UC Berkeley 2008 MFA exhibition

The UC Berkeley 2008 MFA exhibition "These Canyons" opened last night at Berkeley Art Museum. Now, as I have spent almost a year in very close quarters with this amazing group of seven artists, learning from them, growing with them, and going to karaoke with them I can hardly be called an unbiased critic, but I judge this to be a show that is overwhelmingly beautiful while challenging viewer's expectations with a broad range of ideas about what art can do.

I will not go into detail here, but I urge you to visit the museum website devoted to this show to see images and short descriptions of these artists' work;

These Canyons at Berkeley Art Museum

My experience last night was one of physical exhaustion as I'd spent the afternoon sitting through a graduation ceremony in the burning sun of the heat wave we've been experiencing for the last couple of days and wandering through an endless stream of openings and receptions fueled by a diet of gooey leftover brie rinds and celery sticks (serves me right for always being late...). However, I did take great pleasure in seeing many of the friends and artists I have met over the past year and talking crazy at them. But the most interesting part of the night was looking at how people interacted with the art. I am very familiar with all of this work, being that one of the most unique and positive attributes of the Berkeley program is that we have three hour critique sessions with all of our twelve fellow MFA candidates once a semester and we really dig down to the foundations of what each artist is trying to do with their work. Having spent so much time looking and looking at each piece, it is fascinating to see the casual viewer walk through the show absorbing the work; I wonder about their experience, what they are absorbing, what relationship they have to the work, what they judge the value of the art to be. I love to observe how people's eyes scan over the work, their posture, their facial expressions, the time they spend. Some bright smiles, some priceless disgusted grimaces!

One issue that I had with the museum, trivial though it may be, was that while two artists in the show create very sensitive and convincing art that is very much about creating a more respectful relationship between humans and animals, the caterers chose to serve a slaughterfest meat feast with nothing available for vegans except celery and the like. Too bad they could not have been more in tune with the ideas in the show because it exactly this kind of dissonance that creates the impression that art only relates to a world of artists, cut off from everyday life. This reinforces my recent leanings towards creating art that operates mainly outside of the museum context, this not being part of the school of museum-critique art (although I certainly respect this), but rather a kind of practical concern to increase efficiency. That said, I am very excited that one of my classmates will be opening a small experimental museum here in Richmond and I plan to write more about this later.

In any case - I hope you follow the link above and take a look at the work of my amigos.

-f