Ryan Gander Lecture
The Wattis Institute is pleased to host a lecture by London-based artist Ryan Gander, our spring Capp Street Project artist in residence and one of the featured artists in the Wattis' ongoing Magnificent Seven program. Gander's idea-based practice appropriates elements from different disciplines -- from architecture to urbanism, design, or language -- to suggest narratives that defy artistic conventions and evade popular culture or personal experience. Loose Associations (2002) was an ongoing performance work that rapidly gained him international recognition. Taking the form of a lecture series, the piece allowed Gander to engage in verbal digressions through topics as diverse as "desire lines," furniture design, and Morse code. Puzzles also play a key role in Gander's practice. In recent years he has produced curios and complex works, for instanceBauhaus Revisited (2005), a chess set based on Joseph Hartwig's 1924 didactical redesign of the game.
Gander studied at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, NL and the Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, NL. Recent projects include ILLUMInations at the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale; Intervals at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC, US; and The Public Art Fund, NYC, US. Recent solo shows have been held at Dazaifu Tenmangu, Fukuoka, JP; 1223 Gendaikaiga, Tokyo, JP; YU-UN Viewing Room, Tokyo, JP; Okinawa Prefectural Museum, Okinawa, JP, and Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, CH. A monograph by the artist, entitled Catalogue Raisonnable Vol: 1 has recently been published.
(image: Ryan Gander, Bauhaus Revisited from the series An Incomplete History of Ideas, 2003)
Founding support for CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts programs has been provided by Phyllis C. Wattis and Judy and Bill Timken. General support for the Wattis Institute provided by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, Ann Hatch and Paul Discoe, and the CCA Curator's Forum.
Info: 415.703.9521 or wattis@cca.edu
