From 1994-2010, the Walker Art Center presented an annual month-long screening series featuring women directors, starting with a touring program “Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC): Homegirls”, which blossomed into the Walker’s very own “Women With Vision” (WWV) festival. This March, the Walker Art Center will celebrate the legacy and influence of these groundbreaking programs that both launched and inspired so many women directors from our region.
Celebrate the legacy and influence of the Walker’s Women with Vision programs, which supported female filmmakers and sought to bring their experiences and perspectives to the forefront. Celebrated international directors screened side by side with local artists at all stages of their careers. Two past participants, Melody Gilbert and Kelly Nathe, guest curate and pay tribute to this era of film programming, largely helmed by Senior Curator Sheryl Mousley.
Image courtesy Walker Art Center.
“My indie filmmaking career kicked off in 2002 when Sheryl Mousley selected my first indie doc Married at the Mall to screen at the Walker in the Women with Vision program. I was so honored, and I know there are so many other women in our region who came up through this program just like me. Finding those filmmakers and having a reunion as well as celebrating the up-and-coming women filmmakers of today are reasons why I wanted to guest curate this program with Kelly Nathe. We both had life-changing experiences by screening films at the Walker, and we wanted to find out what happened to the others. And with the Academy Awards leaving women off the best director list again, we thought now would be a good time to do this.” —Melody Gilbert
The four-day program includes shorts screenings, on-stage conversations, introductions of new films by emerging local directors and a celebratory reception.
Image courtesy Walker Art Center.
“I have always believed that filmmaking is women’s work. When I came to the Walker in 1998, I took on the annual film program that had started in 1994 called “Women in the Director’s Chair” which had a local sidebar called “Homegirls.” I turned the program into Walker’s “Women With Vision” film festival, always keeping the local filmmakers at the center,” states Sheryl Mousley, Senior Curator, Moving Image. “After my eleven years with the festival, and only when a woman, Katherine Bigelow, in 2010 finally won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director, did I hear the shout, “We’ve won!” While ending the series on a high note, I vowed to continue showing women filmmakers at Walker throughout all our programs. I am proud to say that 25% of the Walker Dialogues are women, and the year-round cinema program continues to give voice to local filmmakers and celebrate the legacy and influence of women in international cinema. I am proud of all the Minnesota filmmakers who have shown their films at Walker. It is a wonderful history and confirmation of home-based talent.”
“My very first short film, Rock-n-Roll Girlfriend, screened in the WIDC: Homegirls program back in 1995 when I was still a student, and I can’t begin to explain how much my inclusion in the program meant to me back then. It remains a badge of honor to this day! I’ve always wondered what happened to all the women who started here. Where did they end up and how did the Walker program that focused on women directors shape their careers? Melody Gilbert and I were co-chairs of Film Fatales in Minnesota, an international organization of women and non-binary directors of feature films, and we both pondered that question and decided to go on a journey together to find these women as well as celebrate the emerging filmmakers in our region.” adds Kelly Nathe
Enjoy a sampling of recent works directed by MN women and selected by Film Fatales, a national organization of women and non-binary filmmakers advocating for intersectional parity in the film industry. The evening’s screening is followed by an onstage conversation led by Film Fatales about making the leap to feature filmmaking in our region.
Alison Guessou’s Happily Married After. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.
Film Fatales Twin Cities Reel, 10 min
Santuario, Christine Delp & Pilar Timpane, 3 min. (excerpt)
A Winter Love, Rhiana Yazzie, 4 min. (excerpt)
Master Servant, Julie Anne Koehnen, 3 min. (excerpt)
North Side Boxing Club, Carrie Bush and Amanda Becker, 3 min.
Peeled, Naomi Ko, 2 min.
Muslim Sheroes of MN: Nimo Omar, Ariel Tilson, 4 min. (excerpt)
The Coyote Way, Missy Whiteman, 4 min. (trailer)
Oh My Stars, Cynthia Uhrich, 3 min. (excerpt)
Happily Married After, Alison Guessou, 3 min. (excerpt)
Little Men, Ayesha Adu, 3 min. (excerpt)
Untitled Hmong Doc, Joua Lee Grande, 3 min. (excerpt)
Underground, Beth Peloff, 3 min.
Self-Creation, Shelby Dillon, 5 min.
Jasmine Star, Jo Rochelle, 5 min. (excerpt)
Shelby Dillon, Self Creation, 2019. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.
Mack Lecture Series April 8–29, 7 pm$15 ($12 Walker members, students, and seniors)Walker Cinema
Hear directly from explorers of our culture and contemporary moment during the Mack Lecture Series. Throughout the month of April, artists, writers, and other great thinkers at the forefront of diverse fields share their vision on topics ranging from artificial intelligence in performance art to gender politics and gonzo journalism.
Annie Dorsen’s Hello Hi There, 2010 Photo: W. Silveri/Steirischer Herbst
Simon Adler, 2018. Photo courtesy of Simon Adler.Catherine Havasi, 2019. Photo courtesy of Catherine Havasi.Annie Dorsen, 2019. Courtesy of John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Writer-director Annie Dorsen tries “to make perceptible how ideas change over time: where they come from, how they influence and are influenced by politics and culture, and how they take root in the body, physically and emotionally.” For this conversation, she explores the intersection of algorithms and live performance with artificial intelligence researcher and computational linguist Catherine Havasi, moderated by Simon Adler, a producer for WNYC’s Radiolab.
Annie Dorsen’s performance work Yesterday Tomorrow, takes place in the Walker’s McGuire Theater March 27–28.
Genderqueer political activist, visual artist, and musician JD Samson is perhaps best known as leader of the band MEN and one-third of the electronic-feminist-punk band Le Tigre. As a self-defined “gender outlaw,” she will investigate the precarious masculinity of the butch/masculine-of-center body, play with traditional concepts of ownership and destruction, and break down the charged heteronormative history of queer sex dynamics.
Fifth Annual Mother Tongue Film Festival Runs Feb. 20–23
The Smithsonian’s Recovering Voices Initiative will host a film festival that showcases films from around the world. Centered around the United Nation’s International Mother Language Day Feb. 21, the fifth annual Mother Tongue Film Festivalwill offer visitors the opportunity to see 21 films featuring 28 languages from 22 regions and hear from filmmakers who explore the power of language to connect the past, present and future. The four-day festival runs Feb. 20–23.
Vai looks on at her daughter Mata, filmed in Kuki Airani, one of seven Pacific Nations featured in Vai (2019). Photo courtesy of MPI Media
Recovering Voices is an initiative of the Smithsonian founded in response to the global crisis of cultural knowledge and language loss. It works with communities and other institutions to address issues of Indigenous language and knowledge diversity and sustainability. Recovering Voices is a collaboration between staff at the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
“The Mother Tongue Film Festival provides a forum for conversations about linguistic and cultural diversity,” said Joshua Bell, curator of globalization at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and director of the Smithsonian’s Recovering Voices Program. “It gives the public an opportunity to talk with directors, producers and scholars who devote their lives to documenting the human experience.”
Screenings will take place at multiple locations across the Smithsonian and Washington, D.C. A complete schedule of screenings, including times and locations, is available on the festival’s website. Doors will open approximately 30 minutes before each show. All screenings are free and open to the public, with weekend programming for families.
The festival kicks off with an opening reception Thursday, Feb. 20, at 6 p.m. at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Festival highlights include:
A performance by Uptown Boyz, a local intertribal drum group, before the screening of Restless RiverFeb. 20 at 7 p.m. in the National Museum of the American Indian’s Potomac Atrium. The film is set at the end of World War II and follows a young Inuk woman as she comes to terms with motherhood after being assaulted by a soldier. It is based on Gabrielle Roy’s 1970 short novel Windflower (La Riviere Sans Repos). This film contains a scene of sexual violence that some viewers may find disturbing.
The world premiere of Felicia: The Life of an Octopus Fisherwoman Feb. 21 at 11 a.m. in the National Museum of Natural History’s Q?rius Theater. Felicia is one of the thousands of Malagasy fishermen and women on the Velondriake archipelago whose way of life is increasingly threatened by poverty and political marginalization. As an orphan and later as a mother, she turns to the sea as a means for sustenance, even when migration and commercial trawling threaten small-scale fishing operations. Like many other women in Madagascar, she embodies a steadfast willingness to keep moving forward in the face of major challenges.
The North American premiere of Ainu—Indigenous People of JapanFeb. 22 at noon in the National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium. The film tells the stories of four elders from the declining Ainu population in Japan. It sheds light on their traditions, both past and present, and the efforts to keep the culture and language alive in Japan. A Q&A with the director will follow the screening.
Age-appropriate viewers can enjoy Québec beer courtesy of the Québec Governmental Office during a late-night screening of Blood QuantumFeb. 22 at 8 p.m. in New York University Washington, D.C.’s Abramson Family Auditorium. The dead come back to life outside the isolated Mi’gmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague. The local tribal law enforcement officer must protect his son’s pregnant girlfriend, apocalyptic refugees and the drunken reserve riff raff from the hordes of walking corpses infesting the streets of Red Crow. This film contains strong bloody violence and may not be suitable for younger audiences.
A screening of One Day in the Life of Noah PiugattukFeb. 23 at 3 p.m. in Georgetown University’s ICC Auditorium. The film is set in April 1961 as the Cold War heats up in Berlin and nuclear bombers are deployed from bases in the Canadian Arctic. In Kapuivik, north of Baffin Island, Noah Piugattuk’s nomadic Inuit band live and hunt by dog team as his ancestors did. When an agent of the Canadian government arrives, what appears as a chance meeting soon opens the prospect of momentous change, revealing Inuit-settler relationships humorously and tragically lost in translation. The events playing out in this film are depicted at the same rate as the characters experienced them in real life.
INDIgenesis: GEN 3, A Showcase of Indigenous Filmmakers and Storytellers, March 19–28
Presented over two weeks, the series INDIgenesis: GEN 3, guest curated by Missy Whiteman (Northern Arapaho and Kickapoo Nations), opens with an evening of expanded cinema and includes several shorts programs in the Walker Cinema and Bentson Mediatheque, an afternoon of virtual reality, and a closing-night feature film.
The ongoing showcase of works by Native filmmakers and artists is rooted in Indigenous principles that consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. GEN 3 connects perspectives and stories from the past, present, and future to convey Indigenous truths, teachings, and values.
“Indigenous artists use the creative process of filmmaking for revitalization and narrative sovereignty,” says Whiteman. “Our stories tell us where we came from, re-create our truths, affirm our languages and culture, and inspire us to imagine our Indigenous future. We come from the stars. How far will we take this medium?”
Throughout the program, join conversations with artists and community members centered on themes of Indigenous Futurism, revitalization, and artistic creation.
Opening Night: Remembering the Future Expanded Cinema Screening/Performance Thursday, March 19, 7:30 pm Free, Walker Cinema
Missy Whiteman’s The Coyote Way: Going Back Home, 2016. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.
Combining film, a live score, hoop dancing, hip-hop, and spoken word, a collective of Indigenous artists led by curator Missy Whiteman creates an immersive environment that transcends time and place. Guided by ancestral knowledge systems, traditional stories, and contemporary forms of expression, the expanded cinema program features performances by DJ AO (Hopi/Mdewakatonwan Dakota), Sacramento Knoxx (Ojibwe/Chicano), Lumhe “Micco” Sampson (Mvskoke Creek/Seneca), and Michael Wilson (Ojibwe). Archival found footage and Whiteman’s sci-fi docu-narrative The Coyote Way: Going Back Home(2016), filmed in the community of Little Earth in South Minneapolis, illuminate the space.
Missy Whiteman’s The Coyote Way: Going Back Home, 2016. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.
Indigenous Lens: Our RealityShort films by multiple directors Friday, March 20, 7 pm, $10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors), Walker Cinema
This evening of short films showcases a collection of contemporary stories about what it means to be Indigenous today, portraying identity and adaptability in a colonialist system. The program spans a spectrum of themes, including two-spirit transgender love, coming of age, reflections on friends and fathers, “indigenizing” pop art, and creative investigations into acts of repatriation. Digital video, 85 mins
Copresented with Hud Oberly (Comanche/Osage/Caddo), Indigenous Program at Sundance Institute (in attendance).
Lore Directed by Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians)
Images of friends and landscapes are fragmented and reassembled as a voice tells stories, composing elements of nostalgia in terms of lore. 2019, 10 min. View excerpt.
Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, Jackson Polys, and Bailey Sweitzer’s Culture Capture: Terminal Adddition, 2019. Photo courtesy the filmmakers.
Culture Capture: Terminal Adddition Directed by New Red Order: Adam Khalil (Ojibway), Zack Khalil (Ojibway), Jackson Polys (Tlingit), Bayley Sweitzer
The latest video by the public secret society known as the New Red Order is an incendiary indictment of the norms of European settler colonialism. Examining institutionalized racism through a mix of 3D photographic scans and vivid dramatizations, this work questions the contemporary act of disposing historical artifacts as quick fixes, proposing the political potential of adding rather than removing. 2019, 7 min. View excerpt.
Shane McSauby’s Mino Bimaadiziwin, 2017. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.
Mino Bimaadiziwin Directed by Shane McSauby (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians)
A trans Anishinaabe man meets a young Anishinaabe woman who pushes him to reconnect with their culture. 2017, 10 min. View excerpt.
The Moon and the Night Directed by Erin Lau (Kanaka Maoli)
Erin Lau’s The Moon and the Night, 2017. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.
Set in rural Hawaii, a Native Hawaiian teenage girl must confront her father after he enters her beloved pet in a dogfight. 2018, 19 min. View excerpt.
Erin Lau’s The Moon and the Night, 2017. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.Erin Lau. Photo courtesy the filmmaker. Photo By: Antonio Agosto
Shinaab II Directed by Lyle Michell Corbine, Jr. (Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Indians)
A young man seeks to honor the memory of his late father in a film that looks at Ojibwe ideas surrounding death and mourning. 2019, 6 min.
Daniel Flores’ Viva Diva, 2019. Image courtesy the artist.
Viva Diva Directed by Daniel Flores (Yaqui)
This road trip movie follows Rozene and Diva as they make their way down to Guadalajara for their gender affirmation surgeries. 2017, 15 min. View excerpt.
Daniel Flores. Image courtesy the artist.
Dig It If You Can Directed by Kyle Bell (Creek-Thlopthlocco Tribal Town)
An insightful portrait of the self-taught artist and designer Steven Paul Judd (Kiowa), whose satirical manipulations of pop culture for an Indigenous audience are gaining a passionate, mass following as he realizes his youthful dreams. 2016, 18 min. View excerpt.
The Walker Arts Center continues to flesh out what is considerably a very dynamic exhibition schedule for the next two years. Additions to the Walker Art Center’s 2020–2021 exhibition schedule include two new solo exhibitions by female artists, Faye Driscoll: Thank You for Coming(February 27–June 14, 2020) and Candice Lin(April 17–August 29, 2021) as well as a Walker collection show of women artists, Don’t let this be easy(July 16–March 14, 2021). For her first solo museum exhibition, Faye Driscoll incorporates a guided audio soundtrack, moving image works, and props to look back across the entirety of her trilogy of performances Thank You For Coming—Attendance(2014), Play(2016), and Space(2019)—works that were presented and co-commissioned by the Walker and subsequently toured around the world over the past six years. Another newly added exhibition, Candice Lin, is the first US museum solo show by the artist, co-organized by the Walker Art Center and the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts (CCVA). Lin is creating a site-specific installation that responds to the space of the gallery at each institution, allowing the shape of the work to evolve over the course of its presentation.
The Walker-organized exhibition Don’t let this be easy highlights the diverse and experimental practices of women artists spanning some 50 years through a selection of paintings, sculptures, moving image works, artists’ books, and materials from the archives.
The initiative is presented in conjunction with the Feminist Art Coalition (FAC), a nationwide effort involving more than 60 museums committed to social justice and structural change.
