C.N. Gorman Museum Relocation Project moving along

Ongoing: 'Young, Gifted and Black' at Manetti Shrem

Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art is the first public stand-alone exhibition curated from the renowned Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection.

As a key component of collector and advocate Bernard Lumpkin’s public education focus, Young, Gifted and Black is traveling primarily to college and university galleries and museums. Young, Gifted and Black is curated by Antwaun Sargent and Matt Wycoff and organized for the Manetti Shrem Museum by Susie Kantor, exhibition department head and associate curator.

Read the full news story here.

Read one of the reviews here.

Construction is moving swiftly and the new museum space for the C.N. Gorman is starting to take shape. The museum hopes to be able to share their moving date soon. More importantly, they look forward to announcing the grand opening date and welcoming visitors.

After extensive demolition of the building (formerly the Nelson Gallery), construction shifted to rebuilding everything anew with up-to-date equipment, environmental controls, safety, accessibility and modern technologies. Following facility studies and museum guidelines, it was important to transform the space into multiple areas that address the Gorman Museum’s needs for exhibitions, programming, and collections stewardship.

After installing mechanical, fire systems, and electrical, the walls and ceilings are currently in the process of being closed up and finished. The gallery, lobby, offices, and working spaces are all coming together, while the bathrooms are fitted out and looking ready.

The central exhibition space will house three areas – Gallery 1 features the changing exhibitions for which the Gorman is renown; Gallery 2 is flexible exhibition space; and Gallery 3 is the new Collections Gallery.

The lobby is a hub of activity, and will include a shop filled with a variety of items. The reading room will include a selection of Native American art publications and resources from the museum library. Just last week storefront glass was installed in several areas with just a few more to go in. This week there is a lot of mechanical work inside and outside to support efficient museum and building controls.

See the museum website to view more construction photos and a short video that includes a walk-through just days before demolition began.

Design professor designs exhibit in Spain and Santa Monica

Assistant Professor of Design Beth Ferguson is a designer and curator for the exhibition “Tools for a Warming Planet,” a collection of speculative and scientific field tools for environmental exploration of climate change. The installation is currently on view at Arts Santa Monica in Barcelona, Spain, through Aug. 21. The exhibition then travels to Ars Electronica 2022 Festival in Linz, Austria, Sept. 7 – 11.

More here. 

“In the Heights” at the Woodland Opera House opens Friday

Friday through August 28

“In The Heights” will open the 2022-2023 show season at the The Woodland Opera House. From Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, comes the incredible four-time Tony Award winning (including Best Musical) production about family, community, and life in the Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Known as a place where windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of music, it’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams, pressures, and where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions to keep. 

Usnavi, the main character played by Elio Gutiérrez-Montoya, is a bodega owner who supplies neighbors with their morning coffee, papers, and a place to connect with each other. He works hard and aspires to open a bar in his home country of the Dominican Republic some day. His girlfriend, Vanessa, works in a beauty salon and has big dreams of her own - they exude the sense of hope that so many immigrants are fueled by. Bursting with lively dance scenes and a score that features hip-hop, salsa, merengue, and soul music the story explores three days in the characters’ lives.  

The production is directed and choreographed by Jacob Gutiérrez-Montoya with music direction by Sandra Gallegos. 

Performances are on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Reserved seats are $30 for adults, $23 for seniors 62+, and $15 for children 17 and under. Balcony tickets are $18 for adults and $9 for children. Flex Pass specials and group rates are available.

Purchase tickets here.

The Woodland Opera House is located at 340 Second Street, Woodland.

Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs at deYoung

Aug. 20, 2022 – Feb. 12, 2023

Ramses II, known as Ramses the Great, was the most celebrated and powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom—Egypt’s golden age. Believed to be a god on Earth, he ruled for 67 years as part of the 19th Dynasty, erecting enormous temples, obelisks, and statues and expanding Egypt’s empire. This state-of-the-art exhibition features the greatest collection of Ramses II objects and Egyptian jewelry ever to travel to the United States. Along with the pharaoh's colossal royal sculpture, the exhibition highlights recently discovered animal mummies and treasures from the royal tombs of Dahshur and Tanis.

Visitors to the de Young can walk among towering statues and immerse themselves in multimedia productions that re-create moments from Ramses’s life, including his triumph at Kadesh, the largest chariot battle ever fought. An optional virtual reality experience, Ramses & Nefertari: Journey to Osiris, offers a breathtaking tour of two of Ramses’s most impressive monuments: Abu Simbel and Nefertari’s tomb.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.

Video below.

Conversation Pieces at SFMOMA

Saturday, Aug. 20 – June 25, 2023

From a felted chair resembling mushrooms to a rocking chair made from 3-D printed recycled plastic, Conversation Pieces features 45 works of furniture that prioritize meaning and material choice over function and practicality. The exhibition is organized by Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, SFMOMA’s Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, and Alexandra Loew, a Los Angeles-based interior architect, into fluid and meandering categories that feel conversational rather than authoritative. With plush seating for visitors and intimate, moody lighting, the gallery fosters an immersive atmosphere that invites visitors into the unfolding conversation.

Interspersed throughout, interviews with six designers, including Jay Sae Jung Oh and Fernando Laposse, speak to issues designers face today. In the spirit of dialogue, you are invited to join ongoing in-person and online conversations that draw connections between these collection works that touch upon sustainability, identity, and history.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.

In Praise Of Folly (Oyle Peyntings in the 2020s) at John Natsoulas

Aug. 24 – Oct. 29, opening reception Sept. 9, 7 p.m.

Campbell is seen as a Social Realist, often using the current social and political climate to influence the subject matter of his paintings. The subjects range from the environment, society, violence, media and injustices that are the reality of most people. Additionally, Campbell also uses the human figure in social media context. Gabe Campbell obtained a BFA in Fine Art from Sonoma State University.

Coming Up

Another World at Crocker

Aug. 28 – Nov. 20

Initiated in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, in 1938, the Transcendental Painting Group (TPG) transformed the dramatic natural surroundings of the Southwest into luminous reflections of the human spirit.

Under the guidance of New Mexico painters Raymond Jonson and Emil Bisttram, artists Agnes Pelton, Lawren Harris, Florence Miller Pierce, Horace Pierce, Robert Gribbroek, William Lumpkins, Dane Rudhyar, Stuart Walker, and Ed Garman explored a heightened vision of the American landscape, employing the freewheeling imagery of Surrealism to depict a transfigured, spiritually alive America. The TPG issued a manifesto stating that their purpose was “to carry painting beyond the appearance of the physical world, through new concepts of space, color, light and design, to imaginative realms that are idealistic and spiritual.” This traveling museum exhibition, organized by the Crocker, features approximately 85 works and is the first outside New Mexico to fully survey the remarkable art of the TPG.

This exhibition was made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.