advance exhibition schedule 2008-2010
- Museum Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., during scheduled exhibitions.
- Current open and closed dates may be found here.
- The schedule below is current as of April 26, 2007. Dates and titles are subject to change. Before visiting, please confirm information or obtain additional information by contacting the Museum at 408.554.4528.
- Admission to exhibitions is always free!
*Denotes exhibitions organized by the de Saisset Museum.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS: *Eye on the Sixties: Vision, Body, and Soul
Selections from the Collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson
February 2-March 20, 2008
March 29-June 15, 2008
The 1960s represent an important period of social, historical, and cultural transformation in the United States. Artistically, the decade signaled many dramatic changes as well, as artists searched for new modes of expression in the post-Abstract Expressionist era. This exhibition will celebrate the artistic legacy of this decade in all of its dynamic diversity. This exhibition is curated by Santa Clara University Associate Professor Andrea Pappas and coordinated by de Saisset Museum Assistant Director for Exhibitions, Education, and Community Outreach Karen Kienzle.
Due to the aesthetic vibrancy of the period, it is not surprising that the 1960s has emerged as an increasingly popular topic for contemporary scholars in art history. While most recent scholarship has focused on 1960s Pop, this exhibition will expand the scope of inquiry to include neglected movements of the period such as post-painterly abstraction, Op Art, and new approaches to figuration. Uniquely, the exhibition will also include a contextual section focused on California artists working during the 1960s. Throughout the exhibition, a significant emphasis will be placed on the pluralism and diversity of the period.
Because this exhibition is focused around a decade, it will invite numerous cross-disciplinary approaches to interpretation. Text panels will provide background into social and historical developments in the period (the counterculture, the use of new materials, the role of California in artistic production during the period) and provide further framework for interpreting the artworks in the exhibition.
Culled from the extraordinary collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson, Eye on the Sixties will include painting, sculpture, drawings and prints, by artists such as: Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Robert Arneson, Bruce Beasley, Billy Al Bengston, Fletcher Benton, Wallace Berman, Lee Bontecou, Bruce Conner, Ronald Davis, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Philip Guston, Jess, Bruce Nauman, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenberg, Nathan Oliveira, David Park, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, Sam Richardson, Ed Ruscha, Frank Stella, Wayne Thiebaud, H.C. Westermann, and William T. Wiley.
Santa Clara University students enrolled in the art history course Exhibiting the 1960s have played an important role in this exhibition, contributing their own writing to labels in the galleries and helping to organize Guide by Cell audio content and lesson plans for the Museum’s student Explore with Me docent program.
A paperbound color catalogue accompanies the exhibition. The publication includes essays by SCU Associate Professor Andrea Pappas, SCU Religious Studies Professor Paul Crowley, and the de Saisset Museum’s Karen Kienzle.
* Flashing Back: 1960s Works in the Permanent Collection of the de Saisset Museum
February 2-March 20, 2008
March 29-April 13, 2008
In conjunction with the Anderson Collection exhibition, the de Saisset Museum will present a companion permanent collection exhibition focused on work from the 1960s. Featured artists include Robert Fried, Peter Saul, Mel Ramos, Fletcher Benton, Harry Powers, Tom Holland, Joan Brown, George Herms, Oliver Jackson, Arthur Monroe, and Bruce Conner.
*ArtsConnect: Arts Council Silicon Valley
March 29-June 15, 2008
The de Saisset Museum, in partnership with ArtsConect, serves as the venue for this exhibition program on an annual basis. This year represents the tenth year of this important collaboration. Created in 1989 by the Arts Council Silicon Valley, ArtsConnect promotes the idea that art is an effective tool for students to access not only their creative functions but also enhance intellectual, social, and emotional development. It has grown over the last decade to reach more than 1500 young adults annually at 25 facilities throughout the region.
Hank Willis Thomas and Kambui Olujimi: Winter in America
September 27-December 13, 2008
Hank Willis Thomas and Kambui Olujimi’s Winter in America project consists of a stop-motion animation video and still photographs that work together to depict the 2002 robbery and murder of Thomas’ cousin, Songha Thomas Willis. This tragic event is enacted by G.I. Joe action figures—which were ironically used by the artists as children to play out violent narratives. The resulting work is chillingly powerful—a dramatic statement about violence in African American communities. At the same time, the work directly critiques our culture’s relationship with violence—its prevalence in simulated forms in mass culture and its longstanding presence in the toys of our youth. This will be the first presentation of the Winter in America video with accompanying still photographs.
