Art & Art History News - March 5, 2024

Monday, March 11 at 5:00 pm
Visual Arts Complex, Auditorium - 1B20

Female Pioneers of Contemporary Art in Tokyo: 
Examining the cross-boundary activities of women artists who began working in Tokyo between the 1930s and 1950s through their collective activities

In this lecture, Professor Seki will focus on four female artists—Yuki Katsura (1913–1991), Setsu Asakura (1922–2014), Minami Tada (1924–2014) and Yoko Ono (b. 1933)—who began their creative careers in Tokyo between the 1930s and 1950s; referencing the cross-disciplinary nature of their work, a characteristic common to all four artists, and their backgrounds. Furthermore, the talk will explore the positioning of Japanese artists in international contemporary art by analyzing the significance of the work created by these women within the cultural context of the city of Tokyo at a time of change, straddling the wartime period through the experience of their collective experiences.

About the speaker: Naoko Seki studied History of Modern and Contemporary Art at Waseda University Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Joined Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in 1992, followed by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo Preparatory Office. Seki has been Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo Curator over the last 25 years (from 1995), planning and organizing both solo and themed exhibitions of work by modern and contemporary Japanese artists as well as artists from the United States and Europe. Her exhibition Weavers of World —A Century of Flux in Japanese Modern / Contemporary Art, held in 2019 to mark the reopening of the Museum following renovations, showcased many female artists including Katsura, Asakura, Tada and Ono. Since April 2020, Seki has been a Professor of Letters, Arts and Sciences at Waseda University. Contributed a paper on Instruction to the catalog of the exhibition YOKO ONO MUSIC OF THE MIND, which will be held at Tate Modern from February 2024.

Monday, March 18 at 4:00 PM
Visual Arts Complex, Auditorium - 1B20

Jovan C. Speller (b. 1983) in Santa Monica CA, is a multidisciplinary artist based in Minnesota. Her work uses photography, installation, sound, text, and mixed media visual works to interpret historic narratives through contemporary discourse. Her research-based practice is centered around elevating, complicating and inventing stories that explore ancestry, identity, and spatial memory.

Speller holds a BFA in Fine Art Photography from Columbia College Chicago. Her photographic works and installations have been published and exhibited in various group and solo exhibitions. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota Museum of American Art,  and private collections internationally. She is a recipient of multiple grants and fellowships including the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship, and Minnesota State Arts Board grants. Speller was awarded the 2021 Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Minnesota Art Prize.