ARTspace at College Art Association Conference

As the preeminent international forum for the visual arts, every year the College Art Association (CAA) conference brings together over 5,000 artists and designers, art historians, students, educators, critics, curators, librarians, gallerists, and other professionals in the visual arts to engage in an intellectual, aesthetic, and professional exchange. And like most conferences, the attendees pay a registration fee that covers a wide range of events. However, in 2001, the CAA initiated ARTspace as a conference-within-the-conference that is free and open to the public. Designed by artists, ARTspace programming promotes dialogue about visual arts practice and its relation to critical discourse, as well as professional development issues. Over the past decade, it has grown into one of the most vital and exciting aspects of the annual conference.

This year the College Art Association (CAA) returns to Los Angeles to celebrate the conclusion of its Centennial year at the 100th Annual Conference February 22–25, 2012, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. And ARTspace promises a dynamic schedule of events exploring contemporary issues and media with an opportunity for audience interaction. Panel sessions featuring an international and diverse array of notable artist speakers are open to students and faculty, as well as artists, designers, architects, and members of the L.A cultural community and general public. Here are some highlights of what you have to look forward to.

The all-day Saturday symposia Art in the Public Realm will raise the question of what constitutes public space in the 21st century digital age and what the possibilities are for art and design practice within it in this time of crisis. Organized and chaired by L.A interdisciplinary artist, writer and educator Jacki Apple and L.A. artist Timothy Nolan, the first two sessions Activism and Interventions and The Global Environment will discuss how artist/designers can act as dynamic catalysts in social and civic life and “feed innovative ideas into the bloodstream of society” beyond traditional institutions of government and culture. These sessions will also explore how artists and designers can effectively address environmental issues through sustainable practices and what kinds of interdisciplinary collaborations and processes are emerging. The third session, Creating New Paradigms for the Future will be staged as an interactive open forum discussion between the speakers and audience exploring how the arts can be leaders in sustainable thinking and its application in urban and rural, industrial and wilderness environments and in civic, social, and cultural life. What role can education play? Can art and design thinking be applied in all fields of human endeavor to activate public awareness and a rethinking of values. The presenting artists are Conrad Gleber, LaSalle University, Philadelphia, Maureen Connor, The Institute for Wishful Thinking and Queens College, Marisa Jahn, REV and People’s Production House, Ed Woodham, Art in Odd Places, NYC, Jenny Brown, University of Sydney, Sam Bower, greenmuseum.org, Holger Nickisch, Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, Netherlands, Miranda Wright, The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, L.A., Oliver Hess, Materials and Applications and Didier Hess, L.A., Jack Becker, Forecast Public Art and Web Resources for Art in Public. In addition, there will be an outdoor site-specific public performance event, Un-Space Ground, curated by Deborah Oliver and Ed Woodham.

In the panel session Contemporary Collaboratives and Collectives, co-chairs - painter, writer and art blogger (Two Coats of Paint) Sharon L. Butler, and artist, writer and co-founder of LA Art Girls, Micol Hebron posit that the paradigm of the isolated artist in the hermetic studio is obsolete. And that with the “resurgence of collaborative activity in the art world, artist collaboratives and collective art practices have moved into the mainstream.” The panelists will represent many forms of artist collectives ranging from localized community groups and international collaboratives, to online collectives. Speakers include An Xiao, independent artist, Ed Giardina/Finishing School, Nicole Cohen/Berlin Collective, Stephanie Allespach, LA Art Girls, Aaron Koblin, Data Visualization artist, and The League of Imaginary Scientists, Los Angeles.

The panel Speaking Out: A Public Forum for Artist Manifestos chaired by Julia M. Morrisroe from the University of Florida takes on the long celebrated role of the artist manifesto in defining artistic practice. By bringing the soapbox back into the public sphere and providing a platform for the difficult and provocative challenges facing artists today, this diverse group may possibly raise the roof and get down and dirty. The following declamations will be featured — Fallen Fruit/Collaborative Understanding /Two Kinds of Public by David Burns, Strategies: Moving Beyond the Confines of the Art World by Kim Abeles, inside/outside/upside down/backwards by Buzz Spector, S.U.R.D.: A Manifesto for Abstract Painting, beyond the Death of Empathy by Jeremy Diggle, Why Touch Is Necessary in Real Time (or) Touch Me in Real Time by Holly Hanessian, The End/Exhaustion of Modernism by Ron Janowich, The Nature of “My Doggerel” by Ulysses Jenkins, and Manifesto as Paradigm Production by Iain Kerr.

The Media Lounge program Scan2Go / QR: Here, There, Anywhere, Everywhere conceived and curated by Conrad Gleber, breaks new ground with interactive mobile locative screenings via QR codes available in an unprecedented catalog readable on smart phones. Audiences will have access to a wide range of media arts - digital art, sound, video and internet-based projects by 28 global innovators and experimenters, at any time or place they have their smart phones on — in a hotel room, on the street, later at home, etc. Every four months over the course of one year, each artist will link three separate projects successively to the QR code, thus providing an ongoing dynamic re-configuration of both the exhibition and catalog that is as nomadic, portable and mobile as contemporary culture.

Emerging L.A. visual and media artists from six leading college graduate programs at Cal Arts, Otis, USC, UCLA, Chapman University, and Art Center College of Design will showcase new work in the screening series Forward Thinking: A Curatorial Roundabout organized by Micol Hebron. Five hundred portable 2MB flash drive catalogs containing video clips, stills of the work, bios, links and more will be available to screening attendees.

For an evening of art entertainment, the video program Hyper-Modern-Post-Alter-Anti, curated by Cindy Smith and hosted by the Westin Bonaventure Hotel at the Lobby Court, will feature works by Lisa Blas, Victoria Fu, MICA-TV (Carol Ann Klonarides & Michael Owen), Tomonari Nishikawa, Hans Weigand, Bruce Yonemoto, Perpitude (curated by Pato Hebert & Alexandra Juhasz)

Additional sessions include the Annual Distinguished Artists’ Interviews, this year featuring L.A.’s own Mary Kelly, UCLA, and Martin Kersels, California Institute of the Arts. Three midday [Meta] Mentors sessions address professional issues - Creating Community: Taking Control of Your Career, Beyond Tenure/ Taking It to the Next Level, and Artist and Industry. ARTspace general conference sessions include Citizen Designer: Authoring a Definition, Restaging the Readymade, and Out of Rubble. Finally there is ARTexchange, an open forum where participating artists exhibit their work.

All ARTspace events are FREE and open to the public.
CAA Conference, L.A. Convention Center, West Hall in downtown L.A.,
Wednesday, February 22 through Saturday, February 25, 2012.

For full schedule of times and room locations visit: http://conference.collegeart.org/2012 or www.collegeart.org for more information about CAA.