Hank Willis Thomas received a B.F.A. in Photography from New York University in 1998 and an M.F.A. in Photography and a M.A. in Visual Criticism from the California College of the Arts in 2004. His work has been featured in exhibitions at institutions throughout the United States such as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Studio Museum of Harlem.
Kambui Olujimi received his B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design. His work has been featured in museum exhibitions on a national and international level, at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki.
*Just Pretend Everything is OK: Evri Kwong
September 27-December 13, 2008
In his boldly confrontational paintings and prints, San Francisco-based artist Evri Kwong explores a novel—and socially engaged—form of narrative painting. Featuring stories culled from current events and interpreted in all their vivid brutality, his works confront our culture’s deliberate ignorance. National issues such as hypocrisy, consumerism, racism, sexual abuse, religious intolerance, and violence, all provide fodder for his expressive vision.
Kwong’s works represent masterful combinations of painting and drawing, unified by grid-like compositions. In the sketches—rendered in permanent Sharpie ink—Howdy-Doody-style wooden puppets interact, fight, and brutalize each other. Kwong’s vividly colored painted landscapes provide a moment of respite from the figurative struggles. But the juxtaposition of painted and sketched elements highlights the stark difference between our idealized visions of our communities and the darker reality lying underneath. His grid-like compositional structure recalls the format of comic books or television and makes reference to the role mass media plays in our consumption of these stories. This mid-career survey exhibition will feature a selection of Evri Kwong’s paintings and works on paper produced over the past several years.
Evri Kwong received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica, Dwight Hackett Projects in Santa Fe, Smith Andersen Editions in Palo Alto, the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, and Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco. Kwong’s work has appeared in group exhibitions at the Alternative Museum in New York, the Asian American Art Centre in New York, Alleged Gallery in New York, the Masur Museum of Art in Louisiana, Budapest Gallery in Hungary, Gallery Godo in Seoul, Korea, Southern Exposure in San Francisco, the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Heidi Cho Gallery in New York, the San Jose Museum of Art (traveled to the Katzen Art Center), and the Richmond Art Center. His work is included in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art, the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, the Lannan Foundation, and the Rene di Rosa Preserve in Napa. He has also been the recipient of several awards, including a fellowship from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and a Pollock-Krasner Award. Kwong is Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at California State University, Sacramento. He is represented by Dwight Hackett Projects in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Hapa Project: Kip Fulbeck
September 27-December 13, 2008
Once a derogatory label derived from the Hawaiian word for “half,” Hapa has since been embraced as a term of pride by many whose mixed racial heritage includes Asian or Pacific Island descent. Kip Fulbeck began The Hapa Project as a forum for Hapas to answer the question “What are you?” in their own words and be pictured in simple head-on portraits. Traveling throughout the country, he photographed over 1200 people from all walks of life—from babies to adults, construction workers to rock stars, gangbangers to pro surfers, schoolteachers to porn stars, engineers to comic book artists. The project now manifests as a book, traveling photographic exhibition, and online community.
Kip Fulbeck is the author of Part Asian, 100% Hapa (Chronicle Books) and Paper Bullets: A Fictional Autobiography (University of Washington Press), as well as the director of a dozen short films including Banana Split and Lilo & Me. Kip has performed and exhibited throughout the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, Singapore International Film Festival, Sydney International Film Festival, Japanese American National Museum, Bonn Videonale, National Conference on Race in Higher Education, and Honolulu Contemporary Arts Museum. He has also been featured on CNN, MTV, and PBS. He speaks nationwide on identity, multiraciality, art, and pop culture, mixing spoken word, stand-up comedy, political activism, and inspiring personal stories to standing ovations. An avid surfer, guitar player, motorcycle rider, and ocean lifeguard, Kip teaches as Professor of Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is a four-time recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Member Award. He is also a nationally-ranked Masters swimmer, placing 10th in the world in 2007. His next book, Permanence: Tattoo Portraits by Kip Fulbeck, will be published by Chronicle Books in 2008.
