Fall 2014 Exhibitions
September 26, 2014 to January 4, 2015
The exhibition, curated by Dr. Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins, brings together thirty-five of Howard’s mixed media works which explore Black folk customs and traditions of the American South. Bearing witness to that culture, Howard collects found and repurposed objects to build and layer her works into dramatic structures that reflect on her personal, communal, and cultural history. The resulting artworks are contemplative and speak to memories and emotions of a rich history from a uniquely American source.
Howard’s works are a constant interchange between formalism and content as she becomes more committed to the process of retrieval—selecting and working with repurposed materials to capture and peel back the layers that form her ideas and inform the embedded stories that she pushes forward, conscious of the layering of time and how time brings historical perspective to life.
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| Click the image above for a printable PDF version of the exhibition catalog. |
Mildred Howard: Collective Memories is made possible by the Fresno Art Museum Council of 100 with additional support from the Gallery Paule Anglim.
Photo of Mildred Howard by Don Farnsworth, Magnolia Editions, Oakland, CA
September 26, 2014 to January 4, 2015
In conjunction with the StageWorks Fresno production of The Normal Heart scheduled for FAM's Bonner Auditorium, September 12 to 28, 2014, FAM proudly presents four sections from the internationally celebrated AIDS Memorial Quilt – the 54-ton, handmade tapestry that stands as a memorial to more than 94,000 individuals lost to AIDS.
Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation is the international organization that is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. The AIDS Memorial Quilt began with a single 3 x 6 foot panel created in San Francisco in 1987. Today, The Quilt is composed of more than 48,000 individual panels, each one commemorating the life or lives of someone who has died of AIDS. These panels come from every state in the nation, every corner of the globe and they have been sewn by hundreds of thousands of friends, lovers and family members into this epic memorial, the largest piece of ongoing community art in the world.
Listed among the many individuals represented in the sections on view are names of early AIDS activists as well as some of those affiliated with the characters personified in The Normal Heart. One example is Brad Davis, the actor who, while playing an AIDS activist in the Broadway show The Normal Heart in 1985, was diagnosed with AIDS. He kept this information to himself until his death in 1991.
“We are thrilled to have the chance to share The AIDS Memorial Quilt with your community. These handmade blocks, created by friends and family, tell the stories of individuals who have lost their lives to AIDS. We bring you their stories in the hope of inspiring compassion, healing and personal responsibility. We thank the Fresno Art Museum for hosting this event and we invite you all out to see what wonderful art we have created together as a nation.”
Julie Rhoad, Executive Director
The NAMES Project Foundation
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is presented in partnership with StageWorks Fresno and The NAMES Project Foundation.
September 26, 2014 to January 4, 2015
Gallery 25, a cooperative venue for Central Valley artists, is celebrating 40 years of exhibitions in 2014. This Anniversary Exhibition will feature 20 artists exhibiting paintings, drawings, print-making, and mixed media works. Begun as a project in the 1974 Feminist Art Program spearheaded by Professor Joyce Akin at Fresno State University, the Gallery has grown over the years to include male artists. Gallery 25 features the best in Contemporary Art from the Central Valley of California and has been located in downtown Fresno for the last 10 years.
Images: Sharon Bickford, Reflection Mandala, 2012, mixed media with watercolor and Jerrie Peters, Canyon Colors, 2014, acrylic on wood
September 26, 2014 to January 4, 2015
Carmel-based photographer, Tom Millea, is a master of the platinum palladium print. The process is a labor-intensive technique that harkens back to the earliest days of photography. The emulsion creates a sepia tone impression. It is a strenuous and tactile process that uses a hand-made emulsion of platinum, palladium, and ferric oxalate and requires the negative to be exposed directly on the paper via ultra violet light. Platinum prints date back to the 1830s, and were the dominant form of photography for a hundred years until they were replaced by silver gelatin prints. Millea was drawn to the durability and depth that platinum printing offers and was instrumental in reviving interest in the process.
Millea does not strive to capture a beautiful image or offer a postcard view of the landscape he chooses to photograph; instead, Millea considers the subject to be secondary to the emotional resonance and tonality of the image. This approach grants an ethereal quality to his photographs and creates an intimacy between artist and audience, allowing the viewer insight into the spiritual journey of the photographer.
The selected images in this exhibition are meant to evoke a sense of isolation and stillness, and to inspire reflection upon life, death, and the relationship of these states of being with art.
Image: Tom Millea, Aguerrebury Point, 1981 and Oasis, 1982, platinum prints
The Fresno Art Museum's fall exhibitions are made possible by generous support from Baker, Peterson, & Franklin, LLP, Jane M. Cleave, Mr. and Mrs. William M. Lyles Fund of the Fresno Regional Foundation, August Madrigal, and the Women's Auxiliary of the Fresno Art Museum.
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