ASU Art Museum Announces 2008-2009 Exhibitions and Events

July 08, 2008

TEMPE, Ariz. (July 8, 2008) Surprising. Invigorating. Thought provoking. The Arizona State University Art Museum continues to present the best in contemporary art with exhibitions in all media by regional and international, emerging and established artists. The ASU Art Museum organizes these outstanding contemporary art exhibitions – which often receive national and international attention – in metropolitan Phoenix and presents them in creative ways for students and visitors.

Our exhibitions are gathering places for people to interact, explore the artist’s vision and process, and discuss our contemporary world.

This season marks the continuation of the Social Studies initiative at the ASU Art Museum. Social Studies opens the creative process by turning over a gallery to an artist who considers social interaction a crucial part of their art making. Visitors are invited to participate with the artist in the gallery to create the objects and installations that form the exhibition, or to observe and question the process. Brazilian artist Jarbas Lopes and San Francisco-based Josh Greene, our first artists to participate in the initiative, kicked off the initiative with successful residencies this past season.

ASU Art Museum’s Moving Targets initiative has significant presence this season, presenting solo exhibitions by artists Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba and Nadia Hironaka, as well as a group exhibition Video Project Space at Aqua Art Miami, Wynwood. Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s exhibition, co-organized with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will premiere at the ASU Art Museum with new work and host the on-going piece, Breathing is Free, in which the artist is running the diameter of the earth in cities of the world at different times.

As one of the most important institutions in its field, the ASU Art Museum Ceramics Research Center continues to be in the international spotlight this season with outstanding exhibitions and the arrival of an anticipated 6000 individuals attending the 43rd Annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference. The ASU Art Museum will host the NCECA Clay National juried exhibition, Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser and Potters on Paper: Selections from the Collection.

With the growth of our community, so continues the growth of international art collections in the Phoenix area. This fall the ASU Art Museum focuses on the adventurous contemporary art collection of Valley residents Mikki and Stanley Weithorn. Included in the exhibition, internationally-known artists Bradley McCallum and Jackie Tarry will create a site-specific installation in the gallery.

The following pages introduce our 2008-2009 exhibitions and programs. Dates, times and information is subject to change so please visit ASU Art Museum Exhibition for the most current information. Join us in the galleries!

Call for interview opportunities with artists, collectors and curators featured this season.

2008-2009 ASU Art Museum Exhibition and Event Schedule

Through September 28
NOW: Selections from the Ovitz Family Collection
Reception: Friday, September 26, 7-9pm

With featured artwork dating from 2006 to 2008, NOW: Selections from the Ovitz Family Collection highlights recent work by established and emerging international contemporary artists. Artists pursue their own innovations and artistic visions while thoughtfully mining the history of art. Historic medias are reconsidered and new ones are added. The Ovitz Family Collection represents the current diversity in contemporary art, from abstraction to the figurative, refined technique to intentionally rough, and the blurring of boundaries between media.

Michael and Judy Ovitz have been listed among the world’s top art collectors and art patrons by such publications as ARTNews and Art & Antiques. The Ovitz’s began collecting modern and contemporary art in the late 1970s. Their first purchases were prints by artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, Philip Guston and James Rosenquist. Beginning in the early 1980s the Ovitz’s began to spend weekends making gallery and studio visits in both Los Angeles and New York. The Ovitz’s continue to build an important collection of modern and contemporary art. Their collection is idiosyncratic, constantly changing with their pursuit of knowledge. No paths or limits are set when it comes to collecting art.

Artist include: Mark Bradford, Rachel Harrison, Richard Hughes, Jamie Isenstein, Katy Moran, Anselm Reyle, Stephen G. Rhodes, Sterling Ruby, Andro Wekua, and Thomas Zipp.

Through September 28
Exploring Dreams: Images from the Permanent Collection
9th Annual Family Fun Day: Saturday, July 12, 2008

Throughout history, dreams have inspired artists to capture their spirit and bring the imaginary to life. Exploring Dreams presents artwork that echoes the dreamlike, surreal images encountered in the depths of sleep and in the shades of waking. The exhibition examines the concepts and science of dreams: what dreams are and their purpose and meanings. To further enhance viewer’s experience during the visit, hands-on and informational activities at the gallery are specially designed to encourage visitors to explore their own dreams through images and text.

