SJMA PodCast

Todd Schorr has painted two large format paintings in which he addresses his influences as an artist - one reflects on the cartoon perspective and the other on the horror film perspective. In this video Todd offers insight into how the pieces came about and some of the subject matter in each. Todd Schorr: American Surreal is the first mid-career retrospective of the Los Angeles-based artist. Schorr is a leading figure in Southern California's cartoon-based movement, dubbed Pop Surrealism, which embraces low-brow culture and a ribald graphic style indebted to pop sources such as Mad magazine. Schorrs astonishing, highly polished realism, (inspired by Bosch, Brueghel and Dali), sets him apart from his best-known peers such as Camille Rose Garcia, Gary Baseman, and Mark Ryden. The exhibition, curated by SJMAs Senior Scholar and Curator of Collections Susan Landauer, is accompanied by a book published by Last Gasp, San Francisco. Exhibition runs June 20 through September 16, 2009 at the San Jose Museum of Art.

Road Trip Curator Kristen Evangelista discusses how the exhibition came to be and some of the key points to consider when viewing the show at the San Jose Museum of Art. Often considered a distinctly American experience, the road trip is an excursion in which the journey is as compelling as the destination. The exhibition Road Trip examines this travel experience through photography, video, sculpture, and works on paper by Eleanor Antin, Jane Benson, Sophie Calle, Steven Deo, Lordy Rodriguez, Ed Ruscha, and others. Photographers Candace Plummer Gaudiani and Catherine Opie methodically document their surroundings, often searching for remnants of the past. Other artists such as Val Britton and Nina Katchadourian favor a metaphorical approach, reinterpreting maps to produce invented landscapes. Road Trip offers a broad exploration of real and imagined journeys, which often entail not only a physical displacement but also a psychological and emotional passage. San Jose Museum of Arts exhibition, Road Trip, is sponsored by McManis Faulkner.

Artist Sasha Petrenko talks about her piece Pocket House and her series of Motor-home dioramas in the exhibition Road Trip at the San Jose Museum of Art. Often considered a distinctly American experience, the road trip is an excursion in which the journey is as compelling as the destination. The exhibition Road Trip examines this travel experience through photography, video, sculpture, and works on paper by Eleanor Antin, Jane Benson, Sophie Calle, Steven Deo, Lordy Rodriguez, Ed Ruscha, and others. Photographers Candace Plummer Gaudiani and Catherine Opie methodically document their surroundings, often searching for remnants of the past. Other artists such as Val Britton and Nina Katchadourian favor a metaphorical approach, reinterpreting maps to produce invented landscapes. Road Trip offers a broad exploration of real and imagined journeys, which often entail not only a physical displacement but also a psychological and emotional passage. San Jose Museum of Arts exhibition, Road Trip, is sponsored by McManis Faulkner.

For the exhibition Road Trip in the fall, the San Jose Museum of Art is seeking your postcards from unique, fun and iconic vacation destinations that you travel to this summer. The postcards will be available in the exhibition's interpretation area where visitors to the museum can peruse the cards at their leisure. In addition, you will be able to make and send your own card directly from the museum! Send your card to: Road Trip San Jose Museum of Art 110 South Market Street San Jose, CA 95113 The Road Trip exhibition runs from September 19, 2008 - January 25, 2009 at the San Jose Museum of Art.

Senior Curator JoAnne Northrup speaks of artist Nemo Gould and his early influence by artist Clayton Bailey. She also talks about his works in the Robots exhibition, "Little Big Man" and "General Debris". For the exhibition Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon the San Jose Museum of Art created "Video Labels" for around the work of 6 artists. The artists are Clayton Bailey, Eric Joyner, Nemo Gould, Gail Wight, Lisa Solomon and David Pace. For each artist there is a "Curators Label", where Senior Curator JoAnne Northrup speaks about the artist, and an "Artist Label", where the artist talks about their work. Show runs April 12 - October 19, 2008. Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon examines the development of robot iconography in fine art over the past 50 years. In 1920, the term robot was coined from a Czech word robota, which means tedious labor. Since then, the image and the idea of a robot have evolved remarkably from an awkward, mechanical creature to a sophisticated android with artificial intelligence and the potential for human-like consciousness. As robotic technology catches up with the wild imagination of science fiction novels, movies, and animation, dreams and fears anticipated in these stories may also become reality. Artists included in the exhibition have responded to the technological innovation with optimism, pessimism, and humor, presenting work that ultimately explores our ambivalent attitudes towards robots.