Uli Sigg & Ai Weiwei This Friday! (9/26/2008)

The Mills College Art Faculty and Graduate Art Students are pleased to announce round table discussions with Uli Sigg and Ai Weiwei.

Friday September 26, 2008.

Danforth Hall.

See below for times.

Uli Sigg is the world's premiere collector of contemporary Chinese art.  A former Swiss ambassador to China, Mr. Sigg's expertise extends well beyond art into the realms of international politics and economics.  Mr. Sigg's discussion with Mills College Professor of Painting, Hung Liu, will begin at 2pm.

Ai Weiwei is widely regarded as one of the most famous and infamous artists working in the world today.  In addition to exhibiting his work internationally, he is a highly acclaimed curator, critic, activist, and writer.  Mr. Weiwei's discussion with Hung Liu will begin at 5pm.

These events are open to the public and all Mills students are encouraged to take part in this rare opportunity.  Q&A sessions will follow both discussions.

Checkout his blog and look for the photos of the graduate students at dinner with Ai Weiwei...

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_473f90ad0100b61z.html

Lecture Series Announced for Fall 2008!

Adrienne Salinger*

Wednesday, October 1
Adrienne Salinger has exhibited her photographs internationally in venues that include the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Barcelona’s Fundacion “la Caixa,” The New Museum, and the National Museum of American Art among others. Salinger has published three books: In My Room: Teenagers in their Bedrooms, Living Solo and Middle Aged Men. Presented by the Herringer Family Foundation Danforth Lecture Hall, Art Building, and 7:30 p.m.

Ginger Wolfe-Suarez

Wednesday, October 8

Packard Jennings*

Wednesday, October 22

Favianna Rodriguez

Wednesday, October 29

Eyebeam, the Eyebeam Road Show*

Saturday, November 15

(times and workshops TBA)

Debra Pincus+

Wednesday, November 12

All lectures are in the Danforth Lecture Hall in the Aron Art Center (next to the Mills Art Museum) and begin at 7:30pm unless otherwise noted.

*The MFA Lecture Series is made possible by the Herringer Family Foundation.

+The Studies in Art History and Criticism Lecture Series is funded by the Jane Green Endowment.

Check back for updates and changes.

Hou Hanru Lecture Wednesday April 9, 7:30 pm Danforth Hall

Hou Hanru is Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and Chair of the Exhibitions and Museum Studies program. A prolific writer and curator, Hou received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Central Institute of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he was trained in art history, with additional work in painting, performance, installation, and architectural research. He is a consultant for several cultural institutions internationally including the Global Advisory Committee of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Contemporary Art Museum in Kumamoto, Japan. Described as a significant international voice on cultural difference, Hou is the French correspondent for Flash Art International and a regular contributor to several other journals on contemporary art including Frieze, Art Monthly, Third Text, Art and Asia Pacific, Domus, Atlantica, Texte Zur Kunst, and Tema Celeste. Most recently, Hou was appointed Curator of the 10th International Istanbul Biennial, which will take place from September to November 2007. Other recent curatorial projects include the second Guangzhou Triennale where he co-curated Beyond: An Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization; Go Inside, the 3rd Tirana Biennale (Tirana, Albania, 2005); Out of Sight, organized by the De Appel Foundation (Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2005); Nuit Blanche 2004 (Paris, 2004); and A L'Ouest Du Sud De L'Est / A L'Est Du Sud De L'Ouest (Villa Arson, Nice, 2004). Hou is one of the first curators and thinkers to examine postmodern issues of nomadic identity, hybridity, globalized mobility, what he calls “in-betweeness,” and artists living in the diaspora.

Charolette Cotton Lecture Thursday May 3, 6:45pm

Charlotte Cotton is Curator and Department Head of Photographs at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Previously, she was Head of Programming at The Photographers' Gallery in London and Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1993to 2004. She has curated many exhibitions of historical and contemporary photography including, 'Imperfect Beauty: the making of contemporary fashion photographs' (2000), 'Out of Japan' (2002), 'Stepping In and Out: contemporary documentary photography' (2003) and 'Guy Bourdin' (2003). Charlotte is the author and editor of publications such as 'Imperfect Beauty' (2000), 'Then Things Went Quiet' (2003), 'Guy Bourdin' (2003) and 'The Photograph as Contemporary Art' (2005).

Marisa Olson Lecture March 12, 7:30pm

Dave Muller Lecture March 19, 7:30 pm

Artforum article on Dave Muller: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_9_39/ai_75914283

Yu Hong lecture

Yu Hong has consistently explored three themes since she graduated from the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1988: the female point of view in all phases of life from childhood to maturity, the relationship of the individual in China to the convulsive transformation of society and finally, the poetry of day-to-day existence despite “most of us leading a life of trivialities…”

Trained in the oil-painting department of the Academy, she has become one of the most accomplished painters of her generation. She uses her technical virtuosity to produce jarring color schemes and inventive compositions that allow us to reconsider the value of the various daily activities. The most recent developments of her work present her astute observations combined with a refined painting sensibility of colorful scenes of daily life. Her pastel portraits and Routine series present paintings of her daughter and herself, respectively, that invest the subject with a persuasive power and universality of the moment depicted. In Britta Erickson’s words, “leavened by Yu Hong’s subtly sardonic wit, her recent works are both profound and utterly enjoyable.”

February 27, 7:30 pm
free to the public
Danforth Hall
Mills College
5000 MacArthur Blvd

Michael Rees lecture

The Mills MFA Lecture Series is happy to present an evening lecture with Michael Rees.

Michael Rees' art defies category, combining sculpture, animation, performance, video, installation, and computer software programs to express his interest in the body and its connection to mind and spirit. Rees' work references surrealism and other movements in art history, as well as western analytic science and eastern metaphysics. Rees is a self described "pataphysician", a maker of imaginary solutions and an investigator of the truth of contradictions and exceptions. He is professor of Sculpture at the Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

Exhibition History: Rees was included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and in Michael Rees: Digital Psyche at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Articles have appeared about his work in World Art, Artbyte, Popular Mechanics, Art in America, The New York Times and other publications. In October of 1999 he presented his work in the French Senate in the George Clemenceau Hall at the Palais Du Luxemborg, Paris, France. His work was included in the 2001 Whitney Museum exhibition BitStreams curated by Lawrence Rinder.

The Mills MFA Lecture Series is made possible by the generosity of the Herringer Family Foundation. The Series allows the MFA candidates to invite artists they are interested in to speak at Mills and meet with the students.

February 13, 7:30 pm
free to the public
Danforth Hall
Mills College
5000 MacArthur Blvd

Spring Lecture Series announced

January 23, 7:30 pm
Curator Marcia Tanner in conversation with Jean Shin and Claudia X. Valdes

February 13, 7:30 pm
Lecture by Michael Rees

February 20, 7:30 pm
Samara Halperin in conversation with Anne Walsh and Gail Wight

February 27, 7:30 pm
Lecture by Yu Hong

March 12, 7:30 pm
Lecture by Marisa Olson

March 19, 7:30 pm
Lecture by Dave Muller

THURSDAY - April 3, 6:45 pm
Lecture by Charlotte Cotton,
curator of Photography from LACMA

April 09, 7:30 pm
Lecture by Hou Hanru


All lectures will take place in Danforth Hall at Mills College, Oakland