Monday, November 3, 2014, 5pm
The University of Texas at Austin
Visual Arts Center
Department of Art and Art History
Art Building
2301 San Jacinto Blvd.
Austin, TX 78712
T +1 512 471 1108
The Visual Arts Center artist-in-residence, David Brooks, has invited artist Mark Dion to join him in a dynamic Slide Slam, delving into the liveliness and diversity found within the animal kingdom. Join Brooks and Dion as they argue the virtuosity of one species over another, comparing research and past work to illustrate the exuberance of animate life hovering atop the lifeless geological.
David Brooks lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and then earned his BFA from The Cooper Union in 2000 and MFA from Columbia University in 2009. His work investigates how cultural concerns cannot be divorced from the natural world, while also questioning the terms under which nature is perceived and utilized.
Mark Dion was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1961. He received a BFA (1986) and an honorary doctorate (2003) from the University of Hartford, Hartford Art School, in Connecticut. He also attended the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. The job of the artist, he says, is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention. Appropriating archaeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, Dion creates works that question the distinctions between “objective” (“rational”) scientific methods and “subjective” (“irrational”) influences.
Current/upcoming exhibitions and programming
September 19–December 6, 2014
David Brooks: Repositioned Core
September 19–December 6, 2014
Andrew Lampert: Don’t Lose the Manual
Performance with Andrew Lampert and Chris Corsano: December 5
September 19–December 6, 2014
Lily Brooks, Christine Collins, and Kate Greene: Forces at Work
September 19–December 6, 2014
Fieldwork Projects
November 7–December 6, 2014
LaToya Ruby Frazier: Riveted
Reception for the artist: November 20
Artist talk: November 21
