CAA – College Art Association Conference Comes to Chicago – 2/10-2/13

The College Art Association (CAA) is the granddaddy of academic art conferences. It is the cosmic counterbalance to the commercial art fair.

And this year, it’s here in Chicago.

So let us rejoice. It’s the who’s who + find-a-job + panel discussion + book fair extravaganza. And at this point, it’s $400 for non-members to get in ($45 if you just want to go to in one-time).

There are, literally, hundreds of sessions (see list). So we picked a few that stood out, and of course, we focus on the after party (see very end of post)

Dawoud Bey is giving a keynote.

The panel that many are talking about:
Studio Art Open Session: Painting
Saturday, February 13, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Grand A, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Michelle Ann Grabner, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (expand to see participating artists and gallery event)

I had two of our new writers, Carrie and Minami help creat a pick list.  These are some arbitrary picks, but I encourage you to explore the list, there is something on everything. And put you pick in the comments section.

My pick:
International Association of Art Critics
New Challenges for Art Criticism: Relational Aesthetics, Social Collaborations, and Public Interactivity
Thursday, February 11, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM
Regency A, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Kathryn Hixson, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Michelle Grabner, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Joseph Grigely, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Joao Ribas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design
In the Making: New Texts and Resources in American Craft
Thursday, February 11, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM
Columbus CD, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Katie Lee, Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, University of North Carolina
Constructing a History from Secondary Resources
Janet Koplos, independent critic and scholar, New York
Choosing Craft: The Artist’s Viewpoint
Vicki Halper, independent art historian
Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art
Maria Elena Buszek, Kansas City Art Institute

Anecdotally, Janet Koplos (Senior Editor of Art in America)  expressed interest in this one:
Intermix: Art and Language in Independent Publishing
Friday, February 12, 2:30 PM–5:00 PM
Regency C, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Sally Alatalo, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Mapping Art, Language, World
Jan Estep, University of Minnesota
Day In, Day Out
Karol Shewmaker, FLAT Publications
Image Process Literature: Project Overview
Chris Burnett, University of Toledo
Discussant:Simon Cutts, Coracle
Erica Van Horn, Coracle

Carrie McGath’s picks:

Futures of Criticism
Thursday, February 11, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Grand B, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Lane Relyea, Northwestern University

Panel Pick: Historicizing Contemporary Art: The Living, the Dead, and
the Undead
by Simone Osthoff, Pennsylvania State University

Meta-Mentors: Balancing Acts
Thursday, February 11, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM
Columbus GHIJ, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chairs: Reni Gower, Virginia Commonwealth University; Sabina Ott,
Columbia College Chicago

Panel Pick: Artist as Archivist / Artist Assistant (Nam June Paik)
Stephen Vitiello, Virginia Commonwealth University

Can Description Help Images Speak?
Saturday, February 13, 2:30 PM–5:00 PM
Regency C, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chairs: Glenn A. Peers, University of Texas at Austin; Laura Weigert,
Rutgers University

Panel Pick: The Limits of Words: Description and Art Criticism in the
1960s
by Kerr Houston, Maryland Institute College of Art

Minami Furukawa’s picks:

Thursday-
CAA Committee on Women in the Arts
Old Women, Witches, and Old Wives

Thursday, February 11, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Regency D, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Frima Fox Hofrichter, Pratt Institute
(expand for subtopics)

A Case for Letterpress
Thursday, February 11, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Water Tower, Bronze Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chairs: Jeff Pulaski, Wichita State University; Dennis Y. Ichiyama, Purdue University

Thinking through Making: Letterpress in Contemporary Graphic-Design Education
Ashley John Pigford, University of Delaware
Putting the Digits Back into the Digital
James Boyd-Brent, University of Minnesota
The Changing Face of Letterpress: Student and Staff Work from the School of Graphic Design at London College of Communication
Rose Gridneff and Alexander John Cooper, London College of Communication and University of Brighton
The Twentieth Century Did Not Invent Graphic Design: Returning Letterpress to Design Education
Dawn Hachenski-McCusker, James Madison University
Tough Love for Heavy Metal: Ensuring the Survival of 15 1/2 Tons of Lead at SAIC
Catherine Ruggie Saunders and Martha S. Chiplis, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
 

Lifeloggers: Chronicling the Everyday (also picked by Ruby)
Thursday, February 11, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Columbus CD, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chairs: Nadine A. Wasserman, independent curator and critic, Albany, New York; Rachel C. Seligman, Mandeville Gallery, Union College
Self as Ritual
Suzanne E. Szucs, Rochester Institute of Technology
A Day Is a Day Is a Day Is a Day: The Language of Sol Lewitt’s “Autobiography”
Prudence Peiffer, Harvard University
Trajectory: Stephen Cartwright
Stephen Cartwright, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
The Umali Awards, a History and Why
Renato G. Umali, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Discussant:Rachel C. Seligman, Mandeville Gallery, Union College
Association for Textual Scholarship in Art History

