Eleanor Antin works in a variety of media, including photography, video, film, performance, installation, drawing and writing. She has had many one-woman exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and a major retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her works are in many collections around the world including the Beaubourg, Tate Modern, MOMA, the Whitney, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Loeb Family Foundation. She has performed around the world including the Venice Biennale, Documenta 12, and the Sydney Opera House. Her cult feature film The Man Without a World (1991) was screened at many festivals among them Berlin, USA, London and San Francisco and had art house commercial distribution. She is represented by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York City. Her many awards include an Honorary Doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009) and a Lifetime Achievement award from the Woman’s Caucus of the College Art Association (2006). Antin is an emeritus professor of Visual Arts at the University of California at San Diego.
Michael Morris (1942-2022) was a painter, photographer, video and performance artist and curator. His work is often media based and collaborative, involved with developing networks and in the production and presentation of new art activity. In his roles as curator and, primarily, as an artist, Morris was a key figure of the West Coast art scene during the 1960s. Morris studied at the University of Victoria and then at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University), followed by graduate studies at Slade School of Fine Art at the University College London, during the 1960s. There he became interested in the work of Fluxus and the European avant-garde, which had a profound influence on his work and on the Vancouver experimental art scene in general. In 1969 he founded Image Bank with Vincent Trasov, a system of postal correspondence between participating artists for the exchange of information and ideas. The intention of Image Bank was to create a collaborative, process-based project in the hopes of engendering a shared creative consciousness—in opposition to the alienation endemic to modern capitalist society—through the deconstruction and recombination of its ideological forms. Morris was acting curator of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Centre for Communications and the Arts at Simon Fraser University and has had many guest curatorships at other institutions. In 1973, he co-founded the Western Front—one of Canada’s first artist-run centres—and served as co-director for seven years. In 1990 he and Trasov founded the Morris/Trasov Archive, housed at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, to research contemporary art. He has established a strong international reputation and worked for many years in Berlin. Morris has participated in artist-in-residence programs both in Canada at the Banff Centre (1990) and at Open Studio (2003) and internationally at Berlin Kustlerprogramm (1981-1998). Morris has had numerous solo and collaborative exhibitions nationally and internationally, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2015 Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Visual Arts, the 2011 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and an Honorary Doctorate in 2005 by Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
Eleanor Antin
View Eleanor Antin’s Reading/Performance here.
Eleanor Antin’s coming-of-age memoir Conversations with Stalin is a smart, no-holds- barred, black comedy in the picaresque coming of age tradition of Holden Caulfield, Huck Finn, Little Orphan Annie, and the irrepressible Dorothy on the road to Oz. Impatient with the timidity of the current publishing world (as long ago she was turned off by the art world gallery system and chose to send her 100 BOOTS directly to the public through the mail) Antin is bringing her new memoir directly to the public through a series of performance readings in museums, art spaces and universities.
“I was what was called in the days of the old left, a red diaper baby. My mother was a Stalinist and though I had a father, nobody ever listened to him because he was just a socialist and everybody knew they were wimps. It was hard in those days, Senator McCarthy was putting people in jail, people were losing their jobs, but we were strong because we always knew what was right. Comrade Stalin told us. Or he would have told us if he wasn’t so far away…These are my recollections, more or less, about growing up with the many romantic, economic and psychological problems young people face in our country and how by the end of the day, Comrade Stalin always solved my problems in his own inimitable way, by fucking them up.” (Conversations with Stalin)
We are excited to welcome Michael Morris in conversation with Eleanor Antin following her performance. Though they have never met in person, in the early 1970s Morris and Antin were actively engaged in The Image Bank, a system of postal correspondence between artists for the exchange of information and ideas. Eleanor Antin’s visit is supported by the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory’s Distinguished Visiting Artist Program, which is made possible by the generous support of the Rennie Collection.
All are welcome. Admission is free.
Eleanor Antin works in a variety of media, including photography, video, film, performance, installation, drawing and writing. She has had many one-woman exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and a major retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her works are in many collections around the world including the Beaubourg, Tate Modern, MOMA, the Whitney, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Loeb Family Foundation. She has performed around the world including the Venice Biennale, Documenta 12, and the Sydney Opera House. Her cult feature film The Man Without a World (1991) was screened at many festivals among them Berlin, USA, London and San Francisco and had art house commercial distribution. She is represented by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York City. Her many awards include an Honorary Doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009) and a Lifetime Achievement award from the Woman’s Caucus of the College Art Association (2006). Antin is an emeritus professor of Visual Arts at the University of California at San Diego.
