| SFSU Public Affairs Press ReleasePublished by the Public Affairs Office at San Francisco State University, Diag Center. |
Contact: Ariane Bicho
phone: (415) 338-1442
e-mail: pubcom@sfsu.edu
SAN FRANCISCO, September 1, 2001 - In cooperation with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the College of Creative Arts' Fine Arts Gallery presents a thought-provoking exhibition, Conceptual Color: In Albers' Afterimage, on the San Francisco State University campus Saturday, Sept. 22 through Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001. With innovative new works by 12 contemporary artists, this exhibition looks at the conceptual uses of color in contemporary art since the g roundbreaking work of German-born artist and colorist Josef Albers. A selection of 12 original prints and paintings from Mr. Albers' 1960s series, Homage to the Square, allows viewers to navigate his art in relation to work in installation, photography, painting and sculpture by artists who use color in interaction with ideas. On view are works ranging from Lewis DeSoto's Writing (Love Letters), a kinetic laser installation, to the first San Francisco show with Jacob Hashimoto's Giant Yellow, three floor-to-ceiling columns of kites fashioned from bamboo, paper and string. Pieces by Jim Campbell, Dinh Q. Le, Jo Babcock, bell hooks, Anne Appleby, Jean-Paul Bourdier, Bean Finneran, Maxwell Hendler and Meridel Rubenstein join a new piece created specifically for this exhibition by Rachel Lachowicz based on Albers' signature squares. The Albers' works are on loan from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's Anderson Graphic Arts Sharing Program.
"In addition to the great opportunity to see classic work of Josef Albers, this exhibition explores how the formalist orientation of the 1960s has been transformed by contemporary artists to reflect political, social and personal ideas," says Fine Arts Gallery Director and Curator Mark Johnson, a former student of Albers. "The new work in this exhibit is stunningly beautiful and makes the point that conceptual art can be sensually visual. It is also exciting for me to see how influential, mesmer izing and smart Albers' work looks after so many decades."
Several of the artists' work is being seen in San Francisco for the first time. In Writing (Love Letters), installation artist and SFSU art Professor Lewis DeSoto uses kinetic laser technology to draw human figures on a blank gallery wall. In response to the exhibition, "minamalist" painter Rachel Lachowicz created a piece based on the squares of Josef Albers using eye shadow as the medium, and cultural critic bell hooks exhibits her visual art for the first time with whe n i remember i see red, 10 paintings, mixed media and poems. On view is Los Angeles-based artist Jacob Hashimoto's signature piece, Giant Yellow, three floor-to-ceiling columns of kites fashioned from bamboo, paper and string. The 28-year-old installation artist is gaining widespread attention for his large-scale sculptural forms, and this is his first exhibit in San Francisco.
Dinh Q. Le and Jo Babcock also exhibit important new work. Vietnamese-born Le's large scale white-on-white hand-embroidered tapestries incorporate photographic images of victims of the Khmer Rouge. Mr. Le, who learned to weave at age 6, integrates weaving and photography as a way to explore cultural identity and history. Pinhole photographer Jo Babcock exhibits new images, such as Red Desert (2001), a paper negative shot with colored filters in Baja. Mr. Babcock is known for conver ting typical household objects, camper vans and trailers into pinhole cameras. Other new work includes pieces by internationally celebrated video artist Jim Campbell, Anne Appleby, Jean-Paul Bourdier, Bean Finneran, Maxwell Hendler and Meridel Rubenstein.
Bay Area artists represented in Conceptual Color: In Albers' Afterimage are Jim Campbell, Lewis DeSoto, Jo Babcock, Jean-Paul Bourdier and Dinh Q. Le.
Josef Albers (1888-1976) is remembered principally for his Homage to the Square‹a series of 1000 paintings and prints in a minimal format designed to amplify color variation. His work and his internationally influential reductivist teaching (at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain and Yale) was not about isolating formal issues, but about heightening sensitivity to the interaction of color contrast with states of human perception and being.
Admission to Conceptual Color: In Albers' Afterimage is free. The Fine Arts Gallery is open from noon to 4 pm, Monday-Saturday, and is located in the Fine Arts Building on the SFSU campus, 19th and Holloway avenues, San Francisco. The exhibition runs from Saturday, Sept. 22 to Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001. Public parking is available in Lot 20 on the SFSU campus, accessed from Lake Merced Boulevard between Winston Drive and Font Boulevard. Parking is $2. Nearby on-street parking is rea dily available on weekends. For more information, please visit: www.sfsu.edu/~artdept and www.sfsu.edu/~parking.
The Albers' exhibit features a lecture by artist Rachel Lachowicz Saturday, Sept. 22 at 1 pm. Noted for her ironically "minimal" artwork created in materials such as lipstick and face powder, Ms. Lachowicz will discuss her new work‹a piece based on the squares of Josef Albers using eye shadow as the medium. The lecture is immediately followed by an opening reception from 2 pm to 4 pm. The lecture and reception are in the Fine Arts Gallery, located in the Fine Arts Building on the SFSU campus, 19th and Holloway avenues, San Francisco. Admission is free.
With nearly 40 faculty members including internationally celebrated artists Whitney Chadwick, Lewis DeSoto and David Kuraoka, the San Francisco State University Art Department fosters the development of specialized skills, encourages personal creative direction, and promotes understanding of the history and cultural practices shaping artistic expression. More than 100 courses in traditional art media, innovative and multi-disciplinary techno-media, and art history provide training f or a variety of related careers. Three degree programs are offered: the bachelor of arts, the master of arts with an emphasis in art history, and the master of fine arts with an emphasis in studio. Undergraduate students may emphasize art education, art history, ceramics, conceptual and information arts (including experimental digital media), painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture or textiles. The department is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.
The College of Creative Arts has the only academic program primarily devoted to the creative arts in northern California. Under the direction of Dean Keith Morrison, an internationally acclaimed faculty directs more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students in eight departments: Art, Cinema, Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts, Music, Dance, Theatre Arts, Design and Industry, and Inter-Arts. The College of Creative Arts is part of San Francisco State University, one of the 23 member universities comprising the California State University, the largest system of higher education in the nation. SFSU is a highly diverse, comprehensive, public and urban university. For more information about the College of Creative Arts, please visit: www.sfsu.edu/~allarts/ . For an application, please call SFSU Admissions at (415) 338-1113.
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