topics

— Selected topics, selected work

Abolition

A Living Chance: Storytelling to End Life Without Parole, Adrienne Skye Roberts and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (Commissioned site-specific installation, Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area)

The Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History (Commissioned site-specific installation, Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area)

“Solitary Reflections: Notes on the Prison System from the Creative Time Summit.” KQED (Journalism)

Photo Requests from Solitary, 2009 — Ongoing, Laurie Jo Reynolds | Tamms Year Ten (Commissioned art installation, Public Works: Artists Interventions 1970s - Now)

Migration is ____, 2015, Favianna Rodriguez (Letters from women and children in Karnes County Civil Detention Center, Texas — commissioned site-specific installation, Public Works: Artists Interventions 1970s - Now; English and Spanish)

accountability

Out of Sight, Out of Mind, 2013, Pitch Interactive (Commissioned digital data installation, Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area)

Revolution, Ruby Mountain (Commissioned song bench, interactive installation, Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area)

Social Accountability, Student Mentorships, Stanford Graduate School of Business (Outside Advisor)

Public Dialogue: Storytelling Workshop, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Participant)

Southern Exposure Board & Staff Retreat (Guest Speaker)

agency

Make Your Own Political Art, KQED and The National Writing Project (Webinar Panelist)

“Drawing Agency into Existence,” art ltd (Arts Writing)

Visiting Faculty, The Artist in the World, California College of Integral Studies (Teaching)

Activism

Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (Exhibition, Publication, Public Programs)

“A Love Song to Freedom Fighters: 2015’s Radical Movements,” KQED (Journalism)

“No Justice Without Us: The Bay Area’s Legacy of Art Activism,” KQED (Journalism)

“Artist activist maps out evictions: One drink with Erin McElroy,” San Francisco Chronicle (Journalism, Interview Series)

“Art that brings secrets to light: One drink with Trevor Paglen,” San Francisco Chronicle (Journalism, Interview Series)

“Mission artist Yolanda López puts eviction on display,” San Francisco Chroncile (Journalism)

“Secondary Protest Strategies (for Ai Weiwei),” Art Practical (Arts Writing, Journalism)

ARTISTS

Rex Ray. (Chronicle Books: 2020) (Author)

In Conversation with author Rebecca Solnit, Bay Area Book Festival (Interviewer)

“Background Considerations: Kehinde Wiley at Contemporary Jewish Museum,” KQED (Arts Writing)

“Frames of Reference: The Photography of Francesca Woodman,” KQED (Arts Writing)

“Barry McGee: Beyond the Street,” art ltd (Arts Writing)

Artist Residencies

Bay Area Artist Residency Convening, Montalvo Center for the Arts (Speaker, Workshop Lead)

Facebook HQ Artist-in-Residence Program and Analog Research Lab (Menlo Park, CA) (Consulting Curator, Artist Recommendations)

“Like, Comment, Share: Inside Facebook’s Artist-in-Residence Program,” KQED (Journalism)

“Recology Enables Artists to ‘Make Art, Not Landfil.” KQED (Journalism)

Lucas Artists Residency Program, Montalvo Arts Center (Past Juror, Workshop Lead)

Graduate and Affiliate Residency Programs, Headlands Center for the Arts (Juror, Exhibition Curator, Moderator)

CLIMATE futures

“Thinking globally locally: Maya Lin at David Brower Center,” San Francisco Chronicle (Criticism)

“Lost & Found: Photographs in the Aftermath of East Japan,” KQED (New Narrative Journalism)

contemporary art

2015 - 2017 Scholar in Residence, CCA’s Center for Art + Public Life (Research, Teaching, Exhibition Curator, Public Programs)

Spring 2017 Visiting Scholar, San Francisco State University, Art Department (Graduate Student Visits, Workshop, Public Lecture)

Visiting Faculty —

The George Washington University, New York University’s Washington DC Global Academic Center (Washington DC); University of California, Berkeley; California College of the Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, California Institute of Integral Studies (Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, respectively)

Corporate Art

“Inside The Battery’s Quest to Cultivate Art Patrons and Philanthropists,” KQED (Journalism)

“Burning Man sculpture on $200m tech campus causes disquiet in the Bay Area,” The Guardian US (Journalism)

“Epic Fail: Levi’s Station to Station Derails in Oakland,” KQED (Criticism)

Visiting Faculty, Private Wealth, Public Art; California Colleges of the Arts (Teaching)

counter extremism

“What roles does art have in a post-Ferguson America,” The Guardian US (Journalism, Arts Writing)

“Je Suis Charlie: Artists Go Viral In Solidarity with Slain French Journalists,” KQED (Journalism)

“Creative Actions After Newtown,” KQED (Journalism)

cultural memory

Visiting Faculty, New Media + Cultural Memory, California College of the Arts (Teaching)

foundations

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts — “An Invaluable Hand for Experimenters,” San Francisco Chronicle (Journalism)

In addition to this writing about the AltEx grant for the San Francisco Chronicle, I was initially a grant recipient for Invisible Venue and, later, a juror. I heart Andy.

