Mirror Mirror On the Wall: The Speculative Fatimah White at CAA

Artist Fatimah White at the Chicago Hilton during CAA.

It is day 3 here at CAA. After sitting in on tons of presentations with thoughtful Q&A sessions, I found a moment for another kind of looking. Sitting on the second floor near the Grand Ballroom of the Chicago Hilton (I’ve found this to be my most productive spot for writing and thought gathering) peering through the bannister… people watching essentially, a young woman ascends the staircase in a dress that a bit out of place for the lobby. She stops and poses for the camera/cameraman accompanying her. I watched people watching her, taking photos themselves, and the cameraman (which I learned to be her partner) taking photos of them. This was an interesting shift of gears from sessions.

I watched for several minutes before leaning over the bannister to greet her hello. When I was made aware this was a performance, I decided to pull her aside for a quick interview

La Keisha Leek: Tell me your name and a little bit about your practice.

Fatima White: My name is Fatima White and I’m from New York. My practice right now is about beauty. I’m working on a project called Beauty and Reflections. It’s about the reflection you see in the mirror, and reflecting that on the outside. It’s one part visual and one part performance. I create pieces to wear as well as wear vintage recyclable dresses out in public and pretty much reflecting me. I am a huge fashionista and I love costumes and theatrics.

Fatimah White presents Hidden Beauty at the 2013 NYC winter residency. Photo credit: Transart

LL: What is your background?

FW: My background is in painting. I have a bachelors in fine arts and arts education with a focus on painting and anthropology. My work is mixed media, with fabric, cloth and all type of material. But I also like fashion. In undergrad I did a fashion show and painting show every year. So when I get to my MFA I realized my project would be about fashion. Now I’m at this MFA program called Transart Institute. They actually had a couple of sessions here. It’s a Low-Residency MFA program based out of the UK, but we have classes and residencies in Berlin and Brooklyn every year. I’ll be in Berlin this summer. This will be my second year in the program and then I’ll have one more year in the MFA program Creative Practice.

LL: What brought you to CAA, was it specifically for this performance to prepare for the Berlin residency?

FW: It was to prepare for the residency, but I’m also an educator, and I work at the African American Museum in Long Island. So I wanted to come here for museum studies as well as other things that related to my practice. There are different sessions on fashion and public art that I want to see.

I also wanted to learn a lot more and meet new people and network. And I drew attention with my dress; otherwise I wouldn’t have met you! Everybody here’s an artist or loves art in some way. I decided to wear art on the outside today.

LL: In what ways does CAA’s annual conference beneficial for emerging art historians, curators and artists?

FW: I think it’s important to meet other people in the field because that’s the only way you learn. In my career in museum education, meeting new people in the arts, learning from other artist, art historians and professors, was how I was able to do learn how to do what I do within museums. I did an internship at the Brooklyn Museum working part-time with their Hands-On Art Saturday. I learned a lot from the Brooklyn Museum and it was only a fall internship, but I kind of wanted to have more of that, so that’s why I came here. I want to always stay immersed in the arts, especially on the collegiate level.

LL: What exhibitions or programs going on during CAA are you looking forward to attending while in Chicago?

FW: Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair at the Chicago History Museum

Mirror Mirror On the Wall: The Speculative Fatimah White at CAA

It is day 3 here at CAA. After sitting in on tons of presentations with thoughtful Q&A sessions, I found a moment for another kind of looking. Sitting on the …

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

In the West Loop: Nick Albertson at Aspect Ratio Projects

On view at tonight’s West Loop Gallery Art Walk is an artist named Nick Albertson.
This is Albertson’s first solo exhibition, taking place at Aspect Ratio Projects.

Nick Albertson on the opening night of Single Use.

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In the West Loop: Nick Albertson at Aspect Ratio Projects

On view at tonight’s West Loop Gallery Art Walk is an artist named Nick Albertson. This is Albertson’s first solo exhibition, taking place at Aspect Ratio Projects.

Arts Management/ Art History Matt Robinson, matthew.robinson1@loop.colum.edu

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

OPEN ACCESS OR BUST: A LIGHTNING POST

For Day 2 of my CAA experience, I’m working at the Columbia College Graduate Admissions booth at the book fair. I’m stoked and totally prepared for questions like, “Are the kids in grad school cool?” “Do you learn a lot?” “Does grad school prepare you for the real world?” “Will you be rich, famous, or both after you finish?” But for the first hour, only two folks come by. “Can I have this pen?” a woman asks. The second is a tweed-vested middle-age dude with a goatee who walks up and is all, “let me fire this one at you.” (Okay.) “Is Columbia College Chicago related to Columbia University?” I look at him for a second. “I know two guys named Mike,” I tell him. “Do you think they’re related?” Well, I wish I’d actually thought of that, but I haven’t had my third cup of coffee yet. And also I have to say, they are pretty cool pens.

