Art & Art History News - April 11, 2023

TONIGHT!! Tuesday, April 11 at 6:30 PM
Visual Arts Complex, Auditorium - 1B20
1085 18th Street, Boulder, CO 80309

Colorado-based artist David Ocelotl Garcia (b. 1977, Denver, CO USA) is accomplished across several mediums including painting, sculpture, mosaic and murals. His work can be seen in national and international public art commissions, and both museum and private collections. David believes that "Art", whether we are making it or viewing it, allows us to think more critically, respectfully, and creatively about the world around us. It allows us to have a meaningful impact on the past, present and future. The energy of art engages our mind, body and spirit in a magical way which allows us to feel more deeply and elevates our creative capacity. It is through art that David hopes to manifest beauty, inspiration, color and energy.

Talks are free and open to the public
STUDENTS AND RESEARCHERS FROM ALL MAJORS AND FIELDS ARE WELCOME
For more information, contact the series’ coordinator Martha Russo, mrusso@colorado.edu

On view in the Visual Arts Complex are the undergraduate & graduate King Award finalists

Reception Friday, April 14th from 4:30-6 PM
Awards Ceremony  4:30-5 PM 

Undergraduate student finalists:
Maren Curtis, Madison Crisler, Jenna Hissong, Elyse Hawkins, Aspen Moehring-Miller

Graduate student finalists: Samira Hemmat, Andi Newberry, Alejandra Salvidar, Elisa Wolcott, Ryze Xu

Link to the 2023 King Award selected artwork

Image: Graduate student finalist, Alejandra Saldivar, If you need shelter, look for me

Tuesday, April 25th at 6:30 PM
Visual Arts Complex, Auditorium - 1B20
1085 18th Street, Boulder, CO 80309

Josephine Halvorson (she/her) makes art that foregrounds firsthand experience and takes the form of painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Born in Brewster, Massachusetts, she studied at The Cooper Union (BFA 2003), Yale Norfolk (2002), and Columbia University (MFA 2007). In 2021, she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Halvorson is the recipient of major international residencies and fellowships: The US Fulbright to Vienna, Austria (2003-4), the Harriet Hale Woolley at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris, France (2007-8), and was the first American pensionnaire at the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici (2014-15). Her work has been exhibited internationally and is represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co., NY, and Peter Freeman, Paris. Selected exhibitions include SECCA (2015), Storm King Art Center (2016), the ICA Boston Foster Prize Exhibition (2019-20), and Ríos Intermitentes, a group exhibition curated by Magdalena Campos-Pons as part of the Havana Bienale (2019). Halvorson’s work and practice have been written about extensively and she is a subject of Art21’s documentary series New York Close Up. She is a Professor of Art and the Chair of Graduate Studies in Painting at Boston University and lives in western Massachusetts.

Exhibition of work by M12 Studio
SITE Santa Fe
Exhibition opening: Friday, April 14
On view: April 14-July 31, 2023

GOING WITH THE FLOW: ART, ACTIONS, AND WESTERN WATERS is a group exhibition exploring the vital role of water in the arid Southwest. No other element is more crucial to life on Earth, and as the title of this exhibition suggests, we must follow its lead and heed its warnings. Water, like art, takes many forms: it changes and flows in reaction to its environment; it finds ways to keep moving, recovering, and recharging above and below the land. As stewards of this land, we can benefit from the example water sets by emulating its adaptability. By doing so, we might discover new paths of understanding and repair as we navigate the challenges of climate change.

Exhibiting artists Paula Castillo, Basia Irland, Sharon Stewart, collaborators on There Must Be Other Names for the River (Marisa DeMarco, Dylan McLaughlin, Jessica Zeglin), and collective M12 Studio (Richard Saxton, Margo Handwerker, Trent Segura) present multidisciplinary projects both inside and outside SITE Santa Fe, including temporary site-specific artworks, sound, installation, performance, and momentary actions that engage the communities of Santa Fe and its surrounding regions.

Link to more information

Jerry Kunkel was the Chair of the Department of Art & Art History for about 16 years which is a long time and a testament to how effective he was in that role. We both arrived in Boulder in the late 60’s - early 70’s. Jerry quickly gained a following among the students as a charismatic teacher and a motivating force in the department. He was the first to see the importance of video and other new media for the department.  Several years later, as one of the youngest ever Chairs of the department, he negotiated the installation of the first computer lab in the department and made it possible for me to begin teaching Computer Imaging classes to art students.

Jerry was an advocate for the department on the Campus and College levels as well. And while doing all this he managed to find time to create several bodies of work in painting, photography and performance. As the punk rock group Joey Vain and the Scissors, Jerry and a group of art students opened for Elvis Costello at the UMC Ballroom!

Back in the department, it was my pleasure to serve as Jerry’s Associate Chair for Graduate students. In that position, it was my privilege to assist him in the creation of the cultural symposium called “Mixing It Up”, organized by Lucy Lippard. By that stage, the department’s Visiting Artist Program had become one of the best in the country and spawned a video interview series that Jerry, once again enlisted me to produce. The “What Follows…” series included conversations with Lucy Lippard, Peter Saul, Robert Colescott and a host of others. For these experiences and many others, I will personally be forever grateful to Jerry Kunkel. He was a colleague, a friend and a mentor. 

His contributions to the department shaped it in fundamental ways and laid the groundwork for the successful creation of today’s University Visual Arts Complex. 

Jim Johnson, Professor Emeritus