Arts & Humanities 2022 Graduate Exhibition features artists of many disciplines
Thursday, June 2 – 19; Opening night and awards ceremony. UC Davis graduate students from a range of arts and humanities disciplines explore new ways of seeing and understanding the past, present and future in this annual exhibition. Back on site after a two years of virtual exhibitions, this multidisciplinary showcase gives students hands-on experience in installing and exhibiting their work in a museum setting.
The opening reception takes place June 2, 6 – 9 p.m at the Manetti Shrem. The opening celebration features performances by master’s and doctoral students, as well as the presentation of the inaugural LeShelle & Gary May Art Purchase Prize, Keister & Allen Art Purchase Prize, and The Savageau Award in the Department of Design.
Organized by the Manetti Shrem Museum in collaboration with Art and Design faculty and the graduate students of the College of Letters and Science.
Read the full story here.
June 3, 3 – 6 p.m.; Annual Art History Graduate Colloquium and Reception
Learn about this year’s UC Davis Art History master’s degree candidates through the presentation of their thesis work. Lectures are followed by the 2022 Art History Undergraduate Awards and a reception.
UC Davis presents new musical 'Death and Harry Houdini'
June 2 and 3, 7 – 8 p.m., Wyatt Pavilion Theatre
Master illusionist and showman Harry Houdini and his obsession with death take center stage in Death and Harry Houdini, a new musical that will be presented as a workshop by the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance in conjunction with Catalyst: A Theatre Think Tank.
The work takes the stage on June 2 and 3 in the Wyatt Pavilion Theatre at 7 p.m. Performances are free and open to all.
Created by Keaton Wooden, Granada Artist-in-Residence, the musical is based on an original play by Nathan Allen. Alumna Lisa Quoresimo (Ph.D, performance studies, ‘18) directs the piece, which features musical staging by graduate student Edward Talton-Jackson and music direction by Graham Sobelman. Staged with minimal production elements, this barebones workshop features seven undergraduate students playing a variety of roles.
The musical centers on young Erik Weisz, who, after witnessing the death of his father, becomes haunted by death and vows to prove himself its greatest opponent in history. Erik transforms his life to become “Harry Houdini” and uses his skills for showmanship, strength and illusion to prove to death, and himself, that he fears nothing.
“It’s a thrill to bring one of America’s greatest figures to the stage, inspired by Nathan Allen’s amazing original vision,” said Wooden. “Get ready for a fantastic, phantasmagorical adventure.”
Quoresimo, assistant professor of theatre and dance at Southern Utah University and co-founder of Catalyst, said she is pleased to return to UC Davis with another musical project.
“What a privilege it is to be back on campus in the Wyatt Theatre, one of my favorite theatre-making spaces, with this extraordinarily talented cast of UC Davis undergrads. And after collaborating on Zoom last year, it’s a pleasure to be back in person with composer Keaton Wooden.” — Quoresimo.
Wooden is a regional Emmy Award-nominated writer, composer, director and social impact producer. As composer, Wooden works with Coyote Joe Stevens as a songwriting duo and composing team for musical theater, film and television. Their musicals The Civility of Albert Cashier, Hills on Fire and Paper or Plastic have been performed across the country.
Launched in 1982, the Granada Artist-in-Residence program brings prominent theater artists — directors, playwrights, choreographers — to UC Davis each academic quarter to teach and create a work for public performance. It is a special opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to work closely with major theater and dance practitioners.
The Department of Theatre and Dance is part of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. For information about other department productions, visit theatredance.ucdavis.edu.
Musics of the World At Pitzer
Thursday, June 2, 5 – 7 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free
Capoeira, Gamelan, Hindustani Vocal, Mariachi, Samba School
Selections to be announced from the stage.
Find a direct like to the livestream here.
Choruses of UC Davis
Friday, June 3, 2022 - 7 – 9 p.m.
Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, $12 Students and Children, $24 Adults (General Admission)
Erik Peregrine, director
Program to be announced.
Purchase tickets here. Find a direct link to the livestream here.
