Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth January 10, 2010 to May 30, 2010 Experience the largest presentation of work by Chicago-based artist Nick Cave, featuring thirty-five of his Soundsuits—multi-layered, mixed-media sculptures named for the sounds made when the “suits” are worn. Reminiscent of African, Caribbean and other ceremonial ensembles as well as of haute couture, Cave’s work explores issues of transformation, ritual, myth and identity. His virtuosic constructions incorporate yarn, sequins, bottle caps, vintage toys, rusted iron sticks, hair, and more. Mad, humorous, visionary, glamorous and unexpected, the Soundsuits are created from scavenged ordinary materials that Cave re-contextualizes into extraordinary works of art. The Fowler is the first LA-area museum to feature Cave's work and the only Southern California venue for this traveling exhibition.
Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth has been organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. The Los Angeles has been generously supported by The James Irvine Foundation with additional funding from the Shirley and Ralph Shapiro Director’s Discretionary Fund, Patricia Rieff Anawalt, and the R.L. Shep Endowment Fund. Other support provided by Barbara Goldenberg, the Yvonne Lenart Public Programs Fund, the UCLA Arts Initiative, The Charitable Foundation, an anonymous donor, and Manus, the support group of the Fowler Museum.
Fowler in Focus: X-Voto—The Retablo-Inspired Art of David Mecalco January 31, 2010 to May 16, 2010 For more than two decades artist David Mecalco has sold hand-painted devotional images (retablos) from a stall in Mexico City’s La Lagunilla Sunday antiques fair (commonly referred to as the Thieves’ Market). In recent years these vibrant works—pulsing with images of the Virgin Mary, the devil, skeletons, animals, petitioners, and more—have brought him international recognition. Traditionally, wooden or metal-backed Mexican retablos are placed in churches, shrines or home altars, and many are now commissioned as expressions of gratitude (retablos ex votos) for prayers answered. See dozens of examples of Mecalco’s lively re-conceptualization of the art form, inspired by the realities of life in the barrios and pulquerías (saloons) of Mexico, which show a keen interest in the suffering of those marginalized or abused by mainstream society.
Art, Activism, Access: 40 Years of Ethnic Studies at UCLA February 28, 2010 to June 13, 2010 The controversial firing of Professor Angela Davis in 1969, the tent city erected in support of South African divestment in the 1980s, the Chicano Studies hunger strike of 1993—for forty years UCLA has played a key role in our nation’s ongoing struggle with diversity, access, and inclusion. In the late 1960s amidst a nation divided, UCLA faculty, students, staff, and the community urged the administration to institute Ethnic Studies on campus. In 1969 Chancellor Charles E. Young established four centers: the American Indian Studies Center, Asian American Studies Center, Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the Chicano Studies Research Center. Art, Activism, Access: 40 Years of Ethnic Studies at UCLA showcases the efforts and archives of these influential centers, exploring their roles in voicing the most significant issues of underrepresented communities in the fabric of American life. This lively display of murals, graphic art, films, ephemera, and photographs captures key moments in a remarkable history, offering a compelling review of the first forty years of ethnic studies at UCLA.
Fowler in Focus: Courtly and Urban Batik from Java May 23, 2010 to September 5, 2010 See the refined batiks of Central Java's royal courts and the North Coast's urban workshops.
Document: Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles June 6, 2010 to August 22, 2010 Four documentary photographers—Farhad Parsa, Arash Saedinia, Parisa Taghizadeh, and Ramin Talaei—focus their lenses on second-generation Iranian Americans of Los Angeles over a four-month period, October 2009–January 2010. The results will be on display in a thoughtful exhibition that considers the everyday lives of the subjects, as well as the photographers’ experiences of the process of documentation and how it informed their understandings of their own hyphenated Iranian identities.
