1997-1998

Fall 1997

Life Clusters
10/7-11/27/97

Artists and organizations include SBC-WCA,, Yeung Ha, Nina Koepcke, Nancy Tector; WCA Women of Color in Art Slide Resource Series, Bernice Bing, Elizabeth Gomez, Stephanie Johnson; YLEM, Barbara Plowman, Kit Monroe Pravda, Sonya Rapoport; Folsom Street Interchange, Eugene Rodriguez, Pamela Shields, Olivia Armas, Al Lujan.

A focus on artwork in relation to art organizations. The artwork (painting, photography, sculpture and installations) was created by artists connected with the Women's Caucus for Art (WCA) and its South Bay Chapter (SBC-WCA), the organization YLEM, which connects art, science, and technology, and the small organization Folsom Street Interchange, located in San Francisco's Mission District. Companion exhibition curated for Sunnyvale Creative Arts Center Gallery: Life Clusters, Honoring One Another, 10/24-12/13/97, Dawn E. Nakanishi and Terry Acebo Davis, Bob Hsiang, Nancy Hom, Irene Poon.

View ancillary materials for the Fall 1997 exhibitions.

Winter 1998

Connections
1/6-2/12/98

Exhibition in two parts. One part, curated by art history instructor Elizabeth Mjelde, focused on works by Lucretia Van Horn, an artist trained within the European academic tradition, and examined different seasons in her career in relation to systems of mutual influence and support. The other part referred to eight contemporary artists, of South Asian origin, who had recently connected by way of the research of artist Soumya Sitaraman.

Reconsidering the Retrospective: Lucretia Van Horn (1882-1970). Spanning several decades, works by Lucretia Van Horn offer a revealing look at formal tendencies in twentieth-century art prior to the period of postmodernism. The particular story presented by this retrospective underscores the importance of support systems for artists, recalling Van Horn's connections with individuals and institutions such as I'Academie Julian in Paris, the San Francisco Art Association, and, ultimately, a small artist colony in Palo Alto where the artist lived for nearly thirty years. The exhibition coincides with the new course "Women, Society, and the Visual Arts" offered jointly by the Art History and Womens Studies programs at De Anza College. "Reconsidering the Retrospective" is sponsored in part by the Cupertino Educational Endowment Foundation.

Under One Roof; Artists of South Asian Origin in the Bay Area, Romilla Batra, Meera Desai, Pertrii K. Gill, Zarina, Anjana Joshi, Swati Kapoor, Soumya Sitaraman. Researcher/artist Soumya Sitaraman states: "It is the first attempt to bring these artists together under one roof." With a diversity of expression in painting, sculpture, furniture, and installation, these artists of South Asian descent have charted a course in the U.S. art world. Many have built substantial reputations. They participate in various art-world organizations, some pan-Asian, but none solely related to South Asia. The artists are learning of each other's art and ideas. The exhibition provides a look at artwork from a previously unseen facet of our society, and a glimpse of a process of discovery. Under One Roof, publication, 2 pages, writing and image for each artist. Companion exhibition curated for Sunnyvale Creative Arts Center Gallery, Connections, 1/9-2/28/98, Susan Mathews, Paintings, Josefina Bates, Installation. Reading 1/29/98, Chitra Divakaruni, author of Mistress of Spices.

Spring 1998

Watersheds, Waterwebs
3/3-4/16/98

Artists and organizations include Mark Abrahamson, ARTSHIP Foundation, Aquatic Outreach Institute, Christine Arle Baeumler and Rhoda London, Coastal Advocates, Mary Jane Dean, Augusto Ferriols, Erica L. Fielder, Jo Hanson, Lynne Hull, Robin Lasser, Leza Lidow, Katherine Westerhout Mann.

A focus on watersheds from the vantage points of art, ecology, and community building. "After all we are water too…": Jo Hanson. In collaboration with ARTSHIP Foundation, Watersheds included works by visual artists, ecology groups, and school children illuminating the local/regional, wild/cultivated, rural/urban, life-gathering phenomenon of watershed ranging over the simplicity-in-complexity of the subject. During the month of April, the exhibition incorporated Our Watershed, a collaborative public artwork created by hundreds of local elementary school students through the Arts & Schools Program. The exhibition conveys expressions from the subjective and evocative to the scientific and concrete. Some works illustrate the physical qualities of watersheds and the many communities and "habitat" styles within our Bay Area, or more distant watersheds. "Rain falls on a mountain ridge. Rivulets merge and rush below as creeks, then become streams, and farther down rivers. Life clusters. Forests, pastures, fields. Cities. Everywhere waters are directed, carving land forms, attracting particular plant, animal, and human communities, inviting exchange. Watersheds. Water webs." Announcement photos: Jo Hanson, Watershed in My Backyard!, 1998 installation, 10'x7'x14'. Robin Lasser, Dirty Diapers, 1996. Chromogenic print, 22"xl8". Erica: t. Fielder, The Document, handmade book, part of Salmon Skin Cape, 1998, mixed media installation. Lynne Hull, Scatter Hydroglyph. a water-cache basin for desert wildlife, stone, 4'x3'x3", 1985. Companion exhibition curated for Sunnyvale Creative Arts Center Gallery: Watersheds, Water Ways, with Bear and Watershed Chorus, 3/13-5/2/98, Brad Bussey, Beth Craven, Nanci Kahn, Maryly Snow, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Pamela Zoline.

An expanded Watersheds exhibition ultimately became the first exhibition on the ARTSHIP. The ship's title had been recently transferred by legislation to ARTSHIP Foundation, which was in the process of bringing this historic vessel to the Oakland waterfront. As an arts, culture, and education center, ARTSHIP represented the transformation for peaceful use of the T/S Golden Bear, once a 1930s cargo and passenger ship, then a troop carrier in WWII, later a training vessel. Rooms of the ship would become exhibition spaces. Curatorial team with Slobodan Dan Paich, Artistic Director, ARTSHIP Foundation, and Victor Faessel, Environmental Literacy Coordinator.

View ancillary materials for the Spring 1998 exhibitions.