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African Impressions /
Contemporary Art
Fist & Foot: Black Dance in Visual Art
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
African Impressions / Contemporary Art
Program II: From Taboo to Icon: Images of the Black
Body
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
African Impressions / Contemporary
Art
Program I: Mining History for African Voices
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
African Impressions /
Contemporary Art
Fist & Foot: Black Dance in Visual Art
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 , from 5:30PM - 8:30PM
Temple University Main Campus
Conwell Hall Dance Theater, 5th Floor of Conwell Hall
NE Corner of Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19122
(click to image
enlarge)
(click to image
enlarge)
African Impressions /
Contemporary Art
is a series of symposia and events that explore modern
and contemporary art from the perspective of African
influences and voices. The aesthetics and social history
of the African Diaspora have had an impact on many
visual artists, yet this remains under-represented in
art historical scholarship. Each event brings a
multi-faceted and holistic experience of art and art
criticism to the university audience and to the broader
Philadelphia public by including established artists,
scholars, curators, and performers.
This
third symposium in the series presents artists who are
investigating the powerful impact of dances of the African
Diaspora in popular culture and contemporary art.
Following the talks, there will be a performance by
Kariamu & Company: Traditions
of The Museum
Piece.
The event is
curated by Sophie Sanders, PhD candidate in Art History,
Tyler School of Art of Temple University with support from
Dr. Kariamu Welsh, Professor and Dance Department Chair,
Boyer College of Music, Temple University.
Conference Participants:
Dr. Brenda
Dixon Gottschild, Author/Performer & Professor Emerita,
Dance Studies, Temple University
is a cultural historian and
performer. Gottschild graduated from the Performance
Studies Department of New York University. She performs
with her husband, choreographer Hellmut Gottschild, in
collaborative work for which they have coined the term,
"movement theater discourse.” Dr. Gottschild is also a
senior consultant and writer for Dance Magazine.
She is author of The Black Dancing Body (2003;
winner of the 2004 de la Torre Bueno Prize for
excellence); Waltzing in the Dark (2000; winner of
the 2001 Congress on Research in Dance Award for
Outstanding Scholarship); and Digging the Africanist
Presence in American Performance (1996).
Odili Donald Odita, Artist,
is an Associate Professor of Painting at Tyler School of
Art, and formerly a Visiting Critic in Painting at Yale
University School of Art. Odita was a critic for Flash
Art International, and a writer and consulting editor
for NKA, Journal of Contemporary African Art. Odita
has exhibited extensively including representing North
America in 2004 at the Dakar Biennale of Contemporary
African Art, Senegal, and he is represented by Jack
Shainman Gallery, New York and Haunch of Venison, Zurich.
In November 2006, Odita had his one-person exhibition,
Fusion at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York. Odita
was selected by curator Robert Storr to participate in the
52nd Venice Biennale in summer 2007.
Dr.
Gaynell Sherrod,
Assistant Professor of Dance, Florida A&M University
studied dance with Dr.
Kariamu Welsh, Pearl Reynolds, Joan Meyers Brown and other
acclaimed choreographers. She earned a BA in Psychology
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, after 15 years
of performing with such companies as Philadanco and Urban
Bush Women, she earned a M.Ed. and Ed.D. in dance
education from Temple University in Philadelphia. A
Fulbright-Hayes scholar, Dr. Sherrod taught at Florida A&M
University, New Jersey City University, and New York
University. She has served as Director of Dance Pedagogy
for New York City Department of Education and Executive
Director of Touring for the Philadelphia Dance Company.
Robert Farris Thompson,
Col. John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art,
Yale University is among
the most respected scholars of African Art. He has
organized several major exhibitions, including The Four
Moments of the Sun (1981) and The Face of the Gods:
Shrines and Altars of the Black Atlantic World (1985)
at the National Gallery of Art. Dr. Thompson has received
many research grants, including support from the Ford
Foundation (1962-1964) and the National Gallery of Art
(1977, 1979, 1980) to name a few. He has produced an
immense number of catalogues and books; several recent
works include:
Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and
Philosophy. (New
York: Vintage, 1984); with Georges Meurant, Mbuti
Design: Paintings by Pygmy Women from the Ituri Forest.
