January 6, 2012

For Immediate Release

MEDIA CONTACTS

Leah Masterson, Communications Associate 858 454 3541 x119, [email protected]

Rebecca HandelsmanHandelsman, Senior Communications & Marketing Manager 858 454 3541 x116, [email protected]

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO ADVANCE EXHIBITION SCHEDULE THROUGH JANUARY 2013 Current as of January 6, 2012. Please discard previous schedules and call to confirm all information at 858 454 3541 x119, or via e-mail at [email protected] .

MCASD DOWNTOWN MCASD LA JOLLA

PHENOMENAL: CALIFORNIA LIGHTLIGHT,, SPACESPACE,, PHENOMENAL: CALIFORNIA LIGHTLIGHT,, SURFACE SPACESPACE,, SURFACE MCASD Downtown, Jacobs Building: THROUGH 1/22/12 Through 2/5/122/5/12**** MCASD Downtown, 1001 Kettner: Through SPENCER FINCH: ROME (PANTHEON, NOON, 3/43/4////12*12*12*12* JUJUJUNJU NNNEE 14, 2011) *Select installations will remain on view THROUGH 55////33330000/12/12/12/12 through summer 2012 JOHN BALDESSARI: A PRINT JENNIFER STEINKAMP: MADAME CURIE RETROSPECTIVE FROM THE COLLECTIONS THROUGH 2/5/12 (Jacobs Building) OF JORDAN D. SCHNITZER AND HIS FAMILY FOUNDATION ISAAC JULIEN: TEN THOUSAND WAVES 2/4/12 --- 5/13/12 2/25/12 --- 121212/12 ///1111/12/12 (Jacobs Building) PROSPECT 2012 ICONIC III:I: THE COLLECTION OF MCASD 4/21/12 ––– 5/30/12 3/22/12 ––– 1/1/13 (1001 Kettner) ART AUCTION: WORKS ON VIEW 5/20/12 ––– 5/30/12

PHENOMENAL: CALIFORNIA LIGHT, SPACE, SURFACE MCASD La JollaJolla:: TTThroughThrough January 22, 2012 MCASD Downtown, Jacobs Building: Through February 5, 2012* MCASD Downtown, 1001 Kettner: Through March 4, 2012* *Select installations will remain on view through summer 2012

Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface takes an in-depth look at 13 artists working in Los Angeles in the 1960s and ‘70s whose perceptual investigations and work with light and innovative materials helped define an era of art making in California.

On view at both MCASD locations, Phenomenal features artists Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Mary Corse, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Eric Orr, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, De Wain Valentine, and Doug Wheeler.

The La Jolla installation of Phenomenal will close January 22, 2012. Works on view at the downtown location will remain on view longer, allowing visitors a final opportunity to experience Phenomenal works into the spring and summer of 2012. Please see below for more information on closing dates.

Phenomenal in La Jolla Closes January 22, 2012

Phenomenal at MCASD Downtown, Jacobs Building Closes February 5, 2012. DW 68 VEN MCASD 11 by Doug Wheeler will remain on view through August 2012.

Phenomenal at MCASD Downtown, 1001 Kettner Closes March 4, 2012. Wedgework V by James Turrell will remain on view through August 2012.

Combining key works from the Museum’s collection with major loans from prominent public and private collections, the exhibition includes immersive light installations together with rare, ephemeral, and site- conditioned works, some seen in California for the first time in decades. Phenomenal is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated scholarly catalogue co-published by MCASD and University of California Press. Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface is part of a major Getty Foundation initiative called Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, which collectively tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. The presenting sponsor of Pacific Standard Time is Bank of America.

Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and has been made possible thanks to a major grant from the Getty Foundation. The project has also received generous grants from the Henry Luce Foundation for American Art and the Farrell Family Foundation. Additional support for the project comes from Faye Hunter Russell, Brent Woods and Laurie Mitchell, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Institutional support for MCASD is provided, in part, by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the James Irvine Foundation. The exhibition is organized for MCASD by Director Hugh M. Davies and Curator Robin Clark.

SPENCER FINCH: ROME (PANTHEON, NOON, JUNE 14, 2011) MCASD La Jolla Through May 33303000,, 202012121212

Whether grand or subtle, Spencer Finch’s works translate the experience of a place or a perception in time to another realm altogether. His “specific” depictions—the pink of Jackie Kennedy’s pill box hat, the color of his dreams, sunlight in the Pantheon—are unlikely, but perhaps also accurate. His recollections blend scientific observation with poetic gesture.