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OPEN ACCESS OR BUST: A LIGHTNING POST

For Day 2 of my CAA experience, I’m working at the Columbia College Graduate Admissions booth at the book fair. I’m stoked and totally prepared for questions like, “Are …

Daniel Scott Parker MFA Poetry Daniel Scott Parker, http://danielsparker.tumblr.com danielsparker@gmail.com

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

The future is so bright, we gotta design better shades for everyone

What is the role of artists, creative thinkers and innovators in navigating the rapidly approaching and sometimes dismal looking future? I chatted with Mat Rappaport who is co-chairing the panel “Designing a Better Future: A Participatory Platform for Exchange.”

Co-chair Mat Rappaport. Image Courtesy of Columbia College Chicago.

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The future is so bright, we gotta design better shades for everyone

Interdisciplinary Arts and Media First Year MFA Julynn Wilderson, http://julynnwilderson.virb.com wilderpedia@gmail.com

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Diana Nawi: On Regionalism in Art

Image Credit: Art21

Moving to Chicago from Tampa, FL in 2010 had a lot to do with my arts education and everything to do with place- looking forward to present day, this idea of place has been a valuable part of my arts education. The architectural landscape and feel of Chicago was significant in many ways. It was charming. It was steep in a particular type of cultural integrity and commitment to that. It had something to say in a language descriptive of ambitious and hustler.

What I didn’t imagine even more specific to all of these things would be becoming a part of an artistic community who’s way of thinking and modes of artistic production would translate outside of this place as a Chicago way of making a way.

I spoke with Diana Nawi on regionalism in art- after her presentation at CAA earlier this week- which for her also began as a way of thinking about contemporary art, place and site while living here in Chicago.

La Keisha Leek: Who is Diana Nawi?

Diana Nawi: I am many things, but most officially, I am an Associate Curator at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.

Perez Art Museum. Image Courtesy of Diana Nawi

LL: Tell me about your curatorial practice.

DN: My curatorial practice is varied and responds to my institution and my context. I gravitate towards work that has a strong engagement with history and socio-politcal issues, opening up a space to re-envision what’s possible in the world, but I also find a lot of interest in the intimacies of language and the handmade. Right now I am really enjoying working with mid-career artists on producing ambitious new works–it’s great to be able to allow an artist the space and resources to expand and challenge their practice, or bring something long-term to fruition.

Perez Art Museum interior. Image Credit: Designboom

LL: What brings you to CAA?

DN: I presented a paper, “Strategic Regionalism: A Proposal,” in a session on Wednesday morning, “Regionalism in Art: New Perceptions of Here” organized by Claire E. Schneider and Xandra Eden.

LL: When did Regionalism enter the discourse for you and how has that continued to inform the ways in which you approach exhibition making and thinking about contemporary art?

DN: Regionalism is something I started thinking about here in Chicago when I was working at the MCA, looking at the movements and moments that were really tied to this place. But I especially became interested in regionalism while working on the Guggenheim’s Abu Dhabi Project, where fundamental questions of what constitutes the global/local/regional fields were being addressed and assessed through curatorial work and the idea of “the region” was being continually thought through.

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Image Credit: The Guardian

More recently, my time in Miami has lead me to think that a notion of regionalism, not strictly as a geography, but as a lens of interests and affinities, could be very useful in developing a broad intellectual and curatorial platform.

LL: As a curator and writer whose work extends far beyond an institution, how important do feel the role of arts education to be?

DN: Arts education is so vital to the individual and to culture and society as a whole. It’s invaluable; it helps make us creative, thoughtful, engaged citizens.

LL: In what ways does CAA’s annual conference assist in this effort for emerging art historians, curators and artists?

DN: The conference is a great moment to come together as different practitioners and exchange ideas and scholarship. I really value the opportunity to see what my peers and colleagues all over the country are working on and what conversations are happening elsewhere.

LL: What exhibitions or programs going on during CAA are you looking forward to attending while in Chicago?