Other upcoming exhibitions include An Art Of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960–2018 (February 16–September 20, 2020), a survey of six decades of Johns’ work in printmaking drawn from the Walker’s complete collection of the artists’ prints including intaglio, lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, screenprinting, lead relief, and blind embossing; The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance (formerly titiled Still and Yet) (April 18–July 26, 2020), is an exhibition that rethinks the history of performance featuring artists whose works include performative elements but also embrace acts, objects, and gestures that refer more to the inert qualities of traditional painting or sculpture than to true staged action.
Additional exhibitions include Michaela Eichwald’s (June 13–November 8, 2020) first US solo museum presentation, bringing together painting, sculpture, and collage from across the past 10 years of her practice; Designs for Different Futures (September 12, 2020 – January 3, 2021)—a collaborative group show co-organized by the Walker Art Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago—brings together about 80 dynamic works that address the challenges and opportunities that humans may encounter in the years, decades, and centuries to come; Rayyane Tabet(December 10, 2020– April 18, 2021), a solo show by the Beirut-based multidisciplinary artist featuring a new installation for the Walker that begins with a time capsule discovered on the site of what was once an IBM manufacturing facility in Rochester, Minnesota.
OPENING EXHIBITIONS
AN ART OF CHANGES: JASPER JOHNS PRINTS, 1960–2018, February 16–September 20, 2020
When Jasper Johns’s paintings of flags and targets debuted in 1958, they brought him instant acclaim and established him as a critical link between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. In the ensuing 60 years, Johns (US, b. 1930) has continued to astonish viewers with the beauty and complexity of his paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints. Today, he is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest American artists.
Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Figure 7 from the Color Numeral Series Date: 1969 Medium: lithograph on paper Accession number: 1985.319 Credit Line: Gift of Kenneth Tyler, 1985. Repro Rights: VAGA; Art copyright Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Target Date: 1960 Medium: lithograph on paper Accession number: 1988.181 Credit Line: Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, 1988. Repro Rights: VAGA; Art copyright Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
In celebration of the artist’s 90th birthday, An Art of Changes surveys six decades of Johns’s work in printmaking, highlighting his experiments with familiar, abstract, and personal imagery that play with memory and visual perception in endlessly original ways. The exhibition features some 90 works in intaglio, lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, screenprinting, and lead relief—all drawn from the Walker’s comprehensive collection of the artist’s prints.
Organized in four thematic sections, the show follows Johns through the years as he revises and recycles key motifs over time, including the American flag, numerals, and the English alphabet, which he describes as “things the mind already knows.” Some works explore artists’ tools, materials, and techniques. Others explore signature aspects of the artist’s distinctive mark-making, including flagstones and hatch marks, while later pieces teem with autobiographical imagery. To underscore Johns’s fascination with the changes that occur when an image is reworked in another medium, the prints will be augmented by a small selection of paintings and sculptures.
Curator: Joan Rothfuss, guest curator, Visual Arts.
Exhibition Tour Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: October 12, 2019–January 20, 2020 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: February 16–September 20, 2020 Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan: October 24, 2020–January 24, 2021 Tampa Art Museum, Florida: April 28–September 6, 2021
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Catch up on all your NGC favorites from the past year, including The Hot Zone, Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, Running Wild with Bear Grylls and more!
See why IndieWire named National Geographic one of the top five Best Television Platforms of 2019!
Don’t forget to plan movie night! Academy Award-winning documentary film Free Solo airs Dec. 26 at 9/8c.
Tune in for two full weeks of marathon programming beginning today.
That’s a wrap! National Geographic is saying goodbye to 2019 with some of your all-time favorite National Geographic Channel programs of the year. From the dangerously frigid Alaskan terrain to the 3,200-foot summit of El Capitan, explore breathtaking sights, heart-pounding adventure and groundbreaking science from wherever you’re spending the holidays. After a year of such amazing content, we won’t judge if you stay on the couch for the whole two weeks.
This year’s breadth of programming continued to break boundaries through thrilling exploration, risk-taking and transcendent storytelling. Highlights of the two-week blitz include the following:
To kick things off, Nat Geo is exploring new life and old legends with Expedition Amelia: Bob Ballard’s Search (Dec. 23 at 8 p.m.), on the search for renowned aviator Amelia Earhart’s remains, and episodes of Lost Cities with Albert Lin (Dec. 23 at 9 and 10 p.m.), as the National Geographic Explorer uncovers the greatest mysteries of ancient cities from El Dorado, to Stonehenge, to Petra!
You thought the cold weather was tough! Catch the animal kingdom’s most epic survival stories as Bear Grylls guides you through Hostile Planet (Dec. 24 at 11 a.m.), showcasing the world’s most extreme environments and the animals that have adapted to cruel evolutionary curveballs.
The year 2019 was a milestone one for the multi-Emmy-winning series Life Below Zero (Dec. 25 at 9 a.m.) as it celebrated its 100th episode. Meet some of the toughest individuals in the world as they attempt to survive in the most unforgiving and remote corners of America. After watching all day, tune in to a new special episode on Dec. 25 at 9 p.m.
Spend the holidays with some of Hollywood’s most beloved celebrities as they push physical and mental limitations on Running Wild with Bear Grylls (Dec. 26 at 9 a.m.). With guests including Brie Larson, Cara Delevingne, Armie Hammer, Channing Tatum, Bobby Bones and more, you won’t want to miss the chance to catch up on the boldest season yet.
Grab some popcorn (and your seats!) — don’t miss the Academy Award-winning documentary film Free Solo (Dec. 26 at 9 p.m.), as climber Alex Honnold sets out to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the world’s most famous rock, 3,200-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, without a rope.
Looking for some not family-related drama? Tune in to Nat Geo’s most-watched scripted series yet, The Hot Zone (Dec. 28 at 5 p.m.). An edge-of-your-seat thriller inspired by Richard Preston’s international bestseller, The Hot Zone recounts the appearance of Ebola on U.S. soil in 1989 and the courageous heroine who put her life at risk to stop this deadly killer. These episodes will include never-before-seen enhancements with real archival footage, scientific interviews and more, diving into the true story behind this lethal outbreak.
Forget your classic holiday libations! Gordon Ramsay serves up a taste of adventure in Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (Dec. 29 at 9 a.m.) as he travels across the globe to learn about local flavors. His journey takes him to Peru’s Sacred Valley, Alaska’s panhandle, New Zealand’s rugged south, Morocco’s mountains, Hawaii’s Hana Coast and Laos’ Mekong River.
In addition to the marathons highlighted above, there’s even more. Don’t miss your chance to watch wildlife prosper in America’s National Parks (Dec. 24 at 5 p.m.) or explore the depths of the oceans with all kinds of sharks (When Sharks Attack beginning Dec. 30 at 9 a.m.) (yes, that rhyme was intentional). And better yet, see what’s in store for 2020 with a sneak peek of the reimagined Brain Games hosted by Keegan-Michael Key (Dec. 29 at 10 p.m.).
For more information on the two-week best of Nat Geo Channel marathon, visit www.natgeotv.com
Film Independent announced that Aubrey Plaza will return to host the 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The Spirit Awards are the primary fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round programs, which cultivate the careers of emerging filmmakers and promote diversity in the industry. Nominees were announced by Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Joker, Deadpool 2) and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Ad Astra, Orange Is the New Black) on November 21. Best Feature nominees include A Hidden Life, Clemency, The Farewell, Marriage Story and Uncut Gems. The show will be broadcast live exclusively on IFC at 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET on Saturday, February 8, 2020.
2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards logo (Image provide by Film Independent)
“Like all great independent film performances, this one deserves a sequel,” said Host Aubrey Plaza. “The people have spoken. Bow down to your host!”
“At a time when the world is so bitterly divided and civil discourse is almost impossible, it’s nice we can all agree that Aubrey Plaza is the greatest host in the history of hosting,” said Josh Welsh, Film Independent President. “We are thrilled to have her back. Today is also the last day to join Film Independent as a Member to get access to the nominated films and vote on the winners. Only a fool would not watch the Spirit Awards on IFC on February 8, 2 PM PST / 5 PM EST.”
“Aubrey is back! Last year, fear of her signature take on hosting duties kept that other awards show host-less. We are excited to see what she brings to the tent this year,” said IFC Executive Director, Blake Callaway.
Now in its 35th year, the Film Independent Spirit Awards is an annual celebration honoring artist-driven films made with an economy of means by filmmakers whose films embody independence and originality. The Spirit Awards recognizes the achievements of American independent filmmakers and promotes the finest independent films of the year to a wider audience.
Plaza will next be seen starring in Black Bear, a suspenseful meta-drama, opposite Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon. The film, which she also produced, will premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. She is currently in production on Lina Roessler’s Best Sellers opposite Michael Caine which is based on an original screenplay that won a 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting award. Plaza’s other feature film credits include: Ingrid Goes West (which she produced and received a 2018 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature), Jeff Baena’s The Little Hours (also producer), Hal Hartley’s Ned Rifle, Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed, Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Judd Apatow’s Funny People, among others. On television, she most recently starred in Noah Hawley’s Legion on FX and is well known for her role on NBC’s Parks & Recreation.
This year marks the 35th edition of the awards show that celebrates the best of independent film. Past Spirit Awards hosts have included Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, Kate McKinnon and Kumail Nanjiani, Fred Armisen and Kristen Bell, Patton Oswalt, Andy Samberg, Joel McHale, Sarah Silverman, Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Izzard, Queen Latifah and John Waters, to name a few. The show, which will be held on the beach in Santa Monica, will be executive produced and directed by Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet Productions for the sixth consecutive year. Shawn Davis returns as producer for his 18th year, Rick Austin returns as producer for his fifth year and Danielle Federico and Andrew Schaff also return as co-producers.
Winners, who are selected by Film Independent Members, will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 8, 2020. The awards ceremony will be held on the beach in Santa Monica, just north of the Santa Monica Pier.
Winners of the Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grants will be announced at the Film Independent Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grant and Nominee Brunch on Saturday, January 4, 2020, at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood.
Get into the award season spirit with three weeks of free films just for Walker Arts Center members. The annual presentation of the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominees showcases creativity and innovation in visual storytelling with the best of indie cinema. Now is the perfect time to buy a mewmbership to get ahead of films sure to heat up the awards race in the next few months. The 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards, hosted by actor Audrey Plaza, will be broadcast live exclusively on IFC cable channel at 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET on Saturday, February 8, 2020.
Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, 2019. L to R: “Jiang Yongbo, Aoi Mizuhara, Chen Han, Tzi Ma, Awkwafina, Li Xiang, Lu Hong, Zhao Shuzhen.” Courtesy of Big Beach. Photo courtesy A24.Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency, 2019. Photo courtesy NEON.Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, 2019. Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight.
New Museum Openings Enhance Month Of Significant Discounts At More Than 40 Museums
Every February, savvy travelers look to Seattle, also known as the Emerald City, where big savings can stack up for arts and culture lovers of all ages with Seattle Museum Month. From Feb. 1-29, 2020, travelers who stay at any one of nearly 60 participating downtown Seattle hotels receive 50 percent off admission prices to more than 40 museums and cultural institutions. February also historically offers lower rates for airfare to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and special hotel packages to entice winter travelers. To see the full list of participating museums and hotels, visit the Seattle Museum Month website at www.seattlemuseummonth.com.
Seattle Museum Month is produced by Visit Seattleand funded by the Seattle Tourism Improvement Area (STIA), a dedicated marketing fund assessed from guests at 73 downtown Seattle hotels. The program was created to encourage travelers to visit Seattle in February and celebrate the remarkable collection of unique museums in the region.
(PRNewsfoto/Visit Seattle)
“Seattle has a richly diverse and world-renowned collection of museums that draw people to our city year-round, but Seattle Museum Month offers unparalleled discounts for our visitors,” Visit Seattle Senior Director of Cultural Tourism Tracey Wickersham said. “Engaging hands-on experiences with history-making computers, vintage pinball machines, and experiential music galleries where you can look, listen and re-create some of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest moments mean our museums entertain as well as educate. You’ll find mind-blowing gardens made of glass and ancient artifacts that explore all facets of life on earth, and art from around the globe. A trip to Seattle for Museum Month will make memories that last a lifetime.”
Seattle Museum Month celebrates with a host of museum openings that give travelers the opportunity to explore Seattle’s cultural legacy.
Photo by: Dennis Miller. Caption: Savvy travelers look to the Emerald City for deep discounts on arts and cultural attractions all February with Seattle Museum Month. Travelers who stay at any one of nearly 60 participating downtown Seattle hotels receive 50 percent off admission prices to more than 40 museums and cultural institutions. The newly reopened Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture is among those participating this year.
The Seattle Art Museum hosts the grand re-opening of the Seattle Asian Art Museum February 8 and 9. After a two-year renovation and expansion, the museum reopens with a reimagined collection installation that breaks boundaries with a thematic, rather than geographic or chronological, exploration of art from the world’s largest continent. Set in Seattle’s picturesque Volunteer Park, the historic Art Deco-era museum underwent a $56 million renovation and expansion to more fully display one of the largest collections of Asian art in the nation. Visitors wishing to attend the historic re-opening weekend on February 8 and 9 can reserve free timed tickets online. Beginning Feb. 12, Museum Month passes will be accepted.
Photo courtesy of Visit Seattle. Caption: Every February, savvy travelers look to the Emerald City where big savings can stack up for arts and culture lovers of all ages with Seattle Museum Month. February also historically offers lower rates for airfare to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and special hotel packages to entice winter travelers. To see the full list of participating museums and hotels, visit the Seattle Museum Month website at www.seattlemuseummonth.com. (PRNewsfoto/Visit Seattle)
With 16 million objects in its collections and infinite stories to tell, the recently re-openedBurke Museum of Natural History and Culture– the oldest museum in Washington state – welcomes visitors to an entirely new experience. Locally known as The Burke, the museum is located at the north end of The University of Washington Seattle campus and re-opened in October 2019. The new building designed by Olson Kundig creates unprecedented opportunities for visitors to see university faculty, researchers and students uncovering dinosaur skeletons, analyzing insects and collaborating with Native communities every day.
Enjoy renowned favorites as well like Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), The Museum of Flight, Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) and explore other regional museums, like LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, USS Turner Joy Museum Ship in Bremerton or the Bellevue Arts Museum in downtown Bellevue.
Seattle Museum Month discounts are only valid for guests staying at one of the participating hotels, up to four people, during hotel stay dates. Visitors must present an official Seattle Museum Month guest pass at participating museums to redeem the discounts.
Lozano-Hemmer’s First Major Survey in the U.S., Unstable Presence Features Large-Scale Participatory Installations and Immersive Environments
Auerbach’s First Museum Survey, S v Z Traverses the Boundaries Between Art, Design, Science and Craft
Also Opening at SFMOMA, Select Video Projections from Theaster Gates and Cauleen Smith Shown Together for the First Time
The
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) will present two
major exhibitions celebrating the mixed media work of contemporary
artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Tauba Auerbach this
upcoming spring. The artist’s first major survey exhibition in the
U.S., Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence (April
25–November 1, 2020) will explore our presence in fundamentally
turbulent environments through a focused selection of 16 engaging
installations on the museum’s seventh floor. Simultaneously on the
museum’s fourth floor, Auerbach’s first museum survey, Tauba
Auerbach — S v Z (April 25–September 7, 2020),
will highlight her prolific and varied output over the last 16 years.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art logo
Also
on view this spring will be select video projections from renowned
interdisciplinary artists Cauleen Smith and Theaster Gates
in Future Histories (April 25–November 1, 2020).
Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence, April 25–November 1,
2020, Floor 7
Air
and water, heartbeats and voices, text and light — these are the
materials of media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Over the past
few decades, the Mexico City–born, Montreal-based artist has earned
international recognition for large-scale participatory installations
that frequently incorporate technology and the architecture of public
spaces. On view in the U.S. exclusively at SFMOMA, Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence brings together recent
sculptural installations and immersive environments realized on
microscopic and macroscopic scales. These works engage visitors’
sense of play, and anxiety, as they experience the implications of
technology and behaviors of participation in social and political
contexts.