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1995); Tango: The Art
History of Love. (Vintage, 2006).
Dr. Kariamu Welsh,
Artistic Director of
Kariamu & Company: Traditions and
Professor and Dance
Department Chair, Temple
University
received her Doctorate of
Arts from New York University and her MA.H. from the State
University of New York at Buffalo.
She has written extensively on
African and African Diasporan dance. Dr. Welsh was the
founding artistic director of the National Dance Company
of Zimbabwe and she has choreographed works for the
African American Dance Ensemble, Seventh Principle,
Philadanco and her own company Kariamu & Company:
Traditions. Dr. Welsh has received numerous grants and
awards including the Pew Artist Fellowship and the Simon
Guggeheim Fellowship. Dr. Welsh is also on the registry as
a Fulbright Specialist in African Dance.
Symposia Moderator:
Dr. Leslie
King-Hammond, Dean of Graduate Studies, Maryland
Institute College of Art, Scholar, Curator, and Artist
received her doctorate in Art
History from The Johns Hopkins University in 1976. Some
of Dr. King-Hammond’s recent exhibitions and publications
include Three Generations of African American Women
Sculptors: A Study in Paradox; Over the Line: The
Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (University of
Washington Press, 2000); Sugar and Spice: The Art of
Bettye Saar (Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2003); “Aminah
Robinson: Aesthetic Realities/Artistic Vision” in The
Art of Aminah Robinson (Columbus Museum of Art, 2003);
and “Inner Being/Altered States: Painting the Life-Worlds
of Beverly McIver’s Realities” in The Many Faces of
Beverly McIver (40 Acres Gallery, 2004). King-Hammond
is Chairperson of the Collections and Exhibits Committee
at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African
American History & Culture.
Performance:
Kariamu & Company: Traditions
is a collection of
professional dancers who seek to broaden and deepen the
genre of African dance with contemporary choreography,
music, and poetry. Using the Umfundalai technique, Kariamu
& Company: Traditions reaches its audiences with
political, social, and cultural commentary situated in
African Diasporan contexts.
Kariamu & Company has been
creating soul-stirring dance works since 1970, the birth
of Umfundalai. In its thirty years of excellence, the base
of the company moved from Buffalo, New York to Zimbabwe,
South Africa to its current home in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The current Traditions company was started
in 1996 in preparation for Kariamu & Company's home season
concert and its inception demarcates the third generation
of Umfundalai dancers, singers, and poets.
The Museum Piece
Choreography by Kariamu
Welsh
Africans have literally
and metaphorically been placed in an exhibit for
centuries. From the auction block to mounted wall “art”
to the “smiling jockey” that graced a good number of lawns
during the past century, the African on exhibit is a
nostalgic part of Americana.
The Museum Piece inverts
and hopefully subverts the idea of inspection,
introspection and exhibit. This work examines as it is
being examined and finally begs the question, “Who are you
looking at and why?”
Major funding
for the symposium and performance provided by the
Provost’s Commission for the Arts / Office of the Provost,
Temple University. Other funding provided by the Temple
University Alumni Association. the Dance Department of the
Boyer College of Music and Dance, the General Activity
Fee, and the Art History Department of Tyler School of Art
of Temple University. Additional support donated by
Exhibitions and Public Programs of Tyler School of Art,
the Graduate Art History Organization, and an anonymous
donor. Special thanks to all individuals who made this
possible.
African Impressions / Contemporary Art
Program II: From Taboo to Icon: Images of the Black
Body
Tuesday, February 27, 2007, from 5:30PM - 8:30PM
Temple University Main Campus
Tuttleman Learning Center, Room 105
1809 North 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
(215) 204-7837
(click to image
enlarge)
(click to image
enlarge)
African Impressions /
Contemporary Art is a series of three symposia that
explore modern and contemporary art from the perspective
of African influences and voices. The second symposium
in the series, From Taboo to Icon: Images of the
Black Body, presents artists who are reflecting on
entrenched racial constructs and shifting attitudes in
popular culture and contemporary art. The symposium is
curated by Sophie Sanders, PhD candidate in Art History,
Tyler School of Art of Temple University.
