Winter/Spring 2017 & Fall 2016
January 14 to April 28, 2017
Lobby and Concourse Galleries
Curator: FAM Curatorial Staff
These new acquisitions Of contemporary Mexican art to the Museum's permanent Collection were from the MAW Collection and consist primarily of Oaxaca-based artists. The collection was amassed by a group of Los Angeles collectors in the 1990s through 2003. The MAW group chose to donate a part of their collection to the Fresno Art Museum because we are recognized for embracing Latin American culture and using our collection to inspire educational programs for all ages.
Images (left to right): Charles Barth, Alfred con esposa (Alfred with Wife), 1995, print, 22.5" x 30"; Leovigildo Martinez, Sona de la luna (Sounds of the Moon), 2003, oil on canvas, 33.31" x 78.75"
September 23, 2016 to April 28, 2017
Fig Garden and Duncan Galleries
Curator: Jeff Kelley (Critic, Curator, Studio Manager, Hung Liu Studio)
Hung Liu (February 7th, 1948 - August 7th, 2021) was born in Changchun, China and raised during the Maoist regime. Hung Liu studied mural painting at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing before immigrating to the United States in 1984 to attend the University of California, San Diego.
As a painter, Liu challenged the documentary authority of historical Chinese photographs by subjecting them to the more reflective process of painting. Her paintings utilized prostitutes, refugees, street performers, soldiers, laborers, and prisoners as subjects, reinventing the moments captured through a lens while simultaneously acknowledging the passing of time and breathing new life into faded memories. Much of the meaning of Liu’s painting comes from the way the washes and drips dissolve the documentary images, suggesting the passage of memory into history. Washing her subjects in veils of dripping linseed oil, she both “preserves and destroys the image.”
A two-time recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in painting, Liu’s works have been exhibited extensively and collected by many institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. She is a Professor Emerita at Mills College, where she has taught since 1990. The Fresno Art Museum was very proud to present Hung Liu as the Council of 100 Distinguished Woman Artist of 2016.
Exhibition sponsored by The Fresno Art Museum's Council of 100 and an anonymous donor
Images: Hung Liu, Dirty Pink, 2015, oil on canvas, 80" x 120" and Daughter of the Revolution, 1993, mixed media: oil on canvas, wood, and antique glass bottle, 78.5" x 62” x 5.5"
For more information on Hung Liu, please visit her website: https://www.hungliu.com/
September 23, 2016 to April 28, 2017
Contemporary Gallery
Curator: Susan Yost Filgate, FAM Education Director
In the Art of the Word 2 exhibition, the Fresno Art Museum honors two Fresno literary icons and five visual artists who have illustrated their words over the past twenty years. Featured on the walls of the Contemporary Gallery are excerpted writings from children's books by United States Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and Carnegie Medalist Gary Soto and some of the illustrations their words inspired.
The exhibiting artists illustrated the words of either Herrera or Soto, creating pictures to enhance the stories by the respective writer. They include non-fiction, fiction, and fantasy. The artists include Joe Cepeda (Big Bushy Mustache by Gary Soto), Raúl Colón (Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes by Juan Felipe Herrera), Elizabeth Gómez (The Upside Down Boy: El niño de Cabeza by Juan Felipe Herrera), Susan Guevara (Chato’s Kitchen, Chato and the Party Animals, and Chato Goes Cruisin’ by Gary Soto), and Ed Martinez (Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto).
Exhibition sponsored by the Bonner Family Foundation, Fresno City College, and Dr. John Scholefield and Kristene Petrucci Scholefield
Special thanks to J. Luis Orozco, Jr., Academia Cultural
Images: Raúl Colón, Joan Baez from the book Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes by Juan Felipe Herrera, watercolor and Prismacolor pencils on paper; Susan Guevera, Chato's Kitchen book cover, from Chato's Kitchen by Gary Soto, acrylic on black scratchboard
September 23, 2016 to April 28, 2017
Moradian Gallery
Curator: Kristina Hornback, FAM Curator
Inspired in part by the Museum’s signature fundraiser and fashion show, Trashique, Head to Toe: Wearable Art features artwork that uses the human body as part of the final piece. Featuring artists from across the United States and unique creations in a variety of mediums including metallurgy, millinery, painting, woodcarving, and weaving, this exhibition explores the complex relationship of wearable art with the fashion world, the art world, and the world of craft. Wearable art acts as a method of self-expression, innovation, and is a reflection of the millennia-old human tendency to create and wear beautiful things.
Exhibition sponsored by Baker, Peterson, Franklin, CPA, LLP and the Daniel R. Martin Family Foundation
Images: Lexi Daly, Firefall, 2010, Cardboard coffee cup jackets, sterling silver, gunmetal chain, and hematite, Courtesy of the Artist, Photo credit: Kitfox Valenti; Jenne Giles, Rose Collar, 2012, Merino wool and silk, Courtesy of the Artist, Photo credit: Moja Ma'at
September 23, 2016 to April 28, 2017 (Extended!)
Hallowell Gallery
Curator: Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director & Chief Curator
Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 is a powerful exhibition created by McLane High School's award-winning ArtVenture Academy students in 2014/2015, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. This thought-provoking and technically-masterful exhibition includes nine large-scale (4' x 8’) woodblock prints depicting historical events from the Civil War to the 1960s, an unfinished woodblock plate, a three-dimensional bus with African American historical figures and scenes symbolizing the Freedom Riders.
The project served as a vehicle by which students explored how young people can unite in the face of injustice to create transformative change in themselves and their communities. While embracing a diverse student population, the project gave voice specifically to the African American population through the lens of the Civil Rights movement.
Loaned by Marc Patterson, Chairman of the Arts Department at McLane High School and art instructor for ArtVenture Academy.
Images: ArtVenture Academy Students, detail from Not in Mississippi panel and student at work on woodblock
September 23, 2016 to January 8, 2017
Concourse Gallery and Sculpture Garden
Curator: Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director & Chief Curator
Students in FAM's Summer Art Academy, under the direction of Eric Gonzalez of Visalia's Urbanists Collective created a six-panel mural inspired by the art and life of the late Fresno muralist, FranCisco Vargas. Students employed spray painting and traditional painting techniques to create this large-scale work for the Museum's Concourse Gallery.
Along with the student mural, original art and photographs from the Estate of FranCisco Vargas will be exhibited.
Special thanks to Serena Vargas and the Estate of FranCisco Vargas
Images: The Letter "R" from the Student Mural Project and portrait of FranCisco Vargas by Brenda Manor, FranCisco Vargas Tribute Mural postcard
September 23, 2016 to January 8, 2017
Lobby Gallery
Curators: Kristina Hornback, FAM Curator and Frank Delgado, Arte Américas Chief Curator/Executive Director
In collaboration with Arte Américas and inspired by their mural project commencing in the fall of 2016, The Making of a Mural documents the creative process of bringing art into the public sphere. The Mural project, funded by the McClatchy Fresno Arts Endowment, is intended to create a public artwork that celebrates the rich literary traditions of the Central San Joaquin Valley. Arte Américas is working with internationally renowned muralist, Francisco Letelier, on the design of the mural, which will be painted by members of the Wall Dogs, a mural painting group with participants from all over the world. The mural will be executed on the south side of the Historic Fresno Bee Building in Downtown Fresno. The exhibition will explore Letelier’s design process, from his sources of inspiration to the final vision.
Images: Concept design for Arte Américas mural project and muralist, Francisco Letelier