CAPP STREET PROJECT
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
Kent and Vicki Logan Galleries
California College of the Arts
1111 Eighth Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
T: 415.551.9203
www.wattis.org
CCA Wattis Institute For Contemporary Arts
Announces the 2007-8 Capp Street Project Resident Artists:
Mario Ybarra Jr. And Tim Lee
Founded in San Francisco in 1983, Capp Street Project was the first visual arts residency program in the United States dedicated solely to the creation and presentation of new art installations. Since its inception, Capp Street Project has given more than 100 local, national, and international artists the opportunity to create new work. The residency program became part of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in 1998.
Almost a decade later, and with a new curatorial team in place under the direction of Jens Hoffmann, the Wattis Institute is relaunching Capp Street Project. As of this fall, two new initiatives will be introduced: a public art commission and a research residency.
Given the project’s historical relationship to site and the increasingly situation-based practices of installation art, each year one artist will be invited to create a new work in the immediate vicinity of the Wattis Institute. These commissioned pieces will be presented for different time periods, often on a semipermanent basis, and they will be visible to local residents and passersby. They will expand the reach of the program, making a lasting contribution to the fabric and communities of San Francisco.
Taking into account the unique context of Capp Street Project–in California College of the Arts, one of the most prestigious art schools in the United States–a second artist will be invited on an annual basis to realize a research-based project that is embedded in the college’s curriculum and daily activities. This shift away from gallery-based installation pieces and toward a more research-based residency will create a kind of “test site” where participants can explore the conceptual underpinnings of artistic practice and production.
The first two resident artists of the relaunched Capp Street Project are Mario Ybarra Jr. and Tim Lee. Both residencies will be accompanied by a publication.
Mario Ybarra Jr.
September 5, 2007-September 6, 2008
Initiating the public commission component of Capp Street Project, the Los Angeles-based artist Mario Ybarra Jr. has created a large-scale mural, Promised Land, which examines the history, anecdotes, and mythology that surround mural making in the Bay Area. Taking an anthropological approach toward the local neighborhood, the greater Bay Area, and his own identity as a contemporary Mexican American artist, Ybarra investigated an exhaustive amount of material from a disparate array of sources over the course of his project. Promised Land will be on long-term view starting September 5, 2007, in the stairwell outside the Wattis Galleries.
Tim Lee
January 9-February 2, 2008
In 1977 Steve Martin recorded his first comedy album, Lets Get Small, at the Boarding House in San Francisco. A few months later, Neil Young recorded “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)” at the same location. Over the course of his fall 2007 residency, the Vancouver-based artist Tim Lee will trace the connection between these seminal moments in stand-up comedy and rock music, while also examining a series of broader issues: the relationship between individual artistic production and culture at large, the correspondence between popular genres and social reality, and the parallel autonomies that separate avant-garde comedy from 1970s rock and conceptual art. The presentation of his research will take the form of a book to be presented in early 2008.
Lead sponsorship for Capp Street Project: Mario Ybarra Jr. and Capp Street Project: Tim Lee is provided by the Nimoy Foundation.
Founding support for CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts programs has been provided by Phyllis C. Wattis and Judy and Bill Timken. Generous support provided by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, Ann Hatch and Paul Discoe, and the CCA Curator’s Forum.
