Tag Archives: Graduate Art Seminar

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it: Josh Smith at Art Center’s Graduate Seminar

Josh Smith

Josh Smith

For those unable to attend painter Josh Smith’s Graduate Art Seminar last month, we’ve got your back. Adam Stamp, who is currently pursuing an MFA through Art Center’s Graduate Art program, has provided an insightful and informed essay about Smith’s irreverent body of work and his wide-ranging talk full of valuable takeaways for emerging young artists.

In January, artist Josh Smith visited Art Center to speak at the Graduate Art Seminar lecture series. Smith is one of the 13 artists featured in The Forever Now, a controversial painting show at MoMA, described by many critics with the rhetoric du jour as the first survey of zombieism,[1] with many considering Smith to be the prime example. The artist who made a name for himself with his “name paintings”, a series of works that continue to this day where he uses his name (literally the letter J-O-S-H  S-M-I-T-H) as the subject of his paintings, was described in 2013 by New York Times critic Roberta Smith as “sacrosanct and trashy.” His newest works to make waves depict black palm tree silhouettes in front of Technicolor sky-scapes, á la Edvard Munch.

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Explore the art of border crossing with Morgan Fisher: scholar, sculptor, filmmaker and conceptual artist

Morgan Fisher's New Alien Pendant Pair Paintings

Morgan Fisher’s New Alien Pendant Pair Paintings

Conceptual artist and filmmaker, Morgan Fisher, will discuss his vast and eclectic body of work at Art Center College of Design on Tuesday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Times Media Center.

At first glance, it’s hard to connect the dots comprising the details of Morgan Fisher’s early biography. He was born in Washington, D.C. in 1942. He studied the history of 19th and 20th century art at Harvard University. Then he studied film production in Los Angeles, first at USC and then at UCLA.

His creative path started to coalesce, however, once he landed in L.A. and committed himself to filmmaking. He began making independent films in 1968 while complementing his own avant-garde filmmaking, working as a teacher at Art Center and in various capacities on Hollywood productions, including as Roger Corman’s editor. Fisher’s films have been shown at festivals such as Pesaro, Oberhausen, Rotterdam, Berlin, and New York; and at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou.

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Graduate Art Seminar Brings Distinguished Speakers from the International Art World to Art Center

Tuesdays. 7:30 pm. Los Angeles Times Media Center.

Currently underway, the Graduate Art Seminar at Art Center  welcomes internationally recognized artists, critics, art historians, architects, filmmakers and writers to Pasadena to share their insights into the world of contemporary art. The seminar—a core component of Art Center’s Graduate Art program—takes place Tuesday evenings throughout the term and is free and open to the general public.

Carroll Dunham, Tree with Red Flowers 2009. Mixed media on canvas, 75 x 90 inches. Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery

Acclaimed Vancouver photographer Jeff Wall launched the series this term, with a roster of distinguished artists to follow, including noted philosopher, theorist and University of Lille professor Thierry de Duve (March 6); City University of New York’s Distinguished Professor Wayne Kostenbaum, the poet and celebrated author of such provocative titles as The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire; Jackie Under My Skin, and the newly released The Anatomy of Harpo Marks; (April 9*), and painter Carroll Dunham, who will speak on the occasion of a survey of his drawings at L.A.s Blum & Poe Gallery(April 17).

The series culminates with a special symposium titled “Changing the World” spearheaded by one of today’s most influential thinkers Alain Badiou (May 19). Badiou will be joined in conversation by noted professors Kenneth Reinhard (UCLA), Nathan Brown (UC Davis) and Jason E. Smith (Art Center).

For a full list of speakers, please visit the Grad Art website.

*Wayne Kostenbaum’s seminar will take place on a Monday