Dance company will perform Feb. 26; get discount now

Well-Being deal tickets available for Ronald K. Brown and Evidence, a Dance Company

Every month through May, staff and faculty can buy $10 tickets (maximum two per person) during a specified period of time for a specific show at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Well-Being Ticket Deal for February: Staff and faculty have from Feb. 1 to 18 to purchase $10 tickets to see Ronald K. Brown and Evidence, a Dance Company, in the Mondavi Center's Jackson Hall, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26. Note: The Mondavi Center will require proof of patrons’ booster shots, starting Feb. 24. Find more information about the special $10 deal here. Tickets are on sale for all others here.

(A video still of the performers appears at the top of this blog.)

Evidence, A Dance Company, will perform Mercy (2019), Upside Down (1998) and a new work: The Equality of Night and Day: First Glimpse, examining the concepts of balance, equity and fairness. The event is Saturday, Feb. 26, at Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Initially inspired by John Coltrane’s Equinox, Brown and collaborators have created The Equality of Night Day with an original score by pianist and composer Jason Moran, spoken word elements from poet and activist Angela Davis, and a photographic display projected on stage.

Founded in 1985 and based in Brooklyn, Evidence, A Dance Company, focuses on the seamless integration of traditional African dance with contemporary choreography and spoken word — providing a unique view of human struggles, tragedies and triumphs.

Trios by Beach and Shostakovich Thursday

Feb. 10, 12:05-1 p.m., Free, a Shinkoskey Noon Concert

Note: This concert will be available via livestream only and will not be available for in-person attendance. See link for the livestream.

Performers include Igor Veligan, violin; Susan Lamb Cook, cello and UC Davis lecturer in music and Gayle Blankenburg, piano

The program features Amy Beach: Piano Trio in A Minor, op. 150 and Dimitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor

Find a direct link to the livestream here.

Painter Jennifer Packer speaks Thursday

Thursday, Feb. 10, 4:30-6 p.m.

Main Theatre, Wright Hall, UC Davis

Jennifer Packer, a painter known for her portraits, still lifes, and interior scenes, is spotlight artist in residence for The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies at UC Davis. Her public lecture is Feb. 10 at 4:30 p.m. in the Main Theatre, Wright Hall. 

Her work has attracted significant attention with two current solo exhibitions. “Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing,” the largest survey of her work to date, is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, until April 17. The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Jennifer Packer: Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep,”  her first West Coast exhibition, is on display until February 20. 

Packer has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 2020–21. Her work has also been included in major group exhibitions, including Prospect New Orleans, the 2019 Whitney Biennial and the 33rd São Paulo Biennial. 

Packer is an associate professor in the Painting Department at the Rhode Island School of Design and is The California Studio’s Spotlight Artist in Residence for the Winter Quarter.

Organized by The California Studio in the Department of Art and Art History. Co-sponsored by the Campus Community Book Project.

Hear 'Big Black Open Spaces' Podcast Episode by SFMOMA 

In "Big Black Open Spaces," the latest episode of Visions of Black Futurity, podcaster-in-residence Babette Thomas tries to answer the question, "Where will we host our Black art spaces of the future?" In the woods, by the ocean, or in a city center? They turn to artists who deal with matters of space, place, and land: Octavia Butler, Richard Mayhew and Bay Area artist Sage Stargate.

Follow Thomas as they trace the footsteps of these ancestors and explore what free Black art spaces can look like in the future.

Listen to the podcast here.

This weekend: See UC Davis wine collection at Book Fair in Oakland

Read the arts blog piece about UC Davis exhibit in Oakland this weekend at the California International Antiquarian Book Fair.  The exhibit will  include selected objects from UC Davis Library wine collections including books and manuscripts.

Reimagining Our Advocacy: Demanding Truth to Power as Poets, Activists and Healers 

Feb. 15, 4 p.m., Free, Via Zoom

The human voice rises up, necessity and courage erupting deep in the soul, wielding words of power against oppressive forces. The spoken word rises, unites, fights for justice and ultimately heals. Distinguished poet activists Dr. Ayodele Nzinga — artist, educator and poet laureate of Oakland — and Tanaya Winder — educator, poet and artist from an intertribal lineage of Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Diné and Duckwater Shoshone Nations — will read their poetry, talk about their work and answer questions.  

Register for this event here. 

Co-sponsored by the Campus Community Book Project, Strategic Asian and Pacific Islander Retention Initiative, the Manetti Shrem Museum, University Writing Program, Cross Cultural Center, and LGBTQIA Resource Center.

Coming Up

Grabados del Alma: Gráfica Contemporánea Oaxaqueña at TANA 

The exhibition will run Feb. 18-March 18, with an opening reception on Feb. 18, 5:30-7:30 p.m.  Check for updates here. 

'And Yet She Persisted: Women in Classical Music' — works for voice and piano

Feb. 17, 12:05-1 p.m., Free, a Shinkoskey Noon Concert

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Performers include Carrie Hennessey, soprano and Jennifer Reason, piano

The program features Pauline Viardot: Hai luli, Julia Seeholzer: Portraits of Disquiet, Amy Beach: Three Songs, op. 21 and Libby Larsen: Songs from Letters. Calamity Jane to Her Daughter Janey, 1880–1902

Find a direct link to the livestream here.

Art Studio Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Kota Ezawa

Feb. 17, 4:30-6 p.m., Free, Community Education Room, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art

Kota Ezawa’s work explores the appropriation and mediation of current events and images, referencing sources from the news, art history and popular culture. Ezawa, the second guest speaker in the Visiting Artist Lecture Series, is known for creating light boxes, videos and works on paper that distill found images into his signature pared-down, flattened style. By reducing complex visual information to its most essential, two-dimensional elements, Ezawa explores the photographic record’s validity as a mediator of actual events and experiences. His work “National Anthem” (2018) which was drawn from broadcast footage of NFL athletes protesting police violence and the oppression of people of color, was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and is on view in “From Moment to Movement: Picturing Protest” in the Kramlich Collection at the Manetti Shrem Museum.

Find more information here. 

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