DN: I’m excited to see exhibitions at the MCA, the Art Institute, and the Renaissance Society. And, there are a lot of great sessions happening here at CAA which I look forward to checking out.

Diana Nawi: On Regionalism in Art

Moving to Chicago from Tampa, FL in 2010 had a lot to do with my arts education and everything to do with place- looking forward to present day, this idea …

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Forget Chocolates and Roses, I Want Artist Books

I spent hours inside the CAA Book and Trade Fair which hosts more than 120 publishers, art materials manufacturers, and services in the arts. I explored their wares and projects. I perused through brilliantly orchestrated artist books. An illuminating and transformative experience, collecting artist books create an intimate opportunity to connect with cherished artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers. It is in itself a gift to all who discover the classic wisdom found in its pages. Since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I decided to give a very special person in my life the following treasures.

Betye Saar, born in Los Angeles in 1926, emerged in the 1960s as a powerful figure in the redefinition of African American art. Over the past forty years, she has injected African American visual histories into mainstream visual culture by blending spiritual, political, and cultural iconography to create complex works with universal impact. This beautifully illustrated book accompanies an exhibition of Saar’s work, showcasing the extraordinary depth and breadth of her achievement. It provides multiple vantage points from which to gain a richer understanding of Saar’s career, American art of the 1960s, feminism, contemporary art, and California culture and politics.

Description Featuring over 200 color illustrations, the catalogue Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist accompanies the first full-scale survey of the work of Archibald Motley, on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University from January 30, 2014, through May 11, 2014. Archibald John Motley, Jr. was an American painter, master colorist, and radical interpreter of urban culture. Among twentieth-century American artists, Motley is surely one of the most important and, paradoxically, also one of the most enigmatic. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1891, Motley spent the first half of the twentieth century living and working in a predominately white neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, just blocks away from the city’s burgeoning black community. During his formative years, Chicago’s African American population increased dramatically, and he was both a witness to and a visual chronicler of that expansion. In 1929 he won a Guggenheim Fellowship, which funded a critical year of study in France, where he painted Blues and other memorable pictures of Paris. In the 1950s, Motley made several lengthy visits to Mexico, where his nephew, the well-known novelist Willard F. Motley, lived. While there, Motley created vivid depictions of Mexican life and landscapes. He died in Chicago in 1981. Motley’s brilliant yet idiosyncratic paintings – simultaneously expressionist and social realist – have captured worldwide attention with their rainbow-hued, syncopated compositions. The exhibition includes the artist’s depictions of African American life in early-twentieth-century Chicago, as well as his portraits and archetypes, portrayals of African American life in Jazz Age Paris, and renderings of 1950s Mexico. The catalogue includes an essay by Richard J. Powell, organizer and curator of Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, as well as contributions from other scholars examining the life, work, and legacy of one of twentieth-century America's most significant artists. Contributors. Davarian L. Baldwin, David C. Driskell, Oliver Meslay, Amy M. Mooney, Richard J. Powell, Ishmael Reed. Publication of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University About The Author(s) Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University. He teaches courses in American art, the arts of the African Diaspora, and contemporary visual studies, and writes extensively on topics ranging from primitivism to postmodernism. His books include African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and Beyond (with Virginia Mecklenburg), Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, and Black Art: A Cultural History. He was Editor-in-Chief of The Art Bulletin from 2007 until 2010.

Featuring over 200 color illustrations, the catalogue Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist accompanies the first full-scale survey of the work of Archibald Motley, on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University from January 30, 2014, through May 11, 2014. Archibald John Motley, Jr. was an American painter, master colorist, and radical interpreter of urban culture. Among twentieth-century American artists, Motley is surely one of the most important and, paradoxically, also one of the most enigmatic.

inda Haverty Rugg explores how nondocumentary narrative art films create alternative forms of collaborative self-representation and selfhood. Lively and accessible, Self-Projection sheds new light on the films of iconic directors and on art cinema in general, ultimately showing how film can transform not only the autobiographical act, but what it means to have a self.

Linda Haverty Rugg explores how nondocumentary narrative art films create alternative forms of collaborative self-representation and selfhood. Lively and accessible, Self-Projection sheds new light on the films of iconic directors and on art cinema in general, ultimately showing how film can transform not only the autobiographical act, but what it means to have a self.

I know that I will love them!