Conference participants
Naomi Beckwith,
Whitney Lauder Curatorial Fellow, Institute of
Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania
Naomi Beckwith joined the ICA in 2005 after completing
the Whitney Independent Studies Program, where she was
the Helena Rubenstein Critical Studies Fellow. She
focuses on identity and critical practices in
contemporary art. In addition to curating exhibitions at
the ICA and Artists Space, Beckwith has worked in
publishing and arts administration at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music, Black Dog Publishing, ArtMedia Group,
Inc. in New York and the Tate Gallery of Modern Art in
London. Beckwith holds a BA in History from Northwestern
University and an MA in History of Art from the
Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where her thesis on
Adrian Piper and Carrie Mae Weems earned Distinction.
Allan L. Edmunds,
Artist, Educator, Founder and President, Brandywine
Workshop
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Allan L. Edmunds
studied abroad at the Temple University Rome Campus in
Italy and Cardiff Art School in Wales, UK. As an artist,
he has received numerous distinctions such as National
Endowment for the Arts and Pennsylvania State Arts
Council fellowships and a Certificate of Honor as a
distinguished Alumnus of the Tyler School of Art, Temple
University, where he received both his Bachelors and
Masters of Fine Art degrees. His prints and collages are
represented in public and private collections across the
United States. As a teacher, Mr. Edmunds has dedicated
more than 25 years to Public Schools in Philadelphia and
has extensive experience as a visiting artist and
lecturer at colleges nationally and internationally. As
an arts administrator, Edmunds is credited with the
founding of the now acclaimed Brandywine Workshop in
1972. He is a 1997 Fellow of the Getty Museum Management
Institute. The International Review of African American
Art cited Edmunds in 2001 as one of the "25 Who Made A
Difference" in the advancement of African American art
during 1976-2001 for his efforts in directing the
Brandywine Workshop, assistance to African American
institutions and the development of artists of all races
and ages.
Lonnie Graham, Artist,
Cultural Activist and Professor of Visual Art,
Pennsylvania State University
Professor Lonnie Graham of Pennsylvania State
University is the former director of Photography at
Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, in Pittsburgh, PA, where
he developed after school programs cited by The White
House as a National Model for Education. Professor
Graham is the recipient of the 1999 Creative Achievement
Award from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the
Pennsylvania Governors Award for Artistic Excellence. He
is a three time Pennsylvania Council for the Arts
Fellowship winner. A Pew Fellow, Graham has extensive
teaching experience, including his position as Professor
of Visual and Integrative Arts at Pennsylvania State
University and Instructor of Special Programs at the
Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania. He is a
Visiting Instructor of Graduate Studies at San Francisco
Art Institute and was Visiting Professor at Haverford
College. His work is in local and national collections
including the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the
Schomburg Center in New York; the Philadelphia Museum of
Art; the Delaware Museum of Art the Museum of African
American History in Detroit; and the Addison Gallery of
American Art in Andover, Massachusetts.
Emily Hage, Andrew W.
Mellon Curatorial Fellow of Modern and Contemporary Art,
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Emily Hage is an Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in
the Modern and Contemporary Art Department at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art. She received her Ph.D. in
the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania,
where she wrote her dissertation on Dada art journals.
She has published articles in a number of catalogues,
journals, and anthologies, including The DADA Reader: A
Critical Anthology (2006), and delivered a number of
papers, including one at the most recent College Art
Association annual conference. She has also served as a
juror for art exhibitions in the Philadelphia area.
