Art Scenes

International artist Eric Adjetey Anang is no stranger to lecturing students, he has been traveling across the nation speaking about his artistic process and helping groups create a unique collaborative work of art. Eric is originally from Ghana, Africa, where he worked at his grandfather's workshop since his youth. What did this workshop create? Coffins, but not just any coffins. "Fantasy Coffins" are coffins designed specifically for the destined user and are accordingly related to their life's aspirations, profession, and family. Okadii  and Okutso are elements used to create a one of a kind personal coffin. Okadii  are symbols which relate to that person's stance in life, such as the symbol of power: an eagle, for a Cheif. Okutso  relates to that person's clan or family.  In 2003 Eric took over his grandfathers shop and continued the Fantasy Coffin tradition. Never intending to become rich or famous from the process, Eric does not fi

Taken at the San Fransico Museum of Modern Art Every new generation is tasked with understanding previous tragedies of their world, of contextualizing something they did not live through and can, therefore, view objectively. In the San Francisco MOMA exhibition, “German Art After 1960,” this is the underlying message—the art of a generation growing up in a post-World War II Germany.  Artist grappled with this task in different ways, in technique, style, and form. Yet in all cases, they found a way to translate their relationship they felt with the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II. Each artist had a different perspective from which to view the results of the war, from being a student in Berlin during the Cold War (Georg Baselitz) to losing her homeland to the Nazi occupation (Magdalena Abakanowicz). To emphasize these differences, each artist was given their own space--almost an entire room, in which their works were displayed. Walking through these installations was

Saturday, April 6th at the Sacramento State Art Symposium, Dr. Crasnow discussed “Occupied Time: Palestinian Time After the Intifadas”—her work following the Palestinians concepts of time in art. Dr. Crasnow follows the themes in art after this event, in which nostalgia is replaced by frustration as new generations must face hardships such as the Intifadas of 1987 and 2000.  To illustrate her point, Dr. Crasnow used art spanning over time from the 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as the Nakba, to the first and second Intifadas. The Nakba was caused by the creation of the Israeli state and led to the displacement of over 700,000 persons. Artists post-Nakba showcased the longing for a life they had lost, and still hoped to get back. Below is one such artist Sliman Mansour, who was born just one year before the Nakba and uses peaceful images to encourage the morale of those still waiting for independence and a home to call there own after their displacement. Slima

In 1947 Joseph Beuys iconic performance artwork I Love America and America Loves Me was created. In it, Beuys locked himself in a room with a wild coyote for 8 hours a day for three days straight, with only a blanket of felt between them.  Joseph Beuys,  I Love America and America Loves me 1947 It is a powerful, heart-pounding performance, one which questioned Americans treatment of its land and people. My first thought when I saw the photos...Did that coyote have water?  I will probably never know what happened to that coyote, or how its time in that room with Beuys affected its future. But it leaves me wanting knowledge about its treatment, and who is responsible for an animal when it becomes a test subject for art?  There are many laws that interfere with the use of animals in art, for example, endangered species remains are prohibited for being sold. This is meant to discourage the killing of rare animals for the sake of creating art. Something that has been done for

Lisa Lyon , 1983 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. The Guggenheim Museum in NYC is holding a new exhibition for photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from January 25th-July 10th 2019, and July 24th 2019-January 5th 2020. Read more about the exhibition here: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/mapplethorpe Ken Moody and Robert Sherman, 1984, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Gift, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, 1993 Mapplethorpe's array of work provides an insight into the questions the Western world grapples with, questions about sexuality, identity, values, and openness. Mapplethorpe managed to demonstrate the journey of an openly gay man through the 60's to the late '80s. Beginning with grand explorations of gender and sexuality, the challenging of previously held Western beliefs and attitudes. Who are the fetishizers of certain images? The Voyeur of a work of art? It turns out to be you, me, everybody. Instead of the assumed white-male gaze, Mapplethorpe s

Until May 17th the aptly named "Markings" exhibition will be shown in the Sacramento State University Library. Koo Kyung Sook's work is asserting, vivid, and alive. Looking into one of the pieces is like peering down a microscope to see the swirling organism below.  This effect is no accident, although the marks themselves are completely random. As Sook claimed in her artist statement: I do not have any particular images in mind when I start my work. Instead, I make hundreds of improvised marks...I then follow my intuition in the process of constructing, discovering, and reconstructing the selected marks to join them together to create figurative images. Her creative process, which in this body of works begins back in 2004, is extensive and laborious. It began through a fascination with collaboration, in art, the body, and life. A focus on what makes up a human body, a person. In the shows earlier pieces, we see figures abstracted into marks: small, r

The Power of Memory and Home Artist Alexandra Lown  Tucked away in the R.W. Witt Gallery of Sacramento State University was a collection of works that demonstrated a certain kind of strength not often thought of in contemporary art--that of love and home. Artist Alexandra Lown has combined comfort and wonder in her lucid artworks. Faces and Refractions, 2018. Oil paint and oil pastel on canvas. $2000 Above is a depiction of Lown's childhood home, where she still lives in Sacramento. The sculpture-like modeling, the attention to detail, give a sense of reality to the welcoming scene. Yet closer attention shows the dream-like elements of the piece: clouds float across the scene, flowers grow through the walls, and the furniture ebbs in and out of solidity. This scene is a memory, affected by its remember: the artist.   Lown: " This is how my kitchen looked when I was little before we did anything to it when this was the table he picked up at a ga

                             What do you think of the relationship between the pop culture of today and the art culture of the past? Do you see lines blurring? What other examples can you name of popular artists embracing the fine art world? Is this appreciation or satire? Let me know in the comments

The Sacramento State sculpture club does not restrict its members to the medium of its title. The members of this club work in any aspect of their choosing, leading to exciting and varied exhibitions. On this small gallery floor, you will see drawings, paintings, sculptures of metal, clay, plastic, and in one case--honeycomb.          "Figuratively Speaking" is loosely based on the artists consideration of form, considering what makes an object recognizable, and playing with viewers expectations of that object. Courtesy of Sacramento State University art students. Captured by the author. This use of multi-media sculpture, as well as the manipulation of scale and perspective, has been engaged with by many contemporary artists. The Surrealists and Dada artists of the Modern era were masters at upsetting expectations of the viewer by creating an impossible and unnerving object in the realm of visceral reality. Object  (or  Luncheon in Fur ),