Forget Chocolates and Roses, I Want Artist Books

I spent hours inside the CAA Book and Trade Fair which hosts more than 120 publishers, art materials manufacturers, and services in the arts. I explored their wares and projects. I …

InterArts Janelle Dowell, janelle.dowell@loop.colum.edu

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Kirsten Leenaars: Aesthetics and Social Practice

I had the pleasure of conversing with artist Kirsten Leenaars. We talked social practice, aesthetic, people, the post office, and what’s next for Leenars. As one of the artists involved in the exhibition RISK: Empathy, Art, and Social Practice – which is open Feb 10th – April, 26th, at Glass Curtain Gallery – I thought it appropriate to get her take on the complicated practice of a socially engaged artist. Leenaars will exhibit in the RISK, the exhibition featuring contemporary artists whose work “invites the outside in,” blurring “the lines between public and private space.” Click Read more for the full interview.

Kirsteen Leenars (left) and Lise Baggesen in Boulevard Dreamers

Kirsten Leenaars (left) and Lise Baggesen in Boulevard Dreamers

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Kirsten Leenaars: Aesthetics and Social Practice

I had the pleasure of conversing with artist Kirsten Leenaars. We talked social practice, aesthetic, people, the post office, and what’s next for Leenars. As one of the artists involved in the …

Arts Management/ Art History Matt Robinson, matthew.robinson1@loop.colum.edu

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Day One: Punk, Abstraction, Cake.

Day One, A quick recap:

Taking mad amounts of notes at each session…

What a full day! For energy between sessions I opted for a $3.00 bag of pretzels (!) from the Hilton gift shop, made many trips to the third floor bathrooms for those complimentary hand-exfoliants, and took a brisk walk through Grant Park (cold).

The Hilton is packed full of us art types, as we carry our black tote bags between sessions, and scan the names on badges for friends and colleagues. It helped enormously to have game-planned in advance. Knowing a bit about the panelists, their papers, and artwork allowed me to bounce around more easily between sessions and even ask a few questions.

The sessions I spent the most time at: Visual Culture Caucus: On the Industrial Sublime and Articulating Abstraction. I also caught bits of Towards A Loser’s Art History: Artistic Failure in the Long Nineteenth Century and accidentally missed (dang!) On Sampled Time: Artist’s Videos and Popular Culture. I witnessed a fiery audience-to-panel argument at Sensitive Instruments (A Painting Discussion) and moved on to cocktails with my fellow bloggers and our Columbia College sponsors Amy Mooney and Duncan Mackenzie. At the end of all that I ate a giant slice of my birthday cake and fell fast asleep…

Here’s (just a few) things from Day One:

@ Visual Culture Caucus: On The Industrial Sublime

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Day One: Punk, Abstraction, Cake.

Day One, A quick recap: What a full day! For energy between sessions I opted for a $3.00 bag of pretzels (!) …

BA Art History '13 Meg Santisi, http://megsantisi.virb.com megsantisi@gmail.com

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Artists’ Videos & Popular Culture, Popular Videos & Culture’s Artists

Today I attended the panel On Sampled Time: Artists’ Videos and Popular Culture, chaired by Margot M. K. Bouman and featuring papers by Sarah Smith, Isabella L. Wallace, Solveig Nelson, and Godfre Leung. Unfortunately due to illness and weather-related travel woes, the first two papers (Smith and Wallace’s) were presented in absentia and read by the panel chair. But while this meant a less lively Q&A discussion, all the talks were really quite interesting. There was some thorough analysis of a range or artistic works engaging with (sampling, appropriation, critique of) popular culture–especially popular cinema– in the context of video and projection-based art.

What I thought I’d do for this blog post is give an overview of what works were primarily discussed, and then contribute a few recent examples of something I think is equally important: this process operating in the reverse direction, i.e. pop culture’s engagement with and sampling of the “art world”.

Lady Gaga being photographed by Jeff Koons. (I’ve tried to find a source to credit on this photo to no avail, sorry.)

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Artists’ Videos & Popular Culture, Popular Videos & Culture’s Artists

Today I attended the panel On Sampled Time: Artists’ Videos and Popular Culture, chaired by Margot M. K. Bouman and featuring papers by Sarah Smith, Isabella L. Wallace, Solveig Nelson, and …

MFA Candidate, Interdisciplinary Arts & Media Sid Branca, http://sidbranca.com sid@sidbranca.com

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Jessica Cochran: On Curating, Feminism and Supporting Chicago-based Artists

I first met Jessica Cochran when I organizing a conversation series this past summer with Rebuild Foundation on non-traditional archives. Although she has been in my own backyard working at Columbia College Chicago, our paths had never crossed before then. It was through what always seems to be a circular grapevine of mentors and friends here in Chicago- Amy Mooney and Tempestt Hazel– I was introduced to her practice.