“Unstable
Presence refers to the dynamic, poetic, but also disturbing
turbulence that characterizes social and technical interrelations,”
said Rudolf Frieling, curator of media arts at SFMOMA. “Materializing
on various scales, from the personal to the geopolitical, the
instability of these layers of presence is powerfully echoed in the
atmospheric but also sculptural installations.”
Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence additionally examines the
concept of “co-presence” by highlighting how our physical
presence and the natural and technological spaces we inhabit form a
continuous stream of interaction. Lozano-Hemmer noted, “Presence
is often associated with existence, continuity in time or material
reality. The ‘unstable’ in the exhibition’s title refers to
interaction, improvisation and performance. The instability brought
by participation allows constant reinterpretation of the work, where
many outcomes are co-present.”
The
exhibition focuses on three major themes in Lozano-Hemmer’s work:
observation and surveillance; text-based poetic work;
and the instability of systems. Highlights of the presentation
include the following installations, the majority of which encourage
visitor participation:
Airborne
Newscast (2013) projects live news feeds from prominent
international news outlets, such as Reuters, Agencia EFE, Notimex,
AlterNet and AP. When visitors enter the space, their shadows disrupt
the projections and dissolve the projected words into smoke-like
patterns, creating an unstable atmospheric effect.
Call
on Water (2016) is a fountain from which words emerge as
plumes of vapor, produced by hundreds of computer-controlled
ultrasonic atomizers. Fragment by fragment, poems by the celebrated
Mexican writer Octavio Paz briefly materialize in the mist before
dissipating in turbulence.
Pulse
Spiral (2008) consists of hundreds of incandescent
lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling in a three-dimensional spiral.
This participatory installation records and responds to the heart
rates of visitors holding sensors, transforming their heartbeats into
mesmerizing flashes of light.
Sphere
Packing: Bach (2018), the largest in Lozano-Hemmer’s
Sphere Packing series, is a three-meter spherical frame
supporting 1,128 loudspeakers, each simultaneously playing a
different composition by Johan Sebastian Bach. Visitors can enter the
sphere and be surrounded by the cacophonous crescendo of Bach’s
entire musical output.
Vicious
Circular Breathing (2013) is a large sculptural
installation featuring brown paper bags that inflate and deflate at
human breathing rates; a set of motorized bellows and valves that
control the bags; and a sealed glass room with a decompression
chamber. Visitors are invited to enter the glass room to breathe the
air that was previously breathed by earlier participants. The piece
includes warnings about the risks of asphyxiation, contagion and
panic, offering a statement on the limits of the planet’s resources
as well as a commentary on participation, which in this case makes
the air more toxic for future visitors.
Voz
Alta [Out Loud] (2008)commemorates the 40th anniversary of the massacre of
hundreds of students in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, on October 2, 1968.
The original site-specific “anti-monument” is presented in the
gallery as a functional prototype: participants are invited to step
up to a megaphone and speak freely, their speech translated into
light flashes via a miniature searchlight. An FM radio transmitter
relays the sounds to which the light corresponds, and an archival
recording of the 2008 memorial plays after a participant has finished
speaking. In this way, the memory of the tragedy in Tlatelolco is
mixed with live participation.
Zoom
Pavilion (2015) is an interactive installation created in
collaboration with artist Krzysztof Wodiczko. Consisting of
projections fed by computerized surveillance footage, the work uses
face recognition and other tracking algorithms to detect the presence
of participants and record their spatial relationships. Independent
cameras zoom in to amplify images with up to 35x magnification. The
zooming sequences become disorienting as they change the image
landscape from easily recognizable wide shots of the crowd to
abstract close-ups.
Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967, and lives and
works in Montreal. He was the first artist to represent Mexico at the
Venice Biennale, with an exhibition at the Palazzo Van Axel
in 2007. He has also shown at biennials and triennials in Cuenca,
Havana, Istanbul, Kōchi, Liverpool, Melbourne, Montreal, Moscow, New
Orleans, New York, Seoul, Seville, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and
Wuzhen. Lozano-Hemmer’s works have been featured in solo
exhibitions and performances in numerous institutions, including the
Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico City
(2015); SFMOMA (2012); the Museum of Contemporary Art,
Sydney (2011); the Manchester Art Gallery (2010); the
Guggenheim Museum, New York (2009); and the Barbican
Centre, London (2008).
Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence is accompanied by a
catalogue featuring full-color illustrations of works in the
exhibition and contributions covering a range of topical approaches.
It includes a curatorial introduction and four essays from Olivier
Asselin, Sean Cubitt, Tatiana Flores and Gloria Sutton that
explore the poetic and political dimensions of the artist’s work,
along with in-depth examinations of four major works — Zoom
Pavilion, Vicious Circular Breathing, Voz Alta and Pulse Room.
Edited by Rudolf Frieling and François LeTourneux, the
catalogue is published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
in association with Delmonico Books/Prestel.
Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence is co-organized by the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Musée d’art contemporain
de Montréal. The exhibition is co-curated by Lesley
Johnstone, curator and head of exhibitions and education,
François LeTourneux, associate curator at the MAC and Rudolf
Frieling, curator of media arts at SFMOMA.
Generous
support for Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence is
provided by Debbie and Andy Rachleff and
Carlie Wilmans.
BRITISH
ARROWS AWARDS 2019 Friday,
November 29–Sunday, December 29 Walker
Cinema Program
length: 72 Minutes Total
screenings: 95
Celebrate
the UK’s most innovative and daring commercials from the creative
world of British advertising. One of the Walker’s most popular
traditions back for the 33rd year, the British Arrows Awards
showcases an eclectic mix of riveting mini-dramas, high-tech
extravaganzas, wacky comedy, and vital public service announcements.
The
British Arrows is a much-loved program in the Twin Cities with
many people attending year after year. The audiences are moved by the
program, which can be a unique cross-cultural experience, as they try
to figure out brands and products that are not available in the U.S.,
but are cleverly conveyed. It’s a unique experience for American
audiences to view ads that are not invested in the hard sell; rather,
gaining interest in products and services through humor, pathos and a
dynamic cinematography. Although there are 95 screenings this year,
they are sure to sell out quickly.
Megaforce’s Nothing Beats a Londoner for Nike. Photo courtesy British Arrows 2019.
BRITS
NIGHT, Friday, December 6, 7 and 9 pm
Come
early and celebrate with a cash bar, plus music by DJ Simon Husbands
of KFAI’s True Brit Radio. Introduced by Clare Donald and Jani
Guest, British Arrows board co-chairs, and Lisa Lavender, operations
director.
Megaforce’s Nothing Beats a Londoner for Nike. Photo courtesy of British Arrows 2019.
SCREENING
SCHEDULE
Friday, November 29: 3, 5, and 7 pm
Saturday, November 30: 3, 5, and 7:30 pm
Sunday, December 1: 3, 5, and 7 pm
Friday, December 6: 7 and 9 pm: Brits Night. Introduced by Clare Donald and Jani Guest, British Arrows board co-chairs, and Lisa Lavender, operations director.
Saturday, December 7: 5 and 7 pm
Sunday, December 8: 1, 3, and 5 pm
Thursday, December 12: 6, 7, and 8 pm
Friday, December 13: 6, 7, and 8 pm
Saturday, December 14: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Sunday, December 15: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 pm
Tuesday, December 17: 6, 7, and 8 pm
Wednesday, December 18: 6, 7, and 8 pm
Thursday, December 19: 6, 7, and 8 pm
Friday, December 20: 6, 7, and 8 pm
Saturday, December 21: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Sunday, December 22: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 pm
Thursday, December 26: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Friday, December 27: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Saturday, December 28: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Sunday, December 29: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Sam Brown and Tom Barbor’s The Dragon Challenge for Jaguar Land Rover. Photo courtesy of British Arrows 2019.Continue reading →
Independent documentary filmmaker Julia Reichert has been asking defining questions about workers’ rights, gender roles, taboos, and social change in America since the early 1970s. The pioneering Emmy Award–winner and three-time Academy Award–nominee comes to the Walker Arts Center for a retrospective of her distinguished body of work, Julia Reichert: 50 Years in Film, Feb 1–29, 2020 (at the Walker’s Bentson Mediatheque). Reichert will be on-site February 28 and 29, 2020 to discuss her career and her two recent, widely celebrated documentaries, American Factory and 9 to 5: The Story of a Movement.
Julia Reichert’s Growing Up Female, 1971. Image courtesy the artist.Julia Reichert’s Growing Up Female, 1971. Image courtesy the artist.
Growing
Up Female Directed
by Julia Reichert and Jim Klein
Thursday,
February 20, 7 pm Free
“I
wish every high school kid in America could see this film.”
—Susan Sontag on Growing
Up Female
Growing Up Female is the very first feature-length film of the modern women’s movement. Considered controversial and exhilarating on its release, the film examines female socialization through a personal look into the lives of six women, ages four to 35, and the forces that shape them—teachers, counselors, advertisements, music, and the institution of marriage. A time capsule of a generation’s feminist issues, sometimes intersecting with race and class, the film illuminates a complex system of institutions upholding internal and external oppression. Selected to the National Film Registry in 2011. 1971, DCP, 52 min.
Julia Reichert’s Union Maids, 1976. Image courtesy the artist.Julia Reichert’s Union Maids, 1976. Image courtesy the artist.
Union
Maids, Directed
by Julia Reichert, Jim Klein, and Miles Mogulescu
Reichert interviews three “Union Maids” on their experiences as organizing women of the Labor movement. Fighting for humanitarian rights, these radical workers reflect on their lives filled with purpose and struggle. Frustrated by the privileged class’ participation in the women’s movement and caught up in race and gender discrimination within class warfare, their voices echo and contextualize many social justice issues today. 1976, DCP, 48 min.
Julia Reichert at her film editing table in 1973. Image courtesy the artist.
Seeing
Red: Stories of American Communists,
Directed by Julia Reichert and Jim Klein
Julia Reichert’s Seeing Red, 1983. Image courtesy the artist.
Friday,
February 21,
7 pm; $10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Reichert brings to light the forgotten history of Americans who joined the Communist Party and the high price many of them paid for their beliefs. Boldly countering traditional myths, the film presents engaging interviews and personal accounts that take on a new resonance in today’s charged political climate. 1983, DCP, 100 min.
Evening Will Feature Live Music by Katy Vernon and PJ Harvey Film A Dog Called Money
The Sound Unseen Film+Music Festival (November 12 – 17, 2019) celebrates 20 years of film, music, and art in the Twin Cities. The opening night event includes a live music performance by Katy Vernon on the Walker Cinema Stage starting at 6:30 pm and a postshow reception in the main lobby. (Visit Sound Unseen for the full schedule of events and locations.)
Walker Arts Center logo (edited)
In
the fall of 1999, Sound Unseen introduced itself as a unique, cutting
edge “films-on-music” festival in Minneapolis. Formulated as a
cultural organization dedicated to the role of film and music as a
conduit of powerful ideas and diverse viewpoints. Its mission is to
foster a greater appreciation of cinema, to bridge cultures, create
and expand community, provide cultural exchange, networking
opportunities and educational outreach through regular interaction
with great films, filmmakers, musicians and artists.
The Sound Unseen Film+Music Festival logo
Since
its inception, It has established itself as one of the premiere niche
festivals in the country, but more importantly as a vital part of the
regional cultural scene. Now in its 19th year, the festival has
expanded to include year-round programming, unique pop-up events, and
special screenings including world and regional premieres.
Named
“One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals In The World” by Moviemaker
Magazine
in 2016, the “Best Winter Film Festival” by the Star
Tribune
2012, and the “Best of the Fests 2010” from Mpls/St
Paul Magazine,
Sound Unseen continues its tenure as the region’s premiere
films-on-music festival. While bringing the best in documentaries,
short films, and music videos it also showcases rare concert footage,
interactive panels, and live music events. As part of its year-round
presence, Sound Unseen offers a successful monthly screening series
and special events throughout the Twin Cities. This diversity in
content is one of the things that separates Sound Unseen from the
typical outdoor mega concerts and film festivals.
Sound
Unseen has received press coverage in all major local media including
The
Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, City Pages, Vita.mn, Secrets of the
City, Walker Art blog, TC Daily Planet, Northland News, Growler
Magazine, MinnPost; local radio stations The Current, KQRS, MPR,
Radio K and television news including NBC, FOX, and CBS. National
media mentions have included Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, USA
Today, Music Film Web blog, The Playlist,
and AIF
Independent magazine of New York.
Screenshot from PJ Harvey Film A Dog Called Money, directed by Seamus Murphy
Alternative-music
icon PJ
Harvey’s
ninth studio album, 2016’s The
Hope Six Demolition Project,
was created through a unique process that blended travelogue,
photography, performance art, and now a documentary feature. It began
when Harvey, looking to develop a new set of politically tinged songs
that would also evoke a tangible sense of place, decided to accompany
award-winning photojournalist and filmmaker Seamus
Murphy
as he travelled on assignments to war-torn regions in Afghanistan and
Kosovo, as well as to the poor, mostly black neighborhoods of
Washington, DC. As Murphy filmed, Harvey personally interacted with
the members of the different communities and wrote her impressions in
a diary, crafting song lyrics and melodies based on the stories she
uncovered. Back in London, Harvey and her band experimented with
these new songs during a live sound installation called “Recording
in Progress”
at the distinguished
Somerset House,
generating an album’s worth of material entirely within a
glass-walled recording studio, with members of the public invited to
watch. Chronicling the entire project, and even including a handful
of songs not on the final album, A
Dog Called Money is
Murphy’s inspiring, expressionistic document of this unprecedented
collaborative experiment. 2019, Ireland/UK, DCP, 90 min. —Clinton
McClung, Seattle International Film Festival
Sound
Unseen Opening Night
Tuesday, November 12
Live Music:
Katy Vernon, 6:30pm
Screening: A
Dog Called Money, 7pm
Walker
Cinema, $20 ($15 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Thirty-two
features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated
Feature Film category for the 92nd Academy Awards®. The submitted
features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Abominable”
“The
Addams Family”
“The
Angry Birds Movie 2”
“Another
Day of Life”
“Away”
“Buñuel
in the Labyrinth of the Turtles”
“Children
of the Sea”
“Dilili
in Paris”
“Frozen
II”
“Funan”
“Genndy
Tartakovsky’s ‘Primal’ – Tales of Savagery”
“How
to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”
“I
Lost My Body”
“Klaus”
“The
Last Fiction”
“The
Lego Movie 2: The Second Part”
“Marona’s
Fantastic Tale”
“Missing
Link”
“Ne
Zha”
“Okko’s
Inn”
“Pachamama”
“Promare”
“Rezo”
“The
Secret Life of Pets 2”
“Spies
in Disguise”
“The
Swallows of Kabul”
“This
Magnificent Cake!”
“The
Tower”
“Toy
Story 4”
“Upin
& Ipin: The Lone Gibbon Kris”
“Weathering
with You”
“White
Snake”
Several
of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles seven-day
qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical
release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other
qualifying rules before they can advance in the nominations voting
process. To determine the five nominees, members of the Short
Films and Feature Animation Branch are automatically eligible to
vote in the category. Academy members outside of the Short Films and
Feature Animation Branch are invited to opt-in to participate and
must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the
category. Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category
also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best
Picture.
Nominations
for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday,
January 13, 2020.
The
92nd Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at the
Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in
Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television
Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225
countries and territories worldwide.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a global community of more than 9,000 of the most accomplished artists, filmmakers and executives working in film. In addition to celebrating and recognizing excellence in filmmaking through the Oscars, the Academy supports a wide range of initiatives to promote the art and science of the movies, including public programming, educational outreach and the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which is under construction in Los Angeles.