Before coming to Philadelphia, Dr. Hage worked at the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as a Curatorial
Associate, as well as at the Hirshhorn Museum and
Sculpture Garden and the National Portrait Gallery in
Washington, D.C. She co-curated the Philadelphia
presentation of the exhibition, “Beauford Delaney: From
New York to Paris” (November 2005-January 2006) at the
PMA and has since been involved with a number of
exhibitions at the museum, including “Ellsworth Kelly in
Resonance” (October 2006-February 2007), and “Out of
Words” (November 2006-June 2007), which includes an
installation piece by Benin artist Georges Adéagbo.
Deborah Willis,
Artist, Scholar, Chair and Professor of Photography &
Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
Deborah Willis was a 2001 MacArthur Fellow and a 1996
recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation award.
She has pursued a multi-faceted professional career as
an art photographer and as one of the nation's leading
historians of African American photography and curator
of African American culture. Exhibitions of her work
include: Regarding Beauty, University of Wisconsin 2003;
Embracing Eatonville, Light Works, Syracuse 2003-2004;
HairStories, Scottsdale Contemporary Art Museum,
Scottsdale 2003-2004; The Comforts of Home, Hand
Workshop Art Center, Richmond, VA 1999; Re/Righting
History: Counternarratives by Contemporary
African-American Artists, Katonah Museum of Art, 1999;
Memorable Histories and Historic Memories, Bowdoin
College Museum of Art, 1998; and Cultural Baggage, Rice
University, Houston 1995. Curated Exhibitions include:
Imagining Families--Images and Voices and Reflections in
Black. Notable projects include The Black Female Body A
Photographic History (with Carla Williams) from Temple
University Press, 2002; A Small Nation of People: W. E.
B. DuBois and the Photographs from the Paris Exposition,
2003; Reflections in Black: A History of Black
Photographers - 1840 to the Present, 2000; Visual
Journal: Photography in Harlem and DC in the Thirties
and Forties, 1996; Picturing Us: African American
Identity in Photography, 1994; and VANDERZEE: The
Portraits of James VanDerZee, 1993.
Symposium Moderator
Dr. Susanna Gold,
Lecturer, Tyler School of Art, Temple University
Susanna Gold is a faculty member of the Art History
department at Tyler School of Art, Temple University.
She studies 19th- and early 20th-century American Art,
with a focus on the post-Civil War era. Areas of
particular interest include issues of race and social
relations, exhibition theory, and the rich cultural
history of Philadelphia. A postdoctoral fellowship from
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported her current
book project titled, The Performance of Memory: Art,
War, and Nation. In this project, Dr. Gold investigates
the role of visual imagery and its presentation in
reflecting, establishing, and problematizing a
collective national memory of the Civil War at
Philadelphia's 1876 Centennial Exhibition.
Major funding for the symposium marketing and
post-event dinner provided by the Temple University
Graduate School; other major funding provided by the
Temple University Alumni Association, the General
Activity Fee, the Art History Department, and the Office
of the Dean of Tyler School of Art. Additional support
donated by Exhibitions and Public Programs of Tyler
School of Art, the Graduate Art History Organization,
the Faculty Senate Lectures and Forums Committee of
Temple University and an anonymous donor. Collaborative
assistance provided by the African American Studies
Department, Temple University. Special thanks to Keith
Morrison, Dr. Gerald Silk, Sharyn O’Mara, Judith Stein,
the entire Art History Department at Tyler School of
Art, Greg Murphy, Ingrid Spangler, Sheryl Conkelton,
Ellen Napier, Kelli Cavanaugh, Maureen Gordon, Louis
Cook, Erika Schneider, David Hicks, Joseph Feagan, Ariel
Pierce, Matt Palczynski, and all who made this possible.
The location for the African
Impressions/Contemporary Art symposium is building no.
57.
