Winter/Spring 2016 Exhibitions
January 22 to May 1, 2016
Curator: GuestCurator Traveling Exhibitions
In May 1931, photographer Nickolas Muray (1892-1965) traveled to Mexico on vacation where he met Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). The two started a romance that continued on and off for the next ten years and a friendship that lasted until the end of their lives.
Approximately 50 photographic portraits taken of Frida Kahlo comprise the exhibition Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray. The photographs, dating from 1937 to 1946, explore Muray's unique perspective; in the 1930s and 1940s, he was Frida Kahlo's friend, lover, and confidant. Muray's photographs bring to light Kahlo's deep interest in her Mexican heritage, her life, and the people significant to her with whom she shared a close friendship.
The Hungarian-born Muray was an acclaimed artist in his own right, having pioneered color portrait photography. During his long career, Nickolas Muray photographed many important people from the political, artistic, and social arenas. The body of his work is extensive, comprising over 10,000 portraits. Muray photographed Kahlo more than any of his other subjects, and his portraits of her are among the most iconic images of the artist that are not self-portraits. These portraits of Kahlo have made their way into popular culture and are integral to the understanding of who Frida Kahlo was as an individual behind her artwork.
Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray is presented with the generous support of the Central Valley Foundation's McClatchy Fresno Arts Endowment. The exhibition has been organized by the Nickolas Muray Photo Archives and is circulated through GuestCurator Traveling Exhibitions.
Read the Fresno Bee article about this exhibition by clicking here.
Images: Nickolas Muray, Classic Frida (with Magenta Rebozo), New York, 1939, carbon print; and Frida with Nick in her Studio, Coyoacán, 1941, silver gelatin print
January 22 to May 1, 2016
Curator: Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director & Chief Curator
During the last 25 years, Anne Scheid has transformed her style from basic practice drawing into a monumental and multi-faceted art form. As an art school undergraduate in the 1970s, she drew landscapes; while a graduate student in the 1980s, she focused on figural representations. Her present works combines the landscape and the figure in order to explore the inter-connectedness of these subjects: the earth as the theatre for human actions and the human as a vulnerable and transient presence within the geophysical cycles of the natural world. Body/Land: A 25 Year Retrospective of Anne Scheid, curated by Gordon L. Fugile, Director and Head of Curatorial Affairs of the Central California Museum of Art, is an artistic quest to connect with nature and to traverse the depths of the human condition.
As part of this three venue retrospective exhibition, Anne Scheid's work will also be on view at ArtSpace Gallery at Fresno City College from February 22 to April 7, 2016 and at Arte Américas from March 3 to May 22, 2016. Please click here for information on other venues and events surrounding this exhibition.
Images: Anne Scheid, The Four Arms of Kali, 2012, graphite, ink wash, acrylic on waxed paper; and Embodied Malstrom (San Joaquin River), n.d., collage and charcoal on paper
January 22 to May 1, 2016
Curator: Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director & Chief Curator & Kristina Hornback, FAM Curator
Los Angeles based Sonia Romero is a multi-faceted artist who specializes in mixed media printmaking, painting, and public art. This is her first one-person museum exhibition in this region,
The daughter of two artists (her father is the acclaimed Chicano muralist Frank Romero), she was raised in a creative environment so becoming an artist was a natural choice. Romero was educated at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where she fell in love with printmaking. This exhibition showcases her linoleum-cut block prints, the subject matter pulling from issues of gender and cultural identity and resulting in a form of urban storytelling. Romero blends traditional techniques with very modern narratives, creating a unique fusion of styles.
Images: Sonia Romero, Jarana Willow, Revolving Landscape Series, edition of 10, linocut on paper; and Tree of Money, 2015, edition of 10, linocut with collage on paper
January 22 to May 1, 2016
Curator: Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director & Chief Curator
Curated by Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director and Chief Curator for FAM, Promise Land is the first one-person museum exhibition of paintings by Fresno-based artist Richard G. Freitas. His technique of using oil paints on wood panel replicates the Classical Academic Style of the High Italian Renaissance. Primarily self-taught, Freitas' paintings are deeply influenced by the farming community of the San Joaquin Valley. With a delicate hand and exquisite technique, he renders the fields, the farm workers, and the buildings that populate the landscape which is the Promise Land.
Working closely with Michele Ellis Pracy, Freitas has created six new paintings especially for this exhibition.
Read the Fresno Bee article about this exhibition by clicking here.
Images: Richard G. Freitas, The Vineyard, 2015; oil on canvas and The Melon Picker, n.d., oil on canvas
January 22 to May 1, 2016
Curator: Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director & Chief Curator
This group of portraits was inspired by the children's book, RAD American Women A-Z. The exhibition was generated at Fresno State University as a collaboration between the Arne Nixon Center and the Women's Studies and Art & Design Departments. The hand-carved and hand-pulled woodcut portraits are of past and present female Fresno State students, faculty, and staff who are pioneers and innovators in their respective fields. The exhibition includes the original woodblocks and corresponding prints, over-sized versions that were installed outdoors on the campus, and biographies of each woman.
Images: Sherley Anne Williams and Judy Chicago