THE PALO ALTO ART CENTER & DJERASSI RESIDENT ARTISTS PROGRAM PRESENT...
"WHERE ART ORIGINATES: ARTISTS & THE CREATIVE PROCESS"
- Lecture Series to Feature Artist Performances and Insights to Their Work -
Series runs April 9 to November 5, 2009
At the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium
Palo Alto Art Center
1313 Newell Rd. Palo Alto
CA 94303
Directions
Free Admission
Reservations required
Please call 650.329.2366 to make your reservations
The public is invited to explore the creative process and personal approach to artistic growth in a series of seven exciting lecture evenings featuring nine 2009 Djerassi Program resident artists. Held at the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium, the lecture series starts on Thursday, April 9, 2009 and will conclude on Thursday, November, 2009. Participating artists represent a wide range of artistic expression and will perform and speak about their work. Each program will conclude with a Q & A session with the featured artist(s).
The Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Palo Alto Art Center share the goals of encouraging creativity and supporting artistic expression. By introducing a diversity of Djerassi artists to the community, this partnership provides a unique opportunity to engage with and learn about the creative process.
The Djerassi Resident Artists Program, regarded as one of the eminent artist residency communities in the United States, has served more than 1,800 artists from all over the world during its 30-year history. The Program’s Mission is to support and enhance the creativity of artists by providing uninterrupted time for work, reflection, and collegial interaction in a setting of great natural beauty, and to preserve the land on which the Program is situated.
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 7pm
Poetry and Motion
NYC/Madrid-based media artist Eva Davidova, explores issues of perception, emotional tension, and uncertainty within determinate spaces in her video works. Educated at Kliment Ohridsky University, Sofia, Bulgaria and Complutence University, Madrid, her work has been exhibited in solo shows in NYC; Bulgaria and Spain. The recipient of many international awards, her upcoming shows include the Moscow Biennale and the Bronx Museum’s “Living and Dreaming” exhibition.
Poet Robert S. Pesich’s first collection of poems, Burned Kilim, was published in 2001 (Dragonfly Press); his work has also appeared in The Bitter Oleander, Convergence, The 2River View, The Montserrat Review, The Creatures, and Mediphors. Based in Silicon Valley, he received his BS from UC, Davis and is the recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the Arts Council of Silicon Valley.
THURSDAY, MAY 7, 7pm
Two Literary Voices
Hillary Jordan received the 2006 Bellwether Prize for Fiction for her novel Mudbound (Algonquin Books, 2008). The biannual award recognizes a first literary novel that addresses issues of social justice. Jordan, a resident of New York state, earned her BA from Wellesley College and her MFA from Columbia University. Her short stories have appeared in the Chautauqua Literary Journal, Story Quarterly, Carolina Quarterly, Phoebe, and New Texas. She is currently working on her second novel, Red.
Writer Patricia Powell addresses issues of ethnicity, gender and gay rights in her work. Her publications include The Fullness of Everything (Peepal Tree Press, forthcoming), The Pagoda (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), and A Small Gathering of Bones (Heineman, London, 1994; Beacon Press, Boston, 2003). Powell, who received her BA from Wellesley College and her MFA from Brown University, was a Stanford Visiting Writer 2008-2009, and has held similar positions at Harvard, MIT and Pomona College.
THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 7pm
Creating a Scene
Italian installation artist Claudia Borgna explores landscape and the environmental impact and alteration of nature by discarded materials in her work. She received her BA in Foreign Language from Genoa University, Italy and her BA in Fine Art from John Cass Art, Media & Design, London Metropolitan University. Currently living in London, she has exhibited her work widely in the UK, as well as in Italy, Germany, and Lithuania. She won a 2005 Rowley Prize Award at the London Metropolitan Degree Show and a 2003 Tower Hill of London Hoarding Project Award.
Filipino playwright and author Randy Gener, is senior editor of American Theatre, the pre-eminent monthly. His recent published work includes Our Own Voice (Library of Congress and Our Own Voice, forthcoming) and the Cambridge Guide to the American Theater (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). His plays include What Remains of a Rembrandt Torn into Four Pieces staged at Dixon Place, NYC and Mametogram staged at Goodman Theatre, Chicago. Gener has lectured and published extensively on the theatre and theatre criticism.
THURSDAY, JULY 16, 7pm
Words and Pictures
Los Angeles based digital media artist Glynnis Reed investigates the urban landscape and the interplay of nature and the built environment as reflective of the dynamics of personal relationships within LA’s black community. She received her BA from Occidental College and her MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA; and Black Maria Gallery, LA, CA. She was recently commissioned by the LA County Department of Public Health to create a billboard addressing HV and AIDS.
