The ASU Art Museum Presents "By Myself and With My Friends" Video Art

Written by Darren Walker Wednesday, 29 June 2011 22:15

Tempe, AZ.- The Arizona State University Art Museum is pleased to present "By Myself and With my Friends" a selection of video art works, on view from July 2nd through August 27th. The exhibition will feature works by Krista Birnbaum, Donna Conlon, Rivane Neuenschwander and Sergio Neuenschwander, Connie Samaras and Corinna Schnitt. We spend time by ourselves; we spend time with others. We are aware that these two circumstances differ greatly. Time alone can be a period of comfort and reflection — or of nervousness and despair. It can be a time of rejuvenating our bodies, peaceful silences, an opportunity to become one with ourselves or perhaps engage in an act of individual creativity. But alone time can also be filled with boredom, fidgetiness and a restless mind that wanders in uncomfortable directions.

On the other hand, when we are with others, we can be influenced by peers to participate in activities we would never consider as individuals. Ordinary people can gain empowerment by acting collectively, with both positive and negative results. Looking no further than recent headlines, we can see examples of different kinds of group behavior – from post-sports-championship rioting to the anti-government protests occurring throughout the Middle East and Europe. In By myself and with my friends . . . six artists explore the complexities of human nature by looking at some of the things we have in common with other living creatures, from our herd mentality to our moments of solace. The exhibition provides an opportunity for reflection, a time to examine and reconsider our own behaviors, to slow down and breathe. It is a chance to realize that even when we are alone, we are all in this together.


The Arizona State University Art Museum, named “the single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona” by Art in America, is part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. In 1950, prominent Phoenix lawyer Oliver B. James gave a gift of 16 oil paintings by American artists to ASU, later donating over 149 works by various American, Mexican, and European artists to the museum. The collection was originally included among the stacks at the university's first library building, the Matthews Library. In 1966, with the university's collection outgrowing the available space, it was closed and the books moved to a new building, allowing the art collection to take over the former library. In April 1989, the ASU Art Museum moved into the newly-completed Nelson Fine Arts Center, designed by architect Antoine Predock, where the museum remains today. The Nelson Center is 49,700 square feet (4,620 m2) and includes five galleries as well as administrative offices and storage and processing areas. In March 2002, the Ceramics Research Center opened in the Tempe Center just to the north of the Nelson Center. Works of contemporary art held by the museum include works by Hung Liu, Karel Appel, Derek Boshier, Deborah Butterfield, Sue Coe, Vernon Fisher, Jon Haddock, William Kentridge, Lynn M. Randolph, Frances Whitehead, and William T. Wiley. The focus of ASU Art Museum's Latin American art holdings is on Mexican art from the 20th century, Mexican ceramics and folk art; and contemporary Cuban art. The core of the Latin American collection was donated to the museum in 1950 and includes works by David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Rufino Tamayo. Later acquisitions of pieces by Mexican artists include works by Carlos Mérida, Leonel Góngora, Rafael and Pedro Coronel; José Guadalupe Posada, Leopoldo Mendez, and other members of the Taller de Gráfica Popular; and the contemporary artists Alejandro Colunga, Lucio Muniain, and Nestor Quiñones. Works by Cuban artists in the museum collection include works by Yamilys Brito, Pedro Alvarez, Tonel (Antonio Eligio Fernández), Osvaldo Yero, Abel Barroso, René Francisco, Jacqueline Brito, Fernando Rodríguez, José A. Toirac, and Kcho. The museum has also acquired pieces by Brazilian artists Tiago Carneiro da Cunha, Efrain Almeida, and Oscar Oiwa. American works comprises one of the ASU Art Museum's smallest collections. ASU's holdings of American art began with the museum's original contributions from Oliver B. James. Earlier works in the collection include early American limner painters, while the most recent works are from 20th century modernists, including Charles Demuth, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Stuart Davis. Among the holdings in the American collection are various 19th-century Romantic landscape paintings from the 19th century, Ash Can School works, and portraits, include "Mrs Stephen Peabopdy" by Gilbert Stuart. The museum holds "Horse Skull on Blue" by Georgia O'Keeffe, "House by a Road" by Edward Hopper and "the Canal" by Albert Pinkham Ryder. The print collections at the ASU Art Museum include some 5,000 prints held in the Jules Heller Print Study Room. A focus of the museum's print collection is dealing with social and political issues; works include pieces by William Hogarth, Honoré Daumier, Francisco Goya, José Guadalupe Posada, Leopoldo Mendéz, and Francesc Torres. The collection includes some 50 prints and paper works by contemporary Cuban artists and 123 lithographs and intaglios by Sue Coe. The print collection also includes examples of Japanese ukiyo-e. The museum's ceramics collection includes some 3,500 pieces, of which half are displayed at any one time at the Ceramics Research Center. Visit the museum's website at ... http://asuartmuseum.wordpress.com

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