The Fleishhacker Family Foundation — Eureka at Thirty Years. (The Fleishhacker Foundation: 2017) (Book)

FOR-SITE — “FOR-SITE Foundation Celebrates the Golden Gate with International Orange,” KQED (Arts Writing)

James Irvine Foundation — “Why art’s good for people and the world. One drink with Ted Russell.” San Francisco Chronicle (Journalism, Interview Series)

Kenneth Rainin Foundation — Exploring Public Art Practices (Artists’ Panel Moderator)

Historic Sites

Here and Now, organized by Mills College Art Museum (Curator, Temporary Site-specific Artworks, Publication, Public Programs)

im/permanence

“Artists Without Borders: 12 Artists Take Over a Former Doctor’s Office in Oakland,” KQED (Art Writing)

“On Permanence: Barbara Shawcroft’s '“Legs” and the Challenges of Public Art,” KQED (Journalism)

Inclusion

Prompts for Inclusion: FAQ, 2017. Originally published online by Art Practical; commissioned as a poster by The Worth Ryder Gallery at University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Art, 2018; special edition risograph print produced by Berkeley Arts Museum and Pacific Film Archive for the one-day workshop Prompts for Inclusion, 2019; permanently archived online by California Digital Library, University of California, 2019. (Poster, Workshop)

Visiting Scholar, San Francisco State University, Department of Art, Spring 2017 (Graduate Studio Visits, Workshop, Public Lecture)

Labor

“W. A. G. E. Against the Machine: Art and the Business of Getting Paid,” KQED (Arts Writing)

“Open Ended Discussion: Art Workers and the Occupation,” Artist Bloc (Occupy SF). (‘zine Essay)

land art

“What I saw When I Didn’t See Lightening: Walter De Maria’s ‘Lightning Field.’” KQED (New Narrative Journalism)

National Parks

“Postcard from the Rock: A Review of Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz,” KQED (Criticism)

Taraneh Hemami, Bullet Points, 2013 - 2014, produced in collaboration with Invisible Venue for The Open Moment at Thoreau Center for Sustainability, The Presidio of San Francisco; reexhibited in Making a Scene: 50 Years of Bay Area Alternative Spaces, SOMArts Cultural Center (Temporary Public Art)

“Tree Fall: Andy Goldsworthy’s Newest Installation at the Presidio,” KQED (Arts Writing)

“De-Mobbing Invests in Different Futures at the Headlands Center for the Arts,” KQED (Arts Writing)

Present Tense, Headlands Center for the Arts, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Sausalito, CA (Curator: Exhibition, Site-specific Commissions)

“Presidio Habits,” art ltd. (Arts Writing)

place

On London — Tales of the City. (Arte Fiere, The British Arts Council, Goldsmiths College: 2003) (Curator, Graduate Cohort, International Exhibition, Catalogue; English and Italian translations)

On the San Francisco Bay Area — You Don’t Know San Francisco, first Invisible Venue project online, live screening in London, private flat near Tower Bridge.

PLACEmaking/KEEPIng

“Exercise of a Collective Power: Artists and the Sticky Challenge of Placemaking.” Print Public. Kala Art Institute: 2015

Public art

Judge, Art Moves Festival, Toruń, Poland (Temporary Public Art Festival)

Unexpected Art: Serendipitous Installations, Site-specific Works, and Surprising Interventions. Chronicle Books: 2015; Global distribution: English, Chinese, Korean (Book

“The Bay Lights,” art ltd (Arts Writing)

“Chip Thomas: To dogpatch with love,” KQED (Arts Writing)

Visiting Faculty, Sites Unseen: Contemporary Art Practice in Public Spaces, California College of the Arts (Teaching)

Invisible Venue Public Art Survey, selected by Jeannene Prsyblyski for Southern Exposure, Embarcadero BART Station, San Francisco (Curator)

Public Life

Cultural Policy and Changing Cities, Berkeley Arts + Design, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Moderator)

The Arts & Public Service, Public Art Dialogue, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Panelist)

Visiting Faculty, Art & The City, California College of the Arts, (City as Classroom — San Francisco, Oakland, and more) (Teaching)

Scholar in Residence, CCA’s Center for Art + Public Life, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA (Scholarship)

Meditations on the Artist at Citizen, Tecoah Bruce Gallery at the Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA (Exhibition)

RAce/Racism

Art + Race: A Convergence of Provocation, Strategy, and Beauty, Impact Hub Oakland (Panelist)

Who We We speaker series, Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Stanford University (Speaker)

Who We Be: Art, Protest, and Racial Justice, Bay Area Society for Art and Activism, San Francisco Main Public Library (Superpanel Panelist)

“We Are Not Trayvon Martin: On Racism, Gun Laws, and Otherness,” KQED (Journalism)

“Art, truth, politics go hand in hand for lawyer: One drink with Adriana Camarena,” San Francisco Chronicle (Journalism, Interview Series)

“The Elephant in the Room: Reframing Past and Present Histories,” Art Practical (Arts Writing)

Remembrance

“Celebrating the Life and Work of Artist and Curator Susan O’Malley,” KQED (Arts Writing)

“Finding Beauty Along the Edges: Remembering Rex Ray,” KQED (Arts Writing)

“Passing Time: Kos and Haas’ Poetry Garden Ten Years Later,” KQED (Arts Writing)

Violence

“A Brief Lesson on Media Bias and Palestine,” Hyperallergic (New Narrative Journalism)

“One on One: Doris Salcedo’s "‘Atrabillarios,’” SFMOMA Open Space (New Narrative)

“Artists Who Confront Violence: An Introduction,” KQED and Intersection for the Arts (Journalism, Public Lecture)

Women’s Lives

Public Works: Artists’ Interventions 1970s - Now, Mills College Art Museum, Mills College, Oakland, CA (Exhibition, Book, Public Programs)

Visiting Faculty, Art, Politics & Women at Work; California College of the Arts (Teaching)

“Yo Mama: On Art and Working Motherhood,” KQED (Arts Writing)

Wealth Disparity

“Priced Out: San Francisco’s Changing Values and Artist Exodus,” KQED (Journalism, Arts Writing)

“Priced Out: New Tech Wealth and San Francisco’s Receding Art Scene,” KQED (Journalism, Arts Writing)

“The Most Important Art Essays of the Year” — Ben Davis, artnet news, December 2014.