August 23, 2008 – February 28, 2009
Midstream: New Ceramics from the Heartland
Friday Conversations in the Gallery: Friday, September 5, 12noon – Curator Peter Held
Reception: Friday, September 26, 7-9pm
Performance: Relics by Teri Frame, Friday, September 26, during reception, 7:30pm

Midstream will uncover the work of three artists that are defining a new generation of clay artists and reflecting the dominance in the contemporary art world of artists from diverse backgrounds working with new issues of identity.

Artists include: Teri Frame, Alex Hibbitt, and Liz Zacher; all recent MFA graduates residing in Athens, Ohio, and Kansas City, Missouri.

September 27, 2008 – January 4, 2009
The Other Mainstream II: Selections from the Collection of Mikki and Stanley Weithorn
Opening Reception: Friday, September 26, 7-9pm - Trunk Show with local artist Roy Wasson Valle
On-Site Installations: Bradley McCallum and Jackie Tarry; Steve Yazzie
Friday Conversations in the Gallery: Friday, October 3, 12noon – Local artist Steve Yazzie
Friday Conversations in the Gallery: Friday, October 24, 12noon – Collector Mikki Weithorn

The Other Mainstream II is the second exhibition at the ASU Art Museum that focuses on the adventurous contemporary art collection of Valley residents Mikki and Stanley Weithorn. True to its name, the exhibition reflects the dominance in the contemporary art world of artists from diverse backgrounds working with new issues of identity -- a new “mainstream.” With most of the works in the exhibition created since 9/11, the collection is bold in its commentary on global concerns and in its figurative imagery. The paintings, drawings and sculptures reach beyond simply examining the assigned powers in politics, gender, and race, and move to a broader examination of our humanity through humor or fantasy or blunt honesty.

Artists include: Emma Amos, Sanford Biggers, Iona Rozeal Brown, Gordon Cheung, Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Edward del Rosario, Tjorg Douglas Beer, Tom Duncan, Nekisha Durrett, Edouard Duval-Carrié, Marcel Dzama, Clinton Fein, Luiz Flavio, Chitra Ganesh, Amiee Garcia, Deborah Grant, Elizabeth Huey, John Jodzio, Ai Kijima, Min Kim, Machida Kumi, Marcia Kure, Carter Kustera, Maximillian Lawrence, Dinh Q Lê, Monika JM Lin, Whitfield Lovell, Paul Marcus, Bradley McCallum, Dominic McGill, Vik Muniz, Brett Murray, Chris Ofili, Lamar Peterson, Moritz Schleime, Claudette Schreuders, Rachell Sumpter, Jacqueline Tarry, Masami Teraoka, Mickalene Thomas, Jamie Vasta, Tran Trong Vu, Roy Wasson Valle, Caleb Weintraub, Amy Wilson, Amy Wilson, Su-en Wong, Zhang Xiaogang, Steve Yazzie.

Exhibition catalogue available with essay by Derek Conrad Murray and introduction by Heather S. Lineberry, Senior Curator and Interim Director, ASU Art Museum.

October 16, 2008
Jan Fisher Memorial Lecture Series – Annebeth Rosen
Lecture: Thursday, October 16, 7pm

Jan Fisher Memorial Lecture Series is named in honor of Jan Fisher, an art history graduate student and active CLA (Ceramics Leaders of ASU) member who passed away in February 2006. The lecture series brings to the Phoenix community both established and emerging women ceramic artists. While on campus, all of the participating artists meet with art students and become acquainted with the ASU Herberger College of the Arts programs.

This series is made possible through the generous support of Mr. and Mrs. Cole Fisher and their family. Their support enabled ASU Art Museum to offer this multi-year series for the benefit of ASU students, staff and the general public.

