Dawn Kasper Performance/Exhibits Ending/Upcoming

As part of CSULB's Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Dawn Kasper performed "clues to the meaning of life part 6: for David" at the University Theater last Wednesday evening.

Kasper, whose work has appeared in Beautiful Decay, Contemporary 21, LA Weekly and the LA Times, was one of the three artists that were featured in the UAM's exhibit "Unfiguring the Body."

That exhibit as well as the Andy Warhol exhibition "Warhol: 15 min/24 fps" and "Maya Schindler: Present Progressive" end today.

The UAM will be closed until next year when it will return in 2009 with "Paul Shambroom: Picturing Power" an exhibit of series-based colored photographs that, according to the UAM website, "reveal both local and global manifestations of power, depicting scenes in industrial, business, community, and military environments."

Also available will be a publication of the same name to which UAM director Christopher Scoates contributed.

"Paul Shambroom: Picturing Power" will run from January 22 – April 5, 2009.

UAM/LBMA Press Conference on Getty Grant

At a press conference discussing the Getty grant, LBMA director Ron Nelson expressed his excitement about the exhibition and called the UAM a “leader in visual exhibitions.”

According to UAM director Christopher Scoates, the project will bring his museum and the LBMA to the same level as other larger museums in the area. The exhibit “allows two institutions back on the world stage,” Scoates said.

The exhibit will “make Long Beach a greater center of art,” said Robert Swayze, manager of economic development for the city of Long Beach.

“It is important to use the strengths of this community to build a stronger Long Beach,” said CSULB President F. King Alexander. “We want people to come see Long Beach. We have so much talent.”

Long Beach-based artist Bill Viola also appeared at the press conference and spoke of his enthusiasm for the project.

"This is a great time for the city, the museum, the world," Viola said as he proclaimed video art the "wave of the future."

Viola also discussed the creativity involved in video art saying that anyone can pick up a camera and "push that red button and record. But not everyone can put heart and soul into it."

Gallery Talk with Maya Schindler

Letters and lanuage form an integral part of artist Maya Schindler's work as was seen during her gallery talk at the CSULB UAM on Wednesday.

Born in Israel, Schindler moved to the United States in 2000. As English became her second language, Maya said, "I decided I don't know enough about what language is."

As she displayed a photo of her work "We Love to See You Smile," Maya explained that this slogan, which she got from a McDonald's campaign, "doesn't make sense in any context."

Schindler was attracted to the McDonald's song and slogan and decided to make it into an 18-foot-long, two-foot tall work of art made of paint and resin. The piece was shown in a museum in Brooklyn, NY.

She also spoke about her 2006 work "Situation."

"For me growing up in a tense place like Israel, they talk a lot about 'the situation,' " Schindler said. "But the situation is never really defined. I like multiple possibilities."

"Dichotomy is something that defines things, and I think that is important," Schindler said.

Her installation, "I Am Political" is currently being shown in the UAM through December 14.