San José Museum of Art

06/07/2019

Happy Pride Month from SJMA! 🏳️‍🌈

06/07/2019

TCS Spotlight: B. Lewis

Featured in Content, B. Lewis describes his sound as "messy soul." Listen to him, Brandon Roos, and Chale Brown, tonight, for FREE at #FacebookFirstFridays

When Universal Grammar released the first installation of its Changing Same mix series this past October, Tommy Aguilar and company chose to kick things off with “An Abstract,” a 45-minute window i…

06/07/2019

Art with music is always 🔥. We're open late tonight until 10pm for Facebook First Fridays with free admission starting at 5pm. Check out #RinaBanerjee, #JayDeFeo, #CatherineWagner, and #ScreenActs with music curated by @ungramr.

Photo by Eye Adapt Photography.

06/06/2019

Rina Banerjee @ San Jose Museum of Art | Squarecylinder.com – Art Reviews | Art Museums | Art Gallery Listings Northern California

"'Make Me a Summary of the World' at the San José Museum of Art (SJMA) offers an aesthetically overwhelming 20-year retrospective of Rina Banerjee, whose installations, assemblages and drawings tackle postcolonialism and globalization and the engines of capitalism and excess consumption that drive them.

Willful and difficult objects, Banerjee’s imaginings tread the line between sacred and profane expressions of global interconnection. Sculptures, installations and works on paper point to identity and how it is continuously negotiated under the duress produced by transnational flows of capital, goods, technologies and ideologies. These are bold, resentful, fearsome manifestations—furious, and in some moments intensely beautiful."

See Rina Banerjee's work in all its manifestations. Up until October 3, 2019!

06/05/2019

#WCW: We ❤ women who lead. Annie Jean-Baptiste, Head of Product Inclusion, Research, and Activation at Google, will be speaking in the panel discussion Breaking the Glass Ceiling at Women in Leadership on June 13.

Photo courtesy of Annie Jean-Baptiste.

06/05/2019

🎉🎈Celebration time! The @CaliforniaArtsCouncil has awarded SJMA 3 awards to advance our Education and Community Engagement Initiatives in the categories of Youth Arts Action, Creative California Communities, and Arts Education Exposure as part of its biggest investment in arts and culture statewide since 2001. 🎉🎈🎉🎈

📯Get all the details in the CAC’s latest press release: http://tiny.cc/CACGrants2019 📯

06/05/2019

Still don’t have your Friday nite planned? We got you! We’re open til 10pm and FREE after 5pm. Check out 🖼, music by @ungramr featuring Brandon Roos, B. Lewis, + resident DJ Chale Brown, a cash bar 🍺 🍷 🍸, and late nite bites. #SanJose #FacebookFirstFridays #FREE

06/04/2019

Catch a DJ-set by Brandon Roos among others with music curated by Universal Grammar at Facebook First Fridays. 🎶

👉Listen to a preview of his music at soundcloud.com/b-roos.

06/02/2019

Happy #SelfieSunday! 🤳

Share your self-portraits at SJMA on Instagram at @san_jose_museum_of_art.

06/02/2019

B. Lewis

Catch beats by B.Lewis at Facebook First Fridays, free admission for all from 5–10pm at SJMA.

See works by visionary women artists in the exhibitions: "Catherine Wagner: Paradox Observed," "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World," "Screen Acts: Women in Film and Video," and "Undersoul: Jay DeFeo."

be easy. inquiries: [email protected]

06/01/2019

Cardboard, LEDs, sun prints, bubbles, and the Maker[Space]Ship. Thank you to everyone who came out for Community Day: Maker Day and especially to those who made this day possible!

@sanjoseculture, @sanjoselibrary, #408creates, #makersgonnamake @ San José Museum of Art

05/30/2019

Jay DeFeo at San Jose Museum of Art | Metroactive

Jeffrey Edalatpour reviews "Undersoul: Jay DeFeo" on the Metro. See the exhibition for yourself at SJMA, on view through July 7, 2019.

