Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes at the de Young Museum, San Francisco

Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes
at the de Young Museum

October 25, 2008–January 18, 2009

Maya Lin, 2 X 4 Landscape, 2006. Wood. 36’ x 53’ x 10’
Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery.
Photo by Colleen Chartier

Presented by PG&E

San Francisco, August 2008—Recent sculptures, drawings, and installations by the celebrated artist Maya Lin are on view at the de Young Museum October 25, 2008, to January 18, 2009. Lin (b. 1959) came to prominence in 1981 with her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and has since achieved a high degree of recognition for a body of work that includes monuments, buildings, earthworks, sculpture, and installations. Systematic Landscapes is Lin’s second nationally-traveling exhibition in ten years, with venues in Seattle, St. Louis, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. “This exhibition continues my interest in exploring notions of landscape and geologic phenomena,” says Lin. “The works created, both small- and large-scale installations, reveal new and at times unexpected views of the natural world: from the topology of the ocean floor to the stratified layers of a mountain to a form that sits between water and earth.”

Lin’s extraordinary ability to convey complex and poetic ideas using simple forms and natural materials is fully evident in Systematic Landscapes. Working in a scale that relates to the land, and combining a deep interest in forces and forms of nature with a long-term investigation into the possibilities of sculptural form to embody meaning, this exhibition offers a rich, immersive experience for visitors that brings the sensory understanding of Lin’s outdoor works inside.

Lin has created a trio of large-scale sculptural installations for the exhibition that present different ways to encounter and comprehend the landscape. 2x4 Landscape (2006), a vast hill built of 65,000 boards set on end, presents a land surface rising from the gallery floor. Water Line (2006), a wire-frame three-dimensional drawing in space based on an undersea formation, is installed overhead and dips into the visitor’s sightline. Blue Lake Pass (2006) is a topographic translation of a Colorado mountain range made of layers of stacked particleboard that have been segmented and pulled apart to create landscape strata through which the visitor can see.

Maya Lin, Water Line, 2006, Aluminum tubing and paint.
19' x 34' 8" x 29' 2" Photo by Colleen Chartier

Systematic Landscapes also includes a series of sculptures based on the water volumes of various inland seas; plaster reliefs of imagined landscapes that are embedded directly into gallery walls; large drawings of landforms and river sheds; and altered atlases that present alternative topographies.

Concurrent with Systematic Landscapes is the debut of Maya Lin’s public art installation Where the Land Meets the Sea, a tubular wire sculpture commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for the California Academy of Sciences, also in Golden Gate Park. The installation is the first permanent work by Lin in San Francisco. The de Young exhibition will feature small-scale models, maquettes, and renderings of the piece, engaging audiences in Lin’s creative thinking process and studio practice.

Organization
Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes, presented by PG&E, is organized for the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington and curated by its director, Richard Andrews. Major support for this exhibition has been provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Peter Norton Family Foundation.

The San Francisco presentation is made possible by the Ednah Root Foundation and bequests from the Evelyn A. Westberg Trust and Margrit Landesmann. Karin Breuer, the curator in charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, is the installation curator at the de Young Museum.

de Young Visitor Information
The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.

Address:
Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118

Hours:
Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 9:30 am–5:15 pm;
Friday 9:30 am–8:45 pm
Closed on Monday

Admission:
$20 adults
$17 seniors
$16 youths 13–17 and students with a college I.D.
Members and children 12 and under are free
Above prices include the $10 special exhibition surcharge
The first Tuesday of every month is free ($10 special exhibition surcharge still applies)
$10 admission to see the permanent collection only

Information:
www.deyoungmuseum.org
415.750.3600

Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970 at the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco

Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970
at the de Young Museum, San Francisco
October 25, 2008 — January 18, 2009

Image: Chiura Obata (1885–1975) Setting Sun: Sacramento Valley, ca. 1925.
Hanging scroll: mineral pigments (distemper) and gold on silk,
107 1/2 x 69 in. Courtesy of Gyo Obata

Download the brochure

San Francisco, June 2008—Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970, on view October 25, 2008, to January 18, 2009, at the de Young Museum is the first comprehensive survey of Asian American modernism. This exhibition of works by artists of Asian ancestry who lived and worked in the United States seeks to showcase some of the most important individuals contributing to the canon of Asian American art and advance awareness of this under-represented group in American art history. Their art reflects the currents of identity and style that shift between aesthetics of diverse international geographies. Exhibition curator Mark Johnson says, "This body of work is rich in variety and demonstrates the wealth of Asian American art using masterpieces spanning 70 years as examples."

