You are invited to be a sponsor
of the Fresno Art Museum’s upcoming
Winter/Spring 2023 exhibitions.
The Fresno Art Museum will showcase three art and architecture giants with solo exhibitions for Nathan Oliveira (1928-2010), Bruce Beasley (b. 1939) and Arthur Dyson (b. 1940) opening on February 11, 2023 and on view through June 25, 2023. All three of these exhibitions are curated by Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM’s Executive Director and Chief Curator.
The Nathan Oliveira exhibition has been selected from the personal collections of his children, Joseph Oliveira and Lisa Oliveira Lamoure. Every year, Nathan would select artworks to give to his children as their inheritance. Some of the best work he accomplished is held by his children and the estate. The selected works (paintings, drawings, bronzes, lithographs, and collages) have rarely, if ever, been seen by the public. The artist passed away in 2010, and this is the first museum exhibition of his work since his death. These rare and superlative artworks include priceless childhood drawings as well as painting and sculpture masterworks from the 1950s through 2010. Nathan Oliveira: Rare Works from the Private Collections of His Children will fill the Fig Garden and Duncan Galleries.
Oakland-based sculptor Bruce Beasley is familiar to FAM visitors as his Breakout III sculpture graces the right side of the entrance to the Museum. Breakout III officially became part of the Museum’s permanent collection in 2020. Bruce Beasley: A New Direction will anchor the Hallowell Gallery where recent, large-scale, black-and-white collages will hold the walls, and several large-scale steel sculptures will activate the floor space. The two-dimensional, cut-out pieces comprising Beasley’s new collages are created in virtual reality on a computer. His gestures are created in virtual space, saved, and printed onto canvas. He then cuts his gestures into separate lyrical shapes and re-assembles them on huge paper sheets using the collage technique. Beasley’s “new direction” for walls both astonishes and delights.
The work of Fresno-based architect Arthur Dyson was last exhibited at FAM in 2004. The 2023 exhibition will be model-based, featuring up to eighteen three-dimensional constructions of domestic residences and public buildings erected nationwide. The Lobby and Concourse Gallery walls behind the architectural models will feature large-scale photographs and/or architectural renderings related to each model. Arthur Dyson: Organic Architect is a retrospective of his work from 1966 to the present. For this exhibition, Dyson will oversee architecture students from California State University, Fresno and Fresno City College who will construct models for recent projects. Several enrichment programs for this exhibition are planned for FAM by the architect.
Please know that these ambitious exhibitions have individual budgets of $20,000 each. They are complicated to ship and return; they require special materials and supplies for installation that are at post-pandemic costs; and our fine arts insurance will increase by thousands of dollars to house the shows. Your sponsorship commitment at this time, well in advance of the receipt of the new exhibitions, ensures that the Museum can pay the expenses associated with these exhibitions in a timely manner and separate from our general operating funding.
You can choose to help to sponsor a single solo exhibition, or the entire season as a whole, in any amount. Click here to download a form you can print, complete, and email to Michele@fresnoartmuseum.org or mail to 2233 N. First Street, Fresno, CA 93703. You may also call Debbie Horton at 559.441.4221, x 102 and process your sponsorship over the phone.
FAM could neither organize nor support its exhibition seasons without the crucial help of your underwriting gifts. Thank you in advance for helping to ensure the Winter/Spring 2023 season will delight, educate, and enthrall everyone who visits our Museum.
Michele Ellis Pracy
Executive Director & Chief Curator
Click here for more details about the upcoming exhibitions or contact Michele Ellis Pracy by email at michele@fresnoartmuseum.org or by calling 559.441.4221 x102