Festival to open with “Just Mercy,” close with World Premiere of “Verticals”
The ninth annualNapa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) has announced its film line-up, including Opening and Closing Night screenings. NVFF returns this fall with its five-day festival showcasing the year’s best new independent films, November 13-17. Organizers will showcase Napa Valley’s finest food and wine at all special events, including the Festival Gala, VIP receptions and Vintner Circle dinners, and will feature a lively series of filmmaker-chef collaborative demonstrations at the Monogram Appliances Demonstration Kitchen at the Oxbow Commons in downtown Napa. The seven screening venues located throughout the Valley include the Archer Hotel Napa, the historic Cameo Cinema, the CIA at Copia, Charles Krug Winery, Lincoln Theater, Native Sons, and the Uptown Theatre.
Napa Valley Film Festival Logo
“We
are excited to release another eclectic selection of highly-curated
comedies and dramas from established and emerging filmmakers,”
said Napa Valley Film Festival CEO Tom Tardio. “These films
consist of inspiring and compelling stories that will thoroughly
engage and entertain our festival-goers. At the intersections of
film, food, and wine, the festival continues to deliver tremendously
unique and exclusive experiences that only a world-class destination
such as Napa Valley can provide and only that NVFF can deliver.”
Sneak
Preview Night, Opening Night and Closing Night
NVFF
will kick off with their Sneak Preview Night on Tuesday,
November 12 with a special presentation of 20th Century Fox’s
Ford v Ferrari. The film is inspired by the remarkable
true story of visionary American car designer Carroll Shelby and the
fearless British driver Ken Miles. Directed by James Mangold, the
film stars Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe,
Tracy Letts, Josh Lucas, Noah Jupe, Remo Girone and Ray McKinnon.
The
festival’s official Opening Night film on Wednesday,
November 13 is Warner Bros.’ Just Mercy, a powerful and
thought-provoking true story following young lawyer Bryan Stevenson
and his history-making battle for justice. The film is directed by
Destin Daniel Cretton and stars Michael B. Jordan, Brie Larson and
Jamie Foxx.
Closing
the festival on Sunday, November 17 is SOMMTV’s world
premiere of Verticals, a series that showcases Napa
Valley winemakers and the human condition through a bottle of wine.
This premiere is also the launch of SOMMTV, the first food and wine
dedicated streaming platform. The series is directed by Jason Wise.
Award
Season Contenders
Clemency
(Neon) – Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a
toll on prison warden, Bernadine Williams. The emotional wedge in
her marriage grows and memories of a recently botched execution
plague her daily. As she prepares to end the life of another inmate,
Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her
job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned
to execute. Directed by Chinonye Chukwu and starring Alfre Woodard,
Aldis Hodge, Wendell Price, Richard Schiff and Danielle Brooks.
Portrait
of a Lady on Fire (Neon) – In 1760 France, Marianne is
commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young
woman who has just left the convent. Marianne arrives under the
guise of companionship with the reluctant bride-to-be, observing
Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As
the two women orbit one another, intimacy and attraction grow as
they share Héloïse’s first moments of freedom. Héloïse’s
portrait soon becomes a collaborative act of and testament to their
love. Directed by Céline Sciamma and starring Noémie Merlant and
Adèle Haenel.
To
The Stars (Samuel Goldwyn Films) – Iris, a bespectacled
and reclusive teen living in a god-fearing Oklahoma town in the
1960s, endures the booze-induced antics of her mother and daily
doses of bullying from her classmates. She finds solace in Maggie,
the charismatic and enigmatic new girl at school, who hones in on
Iris’s untapped potential and coaxes her out of her shell. When
Maggie’s mysterious past can no longer be suppressed, the small
community is thrown into a state of panic, leaving Maggie to take
potentially drastic measures and inciting Iris to stand up for her
friend and herself. Directed by Martha Stephens and starring Kara
Hayward, Liana Liberato, Malin Akerman, Tony Hale, Shea Whigham and
Adelaide Clemens.
Troop
Zero (Amazon Studios) – In a tiny Georgia town in 1977, a
motherless girl named Christmas Flint dreams of life beyond the
confines of her trailer-park home and hopes to make contact with
outer space. When Christmas learns that the winners of the annual
Birdie Scout Jamboree talent contest will be included on a recording
to be sent into space for posterity, she tries to join the local
Scouts troop. When she is rejected by the snobbish group of girls
and their uptight leader Miss Massey, Christmas rallies a group of
elementary-school outliers to start their own chapter. Troop Zero is
an endearing and magical tale of friendship and individuality.
Directed by Bert & Bertie and starring Viola Davis, Mckenna
Grace, Jim Gaffigan, Mike Epps, Charles Shotwell and Allison Janney.
Special
Presentations
Code
& Response – 2018 was the worst year on record for
natural disasters. Code & Response takes us into the heart of
the aftermath of some of those disasters as we meet the first
responders who are supported by innovative technology. Follow four
coders from around the world (Japan, Puerto Rico, California, and
Mexico) to learn about why they are getting involved, as well as how
they are building technologies to help first responders save lives.
Directed by Austin Peck.
Elsewhere
– Bruno is still mourning his wife’s passing when his
in-laws evict him from the home he and wife built together.
Unwilling to let his beloved home fall into disrepair, Bruno sneaks
back to the house and meets the new owner of the home, Marie.
Determined to be the only person to make any changes to the house he
built, Bruno poses as a local handyman and Marie hires him for
renovations. As the two begin work on the house, Bruno is forced to
face the reality that his wife is gone, and he learns to move on
from his grief. Directed by Hernán Jiménez and starring Aden
Young, Parker Posey, Ken Jeong, Beau Bridges and Jacki Weaver. World
Premiere
From
the Vine – Mark, a downtrodden CEO, is experiencing an
ethical crisis at work. In an attempt to re-calibrate his moral
compass, he travels back to his hometown in rural Italy. He finds
newfound purpose by reviving his grandfather’s old vineyard,
offering the small town of Acerenza a sustainable future and
reconnecting with his family in the process. Combining magical
realism and Italian neorealism, and set against the backdrop of
Italian wine country, From the Vine is about returning to your roots
and redefining your life when you’re at the bottom of the barrel.
Directed by Sean Cisterna and starring Joe Pantoliano, Wendy
Crewson, Marco Leonardi, Paula Brancati and Tony Cisterna.
Gay
Chorus Deep South – In response to a wave of
discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws in Southern states, the San Francisco
Gay Men’s Chorus embarks on a tour of the American Deep South. The
tour brings a message of music, love, and acceptance to communities
and individuals confronting intolerance. What emerges is a less
divided America, where the lines that separate us in faith,
politics, and sexual identity are erased through the soaring power
of music, humanity, and a little drag. Directed by David Charles
Rodrigues.
I
Want My MTV – A nostalgic and thrilling ride, I Want My
MTV takes its audience back to the beginning, when the idea of a
television channel devoted to only videos seemed destined for
failure. The chronicling of this unique journey provides a peek into
how a team of young executives were tasked with growing this seed of
an idea, which would quickly flourish into a beloved and often
controversial cultural juggernaut. Features commentary from Sting,
Billy Idol, The Eurythmics, Jerry Cantrell, Pat Benatar, and more.
Directed by Patrick Waldrop and Tyler Measom, and starring Sting,
Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, Dee Snider, Norman Lear, The Eurythmics ,
Darryl McDaniel and Jerry Cantrell.
It
All Begins with a Song: The Story of the Nashville Songwriter
– It All Begins with a Song: The Story of the Nashville
Songwriter is a celebration of one of music’s most important
yet underrated forces: the songwriter. These songwriters have penned
melodies and lyrics for some of the biggest stars in the music
industry, yet few know their names. Pull back the curtain to reveal
the process of creating a successful song and learn more about the
origins of some of the world’s most iconic hits. Directed by
Anthony ‘Chusy’ Haney-Jardine.
The
Land of High Mountains – The Land of High Mountains is the
inspiring true story of the only pediatric hospital in Haiti. In a
country where one third of the population is under fourteen years of
age and foreign NGOs consistently come and go, Saint Damien
Pediatric Hospital has been providing life-saving healthcare to the
most vulnerable families for over thirty years. This is a powerful
account of the incredible people, both Haitian and foreign who,
despite encountering every conceivable obstacle, are working
together to create a brighter future for their patients and for
Haiti. Directed by Will Agee and starring Liferne Forestal, Phadoul
Amisial, Fr. Rick Frechette, Dr. Renee Alce, Dr. Jacqueline Gautier,
Fr. Enzo Del Brocco, Veline , Gaelle , Lourdy , Pierre Nadine,
Sainfleur Jean Israel, Marie Yolene, Vilaire Meralin and Christiana
Liberis.
Making
Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound – Since the invention of
sound in films, sound designers have been influencing the landscape
of cinema. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound shines a
spotlight on the unsung heroes of sound design throughout cinematic
history. Through interviews with legendary directors and some of the
industry’s most-respected sound designers, we revisit film
classics that helped shape the way we listen to and experience films
today. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound reveals the hidden
impact of sound in cinema and how the auditory intake of a film
holds so much power over an individual’s experience of
storytelling. Directed by Midge Costin.
Martha:
A Picture Story – In the 1970s, Martha Cooper was one of a
handful of photographers documenting the first vivid images of
graffiti appearing on New York City’s subway carriages. 20 years
later, she discovers that her book Subway Art has become one of the
most stolen books of all time – inspiring the spread of graffiti
around the globe and making Martha an unexpected icon of the street
art world. Now, at age 75, Martha must navigate her way through the
vastly changed culture of the modern world. Directed by Selina
Miles.
My
Beautiful Stutter – After lifetimes of bullying,
isolation, and failed fluency training, witness the incredible
transformation of five kids who stutter when they enter a
groundbreaking program through SAY, The Stuttering Association. Over
the course of a year of events and workshops, these young people of
wildly different backgrounds experience SAY’s revolutionary
mantra: it’s okay to stutter. Directed by Ryan Gielen and starring
Taro Alexander.
RUTH
– Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words – How does a person
with three strikes against her rise to the highest court in the
land, the U.S. Supreme Court? RUTH – Justice Ginsburg in Her Own
Words tells the improbable story of how Ruth Bader Ginsburg became
an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. It also reveals both the
public and private sides of a resilient, resourceful woman who has
survived the hostility of the profoundly male universe of government
and law to become a revered Justice and icon for gender equality and
women’s rights. Directed by Freida Lee Mock and starring Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Goodwin Liu, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky,
Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik, Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy, M.E.
Freeman, Lilly Ledbetter and Kathleen Peratis.
The
Three Drinkers Do Scotch Whisky – Packed full of humour,
personality, and flavour, The Three Drinkers do Scotch Whisky is a
drinks-focussed travelogue, where three friends embark on a road
trip through Scotland. From Dufftown and Islay to Elgin and Jura,
they journey through breath-taking landscapes, visiting iconic
distilleries and touching on Scottish culture, tourism and
traditional dishes you can’t even pronounce. This is whisky for a
new, global audience, from twenty-one to ninety-one. Directed by
David Agrawal. World Premiere
OTHER
FILM HIGHLIGHTS
Core
Competitions (previously announced)
Narrative
Competition
Bring
Me an Avocado, Directed by Maria Mealla and starring
Bernardo Peña, Sarah Burkhalter, Molly Ratermann, Candace Roberts.
Here
Awhile, Directed by Tim True and starring Anna Camp, Steven
Strait, and Joe Lo Truglio. World Premiere
Justine,
Directed by Stephanie Turner and starring Glynn Turman, Darby
Stanchfield, Josh Stamberg, Daisy Prescott, and Stephanie Turner.
Lucky
Grandma, Directed by Sasie Sealy and starring Tsai Chin,
Corey Ha, Michael Tow, Woody Fu, Yan Xi, Wai Ching Ho, and Clem
Cheung.
The
Nomads, Directed by Brandon Eric Kamin and starring Tika
Sumpter and Tate Donovan.
Run
This Town, Directed by Ricky Tollman and starring Ben Platt,
Mena Massoud, Nina Dobrev, Damian Lewis, Jennifer Ehle, and Scott
Speedman.
Standing
Up, Falling Down, Directed by Matt Ratner and starring Billy
Crystal, Ben Schwartz, Eloise Mumford, Grace Gummer, Caitlin McGee,
David Castaneda, Debra Monk, and Jill Hennessy.
Stealing
School, Directed by Li Dong and starring Celine Tsai,
Jonathan Keltz, Michelle Monteith, Mpho Koaho, Darrin Baker,
Jonathan Malen, Matthew Edison, and Vas Saranga. World Premiere
Documentary
Competition
I
Am Human, Directed by Taryn Southern and Elena Gaby.
Latter
Day Jew, Directed by Aliza Rosen.
Motherload,
Directed by Liz Canning.
The
Pollinators, Directed by Peter Nelson.
The
Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion, Directed by Lisa Cortes and Farah
X.
The
Story of Plastic, Directed by Deia Schlosberg.
This
Is My Home, Directed by Karl Nickoley.
Well
Groomed, Directed by Rebecca Stern.
Verge
Come
As You Are, Directed by Richard Wong.
Greener
Grass, Directed by Dawn Luebbe and Jocelyn DeBoer.
Hosea,
Directed by Ryan Daniel Dobson. World Premiere
Last
Call, Directed by Gavin Michael Booth.
Only,
Directed by Takashi Doscher.
Speed
of Life, Directed by Liz Manashil.
Treasure
Trouble, Directed by Dan Erickson.
The
Way You Look Tonight, Directed by John Cerrito.
Culinary
Cinema
Breaking
Bread, Directed by Beth Elise Hawk.
Funke,
Directed by Gab Taraboulsy.
Nose
to Tail, Directed by Jesse Zigelstein.
Nothing
Fancy: Diana Kennedy, Directed by Elizabeth Carroll.
Stage:
The Culinary Internship, Directed by Abby Ainsworth.
A
Taste of Sky, Directed by Michael Lei.
The
festival will also feature Short Film Programs with:
17
Narrative Shorts
11
Documentary Shorts
The
Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) is a five-day celebration
that blends the art of film, food, and wine together. Discover the
best new independent films of the year, savor exquisite cuisine
paired with legendary wines, and create lasting memories found only
in the Napa Valley. The Napa Valley Film Festival is presented by
Cinema Napa Valley, a registered 501c3 non-profit organization
headquartered in Napa, California. Cinema Napa Valley’s mission is
to celebrate the cinematic arts and enrich the community by
presenting an annual world-class festival and year-round education
and outreach programs. The Napa Valley Film Festival takes place
November 13-17, 2019. Visit napavalleyfilmfest.org for more
information on passes and festival events.
Designs for Different Futures is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The
role of designers in shaping how we think about the future is the
subject of a major exhibition that will premiere at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art this fall. Designs for Different Futures
(October 22, 2019–March 8, 2020) brings together some 80
works that address the challenges and opportunities that humans may
encounter in the years, decades, and centuries ahead. Organized by
the Philadelphia Museum of Art, theWalker
Art Center, Minneapolis,
and the Art Institute of Chicago,
Designs for Different Futures will be presented at the Walker
(September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021) and the Art Institute
of Chicago (February 6–May 16, 2021) following its
presentation in Philadelphia.
Among
the questions today’s designers seek to answer are: What role
can technology play in augmenting or replacing a broad range of human
activities?Can intimacy be maintained at a distance? How can
we negotiate privacy in a world in which the sharing and use of
personal information has blurred traditional boundaries? How might we
use design to help heal or transform ourselves, bodily and
psychologically? How will we feed an ever-growing population?
While
no one can precisely predict the shape of things to come, the works
in the exhibition are firmly fixed on the future, providing design
solutions for a number of speculative scenarios. In some instances,
these proposals are borne of a sense of anxiety, and in others of a
sense of excitement over the possibilities that can be created
through the use of innovative materials, new technologies, and, most
importantly, fresh ideas.
Timothy
Rub, the George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer of
the Philadelphia Museum of Art, stated: “We often think of
art museums as places that foster a dialogue between the past and the
present, but they also can and should be places that inspire us to
think about the future and to ask how artists and designers can help
us think creatively about it. We are delighted to be able to
collaborate with the Walker Art Center and the Art Institute of
Chicago on this engaging project, which will offer our visitors an
opportunity to understand not only how designers are imagining—and
responding to—different visions of the futures, but also to
understand just how profoundly forward-looking design contributes in
our own time to shaping the world that we occupy and will bequeath as
a legacy to future generations.”
