As always during the shelter-at-home order, the Arts Blog continues its efforts to help you enjoy art virtually! This month, by the way, we have experienced our greatest readership ever. This means people are craving art, we think, even if virtually. We deliver. We also give a nod to some of our most famous former faculty, Wayne Thiebaud and Manuel Neri. And if you take the walk suggested by the museum, you'll find fellow-faculty William Wiley's work, as well. We also feature another Manetti Shrem video offering a little project. Hint: it involves, yet again, a precious toilet paper roll. Read on. And thank your for reading.
Compiled by UC Davis Media Relations Intern Leigh Houck
Manetti Shrem At Home
We excerpt the newsletter from the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art:
“In this week's Manetti Shrem Museum At Home, we explore the abundant opportunities for connection and reflection in the once casual and leisurely activity of “taking a walk.” If we pay attention, each walk can be a new experience and a chance to bring art into our lives. Challenge yourself to look more closely during your next walk and let your creative process flow as you observe how artists respond to their surroundings.”
Visit the fertile artistic terrain of Northern California with Dan Nadel, who curated Landscape Without Boundaries from the university’s Fine Arts Collection and found artwork that is profoundly attuned to being alive, in nature, at any time.
Meet “urban sketcher” Pete Scully, who works at UC Davis' Department of Statistics, and see some of his colorful sketches of campus life and Davis that were featured in a 2016 UC Davis Design Museum show.
Explore, sketch and spark conversation with outdoor sculptures on the UC Davis campus through our interactive map. Take a tour either virtually or in person (with proper social distancing, of course).
Even if we walk the same path, what we see can be completely unique. Artist Olafur Eliasson illuminates why everyone sees a different rainbow in this SFMOMA video about his 2007 work, “Beauty.”
Don't throw out that toilet paper roll: Did the Manetti Shrem at Home newsletter inspire you to find beauty in taking a walk? Do you need a little help to see that beauty? Try a pair of homemade binoculars. Check out the latest video in Manetti Shrem’s video series Build It With Brandon. This week’s episode uses toilet paper tubes and tape to make homemade binoculars. Watch it here.
At the Arts Blog, we would add this walking opportunity: Tour the murals of Sacramento. Read our story about that here published earlier this week.
Mondavi Center offers concerts and a film this weekend: around the world, and rural America
This weekend, listen to world music by group Bokanté on Friday, May 1. Continue your musical journey around the world by listening to the music of Japan and India played by Yumi Kurosawa and Anubrata Chatterjee on Friday May 1 and Saturday May 2. Finally, on Sunday May 3, return to rural America to enjoy a streaming of the Oscar nominated neo-Western film "Hell or High Water."
During the closures, Mondavi continues to offer free virtual concerts. The virtual concerts will be shared on the dates the shows were scheduled to occur. Click here to view the full schedule of virtual concerts.
Crocker Art Museum: Find peace and Wayne Thiebaud
The Crocker Art Museum Adult Education Coordinator Houghton Kinsman has put together an article on the benefits of art during stressful times. Read this piece on art and wellness here. At the bottom of the page is an Artful Meditation recording by Matthew Roselli. Roselli usually leads the Crocker’s in-person Artful Meditation program alongside Teresa Sedano on the fourth Saturday of every month. Listen along to find some peace.
Wayne Thiebaud, renowned artist and UC Davis art professor emeritus, will turn 100 years old this coming November. Read an article by the Crocker Art Museum on Wayne Thiebaud’s early life and how his experiences impacted his art here. An exhibition celebrating his centennial birthday, Wayne Thiebaud 100, Paintings, Prints and Drawings is slated to open at The Crocker on Oct. 11. This exhibition brings Thiebaud’s work full circle, as his first solo exhibition was at The Crocker in 1951.
UC Davis students and faculty participate in refugee awareness art
Dozens of UC Davis students, alongside two Department of Design lecturers, are participating in The 25 Million Stitches Project. This project is a response to the global refugee crisis by artist Jennifer Kim Sohn. Each stitch represents one of the 25 million refugees worldwide.
Learn more about the 25 Million Stitches Project here and more about UC Davis student and faculty participation here.
UC Davis art in the news: Artforum
While Stephen Kaltenbach’s exhibition at the Manetti Shrem Museum is currently inaccessible, Artforum is sharing his art with the world via Instagram. The post of Kaltenbach’s painting “Sunset” is captioned in the social media platform as follows:
Stephen Kaltenbach, Sunset, 1970-71/2019-20, acrylic and fluorescent paint on fiberglass, 106 1/2” x 118”.
Artforum is posting images from artists’ exhibitions around the globe that have been shuttered or postponed during the coronavirus crisis. Here: “Stephen Kaltenbach: The Beginning and The End” at Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, California, January 26-May 10, 2020.
View the post here. It earned more than 2,000 views.
Art Tweet of the Week
This week’s art tweet of the week comes from the Crocker Art Museum. It focuses on the sculptural work of artist and UC Davis Art Professor Emeritus Manuel Neri.