Nearly 100 works by over 70 artists of Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean ancestry, many of whom had their work exhibited at the de Young Museum or Legion of Honor in earlier decades, are included. Asian/American/Modern explores the wide range of influences across cultural boundaries on artists such as Ruth Asawa, Chang Dai-chien, Yun Gee, Dong Kingman, Isamu Noguchi, Chiura Obata, Yoko Ono, Alfonso Ossorio, Nam June Paik, and Tseng Yuho. Included in the exhibition:

Carlos Villa (b. 1936, San Francisco, CA–lives in San Francisco, CA)
Painted Cloak, 1970–71. Painted canvas with taffeta lining and feathers,
60 x 30 x 30 in. Carlos Pedro Villa

• Toshio Aoki’s Untitled (Thunder Kami), ca. 1900––the earliest piece in the exhibition is a work on paper featuring a sacred Shinto spirit; the piece demonstrates the passion for Japanese art and design in America at the turn of the twentieth century.
• Nam June Paik’s TV Clock, 1963––one of Paik’s groundbreaking works, it is among the earliest works of conceptual art to incorporate televisions as sculpture, and explore the relationship of video and time.
• Tseng Yuho’s mural Western Frontier, 1964––likely the largest public artwork ever created by a female Chinese artist before 1970; commissioned by Golden West Financial, now Wachovia Bank, featuring paper collage on a mural scale.
• Carlos Villa’s Painted Cloak, 1970–71––the most recent work in the exhibition is a painted canvas with taffeta lining and feathers; this mixed media object points to the artist’s search for a cultural identity as a Filipino American.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco has played an unparalleled role in the development of Asian American artists’ careers and art history. Beginning in the 1920s and continuing in every subsequent decade, the de Young has hosted many exhibitions of artists of Asian ancestry. Tseng Yuho had solo exhibitions in 1947 and 1952, and in 1960 there were solo exhibitions for Ruth Asawa and Gary Woo. Chee Chin S. Cheung Lee’s 1933 painting Mountain Fantasy, featured in the 1935 group exhibition of the Chinese Art Association at the de Young, makes a repeat appearance in Asian/American/Modern. John Buchanan, director of FAMSF says, "Our roster of Asian American exhibitions is arguably the most significant of any major American museum. Our commitment is not only critical to the institution’s self conception, but also relevant to the understanding of what constitutes a more holistic vision of American culture."

Yun Gee (b. 1906, Kaiping, Guangdong, China–d. 1963, New York, NY)
Where is My Mother; 1926–1927. Oil on canvas. 20 1/8 x 16 in.
Credit line: Estate of Yun Gee, Courtesy of Li-Ian

A full-color catalog co-published with the University of California Press accompanies this exhibition. In addition, the Fine Arts Museums invited prominent members of the local Asian American art community to collaborate on related programming as well as strengthen awareness of the rich offerings by institutions that regularly present exhibitions of Asian American art in the Bay Area. The result of this cultural partnership is a community-wide program calendar for fall/winter 2008, produced by FAMSF.

Organization
This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Asian American Art Project at Stanford University in collaboration with San Francisco State University. Exhibition co-curators are Daniell Cornell, former curator of American art at FAMSF and current deputy director of the Palm Springs Museum of Art, and Mark Johnson, professor of art at San Francisco State University. Asian/American/Modern Art will travel to The Noguchi Museum and be on view
February 18 to August 23, 2009.

de Young Visitor Information
The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles, and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.

Address:
Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118

Hours:
Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: 9:30 am–5:15 pm
Friday: 9:30 am–8:45 pm
Closed on Monday

Admission:
$20 adults
$17 seniors
$16 youths 13–17 and students with a college I.D.
Members and children 12 and under are free
($10 special exhibition surcharge is included)
The first Tuesday of every month is free ($10 special exhibition surcharge still applies)

Information:
www.deyoungmuseum.org
415.750.3600

Asian Roots/American Reality: Photographs by Corky Lee at The Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles

Asian Roots/American Reality: Photographs by Corky Lee
at The Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles
Nov. 16, 2008 - May 31, 2009

Photo: © Corky Lee, 1975

(LOS ANGELES, OCT. 21, 2008) For well over 35 years, New York-based photojournalist Corky Lee has played both witness and participant in chronicling the evolution and expansion of the Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) community through his photography. Signifying more than just a fleeting moment caught on camera, Lee's trademark images deftly capture the personal stories amidst a public sphere of social and political movements spanning from the 1970s to present day.