“Lia: The Flushable and Biodegradable Pregnancy Test,” designed 2018 by Bethany Edwards and Anna Couturier Simpson (Courtesy of the designer). Photograph courtesy of LIA Diagnostics. Image courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019.
Thinking
about the future has always been part of the human condition. It has
also been a perennial field of inquiry for designers and architects
whose speculations on this subject—ranging from the concrete to the
whimsical—can profoundly affect how we imagine what is to come.
Among the many forward-looking projects on view, visitors to Designs
for Different Futures will encounter lab-grown food, robotic
companions, family leave policy proposals, and textiles made of
seaweed.
“Some
of these possibilities will come to fruition, while others will
remain dreams or even threats,” said Kathryn Hiesinger,
the J. Mahlon Buck, Jr. Family Senior Curator of European Decorative
Arts after 1700, who coordinated the exhibition in Philadelphia with
former assistant curator Michelle Millar Fisher. “We’d like
visitors to join us as we present designs that consider the possible,
debate the inevitable, and weigh the alternatives. This exhibition
explores how design—understood expansively—can help us all
grapple with what might be on the horizon and allows our imaginations
to take flight.”
The
exhibition is divided into 11 thematic sections. In Resources,
visitors will encounter an inflatable pod measuring 15 feet in
diameter, part of the work Another Generosity first created in
2018 by Finnish architect Eero Lundén and designed in this
incarnation in collaboration with Ron Aasholm and Carmen
Lee. The pod slowly expands and contracts in the space,
responding to changing levels of carbon dioxide as visitors exhale
around it, and provoking questions about the ongoing effect of the
human footprint on the environment.
“Svalbard Global Seed Vault,” designed 2008 by Peter W. Søderman, Barlindhaug Consulting (Exhibition display courtesy of USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation). Photograph courtesy of Global Crop Diversity Trust. Image courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019.“Recyclable and Rehealable Electronic Skin,” designed 2018 by Jianliang Xiao and Wei Zhang (Courtesy of the designer). Image courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019
The
section titled Generations will explore ways in which the
choices we make today may contribute to the well-being or suffering
of those who come after us. Here, visitors will find a model of the
Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a repository that stores the
world’s largest collection of crop seeds. Located within a mountain
on a remote island near the Arctic Circle, the facility is designed
to withstand natural or human-made disasters. The Earths section
of the exhibition speculates on the challenges of extra-terrestrial
communication in Lisa Moura’s Alien Nations installation and
showcases typeface from the 2016 science-fiction film Arrival.
In
Bodies, designers grapple with choices about how our physical and
psychological selves might look, feel, and function in different
future scenarios. Featured here is one of the world’s lightest and
most advanced exoskeletons, designed to help people with mobility
challenges remain upright and active. Also notable is the CRISPR
Kit, an affordable and accessible gene-editing toolbox, which has
the potential to revolutionize biomedical research and open
opportunities for gene therapy and genetic engineering.
Intimacies
is a section that explores how technologies and online interfaces may
affect love, family, and community. Here, urban experiences of sex
and love are the focus of Andrés Jaque’s Intimate
Strangers, an audio-visual installation focusing on the gay
dating app. Through internet-enabled devices, designers explore the
possibility of digitally mediated love and sex, suggesting what
advanced digital networks hold for human sexuality.
Foods
contains projects that explore the future of the human diet.
Among them is a modular edible-insect farm, Cricket Shelter,
by Terreform ONE, which offers a ready source of protein for
impending food crises. A kitchen installation suggests how technology
and design may contribute to new modes of food production, including
an Ouroboros Steak made from human cells.
“Circumventive Organs, Electrostabilis Cardium (film still),” designed 2013 by Agi Haines (Courtesy of the designer). Image courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019.
Additional
sections of the exhibition will focus on the future of Jobs and how
Cities will function and look 100 years from now—with
robotic baby feeders, driverless cars, and other
developments—affording a glimpse at how we might navigate living
beyond this planet. Shoes grown from sweat are among the innovations
visitors will find in a section devoted to Materials, while
Power will look at how design may affect our citizenship and
help us retain agency over such essentials as our DNA, our voices,
and our electronic communications in a future where the lines between
record-keeping, communication, and surveillance blur. Data
acknowledges and questions the different ways that information
might be collected and used, with all its inherent biases and
asymmetries, to shape different futures.
The
curatorial team is comprised of: at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Kathryn B.
Hiesinger, The J. Mahlon Buck, Jr. Family Senior
Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700, and Michelle
Millar Fisher, formerly The Louis C. Madeira IV Assistant
Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700; At the Walker
Art Center, Emmet Byrne,
Design Director and Associate Curator of Design; and at the Art
Institute of Chicago, Maite
Borjabad López-Pastor, Neville Bryan Assistant Curator of
Architecture and Design, and Zoë Ryan,
the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design.
Consulting curators are Andrew Blauvelt,
Director, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan, and Curator-at-Large, Museum of Arts
and Design, New York; Colin Fanning,
Independent Scholar, Bard Graduate Center,
New York; and Orkan Telhan,
Associate Professor of Fine Arts (Emerging Design Practices),
University of Pennsylvania School of Design,
Philadelphia.
Kathryn
B. Hiesinger is the J. Mahlon Buck, Jr. Family Senior Curator of
European Decorative Arts after 1700 at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art. Her work focuses on decorative arts and
design from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and includes
the exhibitions and publications Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion
(2011), Out of the Ordinary: The Architecture and Design of
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Associates (2001),
Japanese Design: A Survey since 1950 (1994) and Design
since 1945 (1983).
Michelle
Millar Fisher is the Ronald C. and Anita L Wornick Curator of
Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston. She is a graduate of the University
of Glasgow, Scotland, and is currently completing her
doctorate in architectural history at the Graduate
Center of the City University of New York. She is the
co-author, with Paola Antonelli, of Items: Is Fashion
Modern? (2017).
Emmet
Byrne is the Design Director and Associate Curator of Design at
the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis. He provides creative leadership and strategic direction
for the Walker in all areas of visual communication, branding,
publishing, while overseeing the award-winning in-house design
studio. He was one of the founders of the Task Newsletter in
2009 and is the creator of the Walker’s Intangibles platform.
Maite
Borjabad López-Pastor is the Neville Bryan Assistant Curator of
Architecture and Design at the Art Institute
of Chicago. She is an architect and curator educated at
the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Columbia
University, New York. She is the author and curator of
Scenographies of Power: From the State of Exception to the Spaces
of Exception (2017). Her work revolves around diverse forms of
critical spatial practices, operating across architecture, art, and
performance.
Zoë
Ryan is the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and
Design at the Art Institute of Chicago.
She is the editor of As Seen: Exhibitions That Made Architecture
and Design History (2017) and curator of In a Cloud, in a
Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernists in Mexico at Midcentury (2019)
and the 2014 Istanbul Design Biennial, The Future is Not
What it Used to Be. Her projects explore the impact of
architecture and design on society.
Centered
on the innovative contemporary design objects, projects, and
speculations of the exhibition’s checklist, the accompanying volume
proposes design as a means through which to understand, question, and
negotiate individual and collective futures, giving provocative voice
to the most urgent issues of today. It asks readers to contemplate
the design context within broader historical, social, political, and
aesthetic spectrums. Designs for Different Futures addresses
futures near and far, exploring such issues as human-digital
interaction, climate change, political and social inequality,
resource scarcity, transportation, and infrastructure.
The
primary authors are Kathryn B. Hiesinger, Michelle Millar Fisher,
Emmet Byrne, Maite Borjabad López-Pastor, and Zoë Ryan,
with Andrew Blauvelt, Colin Fanning, Orkan Telhan, Juliana Rowen
Barton, and Maude de Schauensee. Additional contributions
include texts by V. Michael Bove Jr. and Nora Jackson,
Christina Cogdell, Marina Gorbis, Srećko Horvat, Bruno Latour,
Marisol LeBrón, Ezio Manzini, Chris Rapley, Danielle Wood, LinYee
Yuan, and Emma Yann Zhang; and interviews with Gabriella
Coleman, Formafantasma (Andrea Trimarchi and Simone
Farresin), Aimi Hamraie and Jillian Mercado, Francis
Kéré, David Kirby, Helen Kirkum, Alexandra Midal, Neri Oxman,
and Eyal Weizman.
Designs
for Different Futures will be distributed by Yale University
Press. The book was overseen by Philadelphia Museum of Art
publishing director Katie Reilly and editors Katie Brennan
and Kathleen Krattenmaker. It is designed by Ryan Gerald
Nelson, Senior Graphic Designer at the Walker Art Center, under the
direction of Walker design director Emmet Byrne.
Futures
Therapy Lab
As
part of the exhibition, visitors to the Philadelphia Museum of Art
galleries will also encounter a space for community meetups, public
programs, school visits, and self-directed activities. The Futures
Therapy Lab will weave personal connections between visitors and
the exhibition as part of a collaboration between the museum’s
Education Department and the curatorial team. Weekly programs,
many of which will occur on Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesday Nights,
will connect visitors with designers, artists, and locally based
creatives. The Futures Therapy Lab will contain a crowdsourced
Futures Library that includes everything from science-fiction
books to the exhibition catalogue. “Thinking about possible
futures is both exhilarating and anxiety-provoking,” said
Emily Schreiner, the Zoë and Dean Pappas Curator of Education,
Public Programs. “The Futures Therapy Lab is a place for
conversation, critique, and creativity in which visitors can imagine
their own hopes, fears and solutions for the future through
reflection, discussion, and art making.”
In
Philadelphia, this exhibition is generously supported by the
Annenberg Foundation Fund for Major Exhibitions, the Robert
Montgomery Scott Endowment for Exhibitions, the Kathleen C.
and John J.F. Sherrerd Fund for Exhibitions,Lisa Roberts and
David Seltzer in Honor of Collab’s 50th Anniversary, the Women’s
Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Laura and
William C. Buck Endowment for Exhibitions, the Harriet and
Ronald Lassin Fund for Special Exhibitions, the Jill and
Sheldon Bonovitz Exhibition Fund, and an anonymous donor.
Related
Programs
The
Futures Therapy Lab will host a series of weekly happenings:
Artists
in the Lab
Artists
and designers share their work through talks, demonstrations, and
workshops. Wednesday Nights, 5:00–8:45 p.m.
The
Designer is In
Talk
it out. One-on-one sessions with local designers offer new
perspectives on your everyday life. Thursdays & Saturdays,
2:00–4:00 p.m.
Sci-Fi
Sundays
Drop-in
readings that explore narratives of the future. Select Sundays,
2:00–3:00pm
This fall, the Philadelphia Museum of Artpresents Off the Wall: American Art to Wear, (November 10, 2019 – May 17, 2020) a major exhibition that highlights a distinctive American art movement that emerged in the late 1960s and flourished during the following decades. It examines a generation of pioneering artists who used body-related forms to express a personal vision and frames their work in relation to the cultural, historical and social concerns of their time. Focusing on iconic works made during the three decades between 1967 and 1997, the exhibition features over 130 one-of-a-kind works by more than sixty artists. Comprised primarily of selections from a promised gift of Julie Schafler Dale, it will also include works from the museum’s collection and loans from private collections. Off the Wall: American Art to Wear is accompanied by a new publication of the same title, co-published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Yale University Press.
Timothy
Rub, the George D. Widener Director and CEO, said: “This
exhibition will introduce to our visitors an exceptionally creative
and adventurous aspect of American art which took the body as a
vehicle for its expression. We are not only deeply grateful to Julie
Dale for her extraordinary gifts and support of the museum but also
see this as an opportunity to acknowledge the dynamic role she played
in nurturing the growth and development of this movement.”
Susanna Lewis, Moth Cape, 1979. Machine knitted, appliquéd wool; beads. Promised gift of The Julie Schafler Dale Collection.
The
champions of Art to Wear during the early years were a
few forward-thinking museums, among them New York’s Museum of
Contemporary Crafts (Museum of Art and Design), collectors, and
galleries such as Sandra Sakata’s Obiko, founded in
1972 in San Francisco, and Julie Schafler Dale’s Julie:
Artisans Gallery, which opened the following year on Madison
Avenue in New York. For over 40 years, Dale’s gallery was a premier
destination for presenting one-of-a-kind wearable works by American
artists. Through her gallery installations and rotating window
displays, she gave visibility to the Art to Wear movement. In 1986,
she brought further recognition to the art form by publishing the
seminal book Art to Wear—from which the title of this
exhibition is taken—which provided in-depth profiles of artists
alongside photographs by Brazilian fashion photographer Otta
Stupakoff. Dale’s gallery closed in 2013.
Bill Cunningham, Griffin Mask, 1963. Molded, stitched, and glued feathers, sparterie, wire, jersey, and velour. Promised gift of The Julie Schafler Dale Collection.
Off
the Wall is arranged in nine sections; the titles of some are
derived from popular music of the ‘60s and ‘70s to suggest the
wide-ranging concerns of the artists. The introductory section, The
Times They Are A Changin’ (Bob Dylan, 1964), contains works by
Lenore Tawney, Dorian Zachai, Claire Zeisler, Ed Rossbach, and
Debra Rapoport to illustrate how textile artists in the late
‘50s and ‘60s liberated tapestry weaving from the wall, adapting
it to three-dimensional sculptural forms inspired by pre-Columbian
weaving.
Dina Knapp, See It Like a Native: History Kimono #1, 1982. Painted, appliquéd, and Xerox-transferred cotton, polyester, plastic, and paper. Promised gift of Julie Schafler Dale Collection.Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Pieced Silk Faille Kimono, circa 1992. Pieced shibori dyed silk pique weave. The Julie Schafler Dale Collection.Tim Harding, Garden: Field of Flowers, 1991. Quilted, layered, slashed and rayed cotton. 56 x 67 x 3 inches. Museum of Arts and Design, New York.
In
1969, a group of five students at Pratt Institute studying
painting, sculpture, industrial design, multimedia, and graphic
design taught each other how to crochet, leading to remarkable
outcomes. Janet Lipkin, Jean Cacicedo, Marika Contompasis, Sharron
Hedges, and Dina Knapp all created clothing-related forms
that they would describe as wearable sculpture, thus establishing a
cornerstone of the Art to Wear movement. A highlight in this
section is a wool crochet and knit Samurai Top, 1972, by
Sharron Hedges, modeled by the young Julie Dale for the book
Creative Crochet, authored by two of the artist’s friends,
Nicki Hitz Edson and Arlene Stimmel.
The
next section, Good Vibrations (Beach Boys, 1966), traces the
migration of many of these young artists from the East Coast to the
West Coast where they joined California’s vibrant artistic
community and connected with Sandra Sakata’s Obiko. A pair
of colorful denim hand-embroidered mini shorts by Anna VA Polesny
embroidered while traveling conveys this new youthful spirit.
Pacific Rim influences are evident in the Japanese kimono form as a
blank canvas offering infinite possibilities for pattern and design.
Katherine Westpahl’s indigo blue resist-dyed cotton work, A
Fantasy Meeting of Santa Claus with Big Julie and Tyrone at
McDonald’s, 1978, and Janet Lipkin’s Mexico at
Midday, a coat made in 1988 are exceptional examples. A range of
counter-culture influences, evoking ceremony and spirituality,
pervade this section.
Come
Together (The Beatles, 1969) responds to the popular use of
assemblage in art-making, especially the use of nontraditional
materials. It also looks at the art of performance, reflected in Ben
Compton and Marian Clayden’s Nocturnal Moth, 1974,
inspired by Federico Fellini’s film La Dolce Vita
(1960). “Mother Earth,” a nod to the publication Mother
Earth News Magazine, looks to nature and environmental concerns
while This Land is Your Land (Woodie Guthrie, 1940) explores
iconic American imagery including reference to the American West and
Native American cultures. Examples in this section include Joan
Ann Jablow’s Big Bird cape, 1977, made entirely of
recycled bird feathers, and Joan Steiner’s Manhattan
Collar, 1979, which reimagines New York’s skyline in miniature.
