CCA News
Eduardo Pineda: Mural Meister and Community Connector
Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2012, by Christina Linden
Eduardo Pineda is a recent addition to CCA's Diversity Studies faculty, but he is a member of long standing in Bay Area community-arts circles. Since he has begun teaching at the college, he has gravitated in particular to the programs hosted through CCA's Center for Art and Public Life, especially the ENGAGE at CCA courses, in which students work with community-based organizations and outside experts to address pressing local issues.
Read the rest >>>Maja Ruznic's Big Break: "Intimate Scale Belies Powerful Punch," says New American Paintings
Posted on Saturday, May 5, 2012, by Christina Linden
Maja Ruznic's painting Self Portrait as Mother of All Evil was recently featured on the cover of New American Paintings. That, plus the sudden flurry of activity that has followed (including a hefty feature on ABC news and commissions from around the world, have been extraordinary and gratifying, and the biggest break thus far since her graduation in 2009 from CCA's Graduate Program in Fine Arts. The acclaim is certainly well-deserved for this busy and driven artist, athlete, activist, social worker, and dedicated family member, whose practice and personality reflect her unflagging optimism and perseverance -- and the conviction to keep making work that feels urgent, instinctual, and necessary.
"When I found out that I made the cover, I was ecstatic!" Ruznic exclaims. "When the edition came out and I saw it, I started crying. I could not believe it. And it has been completely transformative. People have contacted me from all over the world -- Puerto Rico, Japan, Croatia -- to buy my work. I definitely feel that the cover has somehow 'legitimized' me as an artist." She is particularly excited about a commission from the medical doctor, clown, performer, and social activist Patch Adams to create a painting for his hospital.
Read the rest >>>Jonah Ward: Sparking a Process That Burns
Posted on Tuesday, January 31, 2012, by Christina Linden
Jonah Ward (Glass 2006) makes his work with molten glass . . . but the glass is absent in the finished pieces. With deft movements he pours the material onto wood panels laid out horizontally on the floor, creating a crystalline tracery. "People are always asking me if Jackson Pollock is my favorite painter," he quips. There's definitely some logic to the comparison: the substrate laid flat, the artist standing above, crouching and extending his arms in sweeping motions. Ward's movements are more like those of someone spreading honey from a dipper on (giant) morning toast, though, and necessarily involve a great deal less spattering and flinging. In the end he removes the solidified glass from the wood, and the burnt patterns left behind constitute the artwork in its final form: ready like a palimpsest, with shadows that trace of the nimble choreography of the artist's actions.
"I entered CCA as a Painting/Drawing major, but switched to Glass partway through," Ward explains. Although, in a way, he has come full-circle by returning to work that is essentially a kind of drawing. Solo exhibitions at the cool new San Francisco gallery 12 Gallagher Lane and a flurry of media attention attests to the appeal of his unique approach.
Check out the 2010 feature on Jonah Ward in California Home + Design
Ward was nominated, and was a reader's choice finalist in 7x7's "The Hot 20 Under (and Over) 40" (and he mentioned CCA!)
Read the rest >>>Public Art, Public Debate in Northern Ireland with Pablo Cristi
Posted on Thursday, December 1, 2011, by Christina Linden
“In Northern Ireland,” says Pablo Cristi (MFA 2010), “everything is overtly political. If you want to know what a large percentage of the people think, read the walls.”
Anyone involved in cultural production today -- but especially those in public art -- hope more than anything that their work will be noticed and elicit meaningful audience reactions. In the case of a commissioned mural painted by Cristi and a few collaborators in Derry, Northern Ireland, the work fueled a vivid public debate. When petitions start circulating, well -- there’s your noticeable and meaningful reaction. And while the experience certainly put Cristi in the hot seat for a few tense weeks, he also deeply valued the public discussion and dissent motivated by the project.
Artists Collaborate
Cristi was one of four American artists -- the others were Sidd Joag (New York), Ernel Martinez (Philadelphia), and Man One (Los Angeles)—invited to Derry to do the mural commission and lead a series of classes and workshops in four different communities, each of which then had its own additional mural project. The Playhouse Derry-Londonderry organized their activity as part of an urban arts program called the What If? Project, which is part of a three-year initiative funded by the European Union Regional Development Fund called the International Culture Arts Network (ICAN). ICAN’s ambition is to bring “world-renowned artists to the counties at the interface of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic” in order to “bridge barriers between current and formerly conflicted areas worldwide.”
Read the rest >>>