Category Archives: Fine Art

San Marino League Docents Invest in Art Center

Did you happen to notice a large group of women listening carefully, taking notes and following Williamson Gallery Director Stephen Nowlin around the student gallery? If you ever wondered who these women are who turn up the first Tuesday of every term, they are volunteers and members of the San Marino League on campus for a half-day of docent training.

Student Gallery. Photo © Crystal Jean Photography/Art Center College of Design

The San Marino League in California is a nonprofit organization of women committed to philanthropic work in the community as well as furthering their own knowledge of fine arts. Its purpose is exclusively charitable, educational and all volunteer.

According to its website, “The League’s association with Art Center College of Design began in 1976 when the League funded the opening of the student gallery and began conducting tours. The association continues to this day, enhancing knowledge of and interest in one of the most renowned art and design education centers in the world.”

Today, docents from the San Marino League conduct tours for community groups interested in visiting Art Center. They also volunteer in the library and help staff the registration desk for Grad Show Preview. In addition to the many volunteer hours they invest in the college, they fund a Fine Art Scholarship helping countless students attend Art Center.

More information about the San Marino League can be found here.

For more information on scholarship giving opportunities, and joining Art Center support groups, contact Director of Annual Giving Amy Swain at amy.swain@artcenter.edu or 626.396.2427.

Come Hear Artist Jeff Wall Speak

Tuesday, January 17, 7:30 pm, L.A. Times Media Center

Vancouver-based artist, Jeff Wall (b. 1946), widely recognized for both his pioneering photography and his trenchant writing on the medium and its place in contemporary art, will be speaking at Art Center Tuesday, January 17 at 7:30 pm in the L. A. Times Media Center. The event, sponsored by the Graduate Art program, is open to the entire Art Center community.

Wall has exhibited regularly at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York since 1989, and he has been the subject of numerous museum shows, including a comprehensive 2005 European survey, “Jeff Wall, Photographs 1978-2004,” which opened at the Schaulager Museum, Basel, Switzerland, before traveling in a reduced version to London’s Tate Modern as “Photographs 1978-2004.” “Jeff Wall,” a retrospective organized by New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Art, opened two years later, in 2007, and subsequently traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago. To mark the occasion, MoMA published “Jeff Wall: Selected Essays and Interviews,” a collection bringing together 25 years of the artist’s words. This past summer, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, mounted an exhibition entitled “Jeff Wall: The Crooked Path,” a selection of his own work together with that of a broad range of artists with whom he has felt affinities.

Wall earned his Masters of Arts at the University of British Columbia, where he graduated in 1970 with a thesis entitled: “Berlin Dada and the Notion of Context”. He subsequently traveled to London in pursuit of his doctorate at The Courtland Institute (1970-73), where he studied with noted art historian T.J. Clark. Returning to Canada, Wall served as assistant professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1974-5), and at Simon Frasier University (1976-87), and went on to lecture at the University of British Columbia.

A galvanizing figure in the Canadian art world since the early 1970s, Wall has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2008). In 2006 Wall was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and named an Officer of the Order of Canada the following year.

WORLDS Exhibition Extended

If you haven’t had a chance to view WORLDS, currently showing at the Williamson Gallery, you are in luck. The exhibition has been extended through January 29, 2012.

Galileo Spacecraft IO, Satellite of Jupiter, 1999, NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

WORLDS continues the theme of superimposing two domains traditionally imagined to be distant and estranged—art and science. The exhibition is a medley of objects, images, sounds and videos exploring celestial phenomena by examining the products of art and science.

Meteor rocks borrowed from UCLA’s Meteorite Collection, an illuminated manuscript from 1568, a Copernicus engraving and other scientific works (many borrowed from the rare books collection of the Huntington Library) are on display alongside more contemporary space-themed art by Jonathan Cecil, Richard Selesnick and Nicholas Kahn.

In the Los Angeles Times, WORLDS curator and Williamson director Stephen Nowlin explained the purpose of the exhibition, “We have an Earth focus. This show is about reinvestigating that perspective. It’s a space object we live on.”

According to Nowlin, exhibitions like WORLDS fit well with Art Center’s mission because the College trains artists and designers who innovate “at the boundary of art and science.”

The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and Friday, noon to 9 p.m.

Richard Selesnick and Nicholas Kahn Liftoff, from the "Apollo Prophecies" series, 2002-06. Courtesy: the artists

Two Days of Peace, Love and Music (Part 1 of 2)

Art Center's West Canyon Concert, December 1976.

Next week is the last week of the Fall 2011 term, which means the current stress level on campus is higher than usual. But if you’re “freaking out,” just remember, man, to take it easy. You know, like The Beatles said, ”turn off your mind, relax and float downstream?”

Okay, perhaps that’s not the best academic advice, but a similar thought did fuel two Art Center student-led events held nearly 35 years apart.

Earlier this term, Art Center Student Government (ACSG) organized a Woodstock-inspired concert featuring musical performances by Art Center students. During the event, students lounged in the Sculpture Garden atop orange blankets, enjoyed cotton candy and grooved to music by bands like Sister Rogers. But what they may have not realized is that they were also participating in a recreation.