Jessica’s exhibition Social Paper, co-curated with Melissa Potter opens this evening along with tons of other exhibitions at Columbia. Jessica will be presenting during Friday’s panel From Paper to Practice: Tactics and Publics in Socially Engaged Art and is the organizer of a panel within The Feminist Art Project’s day long presentations on Saturday titled Motherhood and the Exhibitionary Platform: Considering the Implications of Maternity through the Curatorial Lens.

La Keisha Leek: Who is Jessica Cochran?

Jessica Cochran: I am a curator and arts administrator, and I am currently the curator and acting Assistant Director at the Center for Book and Paper Arts. Besides that I teach courses in contemporary art and arts administration at local colleges, and do various freelance projects that range from writing catalog essays to art collection management.

LL: Tell me about your curatorial practice?

JC: Through my curatorial work at CBPA I have developed an interest in interdisciplinary artist publications, paper and craft, and the role of text and activity of reading in relation to contemporary art. In my broader curatorial practice, I am really interest in generative projects—those that facilitate the production of new work—and creating opportunities to show Chicago-based artists in relation to artists from elsewhere. That doesn’t happen enough in this city, and its important that curators are constantly creating new contexts for artists.

Jessica Cochran presenting artist books from the Center for Book and Paper Arts and Dorchester Projects. Summer 2013.

LL: When did feminism enter the discourse for you and how has that continued to inform the ways in which you approach exhibition making and thinking about contemporary art?

JC: For me feminism runs pretty deep. I didn’t really grow up in a place where concepts of feminism were articulated with sophisticated language, however the importance of gender equity was constantly reinforced by my mother and father. As a child, I knew there was nothing I couldn’t do! Through college and into my career I have really developed in terms of my own approach to feminism—and I am both energized by the opportunities that exist for women today, but also a bit disappointed with the way that women are still fighting for equity in so many ways, while constantly dealing with a lot of problematic essentializing and stereotyping from the media and institutions. Today I am so fortunate to work with a group of individuals—women and men—who are committed to serious conversations about feminism in the workplace and in the arts in general—you wouldn’t believe the conversations I get to have on a daily basis with artists Miriam Schaer, Melissa Potter and April Sheridan.

Feminism enters my curatorial practice in several ways. First, I try my best to make sure that my exhibitions are diverse and expansive, and that whatever the topic they represent myriad ways of looking at and being in the world. The gallery is a place to be unmoored from your own subjectivity—gently and sometimes not so gently. Truly, I find myself working with so many women in exhibitions, Chicago has some of the smartest most interesting women creating just totally remarkable work.

LL: Having a curatorial practice that began outside of and continues to extends beyond your role at Columbia why do you feel it was important to work within arts education?

JS: I cannot even begin to articulate how incredible it is working in an academic gallery. The Center for Book and Paper Arts is embedded in an interdisciplinary arts department—meaning I get to work with and create programming for students and faculty interested in artists’ books, paper, media, performance, etc—and it is totally fantastic. The number one best part of my job is the relationships I build with students as they work by my side in the gallery and center. Through course opportunities in the gallery, student employment and their thesis exhibitions, I get to help students learn about the “white cube” from the point of view of an exhibition-maker and as an artist. From designing exhibitions to writing wall text to marketing, our students are part of it all. And of course, I learn as much from them as they do from me!

LL: What exhibition or program going on during CAA would you recommend to conference attendees?

JS: I have to promote Social Paper, an exhibition I co-curated with Melissa Potter. We look at hand papermaking in relation to socially engaged art. We have worked so hard on this how and want everyone to see it!

Jessica Cochran: On Curating, Feminism and Supporting Chicago-based Artists

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu

600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Columbia
at CAA

Blog Topics: Conference

In the West Loop: Nick Albertson at Aspect Ratio Projects

OPEN ACCESS OR BUST: A LIGHTNING POST

Diana Nawi: On Regionalism in Art

Forget Chocolates and Roses, I Want Artist Books

Day One: Punk, Abstraction, Cake.

Artists’ Videos & Popular Culture, Popular Videos & Culture’s Artists

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