Jenni Sorkin on Art in California
On May 24, 2022, Langson IMCA welcomes Jenni Sorkin, PhD, art historian and preeminent scholar of California Art to UCI's campus. Sorkin discusses her recent book Art in California, a history of modern and contemporary art in California from the early 20th century to present day, part of the World of Art series published by Thames & Hudson. She highlights key aspects of her scholarship and the distinctive role that California has played in the history of American art, from early 20th century photography and Chicanx mural painting to the fiber art movement and beyond.
The talk is followed by a conversation moderated by Bridget R. Cooks, PhD, associate professor of African American studies and art history at UC Irvine.
Program Information
This in-person program is free and open to the public.
Registration is recommended as seating is limited. Please register here.
To attend virtually via Zoom: https://uci.zoom.us/j/92414464334
For detailed parking information and directions to campus, visit imca.uci.edu.
About Langson IMCA
Langson IMCA explores and celebrates artists and their capacity to develop new forms and ideas in response to the California experience. It collects, conserves, and generates scholarship for modern and contemporary art inspired by the State’s diverse societal, cultural, and natural environments.
As an institution dedicated to becoming the epicenter of California Art, Langson IMCA presents programming that strives to provoke questions around an expansive understanding of artmaking inspired by the Golden State.
Image credits
Jenni Sorkin. Photo by Sabine Schlosser. Courtesy of Jenni Sorkin
Helen Lundeberg , Blue Planet, 1965, Acrylic on canvas. 60 x 60 in. The Marilynn and Carl Thoma Collection.
© Feitelson Arts Foundation. Courtesy of Jenni Sorkin
About the Speaker
Jenni Sorkin, PhD, is an associate professor of art history at UC Santa Barbara and Getty Research Institute Senior Scholar-in-Residence for 2021 – 2022. She received an MA from The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and a doctorate degree at Yale University. Sorkin writes on the intersections between gender, material culture, and contemporary art; her most recent book, Art in California (2021), was written for Thames & Hudson’s acclaimed World of Art series. Her first book, Live Form: Women, Ceramics and Community (University of Chicago Press, 2016), examined the confluence of gender, artistic labor, and the history of post-war ceramics. Sorkin has been an invited lecturer at Arizona State University Art Museum (Tempe, AZ); Dia Beacon (NY); Contemporary Art Museum, Menil Collection, and Museum of Fine Art (Houston, TX); ICA Philadelphia (PA); Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY); and Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, TX), among other museums across the US and worldwide. She currently serves on the editorial board of Journal of Modern Craft and has served as a member of the editorial boards of Art Journal and Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture. She is the recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies (2014 – 15), Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design (2012), Getty Research Institute (2010 – 11), and ACLS/Luce Fellowship in American Art (2008).
About the Interlocuter
Bridget R. Cooks, PhD, is associate professor of African American studies and art history at University of California, Irvine. Cooks’s research focuses on African American art and culture, Black visual culture, museum criticism, film, feminist theory, and post-colonial theory. She earned her doctorate degree in Visual and Cultural Studies in the Department of Art History at University of Rochester (NY) and has received a number of awards, grants, and fellowships for her work, including the prestigious James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History and the Henry Luce Dissertation Fellowship in American Art. She has also curated several art exhibitions including The Black Index (2021), sponsored by a grant from the Ford Foundation, spotlighting artworks which “build upon the tradition of Black self-representation as an antidote to colonialist images.” Cooks is also curator of the upcoming exhibition, Dissolve, on view at Langson IMCA from September 24 – December 10, 2022.
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