Past Visual Arts & Culture

Common Thread

Department of Art and Art History
November 13, 2023 - February 2, 2024
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building
Art and Art History Gallery
Featuring Artists: Alice Beasley, Michelle Kingdom,
Kira Dominguez Hultgren

Wood and Material Woven Together

This exhibition weaves three artists together through their shared interests in textiles and the narrative qualities found in their works. Each artist’s practice involves working in mediums considered traditional modes of female creative production. Yet, they present refreshingly non-traditional themes, complex intentions, diverse materials and innovative methods. Common Thread is curated by Marianne K. McGrath, M.A. art curator and consultant.

  • January 18, 2024,
    5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.,
    Dowd Lobby

  • Kira Dominguez Hultgren

    In the Silence Between Mother Tongues, 2022

    Silk from a salwar and chunni that my grandmother wore; two nalas; rope from my favorite Utah climbing gym; paracord; found wood, plastic, and metal loom bars, heddle rods, and shed rods; eye bolts; handspun wool; skin dyed and acid dyed wool; digital-hand woven fabric in mostly cotton, mohair, and metallics; various other yarns and cut up fabrics in cotton, wool, acrylic, linen, and mohair.

    92" x 55" x 12"

  • Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. except during University closure dates and holidays.

    In compliance to ADA/504, please direct your accommodation request to Mitch Grieb at mfgrieb@scu.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.

    Closure dates: Nov 23-24, 2023, Dec 22, 2023 to Jan 1, 2024, Jan 15, 2024

The Mechanical Horse
by Adrian Landon

Interactive Art Exhibition
September 25, 2023 - January 21, 2024
Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Inclusion (SCDI) Lobby,
Santa Clara University

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
The exhibit is activated through participation by the community. Push the button to the side of the sculpture and watch the horse gallop for one minute. The natural gait of the Horse is brought to life by the complex mechanical movement inside, creating a sense of awe and wonder in those that observe the sculpture in motion.

  • September 25th at 5:00 p.m. in the SCDI Lobby

  • Adrian Landon is an extraordinary sculptor who shows his work nationally and internationally. In 2019 he received the Honorarium Grant from Burning Man to make Wings of Glory, a giant 35’ tall mechanical Pegasus that galloped and flew in slow motion, on fire. He currently lives in Reno NV., and makes art at the Generator, a communal maker space. Learn more about Adrian by visiting adrianlandon.com

  • The Sobrato Campus for Diversity and Inclusion (SCDI) building is located at Santa Clara University 500 El Camino Real Building # 402 Santa Clara 95053. SCDI is located next to the Orradre Library. Parking is located in the Santa Clara University main parking structure.

    The exhibit is open 6:00 am - 10:00 pm / 7 days a week, except for Thanksgiving, (11/23-11/26) and the SCU academic holiday closure (12/23/2023 - 1/1/2024). 

  • A community partnership between Santa Clara University College of Arts and Sciences, SCU•Presents Performing Arts Center, and the City of Santa Clara Cultural Commision.

con.Text: Portraits by Bryan Ida

Exhibition
April 11 - June 17, 2023
de Saisset Museum

“The intent of this series is to portray individuals as the embodiment of strength and pride standing defiantly in the face of oppression and fear by a power against them.” - Bryan Ida

Utilizing text from government documents, declarations, and other institutional communications, artist Bryan Ida creates life-sized portraits in which the linework is his actual handwritten transcription of the sentences and phrases from the selected documents.

The con.Text series relates these historical events and documents to the lives of the individuals depicted. Each person portrayed is connected to the text used to create their portrait either through direct impact or generational effects of policies.

Collectively, the portraits examine a broad range of subjects, including racism, civil rights, and human rights.

Ida develops the ink portraits working from photographs. While many of the source photographs are contemporary images taken by the artist himself, the photographs referenced for Grandfather (2018), Father (2020), and Grandmother (2022) — depicting members of Ida’s own family — are based on photographs by Dorothea Lange taken as part of her assignment from the War Relocation Authority to document the relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII.

  • Thursday, April 13, 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
    RSVP encouraged
    Reception celebrating con.Text: Portraits by Bryan Ida. Meet the artist and enjoy time with community in the galleries. We will also celebrate the work of Art History majors Lauren Stein and Maggie Walter whose capstone project focused on prints from the museum's permanent collection.

  • Bryan Ida, Protestor (left), 2019, and Neighbor (right, detail), 2018, both from the series con.Text, ink on panel. Photos courtesy of the artist.

  • Hours for Spring quarter:
    April 11 - June 17, 2023
    Tues-Sun 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
    except for University-observed holidays

    In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (Section 504) if you have a disability and require a reasonable accommodation, please direct your request to the de Saisset Museum at 408.554.4528 or deSaissetMuseum@scu.edu, or call TTY-California Relay at 711 at least 72 hours prior to the event.

Writing Forward Reading Series

A Creative Writing Book Release
Department of English
May 24, 2023
Wednesday, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Nobili Hall Dining Room/Patio

Writing Forward Reading Series

A Creative Writing Book Release celebrating SCU English Department authors Kai Harris, Miah Jeffra, and David Keaton, with readings by other creative writing faculty and students. Food, drink, and words provided.

  • What the Fireflies Knew, a novel by Kai Harris, is now in paperback. Her novel has garnered praise from the New York Times, the Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and elsewhere. Kai Harris has been nominated for an NAACP image award for a debut author.