Finch’s materials tend to be familiar and immediate: watercolor and ink, or domestic light bulbs and colored film. Often, Finch filters “found” light to bridge an actual locale with a recalled memory. Rather than depict a scene’s physical contours, he evokes the moment and mood of a place by controlling the light. He takes locales and actions, which are separated by time and space, and links them through the recollection of sensory information.

Here, Finch connects the Roman architecture of the Pantheon to MCASD’s Robert Venturi-designed building. In the historic building, a single circular skylight provides the only illumination to the massive structure. In La Jolla, Finch approximates the Pantheon’s oculus with an expansive scrim- covered lens. Installed overhead, this minimal sculpture overlays a geometric clarity to Venturi’s star-shaped skylight. More than a simple play of forms, the installation also filters the California sunshine to approximate the quality and color of light finch experienced on a recent summer’s visit to Rome. Finch’s aesthetic time- travel links place and memory in subtly enveloping environments.

Rome (Pantheon, noon, June 14, 2011) is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and is sponsored by MCASD’s International Collectors. Related programs are supported by grants from The James Irvine Foundation Arts Innovation Fund, and the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Fund. Institutional support for MCASD is provided, in part, by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

JJJENNIFERJENNIFER STEINKAMP: MADAME CURIE MCASD Downtown (((Jacobs(Jacobs BuildingBuilding)))) Through February 555,5, 2011

Jennifer Steinkamp: Madame Curie is an enveloping installation inspired by the artist’s research into atomic energy, atomic explosions, and the effects of these forces on nature. Marie Curie, the exhibition’s namesake, was the recipient of two Nobel Prizes for creating the theory of radioactivity, and discovering radium and polonium. She was also an avid gardener and lover of flowers.

This panoramic work activates a field of moving flowers and flowering trees in line with the imagery of Steinkamp’s 2010 work Orbit Without Seasons . Flowers rendered realistically for this piece include marsh marigolds, may flower, chestnut blooms, and hop plants, among many others drawn from a list of over 40 plants mentioned in Marie Curie’s biography written by her daughter, Eve Curie. The seven- channel projection engages the architecture of the space and features seven synchronized projections onto three walls of the 4,500-square-foot gallery.

Steinkamp is one of the most accomplished time-based, digital video artists working today. Physically overwhelming, her animations utilize cutting-edge projectors and digital masking applications to enhance or contradict the architectural features they inhabit and immerse viewers in new phenomenological territory.

Jennifer Steinkamp: Madame Curie is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and is made possible thanks to a generous lead gift from Joan and Irwin Jacobs. Related programs are supported by grants from The James Irvine Foundation Arts Innovation Fund, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Fund, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Institutional support for MCASD is provided, in part, by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

JOHN BALDESSARI: A PRINT RETROSPECTIVE FROM THE COLLECTIONS OOFF JORDAN D. SCHNITZER AND HIS FAMILY FOUNDATION MCASD La Jolla February 555,5, 2012 --- May 13, 2012

John Baldessari is an internationally celebrated artist, yet southern California is and has always been his home. He began his art making in his birthplace, National City, located between San Diego and the U.S./Mexico border. In 1960, MCASD, then the La Jolla Art Center, gave Baldessari his first exhibition. His relationship with the Museum has continued, including the 1997 one-person show National City . Once again MCASD is honored to welcome Baldessari back to the Museum, this time with an expansive survey of his entire body of printmaking.

Baldessari took on printmaking in the 1970s and has continued unabated. With laconic wit and visual restraint, he alters and crops photographic images to build a beguiling visual vocabulary. This retrospective of Baldessari’s prints, including more than 100 works made between 1973 and 2010 in media as diverse as lithography, etching, photogravure, aquatint, photo intaglio, embossing, silkscreen, and beyond, presents a beautiful and cacophonous example of the adventures in seeing and thinking he can conjure. Drawn from the impressively rich and deep holdings of contemporary prints assembled by collector, businessman, and philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer, this exhibition represents the largest offering of Baldessari’s graphic oeuvre ever assembled.

John Baldessari: A Print Retrospective From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. Funding is made possible thanks to The ResMed Foundation and proceeds from MCASD’S 2010 Art Auction. Related programs are supported by grants from the James Irvine Foundation Arts Innovation Fund, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Fund, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Institutional support for MCASD is provided, in part, by the City of San Diego Commission of Arts and Culture.

