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The Representational Art Conference 2012

The Representational Art Conference 2012

The Representational Art Conference 2012 brings together academics, professionals and students who share an interest in 21st-century uses of traditional studio techniques of sculpture, painting and drawing. The program includes three days of discussion with keynote speakers, academic papers, panel discussions and exclusive demonstrations by prominent artists. Questions to be explored include: What is the role of representational art in the 21st century? What are its sources and directions? How might it shape the art world?

Keynote speakers are Jed Perl, art critic for The New Republic, and artist John Nava. Perl will speak on “Re-imagining Representation: On the Challenges of the Real and the Ideal.” Nava’s address is titled “Representing by Hand: Painting in the Digital Age.” The featured presenter is painter/writer Virgil Elliot, who will discuss “The Concept of Quality in Art: Inspirational and Practical Concerns.”

Panelists include David Kassan, Richard Thomas Scott, Sadie Valeri, Ruth Weisberg, Peter Adams and Elaine Adams. Kassan, best known for his life-size realist portraits, teaches at the Art Students League in Brooklyn, N.Y. Scott, known for his contemporary figurative paintings and his writing on aesthetic theory and contemporary art, is the founder of and a contributor to the art publication Art Babel. Valeri is an internationally recognized still life oil painter who now offers private workshops and classes at her San Francisco Mission District studio. Weisberg, whose work is widely exhibited nationally and internationally, teaches drawing and printmaking at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts. Peter Adams, one of California’s most recognized landscape and figurative painters, is a signature member of the California Art Club. Elaine Adams is director of American Legacy Fine Arts, LLC, and chief executive officer of the California Art Club.

Studio art demonstrations will be presented by Béla Bacsí (sculpture), Jeremy Lipking, Tony Pro (portrait painting), Alexey Steele (Russian academy drawing) and Mia Tavonatti (mosaic). Gallery shows running concurrently with the conference include works by Michael Pearce at the Carnegie Museum in Oxnard and Alexey Steele at CLU’s Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture.

TRAC2012 is presented by California Lutheran University. For information and registration, visit http://trac2012.org.

The following TRAC2012 events are free and open to the public. Registration is not required.

Emblemata: Paintings by Michael Pearce
Artist’s talk and exhibition
Monday, Oct. 15, 5 p.m.
Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard
Michael Pearce’s oil paintings evoke a dreamlike world of people engaged in mysterious tasks. On the surface they celebrate colorful flowers and beautiful people, but there’s mythic depth in their reconstruction of archetypes and allegories from centuries-old emblem books and alchemical symbolism. The exhibition runs Sept. 7 through Nov. 18.

The Big Picture: Master drawings by Alexey Steele
Artist’s talk and exhibition
Tuesday, Oct. 16, 5 p.m.
Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture
One of California’s finest draftsmen shows and discusses huge drawings made for two of his unique dome mural commissions.

Sponsored By
California Lutheran University

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