*New Media Group Exhibition (working title)
Winter and Spring 2009
This exhibition will explore contemporary works by West Coast artists using new media—defined in the context of this exhibition as electronic, performance, digital, or web-based. Inhabiting the entire temporary exhibition space of the de Saisset Museum, this exhibition will feature a broad range of conceptual and artistic approaches. The work in the exhibition will be organized in thematic sections that will address the benefits and implications of technology—through contemporary art. Throughout the exhibition, multidisciplinary connections will be stressed. It is hoped that the exhibition will have resonance throughout Santa Clara University, amongst faculty and students in diverse departments, in addition to the larger community. This exhibition will be organized by the de Saisset Museum in conjunction with SCU Assistant Professor Katherine Aoki.
*ArtsConnect: Arts Council Silicon Valley
Spring 2009
The de Saisset Museum, in partnership with ArtsConect, serves as the venue for this exhibition program on an annual basis. This year represents the eleventh year of this important collaboration. Created in 1989 by the Arts Council Silicon Valley, ArtsConnect promotes the idea that art is an effective tool for students to access not only their creative functions but also enhance intellectual, social, and emotional development. It has grown over the last decade to reach more than 1500 young adults annually at 25 facilities throughout the region.
*The Art of Richard Mayhew
Fall 2009
Richard Mayhew’s landscapes are luminous—infused with sparkling light, brilliant color, and dreamy atmosphere. While he has focused on the genre of landscape throughout his four-decade-long career, his primary interest is conveying the spiritual, rather than the physical, power of place. Instead of painting outside, he prefers to recall an image of a place from his memory, in order to represent the mood of the particular location. “How do you interpret landscape with a feeling?” Mayhew asks. “I am involved with a spiritual feeling of place.”
While he was based in the East Coast, Mayhew began teaching at San Jose City College in 1975, and for the next four years of his tenure there, he regularly drove across the country. Mayhew became captivated by the diverse landscapes he saw on these trips. These experiences made him acutely aware of the personal connections we make to landscapes: Americans are one of the most mobile peoples on earth, and we tend to gravitate towards landscapes with which we identify.
This retrospective exhibition will be featured collaboratively at the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University and the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. The exhibition will feature work from throughout Mayhew’s career.
Richard Mayhew was born in Massapequa, New York, to Native American and African American parents. He was educated at Columbia University, the Academia Florence, the Art Students’ League, and the Brooklyn Museum Art School. His work has been exhibited extensively around the world and is included in museum permanent collections around the country. Richard Mayhew lives and works in Santa Cruz, California.
This exhibition is organized by the de Saisset Museum, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, and the Museum of the African Diaspora, and it will be featured at all three venues concurrently.
*Collection Matters: The de Saisset Museum’s Permanent Collection
Winter and Spring 2010
This large-scale exhibition will be the first of its size to spotlight the de Saisset Museum’s extensive permanent collection of more than 10,000 objects. The exhibition will include all temporary gallery spaces in the Museum and will showcase the strengths of the collection in the following areas: painting and sculpture, works on paper, and photography. The exhibition will be accompanied by the Museum’s first large-scale permanent collection publication.
*ArtsConnect: Arts Council Silicon Valley
Spring 2010
The de Saisset Museum, in partnership with ArtsConect, serves as the venue for this exhibition program on an annual basis. This year represents the twelfth year of this important collaboration. Created in 1989 by the Arts Council Silicon Valley, ArtsConnect promotes the idea that art is an effective tool for students to access not only their creative functions but also enhance intellectual, social, and emotional development. It has grown over the last decade to reach more than 1500 young adults annually at 25 facilities throughout the region.
Sing Me Your Story, Dance Me Home: Art and Poetry from Native California
Fall 2010
Like the state of California itself, California native peoples are remarkably diverse with more than 300 languages and distinct geographical centers shaping communities, traditions, ideologies, and ceremonies. Sing Me Your Story, Dance Me Home is an extraordinary exhibition that brings together California Native artists and poets. Based on the publication by Heyday Books, The Dirt is Red Here: Art and Poetry from Native California, this exhibition shares the lives, stories, songs, and dances of the artists.
In this multimedia exhibition, California Indian stories, songs, and dances take form in poetry, paintings, baskets, photographs, and sculpture. Some of the artists featured in the exhibition include Judith Lowry, Frank LaPena, Rick Bartow, Lyn Risling, Dugan Aguilar, Brian Tripp, and Jean LaMarr. Poets include Janice Gould, Deborah Miranda, Stephen Meadows, and others.
The contemporary works of these Native California artists, inspired by a mix of past and present, honors their cultural heritage and brings forward a truly indigenous California existence.
This exhibition is organized by the California Exhibition Resource Alliance.
