The CCA Wattis Institute, one of San Francisco's most progressive arts organizations, is pleased to present Wattis Collectibles, a finely curated program of limited edition works. This series, conceived in conjunction with the Wattis exhibition and residency program, affords an opportunity to own works by some of today's most internationally significant emerging and established artists.
For the Fall of 2012, artists who have historic ties to the institution were asked to create new works to support the Wattis' transition into a new location. Seminal artists John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, Jonathan Monk, Paulina Olowska, and Laura Owens, have created new works exclusively for the Wattis, available on a first come first serve basis.
For direct sales, additional information or to be added to the Wattis Collectibles mailing list, please contact Micki Meng at mmeng@cca.edu or 415.703.9521. Proceeds directly support the ongoing realization of the Wattis' exhibition program.
Untitled (Two hundred and fifty redeemed cans) is a solid aluminum ingot bar created on the occasion of the exhibition Claire Fontaine: Redemptions at the Wattis. Each aluminum bar relates to the weight of a single bag of recycled aluminum cans that hung from the gallery ceiling. While the exhibition suspended these recycled materials above visitors' heads, the edition suspends this throw-away material yet again, turning the discarded metal into a sculptural object that is ascribed a new value.
Working in both paint and collage, Bradford incorporates elements from his daily life into his canvases: remnants of found posters and billboards, graffitied stencils and logos, and a variety of materials found in urban social environments such as the South Central Los Angeles neighborhood where the artist lived as a child and still has a studio space.
Born in 1931, conceptual artist John Baldessari is one of the most influential American artists working today. Baldessari is known for his use of appropriation, erasure, alteration and montage to interrupt a given narrative and create entirely new meaning out of existing imagery. The layered, often humorous compositions carry disparate connotations, underscoring the relative nature of language.
Baldessari received an honorary doctorate from the California College of the Arts in 2011.
LA-based artist Laura Owens' imagery references a wide and imaginative range of subjects and techniques in her practice. Moving with ease between high and low, personal and social, Owens investigates the formal issues of painting through a highly personal blend of abstract and representational imagery.
Berlin-based artist Jonathan Monk often references a tongue-in-cheek approach to Conceptualism. For Grey/Gray, (2012), each record within the edition is visually unique and comes with two records. Side A is the sound of black paint being mixed with white. Side B is the sound of white paint being mixed with black. One is in a black sleeve and the other in a white one, housed within a clear plastic sleeve with a printed sticker and a small offset printed certificate signed in pencil and painted with grey or gray finger prints.
Paulina Olowska incorporates text and graphics from illustrations to create autobiographical narratives. Her appropriated-image collages often reference a myriad of seemingly opposing sources, including Modernism, Soviet and U.S. propagandist typography, 1960s Pop, contemporary fashion, and street graffiti.
Paulina Olowska was born in 1976 in Gdansk, Poland and lives and works in Warsaw. One-person exhibitions include Portikus, Frankfurt (2007); Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2007) and the Tate Modern, London (2008).
Allen, South Dakota, Median Income $7,578: United States Post Office, August 1, 2011, (Cancelled by Jens Hoffmann, August 16, 2011), Fisher Island, Florida, Median Income $236,238: United States Post Office, August 23, 2011 (Cancelled by Jens Hoffmann, August, 26, 2011)
Sharon Lockhart’s anthropological sensibility leads to months and even years spent working with the same community. For More American Photographs, Lockhart spent time with cattle ranchers and attended cattle auctions in Tulare County. Lockhart captures the vast expanses of Central California, using the baron and wilted landscape to convey the hardships of a community where agriculture was once the main source of revenue.
Larry Clark is well-known for his controversial oeuvre, from his 1995 cult film Kids to his photographic body of work providing candid forays into American subcultures. Teenage drug users, underage sex, dysfunctional families, skateboarders, hustlers and surfers are all subjects that Clark has turned his lens to.
Catherine Opie’s documentary photographs primarily focus on the idea of community and serves as an ongoing investigation into the identity of contemporary America. For More American Photographs, Opie draws from stores in her immediate geographic area to cultivate feelings of both connection and disconnection.
Opie has had more than twenty solo exhibitions since 1989 including a mid-career survey at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
