelstraete, Senior Curator at MCA, which presents artworks made since 2000 that in various ways excavate the past. This includes some of the most interesting artworks and artists of our time, so it's an important show and gave me much to think about. In this video, the curator and some of the artists discuss the exhibition and their artwork: The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology

Looking at Michael Rakowitz, The Invisible Enemy
Should Not Exist (detail), 2007–present, at Chicago MCA
February 13, 2014, Way of the Shovel exhibition

The installation by Michael Rakowitz, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, is one of the works that captured my interest. Rakowitz has made copies (in an ongoing process) of ancient works of art that have gone missing from museums in Iraq since the war began. He makes them out of pop detritus: packaging of popular commodities (like chewing gum wrappers) from the region.

Michael Rakowitz, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist (detail), 2007–present

Ionit looking at details of Mark Dion's installation,
Concerning the Dig, 2013, in The Way of the Shovel

Mark Dion is well known in California and has shown in San Francisco recently, but in the context of this exhibition, his focus on the past - museums, archaeological digs, including the archaeology of everyday contemporary life (like the installation in the MCA show - fits a paradigm that includes many other artists and is presented here as a defining subject of our time.

Library Gallery exhibition opened last night

Mehr and Jeff 

Last night's opening of the beautifully- installed exhibition of contemporary Korean prints had too many interesting people to talk with to get a good look at the art. I'll go back to the Library Gallery after the CAA conference in Chicago and spend all the time I want.

Photo by Jennifer Porras

Photo by Jennifer Porras

Photo by Jennifer Porras

Exhibition, "The Land and the People," opens tonight

The Testimony No. 1 by Jung Won Chul

This evening, February 6, 5-8 pm

Attend the opening reception for exhibition, The Land and the People: Contemporary Korean Printmaking

• Enjoy refreshments, great art and great people. Extra credit for my students
  University Library Gallery (turn left when you enter the library main lobby), Sacramento State University

I'm thrilled that Sac State Art History students are bringing contemporary African American art by Sacramento artists to campus and that it's something they really care about. Jasmine Wyrick, one of the curators, writes that, "Megan and I have been working on the exhibition for a year and now we are ready to present our hard work to the Sacramento community.... We bring this exhibit to you in celebration of Black History Month. We hope ... that this show touches you as this experience has touched us!" I'm eager to see BLACK and the exhibition of contemporary Korean prints in the University Library Gallery.

There's a related exhibition, XHIBITING BLACKNESS, February 1- April 26 at the Evolve gallery in Oak Park: http://www.evolvethegallery.com/#!coming-up/c1nqe  Evolve is hosting a community discussion with Dr. Bridget R. Cooks, the author of  Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum, on Saturday, February 8, 1pm.

Exciting SFAI lecture season

The San Francisco Art Institute's Spring lecture series is especially exciting. It might help fill the void left by SFMOMA's closure.The lectures are free, but you have to make online reservations. I expect the lectures will fill fast, so I've already reserved for Alfredo Jaar's talk and will reserve seats  to hear painter Terry Winters and critical historian Richard Meyer. Those are the three I'll try to get to, but there are nineteen talks scheduled, so take a look at SFAI's calendar and attend at least one.   http://www.sfai.edu/events-by-category/public.  

Geometry of Conscience, 2010, Alfredo Jaar