Amy Ione Online » Berkeley Art Museum

William T. Wiley shows open in the SF Bay Area this week

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:40:17 +0000

I’ve been looking forward to the William T. Wiley retrospective (What’s It All Mean: William T. Wiley In Retrospect) that opens at the Berkeley Art Museum on March 17th. When I read Kenneth Baker’s review on the retrospective this morning it occurred to me that I fall into the category of those who can’t think of a specific work he’s done, but “I know one when I see one.”

Jesse Hamlin’s article says:

The show spans the fertile 50

The show spans the fertile 50-year career of the venerable Bay Area artist who can’t be pinned down. It features 80 sculptures, paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints, installations, books, films, videos and the delightful pinball machine, titled “Punball: Only One Earth.” Created for a show at San Francisco’s Electric Works gallery, it brings together such signature Wiley characters as Mr. Unnatural, the globe-face guy and Buster the hourglass.

Meanwhile, some of Wiley’s prints are on view in a continuing show at the M.H. de Young Museum, “I Keep Foolin’ Around: William T. Wiley as Printmaker.” It includes lithographs and etchings from the Fine Art Museums’ collection, including works from its William T. Wiley Print Archive and Crown Point Press Archive.

James Castle Retrospective

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:52:41 +0000

The James Castle retrospective, now at the Berkeley Art Museum (through April 25, 2010) really got me thinking. He was an outsider artist (i.e., not formally trained), who was profoundly deaf and made hundreds of sketches, drawings and books over the course of his life. His only schooling was as a child when he attended the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind, Castle did not learn to read, write, speak, sign, or lip-read. He worked mostly with soot and his saliva, so the exhibition is primarily in black and white. Particularly striking are his crafted books from found materials, filled with thumbnail size images. Much of the work brings artists like Joseph Cornell to mind, who is typically not characterized as an outsider artist despite working outside of the mainstream art world and his lack of formal art education.

James Castle: A Retrospective was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and made possible by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative. Additional funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.
The Berkeley presentation has been made possible in part by the Karen Lennox Gallery, the Fields Family Foundation, Luba Mosionzhnik, Betsy Aubrey and E. Steve Lichtenberg, M.D., and anonymous donors, and by the generous support of the BAM/PFA Trustees.

Ann: Bill Viola: Potent early works

Amy Ione — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:31:25 +0000

Pacific Film Archive's three-part program, "Metaphysical Medium: The Video Works of Bill Viola." The
roster of works includes short pieces such as "The Space Between the
Teeth" (1976) and longer essays such as "The Passing" (1991). More information and an interview with Viola.

Metaphysical Medium: The Video Works of Bill Viola:
7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 23 and Sept. 30 (with the artist present). Pacific
Film Archive Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. Charge-by-phone
tickets: (510) 642-5249, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.