Other
Worlds explores fantasy and science fiction, two genres that
offered young people an escape from the period’s cultural and
political upheavals. Noteworthy here are works by Jean Cacicedo
and Nina Huryn, both of whom riff on one of the most widely
read English language books at the time, J.R.R. Tolkien’s
trilogy Lord of the Rings (1965). Cacicedo responded with a
portrait of Treebeard, 1973, a Tolkien character, while Huryn
created her own fantasy world in Tree Outfit, with its flowing pants,
loose shirt and leather sleeveless jacket containing forest and
folklore imagery, a work made especially for Julie: Artisans
Gallery in 1976. Other artists turned to dreams, such as Susanna
Lewis, who created Moth Cape, 1979, in response to a
nightmare that she had of a giant moth enveloping her body.
Debra Rapoport, Epaulets and Hood, 2017. Cardboard, used tea bags, egg cartons, paper, cork, feather. Courtesy of the artist.
Sheila Perez Ghidini, Combat Vest, circa 1985. Molded plastic figures on quilted plain weave supplemental warp and weft patterning. Promised gift of The Julie Schafler Dale Collection.
A
section called I Am Woman (Helen Reddy, 1971) underscores the
ways in which artists invoked feminism directly and indirectly in Art
to Wear. Janet Lipkin, for example, invested her works
with symbols of freedom while searching for new directions in her
life, as seen in Bird Coat, 1972, Flamingo, 1982, and
Transforming Woman, 1992. Other works like Combat Vest,
1985, by Sheila Perez, feature plastic toy soldiers as
protective armor for the chest area, while Nicki Hitz Edson’s
Medusa Mask, 1975, is a wild expression of fraught emotions
surrounding the breakup of her marriage.
Nicki Hitz Edson, Medusa Mask, 1975. Crocheted wool. Promised gift of The Julie Schafler Dale Collection.Jo-Ellen Trilling, Preposition Jacket, 1989. Tinted and ink drawings on cotton canvas, pieced silk plain weave, rayon binding appliqué, plastic and metal skeletons appliqué and pendants. Promised gift of The Julie Schafler Dale Collection.
Colour
My World (Chicago, 1970) reflects the buoyant rainbow color
spectrum that was ubiquitous during this era. Recently published
works on color theory by Johannes Itten and Josef Albers
provided a cornerstone of the new art education. For Linda
Mendelson, color, typography, and text became inseparable. She
adapted Albers’s ideas relating to after-images in Big Red,
and linked color progression with lines from a poem titled Coat by
William Butler Yeats from which she drew inspiration. Other
artists such as Tim Harding created an effect similar to
impressionist brush strokes by slashing and fraying dyed fabrics, as
seen in his colorful coat Garden: Field of Flowers, 1991.
Linda J. Mendelson, In Kyo-Kawara, 2015, Wool machine knitted, plastic buttons. Promised gift of The Julie Schaffler Dale Collection.
The
final section Everybody’s Talkin’ (Harry Nilsson, 1969)
explores the use of text in Art to Wear. JoEllen Trilling
engages in visual word play using common prepositions on a
jacket, while Jean Cacicedo channels her grief over her
father’s death using words taken from the bible that celebrated his
life in My Father’s House, 1994.
Dilys
Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costumes
and Textiles, who organized the exhibition, said: “We are
looking back at this period with a fresh lens through which to
consider a uniquely American art form that continues to have a
worldwide influence. With roots and connections in fine arts, fiber
art, craft, performance and fashion, there are so many important
artists to appreciate. For this reason I am delighted by the
opportunity to cast a light on such extraordinary talents, including
so many adventurous women who deserve much greater recognition.”
Off
the Wall: American Art to Wear is accompanied by a new
publication of the same name co-published the Philadelphia Museum of
Art and Yale University Press, co-authored by exhibition curators
Dilys E. Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior
Curator of Costumes and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
and independent textile scholar and curator Mary Schoeser,
with a contribution written by Julie Schafler Dale. The volume
provides the social, political, and artistic context for Art to
Wear. ISBN 9780876332917.
Curators:
Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of
Costume and Textiles and Mary Schoeser, Independent Textile Historian
and Curator
This
exhibition has been made possible by Julie Schafler Dale, PNC, The
Coby Foundation, the Arlin and Neysa Adams Endowment Fund, Catherine
and Laurence Altman, the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, and other generous donors.
The Whitney Museum of American Art announced today that its 2021 Biennial, the 80th edition, will be co-organized by two brilliant members of the Museum’s curatorial department, David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards. The 2021 Whitney Biennial exhibition will open in the spring of 2021 and is presented by Tiffany & Co., which has been the lead sponsor of the Biennial since the Museum’s move downtown.
Image credit: Adrienne Edwards and David Breslin. Photograph by Bryan Derballa
Alice
Pratt Brown Director Adam D. Weinberg noted: “The central
aim of the Biennial is to be a barometer of contemporary American
art. Each Biennial is a reflection of the cultural and social moment
as it intersects with the passions, perspectives, and tastes of the
curators. David and Adrienne will be a great team. They are
inquisitive, curious, and are acutely attuned to the art of the
current moment. No doubt they will bring fresh outlooks to this
historic exhibition and reinvent it for these complex and challenging
times.”
With
a long history of exhibiting the most promising and influential
artists and provoking debate, the Whitney Biennial is the Museum’s
signature survey of the state of contemporary art in the United
States. The Biennial, an invitational show of work produced in the
preceding two years, was introduced by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in
1932, and it is the longest continuous series of exhibitions in the
country to survey recent developments in American art.
Initiated by founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1932, the Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art. More than 3,600 artists have participated, including Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Agnes Martin, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra, Lynda Benglis, Frank Bowling, Joan Jonas, Barbara Kruger, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, David Wojnarowicz, Glenn Ligon, Yvonne Rainer, Zoe Leonard, Kara Walker, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Mike Kelley, Lorna Simpson, Renée Green, Wade Guyton, Julie Mehretu, Cecilia Vicuña, Mark Bradford, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Ellen Gallagher, Rachel Harrison, Wu Tsang, Nick Mauss, Sarah Michelson, Laura Owens, Postcommodity, Pope.L, Jeffrey Gibson, and Tiona Nekkia McClodden.
The biennials were originally organized by medium, with painting alternating with sculpture and works on paper. Starting in 1937, the Museum shifted to yearly exhibitions called Annuals. The current format—a survey show of work in all media occurring every two years—has been in place since 1973. The 2019 Biennial (still on partial view on the Museum’s sixth floor until October 27) was organized by two Whitney curators, Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley. It featured seventy-five artists and collectives working in painting, sculpture, installation, film and video, photography, performance, and sound.
David
Breslin was recently named the DeMartini Family Curator and
Director of Curatorial Initiatives, a role he will assume this
month. Since joining the Museum in 2016 as DeMartini Family Curator
and Director of the Collection, Breslin has spearheaded the Museum’s
collection-related activities, curating a series of major collection
exhibitions and overseeing acquisitions. Working closely with his
curatorial colleagues, he has organized or co-organized four timely
and thematized collection displays, including Where We Are:
Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1900–1960, An
Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s
Collection, 1940–2017, Spilling Over: Painting Color
in the 1960s, and The Whitney’s Collection:
Selections from 1900 to 1965, which is currently on view on
the Museum’s seventh floor. In 2018, he co-curated (with David
Kiehl) the landmark retrospective David Wojnarowicz:
History Keeps Me Awake at Night.
Breslin
came to the Whitney from the Menil Drawing Institute, where he
created an ambitious program of exhibitions and public and scholarly
events and helped to shape the design of the Institute’s new
facility. He also oversaw work on the catalogue raisonné of the
drawings of Jasper Johns and grew the collection. Prior to the
Menil, Breslin served as the associate director of the research and
academic program and associate curator of contemporary projects at
the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA; he also oversaw
the Clark’s residential fellowship program and taught in the
Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.
Breslin co-edited Art History and Emergency: Crises in the Visual
Arts and Humanities (Yale University Press, 2016), a volume that
grew from a Clark Conference he organized with art historian Darby
English.
In
2018, Adrienne Edwards was named Engell Speyer Family
Curator and Curator of Performance at the Whitney. Previously,
she served as curator of Performa since 2010 and as Curator at
Large for the Walker Art Center since 2016.
At
the Whitney, Edwards curated Jason Moran, the artist’s first
museum show, now on view on the Museum’s eighth floor. She
originated the exhibition at the Walker in 2018; it previously
traveled to the ICA Boston and the Wexner Center for the
Arts. The exhibition features a series of performances, Jazz on a
High Floor in the Afternoon, curated by Edwards and Moran. She
organized the event commencing the construction of David
Hammons’s Day’s End, featuring a commission by composer
Henry Threadgill and a “water” tango on the Hudson
River by the Fire Department of the City of New York’s
Marine Company 9. Earlier this year, Edwards organized Moved
by the Motion: Sudden Rise, a series of performances based on
a text co-written by Wu Tsang, boychild, and Fred Moten,
which presented a collage of words, film, movements, and sounds.
For
Performa, Edwards realized new boundary-defying commissions,
as well as pathfinding conferences and film programs with a wide
range of over forty international artists. While at the Walker, she
co-led the institution-wide Mellon Foundation Interdisciplinary
Initiative, an effort to expand ways of commissioning, studying,
collecting, documenting, and conserving cross-disciplinary works.
Edwards’s curatorial projects have included the critically
acclaimed exhibition and catalogue Blackness in Abstraction,
hosted by Pace Gallery in 2016. She also organized Frieze’s
Artist Awardand Live program in New York in 2018. Edwards
taught art history and visual studies at New York University
and The New School, and she is a contributor to the National
Gallery of Art’s Center for the Advanced Study in Visual Art’s
forthcoming publication Black Modernisms.
Scott
Rothkopf, the Whitney’s Senior Deputy Director and Nancy and Steve
Crown Family Chief Curator, said, “David and Adrienne truly
represent the best spirit and ideals of the Whitney. Not only are
they devoted to—and beloved by—living artists, but they bring to
the art of our time a deep historical and scholarly awareness. The
most recent editions of the Biennial have reaffirmed its vitality and
relevance, and I look forward to discovering how another pair of
Whitney curators will lend their voices to our signature exhibition.”
Ninety-three
countries have submitted films for consideration in the International
Feature Film category for the 92nd Academy Awards®. An
international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion
picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States
with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. Ghana, Nigeria and
Uzbekistan are first-time entrants.
Earlier
this year, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted to rename
the Foreign Language Film category to International Feature
Film and expand the shortlist from nine to 10 films.
The
2019 submissions, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:
Albania,
“The Delegation,” Bujar Alimani, director;
The
shortlist of 10 films will be announced on Monday, December 16,
2019. Nominations for the 92nd Oscars® will be announced
on Monday, January 13, 2020.
The
92nd Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020,
at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in
Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network.
The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and
territories worldwide.
The
Short Film Captures the Brand’s Quest to Create One of the World’s
Most Innovative Retail Experiences
Marking the first anniversary of one of its most iconic spaces to date, RH announced the release of “RH New York, The Movie,” a short film documenting the creation of RH New York, The Gallery in the Historic Meatpacking District. This first-of-its-kind, 90,000-square-foot retail experience features a skylit six-story atrium with transparent glass elevator, Rooftop Restaurant, Barista Bar & Wine Terrace, Interior Design Firm, “New York Night,” a dramatic art installation by Alison Berger, and full floors dedicated to RH Interiors, RH Modern, RH Outdoor, RH Baby & Child, and RH TEEN.
RH Logo RH NEW YORK, THE GALLERY IN THE HISTORIC MEATPACKING DISTRICT (Photo: Business Wire) (GIF)
“It
took seven years of improvising, adapting and overcoming all of the
obstacles until it became what it is today, which is arguably the
most innovative new store in the world, in the most important city in
the world,”
Chairman and CEO Gary Friedman says in the film’s opening moments.
“There’s
not a better place to express truly what you believe in.”
To
experience RH New York, The Movie, visit
RH.com
Andy Warhol—From A To B And Back Again, The First Major Reexamination Of Warhol’s Art In A Generation, To Open At The Whitney On November 12
Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again—the first Andy Warhol retrospective organized in the U.S. since 1989, and the largest in terms of its scope of ideas and range of works—will be an occasion to experience and reconsider the work of one of the most inventive, influential, and important American artists. With more than 350 works of art, many assembled together for the first time, this landmark exhibition, organized by The Whitney Museum of American Art, will unite all aspects, media, and periods of Warhol’s forty-year career. Curated by Warhol authority Donna De Salvo, Deputy Director for International Initiatives and Senior Curator, with Christie Mitchell, curatorial assistant, and Mark Loiacono, curatorial research associate, the survey debuts at the Whitney on November 12, 2018, where it will run through March 31, 2019.
While Warhol’s Pop images of the 1960s are recognizable worldwide, what remains far less known is the work he produced in the 1970s and 80s. This exhibition positions Warhol’s career as a continuum, demonstrating that he didn’t slow down after surviving the assassination attempt that nearly took his life in 1968, but entered into a period of intense experimentation, continuing to use the techniques he’d developed early on and expanding upon his previous work. Taking the 1950s and his experience as a commercial illustrator as foundational, and including numerous masterpieces from the 1960s, Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again tracks and reappraises the later work of the 1970s and 80s through to Warhol’s untimely death in 1987.
(Following its premiere at the Whitney, the exhibition will travel to two other major American art museums, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago. Bank of America is the National Tour Sponsor)
“Perhaps more than any artist before or since, Andy Warhol understood America’s defining twin desires for innovation and conformity, public visibility and absolute privacy,” noted De Salvo. “He transformed these contradictory impulses into a completely original art that, I believe, has profoundly influenced how we see and think about the world now. Warhol produced images that are now so familiar, it’s easy to forget just how unsettling and even shocking they were when they debuted. He pioneered the use of an industrial silkscreen process as a painterly brush to repeat images ‘identically’, creating seemingly endless variations that call the very value of our cultural icons into question. His repetitions, distortions, camouflaging, incongruous color, and recycling of his own imagery anticipated the most profound effects and issues of our current digital age when we no longer know which images to trust. From the 1950s until his death, Warhol challenged our fundamental beliefs, particularly our faith in images, even while he sought to believe in those images himself. Looking in this exhibition at the full sweep of his career makes it clear that Warhol was not just a twentieth-century titan but a seer of the twenty-first century as well.”
Occupying the entirety of the Whitney’s fifth-floor Neil Bluhm Family Galleries, the adjacent Kaufman Gallery, the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Lobby Gallery, the Susan and John Hess Family Gallery and Theater, Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again will be the largest exhibition devoted to a single artist yet to be presented in the Whitney’s downtown location. Tickets will be available on the Whitney’s website beginning in August.
Through his carefully cultivated persona and willingness to experiment with non-traditional art-making techniques, Andy Warhol (1928–1987) understood the growing power of images in contemporary life and helped to expand the role of the artist in society, making him one of the most distinct and internationally recognized American artists of the twentieth century. This exhibition sets out to prove that there remains far more to Warhol and his work than is commonly known. While the majority of exhibitions, books, articles, and films devoted to Warhol’s art have focused on a single medium, subject, series, or period, Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again will employ a chronological and thematic methodology that illuminates the breadth, depth, and interconnectedness of the artist’s production: from his beginnings as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, to his iconic Pop masterpieces of the early 1960s, to the experimental work in film and other mediums from the 1960s and 70s, to his innovative use of readymade abstraction and the painterly sublime in the 1980s. The show’s title is taken from Warhol’s 1975 book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), an aphoristic memoir in which the artist gathered his thoughts on fame, love, beauty, class, money, and other key themes.