A great big dog is lying on his side. He's at rest against a concrete floor--but it's not a peaceful sleep. His dreaming mind is catching on fire. Anxious, orange flames spread through his limbs, crackling along the way, until they erupt from his back to permeate the atmosphere. The rust red smoke f...

05/30/2019

Catch San Jose Public Library's Maker[Space]Ship at Community Day: Maker Day, featuring art-activities such as "The Art of Balance” inspired by Alexander Calder and Geometric Bubble Makers inspired by "Catherine Wagner: Paradox Observed."

Come to Community Day: Maker Day on Saturday, June 1, from 11am–5pm, with art-activities available until 4pm.

05/28/2019

's cover photo

05/28/2019

As alluded to in the title of Catherine Wagner’s Frankenstein series, which depict anthropomorphic looking ultra-high vacuum chambers used in state-of-the-art physics research, the tools of science shape society.

See "Catherine Wagner: Paradox Observed" at the San José Museum of Art, on view through August 18, 2019.

Image: Catherine Wagner, 2017. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Phil Bond.

05/27/2019

Create LED beasts inspired by works of Rina Banerjee in "Make Me a Summary of the World" at Community Day: Maker Day on Saturday, June 1, 2019. Free for everyone.

Details at sjmusart.org/maker.

05/26/2019

How A Berkeley Professor's Passion for Art Rescued the Japanese American Spirit

"As Ruth Asawa observed after the war, 'Art saved us.'"

Learn how art played an essential role in the incarcerated Japanese American community during WWII.

Faced with empty horse stalls and bare barracks, Chiura Obata, along with other artists, taught over 600 professionals and amateurs art. Their work...

05/25/2019

Get #innovative with the whole family at Free Community Day: Maker Day this Saturday, June 1, 11am–5pm, only at SJMA. Try your hands on art-activities inspired by exhibitions on view until 4pm. Details at sjmusart.org/maker.

05/24/2019

What materials and objects can you identify in Rina Banerjee's assemblages?

See "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World" at SJMA, on view through October 6, 2019.

05/23/2019

Catch an exhibition tour of "Catherine Wagner: Paradox Observed" with Kathryn Wade, curatorial associate, today at 12pm, free with Museum admission.

05/22/2019

"[For My Art] captures unfolding synergies and frictions between artists, filmmakers, and public participants, providing a view into the gendered spectatorship of performance art. It also hints at the politically charged nature of filmmaking that we experienced, in which we are sometimes viewed as vehicles of the power-laden international interventions taking part in Burma’s fractured ‘transition.’"

See Ethnocine's "For My Art" in "Screen Acts: Women in Film and Video," on view at SJMA through June 30, 2019.

05/21/2019

Guests celebrated the opening of "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World" and enjoyed a conversation between artist Rina Banerjee and curator Lauren Schell Dickens.

Through baroque sculptures made of materials sourced throughout the world, Rina Banerjee explores the splintered experience of identity prevalent in diasporic communities. See the exhibition now on view through October 6.

Photography by Tony Chew.

05/20/2019

Famed Indian artist Rina Banerjee’s 1st major exhibit showing in San Jose

"Rina Banerjee is considered one of India’s most important post-Colonial artists, and a new exhibit in San Jose is affording her some perhaps overdue recognition."

Randy McMullen highlights "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World" on the The Mercury News. See the exhibition at SJMA, on view through October 6, 2019.

The works of Rina Banerjee, acclaimed as a powerful voice of post-Colonial India, are showing at San Jose Museum of Art.

05/16/2019

Tonight’s speakers:

Introduction by Susan Sayre Batton, Oshman Executive Director, San José Museum of Art

Artist Rina Banerjee in conversation with Lauren Schell Dickens, curator, San José Museum of Art

“Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World” on view Thu, May 16, 2019–Sun, Oct 6, 2019

05/14/2019

Common Sounds

Common Sounds will activate the San José Museum of Art with world music on Thursday, May 16, at 7pm at Third Thursday: Common Sounds. $5 after 5pm.

Presented as part of New Terrains: Mobility and Migration, and in response to "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World."

