Young, Gifted and Black closing soon at Manetti Shrem

One weekend left for Design Museum exhibit...

Read all about the textiles exhibit in this tour (written and video) in the Arts Blog. Closes Dec. 11.

Just a few weekends (and weekdays too) remain to catch Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art while it's here through Dec. 19.

The Manetti Shrem Museum will be closing Tuesday, Dec. 20, to prepare the new season of dynamic exhibitions. The museum reopens to the public with a Winter Season Celebration event at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023. More information here.

Watch for the new season and the opening of Mike Henderson: Before the Fire, 1965-1985. We will give a full report on that exhibit in January in the Arts Blog.

Joshua Bell, violin & Peter Dugan, piano at Mondavi

Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022 - 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

The program includes Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 12, R. Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 121, and Debussy: Violin Sonata in G Minor, L 140

With a career spanning almost four decades, violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of his era. His Mondavi Center appearances, both in recital and as conductor and Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, have been hallmarks of each season. Alongside his Grammy-winning music career, Bell is a restless innovator: see his Summer 2020 At Home with Music special produced entirely in lockdown, his creation of the Joshua Bell VR experience with Sony, and the Joshua Bell Virtual Violin, a sampler created for producers, engineers, artists, and composers.

But it is the concert experience where Bell shines. His return, this time with accompanist Peter Dugan (host of NPR’s From The Top), promises to be another in a long line of breathtaking performances from a musician working at the peak of his prodigious powers.  Find more information and purchase tickets here.

New Exhibitions at the Pence

Drawing My Stories

Through Dec. 30, reception: Dec. 9, 6 – 9 p.m., Pence Gallery

For the month of December, the Pence is featuring a collection of oil and cold wax paintings by Helen Kim along the stairway. Telling stories of her life through colors, shapes, and lines, this series captures some of the memorable moments that have shaped who she is today. Her creative process, strongly influenced by her architecture background, transforms what she sees, thinks, and feels into abstract compositions derived from explorations of formal elements. Working in oil and cold wax provides a way for her to draw, erase, and build layers to visually narrate her ideas. This body of work is dedicated to her parents, who are always with her.

Find more information here. 

Myrtle Press Prints: Portfolio x 2

Dec. 9 – Jan. 29, 2023, reception Dec. 9, 6 – 9 p.m., Pence Gallery

Marking the first display of Myrtle Press’ invitational print exchanges in our region, Portfolio x 2 centers on a sampling of prints by sixteen printmakers, created in 2020. Including prints that harken back to the theme of the hidden or unseen, the portfolio includes prints made through various processes by respected printmakers. Further expanding upon the portfolio concept is a new exchange of 20 printmakers creating work on the concept of origin.

Find more information here. 

Coming Up....

A Baroque Christmas at Mondavi next Saturday

Saturday, Dec.17, 7:30 p.m., Mondavi Center, UC Davis (Student, faculty well-being special)

The program includes Georg Frideric Handel: Messiah (Part I “Christmas” portion), Giuseppe Valentini: Sinfonia per Il Santissimo Natale, Johann Christof Pez: Concerto Pastorale, Marc-Antoine Charpentier: La Nuit, Handel: “Hallelujah Chorus” from Messiah, Maya Kherani, soprano, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor, James Reese, tenor, Christian Pursell, bass-baritone and Lucas Balslov, trumpet. 

For years, the American Bach Soloists graced Jackson Hall with its stunning rendition of Handel’s Messiah. For this 20th Anniversary season, they return with a Baroque Christmas program packed with the “Christmas portion” from Messiah, as well as lovely works celebrating the season. Recognized worldwide as one of the foremost interpreters of the music of Bach and the Baroque, Jeffrey Thomas continues to inspire audiences and performers alike through his keen insights into the passions behind musical expression.   

Find more information and purchase tickets here. More about the well-being ticket deal here.

See The Nutcracker 'Sweet' at Woodland Opera House

Dec. 16, 7 p.m., 17, 2 p.m., 18, 2 p.m., Woodland Opera House, 340 Second Street, Woodland

This annual production is considered a short and sweet retelling of the traditional Christmas Ballet, The Nutcracker. Young Clara is taken on a magical journey into a land of sweets by her favorite Christmas present, a Magic Nutcracker. All performers are members of the Woodland Opera House Education Program, ranging in age from 3 to 18 years. Music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Reserved seats are $16 for adults and seniors 62+, and $8 for children 17 and under. Balcony tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Flex Pass specials and group rates are available.

Tickets on sale here and at the Box Office (530) 666-9617.

