Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Announces New Programming for ...

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Announces New Programming for 2012-2013book Worried Noodles – the Empty Sleeve by artists as diverse as David Byrne, FranzFerdinand and TV On The Radio. www.davidshrigley.comOccupy Bay AreaSaturday, July 7-October 14, 2012/YBCA GalleriesAdmission for All Galleries: $10 adults; $8 students/seniors/teachers; FREE YBCAMembers, YBCA: YouBig Idea: EncounterSince the Occupy Movement took hold across the country in the fall of 2011, protesters inOakland and San Francisco have produced a substantial output of art and writing in support ofthe principles of economic fairness, equality and reform. One of the legacies of the culture ofactivism in the Bay Area is this rich tradition of creating imagery in support of political and socialcauses. YBCA has curated an exhibition of political posters, and documentary photography andvideo stemming from the Occupy movement; and several projects by contemporary artists,representative of the spirit of Occupy.Additionally, to connect to earlier movements and provide a historical context for the project, theexhibition includes posters and photographs from other political struggles, including the BlackPanther Party (1966-82), I-Hotel (1968–77); the ARC/AIDS Vigil (1985–95); the occupation ofAlcatraz (1969–71); the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley (1964–65); and the SanFrancisco State University protests, to gain an ethnic studies program (1968–69). While theseearlier movements certainly differ in ways from Occupy, they all are the result of a deep desirefor the representation and equal treatment of often underrepresented people.Nayland Blake: FREE!LOVE!TOOL!BOX!Friday, October 12, 2012-Sunday, January 27, 2013/YBCA GalleriesAdmission for All Galleries: $10 adults; $8 students/seniors/teachers; FREE YBCAMembers, YBCA: YouBig Idea: ReflectIn the 1990s, Nayland Blake was known for his pioneering work in performance art. Since then,he has created an impressive body of work that includes conceptual video, sculpture,participatory performance, as well as self-deprecating cartoonish drawings. Blake was a majorforce in the San Francisco Bay Area art scene from 1984-1996. An avid AIDS activist, hepromoted an aesthetic that combined politics, biography, and queer practices such as cruisingand chance encounters.Blake’s most recent sculptures are created through spontaneous processes reminiscent of hisworking method during his early years in San Francisco, where materials are manipulated intosurprising and oftentimes amusing forms that are informal, odd, and unpredictable. For hisupcoming solo exhibition at YBCA, Blake will create works onsite using memories from his lifeas a creative catalyst. An important reference and inspiration for this exhibition is a videotape bythe late fashion designer Alexander McQueen titled The Bride Groom Stripped Bare (2002).While this video is not part of the exhibition, the deconstruction and reconstruction of the fabricwrapping and shaping is representative of mutability in art making. Blake’s work involves acertain amount of risk, coupled with a capacity to yield elegant works from found, banal, andabject materials. For one artwork in the exhibition, audience members are invited to DJ from theartist’s collection of over 3,000 LP albums.During his years in San Francisco, Blake taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, and servedon the board of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and New Langton Arts. He also was a cocurator,with Larry Rinder, of a ground-breaking exhibition, In a Different Light (1995) at the3