Join Lumen and curator Stephen Nowlin for a seminar focused on the SKY exhibition at the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Tuesday 25 August, 8pm-10pm BST, 12-2pm CA (via Zoom). Join seminar via Patreon
SKY is an exhibition that invites visitors to ponder both the provincial and universal elements of space above and around the Earth’s surface. This group exhibition will demonstrate how the unfolding realities exposed by new science are affecting change in the understanding of ourselves, our planet and beyond. SKY features works of contemporary art, science artefacts and historical objects displayed equally and side-by-side, blurring boundaries and distinctions between domains usually separated by convention and differing periods of history.
During the seminar, we will hear from curator Stephen Nowlin as he introduces the exhibition. We will then hear presentations from artists Laura Parker, Rebeca Méndez, Lia Halloran and Carol Saindon.
The exhibition includes works by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Georg Braun (1541-1622) & Franz Hogenberg (1535-1590), George Ellery Hale (1868-1938), Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), Albert Thomas DeRome (1885-1959), Angel Espoy (1879-1963) and Magnus von Wright (1805-1868). Additional contemporary artists and lenders presented include The European Space Agency, The Caltech Archives, GAIA Spacecraft, Lia Halloran, The Jonathan Art Foundation, Eleanor Lutz, Rebeca Méndez, Laura Parker, Christopher Richmond, Carol Saindon and Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
SKY | Artist Bios
Laura Parker
Laura Parker is a Los Angeles artist whose interests have been shaped by the image-gathering potential of the camera and the time-and space-altering characteristics of cinema. Cropping and structuring multi-image pieces, she describes her work "as much about creating a sense of motion as it is about investigating the nature of perception." She received her MFA at California Institute of the Arts, and BFA Magna Cum Laude at the University of California, Los Angeles. She resides and works in Altadena, California.
Rebeca Méndez
Rebeca Méndez is an artist, designer, and professor at UCLA, Design Media Arts, where she is director of the CounterForce Lab, a research and fieldwork studio dedicated to using art and design to develop creative collaborations, research, and projects around the social and ecological impacts of anthropocene climate change. She received her BFA and MFA at ArtCenter College of Design, from which she also received an honorary Doctorate Degree in 2020.
Lia Halloran
Lia Halloran was born in Chicago, IL, and grew up surfing and skateboarding in the San Francisco Bay Area town of Pacifica, CA. She developed a love of science at her first job, during high school, at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Halloran received her BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her MFA in Painting in Printmaking from Yale University. Halloran’s work often makes use of scientific concepts as a starting point and explores how perception, time and scale inform the human desire to understand the world and our emotional and psychological place within it.
Carol Saindon
Carol Saindon emigrated to Southern California from her birthplace in Seattle, Washington, earning a B.A. at University of Santa Barbara, and M.A. at California State University, Fullerton. Of her series of installations and drawings of oceans and galaxies, she says "For 30 years living near the Pacific Ocean, my work has been based on both the observation and contemplation of the forces that move the seas. From what is known of the observable universe the massive turbulence taking place in the galaxies and supernovas is witnessed in part on Earth in the push and pull of tides and strong weather patterns affecting the oceans.”
Stephen Nowlin
Stephen Nowlin is an artist/curator and founding director of the Williamson Gallery at ArtCenter College of Design. He earned his BFA at California Institute of the Arts, and MFA at ArtCenter. His curatorial emphasis focuses on the poetic intersection of science and art, and his writings on discrediting the concept of the supernatural. He has written,
"The profound question of whether the universe is supernaturally or naturally governed is not answered by a study of religion or philosophy. Rather, it is answered at the top of a 200-foot sheer cliff, by anyone calculating how near the edge it is prudent to be standing."
How to join the seminar
To join this seminar and forthcoming reading groups, we ask for a small fee via Patreon to help with running costs now, and hopefully in the future, dependent on subscribers. All subscribers will be offered a place in the seminar and if unable to attend, the seminar will be available on Youtube. If you are not able to financially contribute to the session, please do let us know.
Join seminar via Patreon
Supported by Arts Council England
The reading group programme is funded by Arts Council England and Nationl Lottery players. The funding supports Lumen’s exploration of sustainable online activities during a time when galleries large and small are looking at alternative offerings for networks of artists and audiences.
Photo: Juan Posada/ArtCenter