Fashion art with Lee Alexander McQueen, Ann Ray at Crocker

Dec. 17 – April 2, 2023, Crocker Art Museum

Brilliant, dynamic, and provocative, the British fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen founded his eponymous label in 1993 and also led design at Givenchy between 1996 and 2001. Soon after he joined Givenchy, he met French photographer Ann Ray, whose stunning photographs recorded and inspired McQueen’s work behind the scenes and in runway shows for the next 13 years. Combining Ray's intimate portraits and backstage images, along with key garments from McQueen’s most celebrated fashion collections and design drawings, this exhibition provides a unique insight into the creative process of this influential and complex figure. Rendez-Vous is organized and produced by Barrett Barrera Projects.

Find more information here. 

New Exhibitions at SFMOMA

Bernd & Hilla Becher

Dec. 17 – April 2, 2023, SFMOMA

The renowned German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher (1931-2007; 1934-2015) changed the course of late twentieth-century photography. Working as a rare artist couple, they focused on a single subject: the disappearing industrial architecture of Western Europe and North America that fueled the modern era. Their seemingly objective style recalled nineteenth- and early twentieth-century precedents but also resonated with the serial approach of contemporary Minimalism and Conceptual art. Equally significant, it challenged the perceived gap between documentary and fine art photography.

Featuring some 200 works of art, this posthumous retrospective celebrates the Bechers’ remarkable achievement and is the first ever organized with full access to the artists’ personal collection of working materials and their comprehensive archive. The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in association with Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur.

Find more information and purchase tickets here. 

2022 SECA Art Award Exhibition

Dec. 17 – May 29, 2023, SFMOMA

The 2022 SECA Art Award Exhibition celebrates Bay Area artists Binta Ayofemi, Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Cathy Lu, Marcel Pardo Ariza, and Gregory Rick. Each artist fills a different Floor 2 gallery with new, site-specific work showcasing their distinctive and exciting practices.

Since 1967, SECA has honored recipients of the SECA Art Award with an exhibition at SFMOMA and an accompanying publication. The award distinguishes Bay Area artists whose work has not, at the time of nomination, been accorded substantial recognition from a major institution. Recipients are chosen by SFMOMA curators after a series of studio visits attended by SECA members.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.

New Exhibitions at de Young

Bookworks: Selected Recent Acquisitions, 2012 – 2022

Dec. 17, 2022 – April 16, 2023, de Young Museum

Beginning in the 1970s, Chicagoans Reva and David Logan assembled a remarkable collection of modern artist-illustrated books, which they gave to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 1998. The collection resides in our home for works on paper, the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, forming the core of our extensive holding of these hybrid works of art. This exhibition, together with the inaugural exhibition in the Legion of Honor’s new works on paper gallery, presents recent gifts from the Logan family and other generous donors, as well as recent museum purchases. Highlights include two books illustrated by Pablo Picasso and important contemporary works. These recent additions strengthen and extend our collection of this vibrant and engaging artform, the artist’s book.

Find more information and purchase tickets here. 

Paperworks: Fifteen Years of Acquisitions

Dec. 17 – June 25, 2023, de Young Museum

Paperworks launches a new gallery at the Legion of Honor dedicated to works on paper from the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, the department of prints, drawings, photographs, and artists’ books. The exhibition features select acquisitions made over the past 15 years, from a 15th-century Old Master drawing of St. Matthew to a 2021 lithograph of a Chevy El Camino. It is organized in five thematic sections: Ecologies of Place, Dynamics of Power, Self and Identity, Vocabularies of Beauty, and Process and Design. Representing the breadth of the collection, Paperworks reveals connections between works across style, time, and space.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.

Lhola Amira: Facing the Future

Dec. 17 – Dec. 3, 2023, de Young Museum

Lhola Amira: Facing the Future launches a new program of special exhibitions that will interpret the African art collection as a living and evolving practice through the lens of contemporary art.

This solo exhibition, the artist’s first in the United States, features the newly created, site-specific spiritual portal Philisa: Zinza Mphefumlo Wami (2022). Philisa are unique portals, sacred spaces for the cleansing of wounds, honoring ancestors, and fostering connection. Visitors are invited to enter this sacred grove with support for whatever may unfold. Also included is the single-channel video projection IRMANDADE: The Shape of Water in Pindorama (2018–2020), produced by the artist in Bahia, Brazil. The film documents the artist’s journey through the city, contemplating the wounds of the ocean, the land, and the descendants of enslaved Africans while offering gestures toward healing.

Facing the Future is a resource for today’s troubling times, reminding us of our deep and profound connection to the earth and to each other.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.

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