Lost!
Thursday, February 11, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM
Grand CD North, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Maureen Pelta, Moore College of Art and Design
The Pull of the Unknown: Jan van Eyck’s Saint Jerome
Kandice Rawlings, independent scholar
“Outstanding works … shamefully destroyed”: Maerten van Heemskerck’s Lost Altarpieces and the Sculpture of Antiquity
Arthur J. Di Furia, Moore College of Art and Design
Mastering the Loss of Modernism: Rauschenberg’s “Erased de Kooning” as Site of Failure
Nancy A. Nield, independent scholar, La Grange, Illinois
Discussant:Tina Waldeier Bizzarro, Rosemont College
Friday

After the Fact: Making a Photographic Record of the Past
Friday, February 12, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Grand B, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chairs: Kate Palmer Albers, University of Arizona; Rebecca A. Senf, Center for Creative Photography
Landscape via History: Locating the American Past in the Present
Kate Palmer Albers, University of Arizona
Jeff Wall and Edward S. Curtis: Near-Documentary Photographs of the Historical Past
Shannon Egan, Gettysburg College
 
(expand for details)

Fashion, Art, and Architecture
Saturday, February 13, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Regency D, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Arti Sandhu, Columbia College Chicago
Archigram: Tailoring the Future
Valerie Rangel, Dominican University and International Academy of Design and Technology
The Comme des Garcons Retail Revolution
Emily M. Orr, Yale University Art Gallery
Persuasive Textiles
Barbara Layne, Studio subTela
Sensing the Fashion Exhibition: Viktor and Rolf, A Case Study
Mara Gladstone, University of Rochester and J. Paul Getty Museum

L. Ruby Sage’s Picks

Part 1 of: Autofictions, Avatars, and Alter Egos: Fabricating Artists
Thursday, February 11, 2:30 PM–5:00 PM

Part 2: of Autofictions, Avatars, and Alter Egos: Fabricating Artists, Part II
Saturday, February 13, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM

Art as Event
Friday, February 12, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM

Migratory Structures: Scientific Imagery and Contemporary Art Practice
Saturday, February 13, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM

Receptions/Afterparty at the following galleries:

All receptions will take place on Saturday, February 13, with staggered times, starting at JULIUS CÆSAR at 4-7pm, continuing to Shane Campbell Gallery at 6-8pm, and ending at the 119 N Peoria Building in the West Loop at Rowley Kennerk Gallery and Western Exhibitions, from 7 to 10pm.

JULIUS CÆSAR
3311 West Carroll Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60624
312-725-6084 (gallery voicemail)
email: julius@juliuscaesarchicago.com
reception: Saturday, February 13, 4-7 pm
exhibition: February 13 – 28, 2010
Thomas Lawson, Scott Reeder, Carrie Moyer and Michelle Grabner

Shane Campbell Gallery
1431 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622
312-226-2223
email: info@shanecampbellgallery.com
reception: Saturday, February 13, 6-8 pm
exhibition: February 13 – March 13, 2010
Ann Craven, Peter Halley and Jon Pestoni

Western Exhibitions
119 N Peoria St, 2A, Chicago IL 60607
312.480.8390
scott@westernexhibitions.com
reception: Saturday, February 13, 7-10 pm
exhibition: February 13 – March 20, 2010
Anoka Faruqee, Judy Ledgerwood, Sabina Ott, Susanna Coffey and Richard Hull

Rowley Kennerk Gallery
119 N Peoria St, 3C, Chicago, IL 60607
info@rowleykennerk.com
(773) 983-0077
reception: Saturday, February 13, 7-10 pm
exhibition: February 13 – 27, 2010

Offsite:

New Media Caucus
The Live Cinema Summit is a one-night-only showcase of ten national and international artists/artist collectives working in the emerging field of real-time audio-visual performance, and will feature performances by: Noisefold, Barbara Lattanzi, Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown, Robert Martin, Jon Satrom, Potter-Belmar Labs, DataIRJ, Black and Jones, jonCates, and Alessandro Imperato as well as several Columbia College students.

The event begins at 5pm, and features a full line-up of back-to-back live cinema performance-demonstrations with break-out discussions and plenty of room for dialogue.

Note: This evening only, trolleys complimentary Columbia College Chicago (CCC) will be continually transporting to/from the Hyatt starting at 5:30-9pm | makes stops at all CCC galleries and the Conaway Center.