Wattis Institute News
CCA Wattis Institute: More American Photographs
Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, by Lindsey Westbrook
More American Photographs
CCA Wattis Institute, 2012
Paperback, 106 pages, $28
As the United States slowly emerges from its most significant economic downturn since the Great Depression, the [CCA Wattis Institute] reexamines the well-known photography program of the Farm Security Administration (1935-44). In More American Photographs, 12 contemporary photographers were commissioned to travel the United States, documenting its land and people. These new works are presented alongside historical images by original FSA photographers such as Dorothea Lange in a catalogue whose design was inspired by Walker Evans's seminal book American Photographs. The featured photographers include Walead Beshty, Esther Bubley, Larry Clark, Roe Ethridge, Walker Evans, Katy Grannan, William E. Jones, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Sharon Lockhart, Catherine Opie, Gordon Parks, Martha Rosler, Collier Schorr, Ben Shahn, Stephen Shore, Alec Soth, Hank Willis Thomas (MFA and MA Visual Criticism 2004), and Marion Post Wolcott. The exhibition was curated by Wattis director Jens Hoffmann, who contributes an essay, and the book is designed by Graphic Design faculty Jon Sueda.
Read the rest >>>CCA Wattis Institute: Painting Between the Lines
Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, by Lindsey Westbrook
CCA Wattis Institute: Painting Between the Lines
CCA Wattis Institute, 2012
Hardcover, 72 pages, $25
Writing and painting have been intertwined throughout history, but literature has of late become a diminished subject in the medium of painting, which has looked more to history, society and politics for inspiration. With Painting Between the Lines, the CCA Wattis Institute sought to reinvigorate the relationship between these two fields by commissioning 14 contemporary artists to create works based on descriptions of paintings in historical and contemporary novels. Here, art that until now has only existed in the mind's eye can now be seen, as interpreted by the likes of Fred Tomaselli (on Samuel Beckett's Watt) and Marcel Dzama (on Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore). Additional materials include images of first-edition book covers and installation images from the accompanying exhibition. The exhibition was curated by Wattis director Jens Hoffmann and the book is designed by Graphic Design faculty Jon Sueda.
Read the rest >>>Create
Posted on Monday, February 6, 2012, by Lindsey Westbrook
Create
Berkeley Art Museum, 2011
Paperback, 179 pages, $27.50
Writing and Visual and Critical Studies faculty member Kevin Killian contributes to this book, published on the occasion of a groundbreaking museum exhibition curated by Lawrence Rinder (former CCA Wattis Institute director) with Matthew Higgs (former CCA Wattis Institute curator). Create showcases work made at the three Bay Area centers for artists with developmental disabilities: Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, Creativity Explored in San Francisco, and the National Institute of Art and Disabilities in Richmond. Florence Ludins-Katz and Elias Katz, who today are recognized as pioneers of the art and disabilities movement, founded these centers between 1972 and 1982. This richly illustrated catalogue offers an overview of the work being made there today, including works on paper, paintings, and sculpture.
Read the rest >>>The Huffington Post: Photography In The Recession: Can An Image Authentically Represent An Era?
Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2011, by Allison Byers
Of the approximately 250,000 images taken during the Farm Security Administration's photography program documenting the Great Depression, one has stayed lodged in our collective memory as synonymous with the Depression -- the migrant mother with a hardened look and pair of children burrowing their little faces into her shoulders.
Read the rest >>>CCA Wattis Institute Presents: John Baldessari: Class Assignments (Optional)
Posted on Wednesday, December 7, 2011, by Allison Byers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
presents the exhibition
John Baldessari: Class Assignments (optional)
January 19-March 31, 2012
Art in America: Roving Ei: The Growing Panic
Posted on Monday, November 28, 2011, by Allison Byers
Katy Grannan followed Dorothea Lange's path along Route 99, and Grannan's photos, both black and white and color, are monumental, timeless and sleazy. Hers is an in-your-face nation of bathers and motel signs, the squinty and grand despair of humans looking into the sun. Katy Grannan's content feels almost too large for the photos. It is like the sound was turned off and the resulting silence that you can't pull away from is agonizingly private and political.
Read the rest >>>ArtForum: Critics' Pick: "Painting Between the Lines" at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
Posted on Monday, November 7, 2011, by Allison Byers
After organizing a trilogy of exhibitions inspired by iconic American novels (“The Wizard of Oz” in 2008, “Moby Dick” in 2009, and “Huckleberry Finn” in 2010), Wattis director Jens Hoffmann has now relayed the task of investigating the relationship between literature and art to fourteen artists. For “Painting Between the Lines,” they were each commissioned to create a work based on a description of painting from a book.
Read the rest >>>CCA and the Biennial: East Meets West in Istanbul
Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011, by Lindsey Westbrook
The Istanbul Biennial is a key event in the international contemporary art scene -- a highly visible, highly respected exhibition that draws more than 100,000 visitors to the city and exposes them to some of the most engaged and relevant art being made today. In its opening week, the 12th Istanbul Biennial (which remains open through November 13) was attended by almost 4,000 guests, including critics, curators, museum and gallery administrators, and approximately 400 members of the press from 50 different countries. Everything they saw (whether they realized it or not) bore the marks of a CCA affiliate's hand -- specifically two CCA curators, one CCA graphic designer, and one CCA editor. They also saw the work of one faculty member and three alumni; all three alumni had entire galleries devoted to their work.
CCA President Stephen Beal, chair of the Board of Trustees F. Noel Perry, other trustees, and several members of the CCA Curator's Forum (a dedicated group of Wattis Institute supporters) flew to Istanbul for the opening weekend. Stephen Beal remarked, standing at the biennial entrance, "It is very gratifying to see the college so prominently represented here. It is evidence of the major relevance, at the international level, of what we are doing, and the kinds of experiences and access that CCA makes available to its community."
The Curators
It was almost two years ago that Wattis Institute director Jens Hoffmann accepted the invitation to co-curate the 12th Istanbul Biennial. Beginning with that moment, what began as a single thread of connection between the college and the city of Istanbul expanded into a densely packed web involving multiple individuals.
Read the rest >>>The New Yorker: Photographing the Great Recession, Looking Back to the Great Depression
Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2011, by Allison Byers
Last week the show More American Photographs opened at the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco.
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CCA Wattis Institute Presents: Capp Street Project: Harrell Fletcher
Posted on Friday, September 30, 2011, by Allison Byers
San Francisco, Calif., September 1, 2011—The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts is hosting the contemporary artist Harrell Fletcher as the Capp Street Project artist in residence for the fall 2011 semester. During his residency, Fletcher will collaborate with another artist, Travis Souza, on a project in which over the course of four weeks, Souza will walk the 432-mile route of the proposed high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Fletcher and Souza will host a culminating discussion about the project on Friday, September 30, 2011, the day Souza walks into San Francisco. This event is free and open to the public and will take place at 7 p.m. in Timken Lecture Hall at California College of the Arts, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco.
Read the rest >>>