SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Celebrating the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)’s impact on modern and contemporary art, the exhibition “The Anniversary Show” traces the art and individuals that have made SFMOMA the institution it is today. Throughout the anniversary year, SFMOMA will present a series of exhibitions under the heading “75 Years of Looking Forward” illustrating the story of the artists, collectors, cultural mavericks, and San Francisco leaders who founded, built, and have animated the museum. Co-organized by Janet Bishop, SFMOMA curator of painting and sculpture; Corey Keller, SFMOMA associate curator of photography; and Sarah
National Museum of Singapore Opens “Quest for Immortality: The World of Ancient Egypt”
SINGAPORE.- The ancient Egyptian world is often characterised by a fascinating and remarkably supple mental universe. Ancient Egyptians melded images in ways that often beggar logic. They linked material elements with a realm inaccessible to humans, as reflected both in their daily conduct and their emphasis on the afterlife that led to their quest for immortality. “Quest for Immortality: The World of Ancient Egypt” offers an insight to the ancient Egyptian’s attitude to life and the afterlife, and the preparations they made to ensure their transition from earthly existence to immortality. Discover the Egyptians’ means of equipping the dead – through mummification, provision of sustenance, magic and ritual – and explore the evolution of their burial rites as well as the changing relationship between man and ritual through time. With 230 artefacts spanning from 4000 BCE to 950 CE, this exhibition endeavours to place tomb objects in their social, re
Smithsonian American Art Museum to Display Arts and Crafts Made by Japanese Americans in World War II
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian American Art Museum will present “The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946” at its branch museum for craft and decorative arts, the Renwick Gallery, from March 5, 2010, through Jan. 30, 2011. “The Art of Gaman” is organized by San Francisco-based author and guest curator Delphine Hirasuna with the cooperation of the San Francisco chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. It features more than 120 objects, the majority of which are on loan from former internees or their families. This exhibition presents an opportunity to educate a new generation of Americans about the internment experience and will provide a historical context through archival photographs and artifacts. Soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, almost all ethnic Japanese—more than two-thirds of whom were American citizens by birth&#
Anna Cutler Appointed Tate’s First Director of Learning
LONDON.- Anna Cutler has been appointed Tate’s first Director of Learning. She will take up the post in January 2010. The Director of Learning is a new post and is the senior Tate Learning position. Anna will be responsible for establishing and leading a new Tate-wide Learning strategy and for developing the vision and new structure for Learning at Tate Modern and Tate Britain to ensure that Tate’s potential in the field is realised in the 21st century. Over the last 20 years Anna has worked across education and cultural settings at a local, national and international level. Her purpose has been to explore and improve the impact of cultural interventions on a variety of different learning environments. Her work has ranged from Lecturer (University of North London) to Festival Director (Young at Art, Northern Ireland) and she has worked across disciplines with several national organisations. In 2002 she became the dire
Gleaming Steel Graft Installed in National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden by Artist Roxy Paine
WASHINGTON, DC.- At 45 feet high by 45 feet wide, American sculptor Roxy Paine’s newly installed sculpture, Graft (2008–2009), stands out among the trees in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, one-half mile from the U.S. Capitol on the National Mall. The Gallery commissioned Paine to make a Dendroid, as the artist calls his series of treelike sculptures, for the Sculpture Garden. The resulting work is the first by Paine to enter the collection, as well as the first contemporary sculpture to be installed in the Sculpture Garden in the ten years since it opened. The stainless steel structure—which weighs approximately 16,000 pounds—was installed the week of October 26 by Paine and his crew, who welded together 37 different components that were transported from the artist’s studio in Treadwell, New York. The 43-year-old artist has shown his other Dendroids on the Roof of The Metropolitan Museum of Ar
Contemporary Art Museum Announces Short Exhibitions by Artists and Others
ST. LOUIS, MO.- The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis announced a new season of The Front Room. Running alongside the Main Galleries, The Front Room operates at a different rhythm, with exhibitions lasting anywhere from a day to a few weeks. These reactive, nimble, provisional, and experimental exhibitions test the boundaries of conventional programming and echo the elasticity of contemporary culture. The upcoming Front Room season features exhibitions by: Xavier Cha (January 22 – 31) Xavier Cha’s performances, objects, and videos revolve around systems of social exchange and hierarchies of physical and psychological space. Her works subtly distort these ideologies by re-contextualizing culture, desire, the individual, and community. A frequent collaborator, Cha has invited dancers, musicians, mystics, or clowns—among many others—not only to participate in her projects, but to become the protagonists of
An Open Call for Artists to Propose Public Projects to Creative Time and P.S. 1 Curators
NEW YORK, NY.- P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Creative Time, the New York public art organization, announce Creative Time Open Door at P.S.1, an open call for New York–based artists to propose projects for the public realm, as part of P.S.1’s Free Space program. Artists are invited to submit proposals at http://creativetime.org/programs/opendoor/index.html through January 15, and will be notified if they are scheduled for a review by January 21. After an initial review by the Creative Time curators, 35 artists will be offered 15-20 minute, private portfolio reviews conducted by the curators from both institutions, on January 23 and 24, at P.S.1. The program offers an opportunity for artists to get feedback on specific projects for the public realm. Artists may send proposals for projec
Auschwitz ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (“Work Sets You Free”) Sign Stolen
WARSAW (AP).- The infamous iron sign bearing the Nazis’ cynical slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” that spanned the main entrance to the former Auschwitz death camp was stolen before dawn Friday, Polish police said. The heavy 5-meter-long (16-foot-long), 40-kilogram (90-pound) iron sign at the former Nazi death camp in southern Poland where more than 1 million people died during World War II was unscrewed on one side and torn off on the other, police spokeswoman Katarzyna Padlo said.
MATRIX Program at Wadsworth Atheneum Presents Best of Emerging Artists
HARTFORD, CT.- The Wadsworth Atheneum’s MATRIX contemporary art program returns in February with an exciting roster of emerging artists from around the world. Selected by the Wadsworth’s new curator of contemporary art, Patricia Hickson, artists Kitty Kraus, Justin Lowe, and Kim Schoenstadt will present solo exhibitions in the museum’s dedicated MATRIX gallery in 2010. The MATRIX series re-launch kicks off with an installation of mirrored lightboxes—which will emit dizzying beams of light to transform the gallery space—created by German sculptor Kitty Kraus,
World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre: Planning Permission Granted
LONDON.- The Trustees of the British Museum announced that Camden Council has given planning permission for the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre. The building will ensure the British Museum can meet its fundamental obligations of preserving, researching, displaying and lending this unparalleled collection for future generations. The building will ensure the British Museum remains one of the world’s leading museums, a civic space serving a local, national and international audience. The Museum would