The materials employed in Arnold J. Kemp’s
interdisciplinary practice absorb or reflect light while
mirroring likeness, becoming haunted and ghostly metaphors for
absented and obfuscated black bodies. His work is in the
collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum
in Harlem, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and
the Portland Art Museum, among others.
American cultural institutions are an integral part of the
broader discussion of racism taking place in our society. Museums
are powerful spaces for communicating cultural values, including
racially based notions of cultural difference. Can the museum be
a space of anti-racism, and can the discipline of art history
help to achieve that? If so, what are the challenges and
concerns involved?
Claudia Rankine, an award-winning author, playwright, poet and
multimedia artist, comes to UC Davis, virtually, on Nov. 4 for a
reading and lecture based on her new book, “Just Us: An American
Conversation,” which is being hailed as a must-read book this
fall, and her “magnum opus.” “Citizen: An American Lyric,” a
meditation on race relations in the United States, is widely
considered one of the most influential books of our age.
Soo Sunny Park is widely recognized for her
sculptural light installations, which have been exhibited at art
institutions such as the North Carolina Museum of Art, NC;
Sharjah Art Museum, UAE; Rice Gallery, TX; DeCordova
Sculpture Park and Museum, MA; American Academy of Arts and
Letters, NYC; and Laumeier Sculpture Park, MO. An upcoming
solo exhibition of Park’s work will be held at the San Jose
Institute of Contemporary Art.
Growing up in Jim Crow South during the Civil Rights Movement,
Ramekon O’Arwisters had a safe haven,
quilting with his Grandmother where he was “embraced, important
and special.” These early memories prompted his nascent series
of unique crocheted/ceramic sculptures titled, Mending.
Employing ordinary household, or decorative pottery, broken and
discarded, O’Arwisters combined traditional crafts into a
dimensional woven tapestry, stripping both cloth and ceramic of
their intended function.
Through documenting contemporary activists focused on women’s
rights, migrant justice, workers’ rights and climate justice,
Andrea Bowers is committed to an intersectional
feminism that dismantles gender privilege and builds community
that collectively cares for one another. Her multivalent art
practice documents and honors the activists whose everyday
actions forge meaningful change. Bowers lives and works in Los
Angeles, Calif.
Irina Rozovsky (born 1981, Russia) has exhibited
in museums and galleries in the US and abroad. She has published
two monographs, One to Nothing (2011) and Island in
my Mind (2015). A monograph of her ten year project, In
Plain Air is forthcoming in 2021. Irina’s work is in the
collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Museum of Art, and Haggerty Museum of Art and is currently
featured in MoMA’s New Photography: Companion Pieces. With her
husband Mark Steinmetz, she runs The Humid, a photographic
project space in Athens, GA.
The Art Building is located on Hutchison Drive, about halfway
between the Memorial Union and Mrak Hall on the UC Davis campus.
There is limited parking behind the building, but there is
visitor parking nearby, across the Arboretum in lot VP5.
Join us for lunch and a conversation with professionals working
in a number of visual arts-related fields as we discuss a variety
of career paths open to Art and Art History students.
