Fog and Smoke book launch and signing Thursday afternoon

Thursday, Feb. 15, 4:30-6 p.m.

Written in the wake of the pandemic, Fog and Smoke describes how the movement of fog and the threat of smoke orient and disorient ordinary life. It’s also a California book that follows one family through the confusions of COVID, the sorrow of climate grief, and the delights of early childhood. Peterson will read from the collection, followed by a Q&A. She will be introduced by Associate Professor Margaret Ronda, Department of Engish, author of two award-winning collections of poetry.

Shinkoskey Noon Concert: Amy Beach and Richard Strauss

 

Thursday, Feb. 15, 12:05 p.m. - 1 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Igor Veligan, violin
I-Hui Chen, piano
Susan Lamb Cook, cello and UC Davis lecturer in music, Cook is an active performer and educator in the capital region.

 

Grammy-nominated guitarist Cody Wong at Mondavi next week

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center, tickets starting at $25

Straight out of Minneapolis, Grammy-nominated American guitarist, bassist, songwriter, podcast-host, and producer Cory Wong positioned himself as music’s answer to motivational speakers like Tony Robbins since emerging in 2011. Head-spinning rhythm-guitar wizardry, technical ebullience, laugh-out-loud jokes, and radiance on stage established him as both a sought-after collaborator and celebrated solo artist alike. His performance has a run time of 2 hours and 45 minutes including a 30 minute intermission between the opening act and Cory Wong.

Special ticketing for the UC Davis Community: A.I.M by Kyle Abraham

Saturday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m., Mondavi Center, Jackson Hall; Get tickets THIS WEEK

A.I.M., a UC Davis Well-Being Ticket Deal, is a contemporary dance company grounded and galvanized by Black culture and history. Led by Kyle Abraham, A.I.M will be performing their program An Untitled Love in our very own Jackson Hall. An Untitled Love draws from the catalogue of Grammy Award-winning R&B legend D’Angelo and pays homage to the complexities of self-love and Black love, while serving as a thumping mixtape celebrating our culture, family and community.

See their video

Get tickets at A.I.M by Kyle Abraham | Mondavi Center

Use code BEWELL from Feb. 1 - Feb. 18 for a discount on your tickets. (University community only)

 

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UC Davis Professor Beatriz Cortez Tapped for International Venice Biennale Exhibition

Beatriz Cortez, UC Davis professor of art, has been invited to participate in the prestigious Venice Biennale arts and culture showcase. This is the first time in 40 years that a current faculty member has been tapped for the honor.

Cortez is a multidisciplinary artist and sculptor. She joined the UC Davis faculty as associate professor of art in fall of 2023 following a visiting professorship in The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies. Visiting artists in The California Studio engage with students at the undergraduate and graduate levels through seminars, critiques and public lectures in residencies that are focused on teaching. Prior to her residency, Cortez gave a talk as part of the Art Studio Visiting Artist Lecture Series in April 2020. Her work will also be exhibited at the Manetti Shrem Museum at UC Davis in the fall.

“I am so thrilled and honored to be the first artist from El Salvador to be included in the international art exhibition of the Venice Biennale, and to be one of few Latinx artists based in the United States who have been invited,” Cortez said. “It is a beautiful manifestation of the communities and individuals whose voices and labor mark my work, and who have supported and inspired me in multiple ways throughout the years.” The 60th International Art Exhibition is titled “Stranieri Ovunque,” or “Foreigners Everywhere,” and will run from April 20 through Nov. 24.

Read the full story  UC Davis Art Professor Tapped for International Venice Biennale Exhibition

Continuing Exhibitions at Manetti Shrem Museum, Design Museum, Gorman Museum of Native American Art and more in this Arts Blog wrap-up of winter exhibitions.

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Upcoming Events

Get tickets now for The Laramie Project

Feb. 22, 23, 24, 29 and March 1 at 7 p.m. and March 2 at 2 p.m., Main Theatre in Wright Hall, tickets starting at $5

Triggered by a hate crime which brought attention to the lack of hate crime laws nationwide, The Laramie Project is a riveting contemporary drama that challenges the inhabitants of a rural American community.

Written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project including alumnus Greg Pierotti (M.F.A., dramatic arts, ’16), the drama chronicles the reaction to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming.

Warning: This play is based on a true story, and includes strong language and mature content that some may find upsetting, including descriptions of homophobia, violence and death

UC Davis Colloquium Explores Influence of Chinese Art on European and East Asian Societies

Contributed by Michael G. French/College of Letters and Science

 

In the early modern era, China exported immense quantities of art across the globe, making Chinese art highly influential in international design trends. The 2024 Templeton Colloquium in Art History at the University of California, Davis — “Moving Things, Making Ideas: China-inspired Objects and International Trade” —- explores the influence of Chinese art and aesthetics. 

About the colloquium

The colloquium will be held at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art on Feb. 23 at 4 p.m. with a reception to follow. The event is free and open to the public.    

“In the research presented, we see how Chinese art becomes implicated in international networks of trade and exchange, but more significantly, how complex the processes of cultural exchange are in the arts generally,” said Michael Yohan, Alan Templeton Endowed Chair in the History of European Art, 1600–1830, and colloquium organizer. “Art historians often talk about ’influence’ in art is if it were a simple matter of one culture copying or borrowing from another. The speakers show that international exchange in the arts is a negotiation with complex dynamics involved.” 

This year’s speakers — Tamara Bentley, professor of art history at Colorado College; Kristina Kleutghen, David W. Mesker Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis; and Katharine Burnett, professor of art history and co-chair of the Department of Art and Art History at UC Davis — all explore this complex international exchange in the arts and in the marketplace.

Bentley investigates how trade routes between Europe and Asia contributed to the formation of a commercialized global art world in the century between 1660 and 1770 in her talk “Thinking Globally, 1660-1770: The Impact of Chinese Visual Commodities on English and French Material Culture.”

Kleutghen examines Kangxi’s experimental painted enamel Yixing ware in relation to the new technology of painted enamels at his court and compares it to Johann Friedrich Böttger enameled stoneware for Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, Germany, where European porcelain was first manufactured. She will present “Mutual Influences: Painted Enamels on Kangxi’s Yixing Ware and Böttger Stoneware.”

Burnett will present “Art History Without the Art: The Curious Case of Sino-Vietnamese Teapots Before 1700.” Burnett investigates the exchange of tea culture and teapots between China and Vietnam during 1300–1700, with an emphasis on the late Ming period.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, the colloquium is made possible through an endowment established by Alan Templeton (B.A., art history and psychology, ‘82). The Templeton Colloquium brings to campus distinguished speakers for a conversation on vital debates and topics in art history for both scholars and a general audience.

For complete information, visit arts.ucdavis.edu/art-history.

The Department of Art and Art History is part of the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis.