Young, Gifted and Black opens at Manetti Shrem Museum of Art

On view July 28 – Dec. 19

A wide-ranging exhibition that highlights artists of African descent whose work explores identity, politics and art history made its West Coast debut July 28 at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, at the University of California, Davis.

Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art is the first public stand-alone exhibition curated from the renowned Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection. As a key component of collector and advocate Bernard Lumpkin’s public education focus, Young, Gifted and Black is traveling primarily to college and university galleries and museums. Young, Gifted and Black is curated by Antwaun Sargent and Matt Wycoff and organized for the Manetti Shrem Museum by Susie Kantor, exhibition department head and associate curator.

Young, Gifted and Black gathers and elevates an emerging generation of contemporary artists who are engaging with the work of their predecessors while finding different ways to address the history and meaning of blackness in their work. The group includes well-known artists David Hammons, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas, Henry Taylor and Kara Walker, as well as a younger generation gaining wider recognition, including Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Sadie Barnette, Cy Gavin, Arcmanoro Niles, Jennifer Packer and others. The survey is organized around four themes — dramatic use of color, reclamation of the color black, materiality (non-traditional materials), and an expanded idea of portraiture.

Manetti Shrem Museum presentation organized by Susie Kantor, exhibition department head and associate curator.

Read full news story here.

Visit the Manetti Shrem website here for hours and more. 

Art Spark at the Parker Art Studio begins

July 30 – Dec. 18, 12 – 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Carol and Gerry Parker Art Studio, Manetti Shrem Museum

You can look at art, but you can make some too as the Manetti Shrem's art studio classes begin with the return of all-ages art activities in the Carol and Gerry Parker Art Studio.

Swing by the Carol and Gerry Parker Art Studio in the Manetti Shrem Museum on weekend afternoons for Art Spark, a hands-on art program where you can experiment with all sorts of techniques and mediums. Draw, stitch, paint, collage and more this summer with prompts and materials inspired by Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art. Spark your creativity during a quick art break or an afternoon-long exploration.

All ages and skill levels are welcome, and activities are Free for All.

Find more information here. 

William Wiley art on display in Southern California

The former faculty member who died last year, and was part of the Manetti Shrem exhibit this past spring, has art on display in Southern California through Aug. 6 if you are in the Los Angeles area. Read about it in Hyperallergic here.

Design professor designs exhibit in Spain and Santa Monica

Assistant Professor of Design Beth Ferguson is a designer and curator for the exhibition “Tools for a Warming Planet,” a collection of speculative and scientific field tools for environmental exploration of climate change. The installation is currently on view at Arts Santa Monica in Barcelona, Spain, through Aug. 21. After that the exhibition travels to Ars Electronica 2022 Festival in Linz, Austria, Sept. 7–11. The festival is a big deal since it is s the world’s preeminent festival of art, technology and society. Many grad students and alumni contributed to the exhibition. 

More here. 

California Studio artist lectures available online

If you weren’t able to attend the 2021 – 2022 lectures by The California Studio artists, the talks are now online. Open the “Previous Artists” page and click on the artists’ name for access.

Visit the page here.

SONG by Creativity Explored, featuring art by disabled artists, in San Francisco

Through Sept. 3

Creativity Explored (CE) is pleased to announce SONG, a lyrical group exhibition curated by Sophie Appel and Cole Solinger.

The exhibition itself is an homage to the work of Walter Kresnik, a developmentally disabled artist who worked at Creativity Explored from 2005 to 2016. Kresnik is currently living in a care facility in the Bay Area. Best known for his delicate celebrity portraits, Kresnik also created a body of work drawing from sheet music.

Appel and Solinger unearthed this collection of work during the curatorial process, when the duo were given access to the vast collection of artwork at Creativity Explored, which contains nearly 40 years of art made by disabled artists.

Following the discovery of Kresnik’s musical drawings, the duo also found a unique instrument created by teaching artist Victor Cartegena sitting in the CE studio. The percussive instrument was created from a cymbal on a stand with extra arms donning bells, chimes, springs, and other noise-making objects. Cartagena and artists play the instrument during Thursday music hour – a joyful and chaotic studio jam session captured in this Instagram video from Creativity Explored.

Suddenly, for Appel and Solinger, all the pieces fell into place. The duo scoured the collections for art that evoked song and rhythm, looking for artwork to accompany Kresnik’s delicate drawings.

“Like a flower has its petals, in creating this show we are making a composition of other compositions, vignettes of imagery we feel embody the thematic experience we both felt upon first seeing the work of Walter Kresnik and friends,” the curators state about the exhibition.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.

Creativity Explored is a studio-based collective in San Francisco that partners with developmentally disabled artists to celebrate and nurture the creative potential in all of us. They are located at 3245, 16th Street, San Francisco.

Free events at de Young San Francisco Saturday, July 30

Free pop-up events

11 a.m.– 4 p.m. \ Pop-up YAX exhibition and drop-in art-making, Wilsey Court

11 a.m.–4 p.m. \ YAX student DJ sets, de Young Café Terrace

2–3 p.m. \ Youth activism panel, Koret Auditorium 

This event is part of a three-part series celebrating the Obama Portraits Tour at the de Young museum. More here.

Something Rotten playing in Sacramento

Through July 31, UC Davis Health Pavilion

Featuring large song and dance numbers and a wacky cast of over-the-top characters, the musical received show-stopping standing ovations throughout its Broadway run. Set in 1595, this hilarious smash tells the story of two brothers who set out to write the world’s very first musical!  

Find more information about showtimes and purchase tickets here.

Coming up next week

Retro Cuba at Gallery 625, Woodland

Aug. 5 – Oct. 4, meet the artists reception is Aug. 5, 5:30 – 8 p.m.

This exhibition, presented by YoloArts, features artists Jose Ramirez, Francisco J. Rivero, Roberto Salas, and Jorge. A. Santana.

Visit the website here. 

Model as Muse at the Crocker

Saturday, Aug. 6, 2 p.m., $12 for Members, $20 for nonmembers

Over the course of her decades-long career, Twinka Thiebaud posed for some of the 20th century’s most renown photographers and artists. Prominent figures like Arnold Newman, Lucien Clergue, and Eikoh Hosoe all constitute parts of Thiebaud’s extensive career. The Crocker’s Adult Education Coordinator, Houghton Kinsman, sits down with photographers Judy Dater and Tami Bahat to explore Twinka Thiebaud and the Art of the Pose and discuss how the model, actress, and occasional painter’s catalogue is epitomized by a unique ability to perform for the camera. Following the conversation, join the panelists in the exhibition for an in-depth look at three artworks and their relationship to the concept of model as muse.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.