Building on a wealth of new materials, research and scholarship that has emerged since the artist’s untimely death in 1987, as well as De Salvo’s own expertise and original research conducted by the Whitney’s curatorial team, the checklist of works has been carefully selected from amongst the thousands of paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, films, videos, and photographs that Warhol produced during his lifetime.
Adam D. Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney, commented: “This exhibition takes a fresh focus, while continuing the Whitney’s decades-long engagement with Warhol’s work which we presented in 1971 in a traveling retrospective and in Andy Warhol: Portraits of the 70s, organized by the Whitney in 1979–80. Few have had the opportunity to see an in-depth presentation of his career, and account for the scale, vibrant color, and material richness of the objects themselves. This exhibition, to be presented in three cities, will allow visitors to experience the work of one of America’s greatest cultural figures firsthand, and to better comprehend Warhol’s artistic genius and fearless experimentation.”
Early Work
The exhibition covers the entirety of Warhol’s career, beginning with a concentrated focus on the commercial and private work he made between 1948 and 1960. Arriving in New York from his native Pittsburgh in the summer of 1949, Warhol began his career in an advertising world that was increasingly technological, and, concurrently, an art world obsessed with originality and the authenticity of the hand-made mark. The 1950s were a foundational period for the artist, a young gay man, beginning to find his way in the city. Though far less known than his later work, the commercial art that Warhol produced during his first decade in New York lays the groundwork for many of the themes and aesthetic devices that he would develop throughout the length of his career.Continue reading →
This summer, The Whitney Museum of American Art will present the first museum solo exhibition of Eckhaus Latta, the New York-and Los Angeles-based fashion label, founded in 2011 by Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta. Eckhaus Latta: Possessed highlights the work of this compelling young design team who belong to a new generation of designers operating at the intersection of fashion and contemporary art.
Untitled (Preparatory drawing for Possessed), 2018. Colored pencil on paper. Image courtesy the artists
Eckhaus Latta’s fashion designs—for which they are currently finalists for the 2018 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers—explore, in part, identity and reflect the fluid nature of gender and sexuality. While they fully participate in the fashion system, Latta and Eckhaus remain self-aware of their roles in a consumer society. Their recognizable designs have featured experimental knitwear; a wide range of materials including lace, rust, and recycled fabrics; and a general approach that supersedes gender binaries. At times, models are sent down the runway wearing clothes that challenge traditional definitions of male and female. Vanessa Friedman, fashion director and chief fashion critic at the New York Times, wrote that their clothes “are a kind of petri dish of associative splicing,” and that they “grapple honestly with what is on the designers’ minds: questions of gender and difference and the details of fallible beauty…”
This will be the first exhibition related to fashion at the Museum in twenty-one years, since The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (1997).
Eckhaus Latta: Possessed is organized by Christopher Y. Lew, Nancy and Fred Poses Associate Curator, and Lauri London Freedman, head of product development.
The exhibition, part of the Museum’s emerging artist series, will be on view in the first-floor John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Gallery from August 3 through October 8, 2018. Access to the gallery is free of charge.
Mike Eckhaus (b. 1987, New York, NY) and Zoe Latta (b. 1987, Santa Cruz, CA) met as students at the Rhode Island School of Design while studying sculpture and textiles, respectively. They are known for using unexpected materials, emphasizing texture and tactility in their designs, and for incorporating writing, performance, and video into their practice. Through their emphasis on collaboration—with artists, musicians, and others—and an approach that plays with, and against, industry conventions, Eckhaus Latta addresses the crosscurrents of desire, consumption, and social relations. Their work has been featured in Greater New York 2015 at MoMA PS1 and Made in L.A. (2016) at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
“As part of the Whitney’s emerging artist program, we sometimes showcase creative figures outside of the visual arts,” said Lew. “These figures from fields such as fashion, music, architecture, design, and food approach their disciplines in ways that are akin to visual artists, often questioning the systems and parameters that define what they do, speaking to the broader cultural moment, and blurring the boundaries between disciplines.”
“Working with Mike and Zoe has challenged us to consider the roles that our Museum spaces play and the objects that are presented. They pushed us to ask broader questions such as ‘How can we reexamine the format of an exhibition?’ and ‘What is the best way to exhibit an artist’s work?’ said Freedman.
For their Whitney exhibition, Eckhaus Latta will create a new three-part installation that embraces and brings into conversation various aspects of the fashion industry, from advertising and the consumer experience to voyeurism. At the entrance to the gallery will be a sequence of photographs that play on the tropes of iconic photoshoots found in fashion advertisements and magazines. These photographs explore how Eckhaus Latta’s unique aesthetic functions in relation to the highly polished look of the industry’s media. The core of their installation will be an operational retail environment in which visitors are welcome to touch, try on, and purchase clothing and accessories designed specifically for the show. This space is made in collaboration with more than a dozen artists whom Eckhaus Latta has been in dialogue with over the years who have created functional elements such as clothing racks, display shelves, and a dressing room. The exhibition concludes with a darkened room, evocative of a security office, which features a bank of screens depicting surveillance footage. Visitors will have a voyeuristic view of not only the rest of the installation but a glimpse of the tracking and surveillance that so often accompanies the experience of shopping.
The featured collaborators are Susan Cianciolo(b. 1969, Providence, RI; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY), Lauren Davis Fisher(b. 1984, Cambridge, MA; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA), Avena Venus Gallagher (b. 1973, Seattle, WA; lives and works in New York, NY), Jeffrey Joyal(b. 1988, Boston, MA; lives and works in New York, NY), Alexa Karolinski(b. 1984, Berlin, Germany; lives and works in Los Angeles), Valerie Keane(b. 1989, Passaic, NJ; lives and works in New York, NY),Jay Latta (b. 1951, Santa Cruz, CA; lives in works in Santa Cruz, CA), Matthew Lutz-Kinoy(b. 1984, New York, NY; lives and works between Los Angeles, CA and Paris, France), Annabeth Marks (b.1986, Rochester, NY; lives and works in New York, NY), Riley O’Neill(b. 1992, Los Angeles, CA; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA), Emma T. Price (b. 1987, Santa Cruz, CA; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA), Jessi Reaves(b. 1986, Portland, OR; lives and works in New York, NY), Erica Sarlo(b. 1988, Briarcliff Manor, NY; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY), Nora Jane Slade(b. 1986, Washington, D.C.; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA), Sophie Stone(b. 1987, Boston, MA; lives and works in New York, NY), Martine Syms(b. 1988, Los Angeles, CA; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA), Torey Thornton(b. 1990, Macon, GA; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY), Charlotte Wales(b. 1986, Farnborough, UK; lives and works in London, UK), Eric Wrenn(b. 1985, Southfield, MI; lives and works in New York, NY), and Amy Yao(b. 1977, Los Angeles, CA; lives and works in Long Beach, CA and New York, NY).
Major support for Eckhaus Latta: Possessed is provided by the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation. Additional support is provided by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner.
The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Streetbetween Washington and West Streets, New York City. Museum hours are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from 10:30 am to 6 pm; Friday andSaturday from 10:30 am to 10 pm. Closed Tuesday. Adults: $25. Full-time students and visitors 65 & over: $18. Visitors 18 years & under and Whitney members: FREE. Admission is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays, 7–10 pm. For general information, please call (212) 570-3600 or visit whitney.org.
This summer, the most complete presentation to date of the work of artist, writer, and activist David Wojnarowicz will be on view in a full-scale retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art. David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night is the first major re-evaluation since 1999 of one of the most fervent and essential voices of his generation.
David Wojnarowicz with Tom Warren, Self-Portrait of David Wojnarowicz, 1983–84. Acrylic and collaged paper on gelatin silver print, 60 × 40 in. (152.4 × 101.6 cm). Collection of Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich, Photograph by Ron Amstutz. (The exhibition is organized by David Breslin, DeMartini Family Curator and Director of the Collection, and David Kiehl, Curator Emeritus, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.)
Opening at the Whitney on July 13 and running through September 30, David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night features more than a hundred works by the artist and is organized by two Whitney curators, David Breslin, DeMartini Family Curator and Director of the Collection, and David Kiehl, Curator Emeritus. The exhibition, which will be installed in the Museum’s fifth floor Neil Bluhm Family Galleries through September 30, draws upon the scholarly resources of the Fales Library and Special Collections (NYU), the repository of Wojnarowicz’s archive, and is also built on the foundation of the Whitney’s extensive holdings of Wojnarowicz’s work, including thirty works from the Museum’s collection. It will travel to the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, in May 2019, and to Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg City, in November 2019.
Scott Rothkopf, Deputy Director for Programs and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, remarked, “Since his death more than twenty-five years ago, David Wojnarowicz has become an almost mythic figure, haunting, inspiring, and calling to arms subsequent generations through his inseparable artistic and political examples. This retrospective will enable so many to confront for the first time, or anew, the groundbreaking multidisciplinary body of work on which his legacy actually stands.”
Beginning in the late 1970s, David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) created a body of work that spanned photography, painting, music, film, sculpture, writing, performance, and activism. Joining a lineage of iconoclasts, Wojnarowicz (pronounced Voyna-ROW-vich) saw the outsider as his true subject. His mature period began with a series of photographs and collages that honored—and placed himself among—consummate countercultural figures like Arthur Rimbaud, William Burroughs, and Jean Genet. Even as he became well-known in the East Village art scene for his mythological paintings, Wojnarowicz remained committed to writing personal essays. Queer and HIV-positive, Wojnarowicz became an impassioned advocate for people with AIDS at a time when an inconceivable number of friends, lovers, and strangers—disproportionately gay men—were dying from the disease and from government inaction.
After hitchhiking across the U.S. and living for several months in San Francisco, and then in Paris, David Wojnarowicz settled in New York in 1978 and soon after began to exhibit his work in East Village galleries. Largely self-taught, Wojnarowicz came to prominence in New York in the 1980s, a period marked by great creative energy and profound cultural changes. Intersecting movements—graffiti, new and no wave music, conceptual photography, performance, neo-expressionist painting—made New York a laboratory for innovation. Unlike many artists, Wojnarowicz refused a signature style, adopting a wide variety of techniques with an attitude of radical possibility. Distrustful of inherited structures, a feeling amplified by the resurgence of conservative politics, Wojnarowicz varied his repertoire to better infiltrate the culture.
His essay for the catalog accompanying the exhibition Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing (curated by Nan Goldin at Artists Space in 1989–90) came under fire for its vitriolic attack on politicians and leaders who were preventing AIDS treatment and awareness. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) threatened to defund the exhibition, and Wojnarowicz fought against this and for the first amendment rights of artists.Continue reading →
Exhibition Brings Large-Scale Installations From Famed Desert Gathering to Washington
Cutting-edge artwork created at Burning Man, the annual desert gathering that is one of the most influential events in contemporary art and culture, will be exhibited in the nation’s capital for the first time this spring. “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” will take over the entire Renwick Gallery building, exploring the maker culture, ethos, principles and creative spirit of Burning Man. Several artists will debut new works in the exhibition. In addition to the in-gallery presentation, the Renwick exhibition will expand beyond its walls for the first time through an outdoor extension titled “No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick,” displaying sculptures throughout the surrounding neighborhood.
Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti, Totem of Confessions, 2015. Photo by Daniel L Hayes.
Burning Man is both a cultural movement and a thriving temporary city of more than 75,000 people that rises out of the dust for a single week each year in late summer in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. During that time, enormous experimental art installations are erected, some of which are then ritually burned to the ground. The desert gathering is a uniquely American hotbed of artistic ingenuity, driving innovation through its philosophies of radical self-expression, community participation, rejection of commodification and reverence for the handmade.
“The scale, the communal effort and the technical challenges inherent in creating works for the desert are part of what sets Burning Man apart from other art experiences,” said Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “It is an amazingly creative laboratory where innovators go to play and to push the boundaries of their craft. Displaying the art of Burning Man at the Renwick is the latest example of our focus on new directions in craft and making.”
FoldHaus, Shrumen Lumen, 2016. Photo by Rene Smith.
Nora Atkinson, the museum’s Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, is organizing the exhibition in collaboration with the Burning Man Project, the nonprofit organization responsible for producing the annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City, for facilitating and extending the culture that has issued from Burning Man into the wider world and for cultivating its principles reflecting an immediate, non-commercial and participatory culture. The outdoor extension of the exhibition is presented in partnership with Washington, D.C.’s Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, a 43-square-foot neighborhood that stretches from the White House to Dupont Circle. The Burning Man community across the globe was instrumental in suggesting artworks for inclusion in the exhibition.
“No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” opens March 30, 2018. The Renwick is the sole venue for the exhibition, which will close in two phases. The first floor will showcase works by Candy Chang, Marco Cochrane, Duane Flatmo, Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti, Five Ton Crane Arts Collective, Scott Froschauer, Android Jones and Richard Wilks and will close Sept. 16, 2018. The second floor, featuring works by David Best, FoldHaus Art Collective, Aaron Taylor Kuffner, HYBYCOZO (Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu), Christopher Schardt and Leo Villareal, will remain on view through Jan. 21, 2019. “No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick,” will be presented in the surrounding neighborhood through December 2018.Continue reading →
Philadelphia Museum of Art Presents a New Work by Rachel Rose, On View May 2 through August 18, 2018
Rose is the Inaugural Recipient of The Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media Grant
The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present a new video installation by Rachel Rose, the inaugural recipient of the Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media, which has been jointly awarded to the artist by the Museum and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. A project under development for nearly two years, this commission represents the most ambitiously scaled production in the artist’s career to date, leading to the creation of a work that will enter the collections of these two institutions. Titled Wil-o-Wisp, Rose’s work will be on view from May 2 through August 18, 2018, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It will then travel to the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy, where it will open in November.
Production image from Wil-o-Wisp, 2018, by Rachel Rose (Jointly owned and commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Funding is made possible for the Philadelphia Museum of Art through the Contemporary Art Revolving Fund). Photo by Nancy Green, on-site at Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts, 2017.
Timothy Rub, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer, stated: “Seeing this project evolve since the awarding of the commission has been deeply gratifying. It demonstrates just how vital it is for institutions like ours to support emerging talent at precisely the time when such support is needed. This collaboration with our partners in Turin has also provided a wonderful opportunity to expand and strengthen our engagement with contemporary art.”
Production image from Wil-o-Wisp, 2018, by Rachel Rose (Jointly owned and commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Funding is made possible for the Philadelphia Museum of Art through the Contemporary Art Revolving Fund). Photo by Nancy Green, on-site at Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts, 2017.
In 2016, the two esteemed arts and culture organizations established the Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media as a collaborative initiative to jointly commission and acquire new work by artists from around the world who are active in video, film, performance, and sound. The Commission supports the creation and production of a new work every two years that will be presented at both the Museum and the Fondazione. With its unique focus and its commitment to the joint acquisition of the works produced with the support of this initiative, the commission aims to give unprecedented opportunities to international artists who are exploring new territory in these experimental modes of contemporary art. Rachel Rose is the inaugural recipient.
Production image from Wil-o-Wisp, 2018, by Rachel Rose (Jointly owned and commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Funding is made possible for the Philadelphia Museum of Art through the Contemporary Art Revolving Fund). Photo by Nancy Green, on-site at Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts, 2017.
Rachel Rose has emerged as an important voice in contemporary video, widely recognized for her deft digital editing that aligns disparate visual images and historical references. This new commission has provided her with an opportunity to widen the scope of her interests by investigating narrative devices and story-telling. In Wil-o-Wisp, the artist has directed a live action video in which a woman’s fate becomes inextricably tied to moments of upheaval, suspicion, and persecution in 16th century agrarian England, a time during which the Enclosure Movement led to the privatization of land throughout the country. The video follows various vignettes of Elspeth’s life, cycling between familial moments and tragedy, the practice of magic and her persecution.