The Chinese American Museum (CAM) and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument are proud to present "Asian Roots/American Reality: Photographs by Corky Lee" opening on Nov. 16 to May 31, 2009 and curated by community artist, Steven Wong and photography instructor, Joanne Kim. Occupying two galleries, the exhibit will feature 88 black and white photographs depicting scenes of labor, protest, resistance, celebration and everyday community events that defined the socio-political and cultural landscape of APIA communities over the past three decades. The opening of this exhibit marks the first time Lee's work has been exhibited in Los Angeles and more significantly, in the entire West Coast. The debut of "Asian Roots/American Reality" will be Lee's first major career retrospective and will anchor the celebration of CAM's milestone Fifth Anniversary.

"Corky's passion for providing a voice to the untold stories, experiences and images of the APIA community resonates strongly with CAM's overall mission to perserve and document the Chinese American experience, especially in connection with other ethnic communities. For this we feel that "Asian Roots/American Reality" is a very significant exhibit to mark our own milestone 5th Anniversary," says Pauline Wong, CAM Executive Director.

Lee was a self-taught photographer who began taking photographs in the early 1970s. Fueled by his passion for community activism, Lee used his camera to gain ringside access to both news-making and commonplace situations, often times focusing on the compelling personal stories of invisible and excluded APIA communities. However, more than just visual records of a changing APIA community, Lee's images possess the unique ability to convey commonalities and shared experiences with its viewers. Whether he is photographing Connie Chung, Muhammad Ali, a Korean American hot dog vendor or a Japanese American war veteran, Lee's self-styled photographs have the ability to operate like windows into the Asian and Pacific Islander experience, gaining viewers entry into American realities that remain often unseen.

Lee's groundbreaking photographs have been exhibited on college campuses across the East Coast, including Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Cornell and have been extensively printed in numerous ethnic publications, mainstream media like The New York Times, The New York Post, Time Magazine as well as seminal texts in Asian American Studies. Self-described as the "undisputed, unofficial Asian-American Photographer Laureate," it is no wonder why Lee's work has earned him the respect and reputation of being the most prolific photographer documenting the APIA experience today.

ABOUT THE CHINESE AMERICAN MUSEUM
The Chinese American Museum (CAM) is jointly developed and operated by the Friends of the Chinese American Museum (FCAM) and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, a department of the City of Los Angeles. Located within the El Pueblo Plaza in downtown Los Angeles, CAM is housed in the last surviving structure of the City's original Chinatown. CAM's mission is to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of America's diverse heritage by researching, preserving, and sharing the history, rich cultural legacy, and continuing contributions of Chinese Americans.

VISITOR INFORMATION
The Chinese American Museum is located at 425 North Los Angeles Street in El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, across from Union Station. Hours are 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Tuesday — Sunday. Admissions are suggested donations of $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Members are admitted free. Tel: 213-485-8567.

For more information about the Museum, please visit www.camla.org

ACROSS THE PROVIDENCE at Gallery Satori, NYC

ACROSS THE PROVIDENCE
Continuing Exhibition
at Gallery Satori
164 Stanton Street, NYC
Oct. 30-Nov. 18, 2008

Emily Cheng's large photo-collages and Hosup Hwang's objects will be on view at Gallery Satori through November 18th. The exhibition "Across The Providence" essentially exemplifies immanent doubts pertaining to Christian and Buddhist sacred images. Reifying the shapes of Buddha containing corruptive images, as well as, enlarging photo-collaged post cards derived form Renaissance religious paintings, the two artists provide the opportunity to question religious grounds so as to retool religious belief might be. These works also present the discrepancy between what we see in religious image and what it implies. Curated by Hoon Jung, the show includes around forty works.


Gallery hours:
Wed-Thursday 11 am-6pm
Fri: 11am-8pm
Sat, Sun: 12pm-6pm