In December of 1976, Art Center students organized the West Canyon Concert, a Woodstock-inspired event that allowed students to take a break from their rigorous studies. When Fine Art student John Dewey saw a photo from that event in the Art Center Archives, he shared the idea with ACSG President Erik Molano and the seed to bring back the spirit of that collaborative event was planted.

“We have a lot of musical creative talent here at school,” said Erik Molano on why recreating the West Canyon Concert made sense. “And ‘mellowing out’ is definitely something that Art Center students are looking for.”

We’ll share some more thoughts and pictures on the 2011 event next week, but for now, enjoy a selection of images from the original West Canyon Concert.

Additional images, courtesy of Robert Dirig in the Art Center Archives, after the jump.

Continue reading →

Don’t Miss Machine Project’s Mark Allen Tonight

Artist Corey Fogel, part of Machine Project's 2008 "Field Guide" to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Tonight, Art Center’s Office of Career Development and Fine Art Department are presenting students with a unique opportunity to meet Mark Allen, the founder and executive director of Machine Project, from 7-9 p.m. in the Boardroom at Hillside Campus.

A non-profit performance and installation space that investigates art, technology, science and more, the Echo Park-based Machine Project also operates as a loose confederacy of artists producing shows at locations ranging from beaches to museums.

Tonight, Allen will discuss Machine Project’s history, fantastical events and mysterious collaborators. Topics covered will include indoor shipwrecks, dog operas (opera for and by dogs),fire starting with sticks, houseplant vacations, and teaching children how to steal cars.

No RSVP is required.

In Case You Missed It

Ana Serrano's "Salon of Beauty" installation at Houston's Rice Gallery. Photo: Nash Baker.

There’s always something happening when it comes to Art Center alumni, students and faculty. Sometimes there’s almost too much happening!

If you have any Art Center-related news items you’d like to share with the community, send us an email at editorial at artcenter dot edu.

In Case You Missed It

As you know, there’s always something going on when it comes to Art Center alumni, students and faculty.

  • Cardwell Jimmerson show of work by Art Center alum and former faculty member Vincent Robbins—on display through Sept. 3— is another of the gallery’s great exercises in expansionist art history. L.A. Times Culture Monster

    Work by Vincent Robbins

  • Late Art Center alum and faculty member John Altoon will have works on display at Garboushian Gallery exhibit celebrating Armenian contemporary artists. Asbarez Post
  • Transportation Design alumnus Gabriel Wartofsky begins Kickstarter campaign for folding e-bike. Sustainable Business Oregon
  • Art Center partner, Bernhardt Design president Jerry Helling, talks about working with Art Center students to design furniture. New York Times
  • Alumna and faculty member Diana Thater’s Peonies, a nine-monitor videowall, now on view at the Wexner Center. Artdaily.org
  • Art Center’s “Visionary in Residence” Bruce Sterling creates his own augmented reality. Wired

Alumni Nominated for Emmy Awards

Two Art Center alums have been nominated for Emmy Awards for their animation work. Both nominations are in the same category: “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.”

Illustration alumna Jill Daniel, an art director at Disney, was nominated for her background painting on the cartoon series Phineas & Ferb.

Fine Art alumna Vanessa Marzaroli, director at Bl:nd, is nominated for production design of a music video. Lilac Wine (shown above) was directed by Marzaroli to celebrate Dr. Marten’s 50th anniversary. The video previously won the gold in motion graphics for the 2010 London International Award for the video.

The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards will be Sunday, Sept. 18. Good luck, Jill and Vanessa!

Best Practices and the Business of Art

Don’t miss this lecture presented by the Office of Career Development and Fine Art Department on best practices and the business of fine art. Speaker Karen Atkinson will discuss exhibition strategies, ethics, finding a job, preparing portfolios, pricing and selling work and finances for artists.

Atkinson is a media, installation and public artist, an independent curator and collaborator. She has published and guest edited a number of publications.

Creator of the GYST software for artists, in 2000 she founded GYST as an artist-run professional practices service company. Currently, she focuses on making life better for artists and less on exhibiting her own work.

Artists’ Best Practices and the Business of Art
Thursday, July 14, 7 p.m.
Art Center College of Design
Hillside Campus
L.A. Times Media Center

Postmodern Suicide: The intersection of Peter Saville Factory Records and Joy Division

Don’t miss a special guest lecture and discussion on graphic design history focusing on the influence of designer Peter Saville and Factory Records on postmodern design, along with an examination of the music and ideas that made this design phenomenon possible. The talk will lurch from Situationism in France in the late 1960s, to protopunk and punk rock in the ’70s , to the post-punk and new wave era of Joy Division, The Durutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire and New Order.

Guest lecturer Eric Mathias is a California-based graphic designer and Graphic Design alumnus. Born in San Francisco, Mathias is a creative consultant, art director and designer who operates his own design firm (National People’s Gang) and has served as frequent guest lecturer on Apple and Adobe products. In addition, he is a published news writer, editor and award-winning designer. His clients include AT&T, PBS and Disney.

The event is free and open to the public.

Postmodern Suicide: The intersection of Peter Saville Factory Records and Joy Division
With Eric Mathias
Thursday, March 24, 7 p.m.
L.A. Times Media Center