05/13/2019

Get a sneak peek of "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World" on Hi-Fructose Magazine. The exhibition opens this Thursday, May 16, with a members' opening reception, May 15.

Rina Banerjee, known for dazzling sculptures crafted from material sourced around the globe, has her first mid-career retrospective in an exhibition at San José Museum of Art, kicking off this month: http://hifructose.com/2019/05/09/exhibition-surveys-work-of-sculptor-rina-banerjee/

05/12/2019

Happy Mother's Day from the San José Museum of Art! 💐

Image:
Larry Sultan
"Mom Posing by Green Wall and Dad Watching T.V.," 1984
Color coupler print on paper
41 x 47 1/2 inches
Museum purchase with funds contributed by the Council of 100.

05/10/2019

Rina Banerjee creates vivid sculptures and installations made from materials sourced throughout the world. See the artist's first mid-career retrospective "Make Me a Summary of the World" at SJMA, opens Thursday, May 16, 2019.

Image: Rina Banerjee, “Her captivity was once someone’s treasure and even pleasure but she blew and flew away took root which grew, we knew this was like no other feather, a third kind of bird that perched on vine intertwined was neither native nor her queens daughters…," 2011. Anglo-Indian pedestal 1860, Victorian birdcage, shells, feathers, gourds, grape wine, coral, fractured charlotte doll heads, steel knitted mesh with glass beads, Kenyan tourist sculptures and apple gourds, 7 x 7 x 6 feet. Purchased with funds from the Michel Roux Acquisitions Fund, Cornell Fine Arts Museum.

05/09/2019

Don't forget Mother's Day is around the corner. Find unique and artful gifts at the Museum Store.

05/08/2019

Artist Catherine Wagner worked with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines and scanning electron microscopes (SEM) to capture the textured surface of a shark’s tooth with crisp precision.

Learn more about the artist and her works with Kathryn Wade at Gallery Talk | Catherine Wagner: Paradox Observed on Thursday, May 23, at 12:30pm. Free with Museum admission.

05/06/2019

Celebrated SF sculptor Ruth Asawa to be honored with Google Doodle

ICYMI: Google Doodle​ kicked off the month of May dedicated to artist and educator Ruth Asawa in honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Month.

Find works by Asawa on SJMA's permanent collection database at bit.ly/RuthAsawaSJMA.

05/06/2019

Imagining Utopia in Rina Banerjee’s Whimsical Cornucopias

"By mixing these materials in such strange, sci-fi-esque sculptures, she resists their potential to fetishize and orientalize."

"Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World" opens at SJMA, May 16, 2019. Learn more at sjmusart.org/RinaBanerjee.

Cobbled together from materials including cowrie shells, Yoruba masks, horns, Japanese mosquito nets, and crocodile heads, Rina Banerjee's fantastical sculptures present a utopian vision of globalism.

05/04/2019

A moment from Third Thursday: 10th Annual Poetry Invitational, hosted by Santa Clara County Poet Laureate - Mighty Mike McGee, co-sponsored by Poetry Center San José.

Save the date on May 16th for Third Thursday: Common Sounds, with Chamber Music Silicon Valley.

05/04/2019

SJMA is pleased to introduce a new collaboration with Rhizome—an affiliate of the New Museum, New York, championing born-digital art and culture through commissions, exhibitions, digital preservation, and software development.

This initiative launches tonight with a special project from Rhizome's Seven on Seven, their flagship platform, pairing artists and technologists to create new things—artworks, prototypes, or whatever they imagine.

As a part of SJMA’s new Facebook First Fridays series, artist Hayal Pozanti and linguist Laura Welcher give a West Coast premiere to a new collaboration.

Speaking this evening:
Introduction by Holly Shen, deputy director, San José Museum of Art
Zachary Kaplan, Director of Rhizome
Artist Hayal Pozanti and linguist Laura Welcher
Sandy Curth, Designer at Emerging Objects

05/03/2019

Rhizome's 7x7 with Hayal Pozanti and Laura Welcher

Tonight at 5:30pm: artist Hayal Pozanti and linguist Laura Welcher from The Long Now Foundation will present the West Coast launch of Rhizome's 7x7. Event is free as part of Facebook First Fridays.

