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The centuries-old tradition of building altars to welcome and celebrate deceased loved ones fuses with present-day artists’ sentiments on the state of life and politics in the Day of the Dead 2012 exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center. Elaborate, traditional altars and multi-dimensional art installations are on display in Calling on the Spirits to Face the Future: Día de los Muertos 2012.

The annual Day of the Dead exhibition provides a way for more than 80 participating artists and more than 4,000 exhibition visitors & 800 touring school children to embrace the beauty of life and to honor the spirits of the dead.

Calling on the Spirits to Face the Future is dedicated to the late Daniel del Solar, a Chilean-American media activist, poet and photographer, and the late John Edward Buchanan, Jr., Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Click here to watch a video made at last year’s exhibition.

Source Text: SOMArts Cultural Center

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Kate Lee Short. Oculus, 2012; salvaged speakers, speaker wire, Motu audio interface, Mac mini, Lepai Amplifiers, wood, 17 x14 x10 ft. Courtesey of SOMArts photo by J. Astra Brinkmann.

You know what is awesome about grad school? Being around talented and brilliant artists and writers. Check out fellow classmate Erica Gomez’s guest blog post on the SOMArts Cultural Center blog regarding the Annual Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Group show. It’s a great write-up! Click here to view on SOMArts!

Tristan Cai. Physical Realities of Death-A Memoir of Toivo Laukkannen, 2012; archival giclée prints on wood, 216 x120 in. Photo: Erica Gomez.

The Annual Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition is on view at SOMArts through October 2, 2012.

 

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SOMArts Cultural Center and The San Francisco Foundation present a focused look at the future of the Bay Area visual and media arts landscape, September 4–October 2, 2012. The Annual Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition showcases the work of promising visual artists from regional Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) programs working across disciplines and identifies young artists whose work connects directly to the pulse of emerging trends.

Below, check out videos of previous award recipients!

All of the above information and embedded videos are provided courtesy of SOMArts Cultural Center.

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I went to the Night Light: Multi-Media Garden Party at the SOMArts Cultural Center. It was great seeing friends and meeting some wonderful artists. Below, you’ll find some footage I shot of Radka Pulliam‘s piece, Up and Down the Street. It’s quite clever in that the viewer must “look in” the building to “look out” at the street view. The placement was spot on since it was in a relatively inconspicuous place towards the front of the entrance. I noticed people stopped when they noticed someone looking down and ponder the location of the projection.

One of the memorable performances of the evening was the Spanish Contemporary dance routine of Elias Aguirre and Alvaro Esteban. They are amazing. The isolations and articulation of their bodies is best seen in person. If you were at Night Light, you would know exactly what I’m talking about. Fortunately, there is a video of this phenomenal Spanish Contemporary Dance duo.

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With the help of new media artist, Scott Kildall

Here’s my augmented reality piece for the I Am Crime exhibition currently showing at SOMArts Cultural Center! This piece was made during the Making Art with Augmented Reality workshop taught by John Craig Freeman. With the help of Bay Area new media artists DC Spensley and Scott Kildall (artist attacked by my Golden Knife above), I was able to learn a lot about Layar and creating augments. It was A LOT of fun. More to follow. At the moment, I’m working feverishly on lots of writing, which I will be posting in the next few days.

Also, curious, how do you perceive my augment (or, virtual art piece)? What do you think it symbolizes? In addition, I placed my golden knife in one of the San Francisco museums. I’m wondering if you can guess which one…

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John Craig Freeman

Upgrade! San Francisco is proud to present two events with Boston-based media artist and activist John Craig Freeman at SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St. San Francisco

2-day Workshop: “Making Art with Augmented Reality” – Register HERE

Saturday March 31st & Sunday April 1st, 11am–5pm both days

Learn how to place digital 3D objects in real physical space (virtually) forever. Augments can be created in any scale for any location in the world and viewed through the camera and screen of mobile devices. This workshop provides a hands-on and in-depth introduction to AR for participants to make giant artworks, public interventions and personal or historical memorials. This is a beginner to advanced workshop. No previous programming or design experience is required. All participants in John’s workshop will have their finished digital augment and a 17″ x 22″ color print automatically added to the current SOMArts exhibition “I Am Crime: Art On the Edge of Law“.

Free Public Talk: “Emergent Technology as Art Practice and Public Art as Intervention”
Thursday, March 29th, 7-7:30PM meet and greet; 7:30-8:30PM lecture + questions

John Craig Freeman is a public artist with over twenty years of experience using emergent technologies to produce large-scale public works at sites where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities. John is currently an Associate Professor of New Media, at Emerson College (Boston) in the Department of Visual and Media Arts and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, at UC San Diego.