Visual artist Loren Schwerd, based in Baton Rouge, LA, is currently working on a large body of work memorializing the losses caused by Hurricane Katrina; she utilizes human hair that is woven onto metal armatures replicating the exact houses that were damaged by the floods. Her work has been exhibited in a solo show at Louisiana Tech University; and in numerous group shows including Southeastern Contemporary Art Center, Winston-Salem, NC and Sarai Media Lab, India. Schwerd received her BA from Tulane University and her MFA from Syracuse University.
Poet Michael David White, Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, is currently working on a series of poems based on the paintings of Vermeer.His publications include The Island (Cooper Canyon Press, 1993), Palma Cathedral (Fort Collins: University Press of Colorado, 1999), Re-entry (University of North Texas Press, 2006), and This Water (Eugene: Silverfish Review Press, 1989). White, who earned his BA from the University of Missouri and his PhD from the University of Utah, is the recipient of the 2005 Vassar Miller Prize.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 7pm
Two as One: Photographic Collaboration
Photographers Maurits Giesen, Den Haag, The Netherlands, and Ilse Leenders, Paris, France have collaborated on their carefully staged photographic projects since 2001. Their new work will involve portraying the greatness of the untouched California landscape with their posed images interjected in unusual ways.
Maurits Giesen was educated at the Royal Academy for the Arts, The Hague, The Netherlands. His work has been exhibited in solo shows at Museum Residenzschloss, Darmstadt, Germany; and Kleurgamma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and in group shows at WI39/Basement and ArtOlive vs Westergasfabriek, both in Amsterdam. He received Silver and a Members Choice Awards at the 2006 Photographers Association of The Netherlands Awards competition.
Ilse Leenders was educated at the Royal Academy for the Arts, The Hague, The Netherlands. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows at Museum Residenzschloss, Darmstadt, Germany; and Kleurgamma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and in group shows at WI39/Basement and ArtOlive vs Westergasfabriek, both in Amsterdam. She received Silver and Members Choice Awards at the 2006 Photographers Association of The Netherlands Awards competition.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 7pm
Sound, Video & Spoken Word
Media artists Tamara Albaitis and Alan Duke are collaborating on a sound/sculpture installation exploring the interaction between nature and technology in relation to the human body.
Tamara Albaitis, based in San Francisco, has exhibited in solo shows at BoCA Gallery, affiliated with Blasthaus Gallery and Intersection for the Arts, both in San Francisco, CA; and in group shows in Berlin, Chicago and at the 9th International Istanbul Biennial. She received her BA from The San Francisco Art Institute and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Alan Duke, based in Santa Monica, has exhibited at 3rd Ward Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Richmond Art Center, CA; The Lowell Collins Gallery, Houston, TX; and The LAB, San Francisco. Duke received is BA from Tufts University and his BFA from the Museum School at Tufts. In 2001 he received the Peter J. Wade Award for Excellence from Tufts University.
Norwegian poet Torild Wardenaer’s publications include psi (H. Aschehoug & Co. 2007), The Paradise Effect (H. Aschehoug & Co. 2004), The Titan Gate (H. Aschehoug & Co. 2001), The Drift of Days and Nights (H. Aschehoug & Co. 1998), In Memory of Houdini (H. Aschehoug & Co. 1997), and Zero point two luz (H. Aschehoug & Co. 2005). Wardenaer, who earned her BA from Stavanger College of Education and her MA from the University of Bergen, Norway, was nominated for the 2007 Brage Prize National Norwegian Literary Award.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 7pm
Seen and Heard
Brooklyn-based filmmaker Cristina Ibarra is at work on a new screenplay, Love & Monster Trucks, for which she received a Rockefeller Media Fellowship and support from Creative Capital. Her films include The Last Conquistador, a PBS P.O.V. documentary (2008); Blood Quantum, a short web film on the PBS series, Natives, produced by American Experience; Home, a video documentary commissioned by the Heard Museum of Native American Culture in Phoenix, Arizona; and Wheels of Change, a trailer for the NY International Latino Film Festival. A graduate of the University of Texas, she received a 2004 Best Short Fiction Award at CineFestival.
Composer Frances White, based in Princeton, NJ, is currently at work on a new composition for viols that reflects her ongoing interest in the application of classical and ancient compositional techniques to the creation of music for instruments with electronic sound. White’s selected recordings include Centre Bridge, Mode Records; The Old Rose Reader, Bridge Records; and Birdwing, One World Records. White, who holds MA degrees from Brooklyn College and Princeton University, received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2004-2005 and a 2007 Grant from The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.
Please note that programs are subject to change. 