ISAAC JULIEN: TEN THOUSAND WAVES MCASD Downtown (((Jacobs(Jacobs BuildingBuilding)))) February 25, 2012 ––– December 11,, 2012

MCASD welcomes British artist Isaac Julien for the West Coast premier of his most ambitious project to date, Ten Thousand Waves . Julien, known for his arresting films as well as his dynamic gallery installations, poetically weaves together stories linking China’s ancient past and present in this intriguing nine-screen video installation.

Conceived and made over four years, Ten Thousand Waves was filmed on location in the ravishing and remote Guangxi province and at the famous Shanghai film Studios and various sites around Shanghai.

Through formal experimentation and a series of unique collaborations, Julien seeks to engage with Chinese culture through contemporary events, ancient myths and artistic practice. Julien engaged many of China’s leading artistic voices in creating the film. The original inspiration for Ten Thousand Waves was the Morecambe Bay tragedy of 2004, in which 23 Chinese cockle-pickers died. In response to this event, Julien commissioned the poet Wang Ping to come to England and write Small Boats , a poem that is recited in the work. In the successive years, Julien has spent time in China slowly coming to understand the country and its people’s perspectives and developing the relationships that have enabled him to undertake this rich and multifaceted work.

Isaac Julien: Ten Thousand Waves is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and is made possible thanks to a generous lead gift from Maryanne and Irwin Pfister. Related programs are supported by grants from the James Irvine Foundation Arts Innovation Fund, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Fund, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Institutional support for MCASD is provided, in part, by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

ICONIC III:I: THE COLLECTION OF MCASD MCASD Downtown (1001 Kettner) March 22, 2012 ––– January 1, 2013

The permanent collection is central to the identity of a museum. Through the act of acquiring a work of art and the subsequent care and interpretation of that item, museums help preserve the past and author the future.

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has deliberately yet adventurously charted recent art history, not only through its exhibitions but also through its holdings. Today, with more than 50 years of active collecting, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego boasts prime examples of the major currents in art from the last half of the 20th century.

With an eye toward highlighting the success and seriousness of its efforts to collect representative works from the post-war period, the Museum will present a series of rotating exhibitions titled Iconic.. Though modest in size, these focused exhibitions nonetheless embody major movements, sensibilities, and developments in recent art. These shows, which will emphasize painting and sculpture, will be presented in the Colette and Ivor Royston Gallery on the second floor of the 1001 Kettner building, a spacious and sky-lit gallery that showcases objects to excellent effect.

The first exhibition, Iconic I: The Collection of MCASD , will emphasize the strength of the Museum’s holdings of abstract art. Looking at the evolution of abstraction as a central issue of the post-1950 period, this show will feature works that eloquently represent a fertile period for abstraction, such as Hans Hofmann’s Angelus (1963), Frank Stella’s Sabra III (1967) and Robert Mangold’s Red X Painting (1980). This grouping helps demonstrate the rich spectrum of abstract options open to artists of the period.

Iconic I: The Collection of MCASD is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Related programs are supported by grants from the James Irvine Foundation Arts Innovation Fund and the County of San Diego Enhancement Fund. Institutional support for MCASD is provided, in part, by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

PROSPECT 2012 MCASD La Jolla April 21, 2012 ––– May 30, 2012

Each year, MCASD’s curatorial staff organizes an exhibition of artwork to be considered for acquisition by members of Contemporary Collectors and International Collectors, the Museum’s premier support groups. In advance of being selected by ballot at the Annual Selection Dinner, the works are displayed in the galleries along with contextual pieces from the permanent collection.

ART AUCTION 2012 MCASD La Jolla Works on view May 2020----30,30, 2012 VIP Preview May 23, 2012 Art Auction May 30, 2012

One of MCASD’s most popular and exciting events, the 2012 Art Auction will feature a live and silent auction of works selected by MCASD curators, including photography, painting, and sculpture by internationally recognized artists and emerging contemporary artists. The works available for auction are on view for 10 days leading up to the event.

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO (MCASD)

Founded in 1941, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is the preeminent contemporary visual arts institution in San Diego County. The Museum’s collection includes more than 4,000 works of art created since 1950. In addition to presenting exhibitions by international contemporary artists, the Museum serves thousands of children and adults annually at its varied education programs, and offers a rich program of film, performance, and lectures. MCASD is a private, nonprofit organization, with 501c3 tax-exempt status; it is supported by generous contributions and grants from MCASD Members and other individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies. Dr. Hugh M. Davies is The David C. Copley Director and CEO at MCASD. Institutional support for MCASD is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. www.mcasd.org

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