#OnView: "The Wantnot," by Hayal Pozanti and Laura Welcher.

05/03/2019

Today at 5:30pm: An art-tech premiere from Rhizome's 7X7 at Facebook First Fridays with artist Hayal Pozanti and linguist Laura Welcher. Details and RSVP at sjmusart.org/FFFMay2019.

05/01/2019

May 3 in San José: Hayal Pozanti and Laura Welcher revisit their 7×7 2019 collaboration

Artist Hayal Pozanti and linguist Laura Welcher will re-present their Rhizome 7x7 2019 collaboration at Facebook First Fridays. Learn more at sjmusart.org/FFFMay2019.

Rhizome is thrilled to be partnering with the San José Museum of Art to re-present artist Hayal Pozanti and linguist and Long Now Director of Operations Laura Welcher's collaboration from last weekend's 7×7 2019. This thought-provoking project sought to send a message deep into the future, ent...

04/30/2019

Female Artists Resist Easy Interpretation in SJMA’s ‘Screen Acts’

"The artists of 'Screen Acts' prove the impossibility of a single source of truth."

"Screen Acts: Women in Film and Video" is on KQED Arts The Do List, on view at SJMA through June 30, 2019.

With works by Carrie Mae Weems and Steffani Jemison, the looping video program challenges audiences to hold multiple truths simultaneously.

04/29/2019

"Along with its dramatic color and angular composition, the imposing size of 'Firesign' extends its commanding architectural structure into real space."

The exhibition catalogue for "Undersoul: Jay DeFeo" offers new insight into DeFeo’s artistic practice and as a photographer, with essays by Lauren Schell Dickens, SJMA curator, and Kathryn Wade, curatorial associate. Available now at the Museum Store.

04/28/2019

Catherine Wagner's "Pomegranate Wall" (2000) in "Paradox Observed."

Beautiful and provocative, "Pomegranate Wall" (2000) explores life from the inside out.

"Catherine Wagner: Paradox Observed," on view through August 18, 2019.

04/27/2019

A comment from our visitors:

"She has created elements of painting in her prints, leaving us to witness her masterfully crafted compositions from all perspectives of art."- Anna K, LA

See "Undersoul: Jay DeFeo" at SJMA, on view through July 7, 2019. Details at sjmusart.org/undersoul.

04/26/2019

Make me a summary of Rina Banerjee

“Feeling like the immigrant makes you always feel like you don't belong and that you are an intruder and you are trespassing.”

See "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World" at SJMA, on view May 16, 2019. Learn more at sjmusart.org/rinabanerjee.

Gourds and dolls heads, Chinese umbrellas and Kashmiri shawls, Victorian birdcages and African masks: That is what the artist’s sculptures are made of.

04/25/2019

On view through June 30: "Screen Acts: Women in Film and Video" highlights women artists and filmmakers whose works draw on the histories of representation and performance in film and video to address some of the most pressing social issues of our time.

Elena Damiani, "Intersticio," 2012 (video still); Two-channel video; Running time 5 minutes, 25 seconds. Image courtesy of the artist.

04/23/2019

On this day is the birthday of Richard Diebenkorn.

Image: David Park, "Portrait of Richard Diebenkorn Drawing," 1948. Pencil on paper. 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Gift of Gretchen Diebenkorn Grant and Christopher Diebenkorn.

04/22/2019

Did you know artists Catherine Wagner and Jay DeFeo were colleagues at Mills College? DeFeo taught at Mills from 1980–89 with Wagner still teaching today since 1986.

See their respective exhibitions "Paradox Observed" and "Undersoul" at SJMA as part of the Museum's 50th-anniversary series Visionary Women Artists.

Seated in the back is artist Ron Nagle, who also taught at Mills College from 1978-2010.

Courtesy of Mills College, Oakland, CA.