October 18, 2008 – January 25, 2009
ASU Herberger College School of Art Faculty Exhibition
Opening Reception: Friday, October 17, 7-9pm

Recent works created by the faculty will be exhibited in the bi-annual ASU Herberger College School of Art Faculty Exhibition at the ASU Art Museum. The exhibition offers students and the public an opportunity to see the talents of the ASU Herberger College School of Art faculty. This year’s exhibition will feature work in media as diverse as painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, intermedia, fiber and ceramics, as well as research by art history and art education professors.

October 16 - November 19, 2008
Social Studies: Project 3
Artist to be announced in August Artist in residence: October 16 - November 19

Last year marked the launch of the Social Studies initiative at the ASU Art Museum. Social Studies opens the creative process by giving a gallery to an artist who considers social interaction a crucial part of their art making. Visitors are invited to participate with the artist to create the objects and installations that form the exhibition, or to observe and question the process. Brazilian Jarbas Lopes and San Francisco-based Josh Greene, our first artists to participate in the initiative, worked with many of you in our galleries in 2007-2008.

Watch for the announcement of our next Social Studies artist in residence.

October 18, 2008 – January 25, 2009
Nadia Hironaka: The Late Show
Opening Reception: Friday, October 17, 7-9pm
Friday Conversations in the Gallery: Friday, October 17, 12noon – Artist Nadia Hironaka

In her multi-channel video installation, The Late Show, Nadia Hironaka expands the cinematic experience into the realm of the gallery environment. Synthesizing video projection, videos on monitors, and audio, Hironaka entices the viewer to imagine characters leaving the confines of the projected image and entering the real space of the gallery. Using an abandoned drive-in movie theater as her point of departure to examine the convergence of cinematic and real space, Hironaka also asks us to reflect on how mood and emotion are constructed within the context of film.

Nadia Hironaka: The Late Show is an ASU Art Museum Moving Targets initiative.

December 4 – 7, 2008
Video Project Space: Aqua Art Miami, Wynwood
Artist list to be announced in September

ASU Art Museum Curator John Spiak curates the Video Project Space at Aqua Art Miami, Wynwood, during the international art fair weekend gathering in Miami, December 4-7, 2008.

The program is made possible through the generosity of Aqua Art Miami and is a program of the ASU Art Museum Moving Targets initiative.

January 24 – April 26, 2009
Breathing is Free: 12,756.3 – The First 1,500, New Work by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba
Artist Performance: January 20 – 30: Artist Performance Reception: February 20: 7-9 p.m.

Japanese-American-Vietnamese artist, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, is well known on the international art circuit for his striking video installations. This exhibition presents new work, and examines his abiding interest in globalization and the balance between tradition and change as we forge our future. Co-organized with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, each venue will host the on-going piece, Breathing is Free, in which the artist is running the diameter of the earth (12,756.3) in cities of the world at different times.Breathing is Free is a virtual earth drawing, exhibited as an installation, illustrating the movement of populations around the world. The ASU Art Museum exhibition is the U.S. premiere of the Breathing is Free performance and installation.

Breathing is Free: New Work by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba is an ASU Art Museum Moving Targets initiative.

February 14 – May 16, 2009
Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser
Reception: February 20, 7-9 p.m.
Friday Conversations in the Gallery: Friday, February 20, 11 a.m. – Local artist Kurt Weiser

This mid-career retrospective and accompanying exhibition catalogue examines the stylistic development of Kurt Weiser’s ceramic work from the 1970s to the present. Internationally recognized as an innovator in the field, Weiser is known for his technical virtuosity with porcelain forms, and his use of china painting techniques in a distinct contemporary style. His subject matter illustrates lush, mysterious landscapes and distorted narratives set amidst color-saturated flora and fauna that read as voyeuristic snapshots of the human condition. The exhibition is comprised of fifty ceramic objects and drawings. Weiser is a Regents Professor of Art in the Herberger College of the Arts.

Exhibition catalogue available with essays by Ulysses Grant Dietz, Edward Lebow and Peter Held, Curator of Ceramics, ASU Art Museum.

February 17 – July 26, 2009
Social Studies: Project 4
Artist to be announced this fall
Artist in residence: February 17 – March 27
Reception: February 20, 7-9 p.m.