Michael Morris (1942-2022) was a painter, photographer, video and performance artist and curator. His work is often media based and collaborative, involved with developing networks and in the production and presentation of new art activity. In his roles as curator and, primarily, as an artist, Morris was a key figure of the West Coast art scene during the 1960s. Morris studied at the University of Victoria and then at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University), followed by graduate studies at Slade School of Fine Art at the University College London, during the 1960s. There he became interested in the work of Fluxus and the European avant-garde, which had a profound influence on his work and on the Vancouver experimental art scene in general. In 1969 he founded Image Bank with Vincent Trasov, a system of postal correspondence between participating artists for the exchange of information and ideas. The intention of Image Bank was to create a collaborative, process-based project in the hopes of engendering a shared creative consciousness—in opposition to the alienation endemic to modern capitalist society—through the deconstruction and recombination of its ideological forms. Morris was acting curator of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Centre for Communications and the Arts at Simon Fraser University and has had many guest curatorships at other institutions. In 1973, he co-founded the Western Front—one of Canada’s first artist-run centres—and served as co-director for seven years. In 1990 he and Trasov founded the Morris/Trasov Archive, housed at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, to research contemporary art. He has established a strong international reputation and worked for many years in Berlin. Morris has participated in artist-in-residence programs both in Canada at the Banff Centre (1990) and at Open Studio (2003) and internationally at Berlin Kustlerprogramm (1981-1998). Morris has had numerous solo and collaborative exhibitions nationally and internationally, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2015 Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Visual Arts, the 2011 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and an Honorary Doctorate in 2005 by Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970 investigates Conceptual art and related avant-garde activities from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. The artists who came to California at this time were, like many other transplants, attracted by its beauty, climate and relative ease of living. More importantly, this part of the US was emerging as a leading incubator for social change and a youth-oriented counterculture, tendencies that were complementary to artists seeking alternatives to traditional modes of art making. California’s art schools, universities and artist-run spaces provided new exhibition opportunities and, additionally, the distance from the New York art press, commercial galleries and museums gave artists greater freedom to experiment as they challenged the definition of art, the role of the artist and the academic and institutional structures of the art world. New York represented tradition, California the future.
[more]As part of State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970, join us for related film screenings at the Pacific Cinémathèque Here is Always Somewhere Else: The Disappearance of Bas Jan Ader USA/Netherlands 2008. Director: Rene Daalder With: Tacita Dean, Ger Van Elk, Wim T. Schippers, Marcel Broodthaers, Rem Koolhaus Preceded by two films by Bas Jan Ader: I’m Too Sad to Tell You (1970, 4 mins.) and Nightfall (1971, 4 mins.) Wednesday, November 7 – 7:00 pm Thursday, November 8 – 8:30 pm — !Women Art Revolution USA 2010. Director: Lynn Hershman Leeson With: Miranda July, Judy Chicago, Yvonne Rainer, Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic Preceded by: Near the Big Chakra USA 1972. Director: Anne Severson Thursday, November 8 – 6:30 pm Friday, November 9 – 8:50 pm Wednesday, November 14 – 6:30 pm — Viva USA 2007. Director: Anna Biller Cast: Anna Biller, Bridget Brno, Chad England, Jared Sanford, Marcus DeAnda Preceded by: Dyketactics USA 1974. Director: Barbara Hammer Friday, November 9 – 6:30 pm Saturday, November 10 – 9 pm Thursday, November 15 – 6:30 pm — Chinatown USA 1974. Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, John Hillerman, Diane Ladd Saturday, November 10 – 6:30 pm Monday, November 12 – 4 pm Friday, November 16 – 8:35 pm Saturday, November 17 – 6:30 pm — The India Trip Canada 1971. Director: Bill Davies With: Albert Jordan Sunday, November 11 – 5:15 pm — Zabriskie Point USA 1969. Director: Michelangelo Antonioni Cast: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Rod Taylor, Paul Fix, G.D. Spradlin Sunday, November 11 – 6:30 pm Thursday, November 15 – 8:50 pm Friday, November 16 – 6:30 pm Saturday, November 17 – 9 pm — Kristina Talking Pictures USA 1976. Director: Yvonne Rainer Cast: Bert Barr, Kate Parker, Frances Barth, Lil Picardi, James Barth Sunday, November 11 – 8:30 pm Wednesday, November 14 – 8:30 pm — Los Angeles Plays Itself USA 2003. Director: Thom Andersen Monday, November 12 – 6:30 pm Sunday, November 18 – 6:30 pm — Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen Canada 1974. Director: Michael Snow Cast: Dennis Burton, Jim Murphy, Jonas Mekas, Annette Michelson, Nam June Paik Thursday, November 22 – 6:30 pm
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