Intern print exhibition at TANA
Join Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer on Friday, June 3, 6 – 8 p.m. for the opening reception of Yoltetik: Corazón Fuerte, an end of the year exhibition showcasing the works of Carolina Castillo, Marina Contreras, and Marisela Featherstone. The posters in this exhibition were produced during their time as TANA interns and undergraduate students at UC Davis. All works in this exhibit are a declaration of the desire to build a better future through heart, spirit, and mind.
Castillo, Contreras, and Featherstone, all use their corazón to offer a visualization of a decolonial world and future. Each artist works from personal issues in their lives and contextualizes the topics into a larger social political context of the Chicanx community. Castillo highlights her family and community in East Los Angeles, to talk about issues of patriarchy, gentrification, and celebrates the role of strong matriarchs in her family. Contreras highlights the topics of health, resilience, and connection to the earth in their work. Featherstone centers a re/connection to indigenous epistemologies and cosmologies through a gender-queer lens. By means of the hearts, minds, and spirits of these three artists, a reimagination of Chicanx-indigenous futures begins to take place.
The works in Yoltetik: Corazón Fuerte, give the viewer an insight into the trauma, pain, and suffering that the Chicanx-Latinx community faces. Yet, Castillo, Contreras, and Featherstone, refuse to let the fire in their hearts give out, instead they show us that through consciousness, action, and healing, we can begin to put ourselves and our communities together once again. Yoltetik: Corazón Fuerte reminds us that our corazónes will be the ones that will continue to light us into new ways of being and transform the future for those that are to come.
Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA) is a collaborative partnership between the Chicana/o Studies Program at the University of California, Davis and the greater Woodland community. TANA offers a fully functioning silkscreen studio, Chicano/Latino Arts exhibition space, and a teaching center for the arts. Through exhibiting, printing, and teaching, TANA cultivates the cultural and artistic life of the community, viewing the arts as essential to a community's development and well-being.
TANA is located at 1224 Lemen Ave. Woodland.
Frank Bettendorf: The Last Road Show at Pence includes watercolors
June 3 – June 26, reception June 10, 6 – 9 p.m.
The Last Road Show includes Frank Bettendorf’s watercolor paintings of a selection of abandoned buildings, railroad card and trucks, and roadside attractions. Inspired by memories from previous explorations of the West, his landscapes create a specific sense of place and unique character. Remembering the history of a vanishing place, with all its beauty, originality, and purpose, is part of what motivates his work.
The Pence Gallery is located at 212 D Street, Davis. Go to their website here.
Wanderlust at Gallery 625
The exhibition includes works in acrylic, oil, pastel and watercolor exploring the scenic beauty of the California coast, Lake Tahoe and the backroads of Yolo County; points of interest around the United States; and landscapes in France, Spain, Italy and beyond.
Artists featured include Rhonda Egan, Kathleen C. Gamper, Mary Neri King, Anne Lincoln, Judy Asplund Neal and Carole Stone.
The artists will attend the opening reception, 5:30 – 8 p.m. Friday June 3.
Lyrical flute music will be performed by Sue Sheya and light refreshments will be available.
This event is free and open to the public
Face coverings are encouraged in the gallery and the most recent recommendations from the Yolo County Health Officer will be followed.
Find more information here.
Coming up
New Exhibitions at John Natsoulas
Gail Ritchie Exhibition, June 8 – July 23
There will be an opening reception June 11, 7 – 9 p.m.
Find more information here.
Boyd Gavin Exhibition
June 8 – July 23
There will be an opening reception on June 11, 7 – 9 p.m.
Boyd Gavin received his bachelor's degree from University of Santa Cruz, and his master's degree from California State University, Sacramento.
Gavin paints in a very straightforward manner, with a loose brushstroke and bright palette that lends itself well to painting small, easily recognizable objects such as crayons and marbles. He says “I am drawn to the quirky shorthand style of artists like Fairfield Porter or David Park, artists who seem to invest even the homeliest of subjects with an offhand grandeur.”
“The show was largely inspired by the gardens, pools and neon of West Sacramento’s once iconic motels. This vanished roadside culture, the scourge of every city planner past and present, offered travelers a theme park of ersatz domesticity built purposefully to the human scale.”
He has exhibited work in multiple shows at the John Natsoulas Gallery, Caldwell Synder in San Francisco, and has work in the permanent collection of The Crocker Museum in Sacramento.
Find more information here.
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