[Click here for a detailed map]
African Impressions / Contemporary
Art
Program I: Mining History for African Voices
Tuesday, November 7, 2006, from 5:30PM - 8:00PM
Temple University Main Campus
Anderson Hall, AL14
1114 West Berks Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
(215) 204-7837
(click
to image enlarge)
(click
to image enlarge)
African Impressions / Contemporary
Art is a series of three symposia curated by Sophie
Sanders, a PhD candidate in Art History at Tyler School
of Art, Temple University. The conference series will
explore modern and contemporary art from the perspective
of African influences and voices. Many visual artists
have been impacted by aesthetics and social history
of the African Diaspora, yet this remains under-represented
in art historical scholarship. As a more global outlook
develops, there is an opportunity to explore the ways
in which cultural fusions occur. Each event brings a
multi-faceted and holistic experience of art and art
criticism to the university audience and to the broader
Philadelphia public by including established artists,
scholars, and curators.
The first symposium in the series, Mining History for
African Voices, will focus on artists who respond to
and interpret history and contemporary culture. It will
take place on Tuesday, November 7, 2006, from 5:30 -
8:00PM at Anderson Hall, Lecture Hall 14 located at
1114 West Berks Street at Temple University's main campus
in Philadelphia. The event is free. For further information,
please call (215) 204-7837 or fax (215) 204-6951.
Conference participants
Kimberly Camp
has served as President and CEO for The Barnes Foundation,
and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American
History in Detroit; and Director of The Experimental
Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. An artist in
her own right, Ms. Camp has received numerous awards
including two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships,
the Kellogg National Leadership Program Fellowship,
Visiting Scholar for Gedai University and Roger L. Stevens
Award for Contributions to the Arts and Culture from
Carnegie Mellon University. Camp’s work has been
shown in over 100 exhibitions here and abroad and she
has lectured internationally.
Ayanah Moor
Born 1973 in Norfolk, Va., Ayanah Moor graduated with
a Bachelors degree in Fine Art from Virginia Commonwealth
University in Painting and Printmaking. She received
her Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking at Tyler School
of Art. She has exhibited nationally and earned residency
awards from Women's Studio Workshop, Blue Mountain Center,
the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Vermont Studio
Center. Currently, Ayanah Moor is Assistant Professor
in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.
Tumelo Mosaka
is Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn
Museum and previously Co-Curator for the Spoleto Festival
in South Carolina. Mosaka was born in Johannesburg,
South Africa and currently lives in New York. He received
his undergraduate in South Africa and MA in Curatorial
Studies from Bard College. Mosaka has curated numerous
exhibitions nationally and internationally and contributed
to several catalogues.
Dr. Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw
is an Associate Professor of American Art at the University
of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in art history
from Stanford University, was Assistant Professor of
American Art at Harvard University, a fellow at the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and
received a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Ford Foundation.
Her book, Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker,
was published by Duke University Press in the winter
of 2004.
Odili Donald Odita,
Symposium Moderator, is an Associate Professor of Painting
at Tyler School of Art, and formerly a Visiting Critic
in Painting at Yale University School of Art. Odita
was a critic for Flash Art International, and a writer
and consulting editor for NKA, Journal of Contemporary
African Art. Odita has exhibited extensively including
representing North America in 2004 at the Dakar Biennale
of Contemporary African Art, Senegal. Odita is represented
by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York and Haunch of Venison,
Zurich. In November 2006, Odita will have his one-person
exhibition, "Fusion" at Jack Shainman Gallery
in New York.
Major funding for the symposium marketing and post-event
dinner provided by the Temple University Graduate School;
other major funding provided by the Temple University
Alumni Association, the General Activity Fee, the Art
History Department, and the Office of the Dean of Tyler
School of Art. Additional support donated by Exhibitions
and Public Programs of Tyler School of Art, the Graduate
Art History Organization, the Faculty Senate Lectures
and Forums Committee of Temple University and an anonymous
donor. Collaborative assistance provided by the African
American Studies Department, Temple University. Advice
and support supplied by Dr. Gerald Silk, Chair of Art
History; Matt Palczynski, PhD candidate and many other
faculty advisors and student volunteers.
The location for the African Impressions/Contemporary
Art symposium is building no. 1.
[Click here for a detailed map] |
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