Watch for the announcement of our next Social Studies artist in residence.

March 21 – May 30, 2009
NCECA Clay National
43rd Annual NCECA Conference, April 8 – 11, 2009
Ceramic Interface: From Dawn to Digital
Phoenix Convention Center and other locations throughout the valley

Last held in Arizona in 1991, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts returns for the annual ceramics conference bringing 6,000 artists, educators, curators and students together for demonstrations, lectures, panel discussions, and more than 75 exhibitions throughout Phoenix. The ASU Art Museum will host the NCECA Clay National juried exhibition, Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser and Potters on Paper: Selections from the Collection.

For conference registration or program information, go to http://www.nceca.net/ or call (303) 828-2811.

March 28 – May 31, 2009
Potters on Paper: Selections from the Collection
Reception: April 9, 5-7 p.m. in conjunction with the 43rd Annual NCECA conference

Many ceramic artists work in a variety of media, including printmaking. This exhibition features prints and works on paper by artists primarily known for their work in clay. Some of the internationally-recognized artists include: Rudy Autio, Jun Kaneko, Richard Shaw, Robert Sperry, Peter Shire, Akio Takamori, and Patti Warashina. Print techniques include monoprints, lithographs, and screenprints.

April 2009
13th Annual ASU Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival
Date to be announced, check website for details

Celebrating different visions and levels of experience, the ASU Art Museum is proud to present short films and videos by artists from around the world. For this one evening, audience members bring a lawn chairs, blankets, or anything else they wish to use as a seat and gather outside on the back plaza for this free community event.

The Annual ASU Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival is an ASU Art Museum Moving Targets initiative.

May 16 – August 30, 2009
10th Annual Summer Family Exhibition
Food: Feasts for the Eyes from the Permanent Collection
Family Fun Day: Saturday, July 10, 2009, 10a.m. – 2p.m.

The ASU Art Museum presents the annual summer exhibition for visitors of all ages and families looking for free educational and fun outings during the hot summer months. For ten years, summer family exhibition themes have ranged from What I did on My Summer Vacation to Out of the Woods, with an environmental theme reminding visitors of the importance of renewable resources. This year’s theme of “Food” will be a feast for the eyes, food for thought and tastefully exhibited. Hands-on art activities in the gallery and at Family Fun Day emphasize the ideas found in the exhibition, and the Changing Hands Reading area provides books on related themes and comfortable chairs in which to curl up and read.

Family Fun Day is scheduled for the second Saturday in July from 10 am – 2 pm and includes free hands-on art making projects, refreshments, a visit from a PBS character from Eight/KAET, and performances by puppeteers, musicians, and dancers.

ASU ART MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS ON THE ROAD

Through September 14
Moulthrop Generations: Turned Wood Bowls by Ed, Phillip and Matt Moulthrop
Racine Art Museum
Racine, Wisconsin

Through November 2
Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection
James A. Michener Art Museum
Doylestown, Pennsylvania

August 18 – September 27, 2008
Business as Usual: New Video from China/Cao Fei and Yang Fudong
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Boston, Massachusetts

December 4 – 7, 2008
Video Project Space: Aqua Art Miami, Wynwood
Aqua Art Miami
Miami, Florida

December 2008 – March 2009
Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection
Bellevue Art Museum
Bellevue, Washington

April 24 – September 6, 2009
Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection
Museum of Fine Arts
Santa Fe, New Mexico

June – July 2009 (tentative date, confirmed venue)
Breathing is Free: 12,756.3 – The First 1,500, New Work by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba
Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

The ASU Art Museum, named 'the single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona' by Art in America, is part of the Herberger College of the Arts at Arizona State University. The museum is located on the southeast corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street in Tempe and admission is free. Hours are 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. on Tuesdays (during the academic year), 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. To learn more about the museum, call 480-965-2787 or visit http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu

Public Contact:
John D. Spiak
(480)965-0497 jdspiak@mainex1.asu.edu

Media Contact:
Elisa Benavidez
ASU Art Museum
480.965.2787
elisa.benavidez@asu.edu