Press Releases
January 2004
ACT (Art and Culture Talks)at the University Art Museum
Spring 2004 Schedule
ALBANY , NY (January 13, 2004) — The University Art Museum is pleased to announce its upcoming schedule for The Marjorie L. and Ronald E. Brandon Art and Culture Talks (ACT).
ACT Spring 2004 features programs by curator and art critic Gregory Volk; fiction writer Rick Moody; author Ross King; artist Michael Ashkin; art critic and historian Katy Siegel; and artist, critic, and curator Robert Storr.
ACT is an ongoing museum program designed to bring together artists, critics, writers, poets, and scholars to address key issues in contemporary art and culture through rigorous and provocative talks, conversations, debates, seminars, screenings, and readings in an informal setting.ACT Spring 2004
ACT programs will be held at the museum and other campus locations as specified.
All programs are free and open to the public.
Thursday, January 22, 7:00 p.m.
University Art Museum
Gallery walk-through with Gregory Volk, art critic and co-curator of the exhibit Home Extension, on view at the University Art Museum January 21 through April 10, 2004
Home Extension, curated by Gregory Volk and Sabine Russ features work by Sebaastian Bremer, Beth Campbell, Fred Holland, Ragna Róbertsdóttir, Joachim Koester, Odili Donald Odita, Karin Sander, Kimsooja, Roman Signer, and Ward Shelley.
Gregory Volk is a Brooklyn-based art critic and independent curator. He writes for Art in America and is a visiting professor at the University at Albany , SUNY.
Thursday, January 29, 4:15 p.m.
Standish Room, New Library
Uptown Campus
Seminar with Ross King
Thursday, January 29, 8:00 p.m.
Assembly Hall, Campus Center
Uptown Campus
Reading , “Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling”
British writer Ross King is the best-selling author of the non-fiction works Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling (2003), the story behind the frescoed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture (2000), the story of the construction of the enormous dome of Florence 's Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral. He has also published two novels, Ex-Libris (1998) and Domino (1996, 2003).
Ross King's presentation will detail the story behind the famous mural on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel inside Vatican City ; how Pope Julius commissioned Michelangelo to fresco the chapel's ceiling; and their often strained relationship.
Co-sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute.
Wednesday, February 4, 7:00 p.m.
University Art Museum
Lecture by Michael Ashkin
Michael Ashkin is a sculptor living in Brooklyn , New York. Focusing on issues surrounding environmental degradation, Ashkin creates lifelike models of desolated post-industrial landscapes. Built to scale and meticulous in detail, the constructions manage to look vast and unending despite their miniature format. Ashkin's work has been shown at Andre Rosen ( New York ), Leo Castelli ( New York ), White Columns ( New York ), and the 2003 Frieze Art Fair ( London ). He is a visiting artist in the Department of Art, University at Albany , SUNY.
Tuesday, February 24, 4:15 p.m.
University Art Museum
Informal conversation with Rick Moody
Tuesday, February 24, 7:00 p.m.
Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center
Uptown Campus
Rick Moody reads from his work.
Rick Moody , fiction writer and editor, is the author of three novels, two story collections, and a memoir. His first novel, Garden State (1991), won the Pushcart Press Editor's Choice Award. He gained national recognition with the publication of his second novel, The Ice Storm (1994), which was adapted into a movie in 1997. His most recent works include the memoir The Black Veil (2002) and the story collection Demonology (2000). Moody has also written essays for two books featuring the photography of Gregory Crewdson, Twilight (2002), and Hover (1998). He has also written on contemporary artists Roy Lichtenstein and Fred Tomaselli.
Co-sponsored by the New York Writers Institute.
Monday, March 8, 7:00 p.m.
University Art Museum
Lecture by Katy Siegel
Katy Siegel is a contributing editor of Artforum and teaches contemporary art history and criticism at Hunter College , CUNY. She is the co-author of Art & Money, forthcoming from Thames & Hudson, as well as an edited volume of Sidney Tillim's critical writings on art, forthcoming from Routledge. Siegel is also the author of numerous articles and catalogue essays on contemporary art.
Mid-March, 7:00 p.m.
University Art Museum
Lecture, “Facts and Fictions: Stories and Histories in Recent Art” by Robert Storr
Robert Storr is the Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at New York University 's Institute of Fine Arts . As a curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art from 1990 until 2002, Storr organized numerous shows, including retrospectives of Robert Ryman, Gerhard Richter, Chuck Close, Tony Smith, and Bruce Nauman. He has written books and catalogue essays on contemporary artists Louise Bourgeois, Chuck Close, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Philip Guston, David Hammons, Eva, Hesse, Ilya Kabakov, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Martin Puryear, Susan Rothenberg, and Nancy Spero, among others.
ACT is made possible thanks to the generous and continued support of Marjorie L. and Ronald E. Brandon.