Visiting Artist Series 2008
Todd Barricklow - February 26
Encouraged in the arts from an early age, he attended a humanities magnet high school where he started working in ceramics and drawing. He continued his education at Sonoma State University where he graduated with distinction in 1992. He was an Artist in Residence in the Arts/Industry Program at the Kohler Company in Wisconsin in 1999. He shows regularly and works from his studio and home in Santa Rosa, where he works in Ceramics, Printmaking and Metal.
Will Combs - March 4
Will Combs, a former Hollywood art director, is a visual anthropologist engaged in the mediums of filmmaking, writing and painting. His paintings are exhibited and collected worldwide, the foundations for his imagery distilled from dreams and spun into figurative narratives utilizing a Latin palette with advances of whimsy. He received interdisciplinary degrees from UC Santa Cruz in art, film and history of consciousness.
Lawrence R. Rinder - March 11
Lawrence R. Rinder is the Dean of the College at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Previously, he was the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator of Contemporary Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art where he organized exhibitions including "The American Effect," "BitStreams," the "2002 Biennial," and "Tim Hawkinson," which was given the 2005 award for best monographic exhibition in a New York museum by the United States chapter of the International Association of Art Critics. Prior to the Whitney, Rinder was founding director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, in San Francisco, and served as Assistant Director and Curator for Twentieth-Century Art at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
John Casey March - 18
Born on Friday the 13th in Salem, Massachusetts, John Casey has been inventing creatures as soon as he was able to hold a crayon. John graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 1988 with a BFA in Painting. Several years ago he relocated to Oakland, California with his lovely wife Mary. His drawings and sculptures have been exhibited at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA, the de Young Museum in San Francisco and Bay Area venues such as the di Rosa Preserve, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Receiver Gallery and Swarm Gallery.
Jeff Kelley - April 1
A practicing art critic since 1977, Jeff Kelley has written for such publications as Artforum, Art in America, Arts Magazine, Artweek, Vanguard, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. He has also contributed catalogue essays to publications for the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Mudima Foundation in Milan, Italy, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Des Moines Art Center, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Kelley is the editor of "Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life," by Allan Kaprow, published by the University of California Press in 1993, and his "Childsplay: The Art of Allan Kaprow” – a book on Kaprow's Happenings since the 1950s – was published in October 2004, also for the University of California Press.
Annabeth Rosen - April 15
Annabeth Rosen is noted for her exuberantly modeled reliefs and brightly colored slipware. She trained at New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University gaining a BFA and subsequently received her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. She has taught since 1987 and since 1997 has held the Robert Arneson Endowed Chair at U.C. Davis.
“Annabeth Rosen makes work that is complex in process as well as character....assembled from the agglomeration of distinct sculptural components, often involve chalky white slip fired over deep-colored glazes. The surfaces that result are ashy, as if from the aftermath of a disaster.....At the same time, humor abounds. In some cases the glazes are reticulated in a way that mimics cantaloupe rinds or lemon zest. Other forms are dented and fuzzed to suggest fruit gone soft with rot.....festive, clownish, brash, Rosen's work can evoke a full plate of food begging to be thrown" an excerpt from a review by Nancy Princenthal, American Craft July 2003.
Rob Keller - May 6
Rob Keller states, “As a veterinary technician for the past 20 years, my work experience has greatly influenced my art practice. It enables me to work simultaneously in the realms of art and science. I am very committed to the practice of animal husbandry, it is most apparent in the latest body of work I have produced, The Mummification Series.
Mummification has been the focus of my artwork because it is a process which honors the dead and prepares them for the afterlife. In the veterinary field one could quickly become numb to the Western concept of death, but by thinking as the Egyptians had, I feel I can recognize and honor animals in a way that is caring and respectful.”
Sonoma State University is located 50 miles north of San Francisco, off Highway 101, adjacent to the communities of Rohnert Park and Cotati. From San Francisco Bay Area, take Highway 101 north to Rohnert Park Expressway exit. Turn right onto Rohnert Park Expressway and follow to its end at Petaluma Hill Road. Turn right on Petaluma Hill Road to the stoplight at East Cotati Avenue. Right on East Cotati Avenue to Main Entrance of the campus on your right. Information Booth is at the end of the drive.
The Visiting Artists Lecture Series provides our students with valuable insights and exposure to art professionals and their work. The lectures are held on Tuesdays for an hour, from 12 noon to 12:45 leaving 10 minutes for Q&A.
All lectures are free to the public and are held in Art Department,
Room 102, from noon-1:00 PM
The Visiting Artist Lecture Series is supported in part through grants from the Instructionally Related Activities Fund of Sonoma State University, and the Imagery Estate Winery. Thank you.
A daily parking permit ($2.50) is required Monday thru Thursday, 6 am – 10 pm and 6 am – 5 pm on Fridays, except holidays. Daily permits are not valid in reserved lots. Some permit machines accept quarters only. Sonoma State has complete program accessibility.