Rose strings dramatic moments together with temporal shifts, varying rhythms, an emotive score, and carefully constructed visual effects. The work reflects upon the harsh realities of English rural life during a time of a rising culture of suspicion in which women, such as Elspeth, engaging in nontraditional healing practices were often seen as threatening to an increasingly regulated society. The title of the work, Wil-o-Wisp, refers to ghostly lights that could be seen hovering at night over bogs and marshes and that, in folklore, could have the sinister effect of leading people astray. In Rose’s work, the title speaks to the characters whose paths are determined both by willful choices and the power of coincidence.
Directing a cast and crew of about thirty people, Rose shot the work at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that offered a period setting of houses in an English vernacular style and an austere winter landscape. Working with both trained and street-cast actors, as well as Plimoth Plantation guides, Rose both utilized the character of the site and added to it, creating her own imagined world within this setting. From costumes to set decorations, Rose combined period and contemporary materials.
Production image from Wil-o-Wisp, 2018, by Rachel Rose (Jointly owned and commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Funding is made possible for the Philadelphia Museum of Art through the Contemporary Art Revolving Fund). Photo by Nancy Green, on-site at Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts, 2017.
Rose’s video is characterized as much by her intensive approach to post-production as by the attention she gives to the script and on-set staging. After filming the work in Plimoth, she added components such as a narrative sung by an ethereal voice in iambic pentameter. Orchestral and electronical scores serve to gather momentum and produce an emotional effect. Animals and people generate ghostly doubles, and a bright green moss seems to take over the barren landscape. In this work, Rose also continues her use of Medieval marginalia: drawn characters that populated Medieval manuscripts are here collaged to form words announcing certain protagonists and moments within the larger narrative. These elements coalesce with the depicted dramatic events to create a world in which the circumstance of history meets the coincidence and magic of fate.
Installed as a single-channel video and approximately ten minutes in length, Wil-o-Wisp will fill a large gallery that will include an eighteen-foot widescreen. It will be framed within an environment which is currently under development by the artist.
Erica Battle, The John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, said: “While Rachel Rose’s carefully woven narrative is set in the past, it speaks to larger themes and concerns that are relevant to our world today. Wil-o-Wisp reflects the inescapable feeling that history is cyclical.”
Rachel Rose (American, born 1986) creates video installations that combine video, sound, and architectural elements. She has had solo exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2017), the Aspen Art Museum (2016), the Museu Serralves in Porto, Lisbon (2016), the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London (2015), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2015). She was the recipient of the Frieze Artist Award (2015), and her work is collected by prominent institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; LUMA Foundation, Arles; Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris; Ishikawa Foundation; Tate, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. Rose received a BA from Yale University, New Haven, as well as an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and an MFA from Columbia University, New York.Continue reading →
Producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd today announced the second slate of presenters for the89th Oscars® telecast. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the Oscars will air live on Sunday, February 26, on the ABC Television Network.
“These actors are why we love to go to the movies,” said De Luca and Todd. “From blockbusters to art house films, these artists deliver every time and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the 89th Oscars stage.”
The presenters, including past Oscar® winners and nominees, areHalle Berry, Jamie Dornan, Chris Evans, Gael García Bernal, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Dakota Johnson, Shirley MacLaine, Kate McKinnon and Hailee Steinfeld.
Berry won an Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role for “Monster’s Ball” (2001). Her feature credits also include “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014), “Cloud Atlas” (2012), “Frankie & Alice” (2010), “X-Men The Last Stand” (2006), “X2” (2003), “Die Another Day” (2002) and “X-Men” (2000). She will next appear in “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and “Kings.”
Dornan’s film credits include “Fifty Shades Darker” (2017), “Fifty Shades of Grey” (2015) and the Oscar-winning film “Marie Antoinette” (2006). Additionally, he has appeared in “Anthropoid” (2016) and “The Siege of Jadotville” (2016). His upcoming films include “Fifty Shades Freed,” “Robin Hood” and “Untogether.”
Evans is known for “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) and the Oscar-nominated features “Captain America: The Winter Solider” (2014) and “Marvel’s The Avengers” (2012). His film credits also include “The Iceman” (2013), “Puncture” (2011), “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (2010) and “Fantastic Four” (2005). Evans will next appear in “Gifted,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Jekyll.”
García Bernal’s credits include the Oscar-winning films “Babel” (2006) and “The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004) as well as the Oscar-nominated films “Y Tu Mamá También” (2001) and “Amores Perros” (2000). Additionally, he has appeared in “Neruda” (2016), “Desierto” (2016) and “Bad Education” (2004). His upcoming films include “Z” and the animated feature “Coco.”
Jackson earned an Oscar nomination for Actor in a Supporting Role for “Pulp Fiction” (1994). Notably, he also appeared in the Oscar-winning films “The Hateful Eight” (2015), “Django Unchained” (2012) and “Inglourious Basterds” (2009). Jackson will next appear in “Kong: Skull Island,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “The Incredibles 2” and “Inversion.”
Johansson appeared in the Oscar-winning features “Her” (2013), “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (2008) and “Lost in Translation” (2003) as well as the Oscar-nominated films “Iron Man 2” (2010), “Match Point” (2005) and “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (2003). Her credits also include “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) and “Lucy” (2014). Johansson will next be seen in “Ghost in the Shell,” “Rock That Body” and “Avengers: Infinity War.“Continue reading →
TV Commercials To Increase Brand Awareness Will Air Concurrently On Networks Including Fox News, CNN and Bloomberg
The Independently-Owned, Ad-Free SVOD Service Created By The Discovery Channel Founder Now Offers Over 1,500 Titles In History, Science, Nature, And Technology
All Titles Are Available For Instant Access By Subscribers With Annual And Monthly Subscription Plans Available for SD, HD, and 4K Streaming
John Hendricks, the Founder of CuriosityStream and the Founder and Former Chairman of Discovery Communications, announced today that CuriosityStream, which is currently available in 196 countries worldwide, is launching its first print ad campaign with a theme of positioning the SVOD service as “the antidote to ‘reality’ TV.”
During the week of February 6, 2017, the print campaign will launch in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers. Concurrent with the print campaign, CuriosityStream has begun to test television commercials designed to increase brand awareness. With commercials currently being tested on networks such as CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg, the TV campaign has been created around the theme “Long Live the Curious.”
John Hendricks
Hendricks stated, “The economic realities of ad-supported linear television have understandably driven most cable networks toward ‘reality’ TV programming which appeals to the large audiences for amusement content. As a result, the curious 25% of television viewers have witnessed a dramatic loss of choice in high-qualityprograms in science, history, nature, and technology. CuriosityStream is now available worldwide with a mission to satisfy the demand of audiences who are eager to learn about the mysteries of civilization, recent advances in science, fascinating breakthroughs in technology, in-depth explorations of current events, and the wonders of nature.”Continue reading →
Two-Hour Documentary Hosted and Executive Produced by Couric Is Available for Free to All Schools and Nonprofits That Will Host Inclusive Screenings and Conversations
Every day all around the world, gender is making headlines, weaving its way into conversations big and small, in settings from the government to households, from schools to places of employment. The two-hour National Geographic documentary GENDER REVOLUTION: A JOURNEY WITH KATIE COURIC (trailer here) approaches the topic of gender through the lens of science, society, and culture, all woven together by personal stories and experiences.
National Geographic logo. (PRNewsFoto/National Geographic Society)
In GENDER REVOLUTION: A JOURNEY WITH KATIE COURIC, premiering Monday, Feb. 6, at 9/8c, National Geographic set out to explore this evolving concept of gender through the lens of science, society, and culture. Produced by Katie Couric Media with National Geographic Studios and World of Wonder Productions, the special will also air on National Geographic around the globe in 171 countries and in 45 languages.
To extend the life of this important documentary beyond its Feb. 6 television broadcast, National Geographic and Picture Motion are partnering on the Gender Revolution Tour, allowing any high school, college, university or nonprofit to sign up to host a free screening and discussion. The tour will harness the momentum of the conversations happening around the globe and offer an opportunity to have an informed dialogue on one of the most complicated and evolving issues in the current zeitgeist. The Gender Revolution Tour is being managed by impact agency Picture Motion.
Requests to participate in the Gender Revolution Tour can be made by filling out the request form at http://bit.ly/NatGeoGenderRevolution. Screening hosts will be sent a DVD of the film and an extensive discussion guide (LINK), created by Journeys in Film, that provides additional resources on understanding gender.
At the time of this release, more than 100 universities, high schools, and non-profit groups have already scheduled screening events of the GENDER REVOLUTION leading up to and during the week of the film’s television premiere on National Geographic.
Katie Couric Media develops and produces content, programming, and documentaries for TV networks and digital distribution platforms, focusing on compelling issues the award-winning journalist and best-selling author has covered throughout her career. Katie Couric Media projects include the “Katie Couric” podcast from Earwolf, which features the host in candid, unscripted conversations about American life and politics; the National Geographic documentary GENDER REVOLUTION; and the upcoming movie “Flint” with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, about the drinking water contamination in Flint, Michigan. Katie Couric is the executive producer of “Fed Up” (2014) and “Under the Gun” (2016), both documentaries that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
“From the very start, it was my hope that as many people as possible would be given the opportunity to see this film,” said Couric. “I am thrilled that along with National Geographic and Picture Motion we are going to be able to share GENDER REVOLUTION and our accompanying discussion guide with groups all over the country.”
“National Geographic is about exploration and discovery. Through the Gender Revolution Tour we want to encourage constructive conversations that will allow people to connect with each other over material that is science-based, investigative and in some cases deeply personal,” said Chris Albert, Executive Vice President, Global Communications for National Geographic. “We believe this is a timely and groundbreaking documentary, and are thrilled to make it available for free to any organization interested in expanding its knowledge on the gender discussion.”
“We are so thrilled, but not entirely surprised, to see GENDER REVOLUTION so embraced. From Catholic Colleges to LGBT advocacy groups, city-based Sororities to mid-west High Schools, Gender Studies programs to Trans Support Groups for Parents; there has been an outpour of support for a film like GENDER REVOLUTION,” said Christie Marchese, CEO and Founder, Picture Motion.
GENDER REVOLUTION is produced by Katie Couric Media, World of Wonder Productions and National Geographic Studios for National Geographic. For Katie Couric Media, executive producers are Katie Couric and Mitch Semel. For World of Wonder, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, and Jeremy Simmons serve as executive producers. For National Geographic Studios, executive producers are Jeff Hasler and Brian Lovett. For National Geographic, Tim Pastore is president, original programming and production, and Michael J. Miller is executive producer.Continue reading →
Exhibit Spans Two-and-a-Half Decades of Work by Photographer and Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield And A Visual History of the Growing Obsession with Wealth That Has Come to Define a Generation
On April 8, 2017, the Annenberg Space for Photography will premiere GENERATION WEALTH by Lauren Greenfield, a multimedia exhibit by internationally acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield that investigates the global obsession with wealth over the last 25 years. Through a collection of 195 color-saturated prints, 42 riveting first-person interviews, multimedia projections and short films, Greenfield creates a revelatory cultural exhibition that documents the values of materialism, celebrity culture, social status and media saturation that have touched nearly every corner of the globe.
“There’s no hiding from the eye of a truly great photographer. Lauren Greenfield has given us nothing short of an x-ray of our ambitions and ideals. In all of contemporary photography, no one is better at exploring the tension between what we covet and who we really are—between the mad dash for affluence and the price we pay for that pursuit,” said Wallis Annenberg, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of the Annenberg Foundation. “To me, Lauren Greenfield is so much more than a groundbreaking artist; she’s a sociologist, a storyteller, an ironist and a keen humorist. This is a wonderful, timely, thought-provoking body of work and, now more than ever, it’s one we all need to see.”
The exhibit marks Greenfield’s third collaboration with the Annenberg Space for Photography and first solo exhibit. In March 2009, Greenfield was chosen to be a featured photographer in the venue’s inaugural exhibition, L8S ANG3LES, which explored the lives and rituals of the youth of Los Angeles. In May 2011, Greenfield was a featured photographer in the Beauty CULTure exhibit and was also commissioned by the Annenberg Foundation to direct a 30-minute documentary film about the subject, investigating our obsession with beauty and the influence of photographic representations of the beauty landscape.
The photographer’s latest collaboration, GENERATION WEALTH by Lauren Greenfield, is a multi-platform project that started in L.A. 25 years ago with Fast Forward, her exploration of the lives of young Angelenos growing up in a media-saturated society and their relationships with money and celebrity. In 2008, she revisited this evocative milieu with a short film, kids + money, which was selected by the Sundance Film Festival and broadcast on HBO. In 2012, she returned to Sundance with the opening night film The Queen of Versailles, which documents a Florida family’s efforts to build the largest house in America against the backdrop of the economic crisis. After a sensational opening at Sundance, the film was acquired by Magnolia Pictures and Greenfield was honored with Sundance’s Best Director Award. This work serves as the basis for many of the themes Greenfield has continued to explore throughout her career: consumerism, media influence, gender and self-esteem, and the pervasive quest for the American Dream. Since the success of The Queen of Versailles, Greenfield’s journey has taken her across America and beyond, revealing stories of students, single parents, and families overwhelmed by crushing debt yet determined to purchase luxury homes, cars and clothing. From Bel-Air to Monaco, Russia, and China, Greenfield exposes a pervasive aspirational gap between what we want and what we can afford and reveals a consumer appetite unprecedented in human history. Her #LikeAGirl video was seen by 214 million global viewers and garnered more than 100 awards.
Coinciding with the exhibition, Phaidon will publish the highly anticipated monograph Lauren Greenfield: Generation Wealth (May 15, 2017), an extraordinary visual history of rampant materialism and our growing obsession with wealth. Beginning April 8, the Annenberg Space for Photography will serve as the exclusive retailer of the book before its wide international release.
“GENERATION WEALTH documents a seismic shift in values and in the concept of the American Dream,” Greenfield explains. “Beginning in Los Angeles in the ’90s, I examined the ‘influence of affluence’ as media and globalization exported our notions of success around the world. The title of the project and some of the pictures could mislead the reader to think that this is a work about the one percent, about people who are wealthy. It is not. This work is about the aspiration for wealth and how that has become a driving force—and at the same time an increasingly unrealistic goal—for individuals from all classes of society. Bringing together 25 years of analog and digital photography, interviews, andfilmmaking, I could never have realized this mammoth undertaking without the incredible support and encouragement of Wallis Annenberg, who is an unparalleled champion of artists and with whom I have been grateful to collaborate with on three exhibitions. The story of GENERATION WEALTH began in Los Angeles and I am deeply honored to debut this work in my hometown.”
The Annenberg Space for Photography is a cultural destination dedicated to exhibiting both digital and print photography in an intimate environment. The space features state-of-the-art, high-definition digital technology as well as traditional prints by some of the world’s most renowned photographers and a selection of emerging photographic talents as well. The venue, an initiative of the Annenberg Foundation and its trustees, is the first solely photographic cultural destination in the Los Angeles area, and it creates a new paradigm in the world of photography.
H&M Hennes & Mauritz is pleased to announce the debut of their holiday short film “Come Together“, directed by Wes Anderson starring Adrien Brody. The story takes place on a train traveling through a snowy landscape where Brody plays the conductor. Watch the “Come Together” Holiday Film here or visit hm.com.
Academy-Award winning actor Adrian Brody in still from the H&M’s 2016 Holiday Film, “Come Together” directed by Wes Anderson.
“The winter train ride, under Wes Anderson’s direction, is the perfect setting for H&M’s holiday collection full of relaxed, wearable elegance. It’s about mixing the informal with a sense of occasion, capturing the holiday mood for both dressing up and getting cozy with loved ones.” says Pernilla Wohlfahrt, H&M’s Head of Design and Creative Director.
Academy-Award winning actor Adrian Brody and the cast in still from the H&M’s 2016 Holiday Film, “Come Together” directed by Wes Anderson.
In the film, lone passengers are traveling to join their loved ones for the holidays, but winter weather conspires to way-lay them.
“This story may resonate more than ever at a time in the world where we could all do with giving a stranger a hug.” says actor Adrien Brody.
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