January 18–March 11, 2012
Opening:
Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 6–8pm
Curated by Terri Cohn and Anuradha Vikram
Mills College Art Museum
5000 MacArthur Blvd.
Oakland, CA 94613
Museum Hours:
Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–4pm, Wednesday 11am–7:30pm
Spaces of Life: The Art of Sonya Rapoport presents a group of Rapoport’s interactive works, created between 1979–2011 that function in the intersection between questioning and inviting.
Recognized for her early embrace of computer technology, in the mid 1970’s, and participatory web-based works, Rapoport presents new works alongside earlier ones in an all encompassing installation that fuses the spaces of the museum with the energy of the artist’s Berkeley home and studio. Rapoport’s work has long operated as a bridge between the public sphere of intellectual curiosity and scholarship and the domestic one of spiritual inquiry and nurturing.
Central to the installation of Rapoport’s work at the Mills College Art Museum is Objects on My Dresser (1979–1983), an 11-phase work intended as a kind of conceptual visit to the artist’s home and studio. The titular dresser, which has occupied Rapoport’s foyer for decades, is installed along with the original objects that sparked her investigation of the connections between symbols, words and ideas. Documentation of “netweb plots” created by Rapoport and by visitors to installations of previous project phases is included along with new plots created with Mills students and museum visitors. Rapoport’s work continues to be influenced by a range of disciplines including technology, biochemistry, anthropology, psychology, and feminist studies. Visitors to Spaces of Life are encouraged to engage in ongoing, distributed performance actions that draw on these influences and related imagery.
Sonya Rapoport’s sixty-year career spans painting, works on paper, interactive installations and digital works. Rapoport’s approach to art-making is naturally diverse, underpinned by her pioneering use of scientific and social science research as the basis for a conceptual practice. Her work reveals deep philosophical and psychological perspectives, humor, expression, and creativity, which she brings to such topical concerns as gender, religion, politics, bioengineering, and the role of technology in contemporary life explored through interactive processes, systems and media.
This exhibition is supported by the Agnes Cowles Bourne Fund for Special Exhibition and the Hezel Family Foundation.
Related Public Programs
Opening Reception & Curator Walk-Through
Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 6–8pm
Objects on My Dresser: Artist Talk and Performance
Sunday, February 12, 2012, 1–3pm
With Sonya Rapoport, Dr. Revathi Vikram, psychiatrist, and gallery visitors.
Pre-Release Book Launch
Pairing of Polarities: The LIfe and Art of Sonya Rapoport, edited by Terri Cohn
Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 7pm
With Malcolm Margolin of Heyday Press.
About the Mills College Art Museum (MCAM)
Founded in 1925, The Mills College Art Museum is a forum for exploring art and ideas and a laboratory for contemporary art practices. Through innovative exhibitions, programs, and collections, the museum engages and inspires the intellectual and creative life of the Mills community as well as the diverse audiences of the Bay Area and beyond.
Contact:
Maysoun Wazwaz, 510-430-3340, [email protected]