    American Gospel, a novel by Miah Jeffra, an award-winning fiction writer and essayist. Miah Jeffra is the author of four books, most recently The Violence Almanac (finalist, Grace Paley and St. Lawrence Book Prizes).

    Head Cleaner
    , a novel by David James Keaton, horror fiction writer extraordinaire.

  • The Writing Forward Reading Series brings creative writers with international, national, and regional reputations to the Santa Clara University campus for readings, classroom discussions, informal meetings with students, and interviews with the Santa Clara Review literary/arts magazine. This collaborative program between the English Department’s Creative Writing Program and the student-run Santa Clara Review is grounded in the Department’s and University’s commitment to involving undergraduate students in research collaboration with faculty, and is dedicated to reaching out to both the campus and local communities.

    Poets and writers brought to campus include Robert Hass (U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize), Carolyn Forché (Yale Younger Poets, NEA and Lannan grants), Khaled Hosseini (NYT Bestseller List, SCU alumnus), Viet Thanh Nguyen (Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur Grant), Tobias Wolff (Pen/Faulkner Award, National Medal of the Arts), Reyna Grande (American Book Award, International Latino Book Award), Gerald Stern (National Book Award, Guggenheim), Juan Felipé Herrera (American Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, US Poet Laureate), Dana Gioia (American Book Award, Chair of NEA), Rigoberto Gonzalez (American Book Award, Guggenheim), Raina Leon (Cave Canem and MacDowell Fellow), Jim Shepard (Guggenheim Award, The Story Prize) Alexandra Teague (Stegner and NEA Fellowships), Norma Cantú (MLA Distinguished Scholar Award), and Cheryl Dumesnil (Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, SCU alumna).

    Students majoring or minoring in English and/or Creative Writing and those working on the Santa Clara Review from a variety of majors are actively engaged in planning, inviting, and organizing the series, in close collaboration with faculty. This involvement gives undergraduates hands-on experience with the fields of writing, publishing, and public relations, while also ensuring that the series continues to speak to our campus population. The faculty-student collaboration that undergirds the series is also mirrored in interdisciplinary collaboration on campus and in community collaboration off campus.

Art History Student Research Symposium

Department of Art and Art History
May 19, 2023
Friday, 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building

The Department holds an annual Art History Student Research Symposium (AHSRS). Since 2004, the AHSRS provides students with an opportunity to present their research in a formal setting and format modeled after a professional conference. The Symposium is held in the Art and Art History gallery and draws a large audience from across the Santa Clara University community. Topics reflect student interests in a range of media from areas across the world, from ancient period to the present.

  • A reception will follow in the lobby of the Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building

  • Gallery Hours:
    Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. except during University closure dates and holidays.

    In compliance to ADA/504, please direct your accommodation request to Mitch Grieb at mfgrieb@scu.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.

Floating Kīpuka /Dreaming the Futures We Want to Grow

Art Exhibition
Department of Art and Art History
April 6 - April 28, 2023
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building

Corinne Okada Takara is a community artist, activist, and STEAM educator who creates playful art/science experiences that elevate cultural science knowledge and community voices in conversations centered on sustainability and biotechnology. She has spent over 15 years collaborating on arts programming in East San José, Salinas, and Hawaii with a career spanning game design, public art, and many community spaces collaborations.  

As the daughter of a toy designer, her approach is informed by play’s power as a facilitator of brainstorming, communion, experimentation, iteration, and dreaming of sustainable futures. She was introduced to biology by her father through hands-on toy-making with natural materials, and storytelling with endemic, invasive, and canoe plants on Maui. She learned about biological systems sitting on her grandma’s lanai as she was taught to make pinwheels of hibiscus flowers and boats of bamboo leaves. Listening to family stories of life in a Maui sugarcane labor camp, Corinne learned that we know a place through the plants, its names, its legends, gifts of health, rituals of gratitude, and play. That deep multifaceted engagement with biology has inspired her to connect to place and community through food, playful making, cultural knowledge, and agricultural labor issues.

  • Art and Art History Gallery Hours:
    Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

    In compliance to ADA/504, please direct your accommodation request to Mitch Grieb at mfgrieb@scu.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.

Threshold

Art Exhibition
Department of Art and Art History
February 7 - March 16, 2023
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building

Threshold, featuring a series of seven doorways, rails, and platforms, constructed of steel, concrete, brass, and piano wire. The modular and interlocking structure functions as a sculptural and conceptual threshold to explore passage between private and public space. On site, the framework is arranged and assembled to create curious perspectives and relationships to the existing space and architecture. Discrete sculptural elements interwoven throughout create navigable destinations and intimate moments for the viewer. Physical casts and tactile objects serve as reminders of the body and suggestions for performance. The intermingling of both architectural and sculptural forms transition between private and public spaces. Passage through the threshold takes on its own meaning and imbues a unique “sense of place”.

Artist: Daren Kendall

  • Threshold with Me, 2018, Steel, concrete, brass, piano wire, felt, ceramic, and sound equipment,

    Installation view, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, OK.

  • Art and Art History Gallery Hours:
    Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

    In compliance to ADA/504, please direct your accommodation request to Mitch Grieb at mfgrieb@scu.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.

Questions?

Phone: 408.554.4015
Email: scupresentsboxoffice@scu.edu