San Jose Museum of Art Highlights New Acquisitions in Exhibition

The San Jose Museum of Art will “go public” with artworks added to its collection in the past three years in a new exhibition this spring. Initial Public Offering: New Works from SJMA’s Collection, on view March 1 – August 24, 2014, will showcase 30 works in a variety of media by artists including Jay DeFeo, Eric Fischl, Tim Hawkinson, Judy Pfaff, Alan Rath, Clare Rojas, Alison Saar, Darren Watterson, and others. Twenty of the works will be on view at SJMA for the first time.

Tim Hawkinson’s cardboard and urethane foam sculpture Scout (2006 – 2007) is representative of the artist’s absurdist humor. Hawkinson created a distorted, headless figure, in which its body parts are built in proportion to their degree of sensory perception. Scout’s hands are comically oversized and outspread in an imploring gesture. Hawkinson’s use of cardboard for the base, due to its semblance to skin, further lends Scout a human presence.

Stephanie Syjuco’s The International Orange Commemorative Store (A Proposition) (2012) is a mixed media installation commissioned by the FOR-SITE Foundation as part of the exhibition “International Orange” in honor of the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th Year Anniversary. The installation consists of a faux souvenir shop complete with merchandise saturated in the orange hue of the Golden Gate Bridge. Thwarting the purchasing impulse, the work serves as a reminder that certain experiences cannot be bought. The installation will be on view in its entirety.

The Museum expanded its collection of new media works with the acquisition of Alan Rath’s Absolutely (2012), a feathered kinetic sculpture infused with an uncanny lifelike quality. Composed of Chinese pheasant feathers, aluminum, fiberglass, and custom electronics, the anthropomorphic sculpture is activated by a motion sensor and moves organically without repetition. The feathers flutter and wave as if to communicate through a dance set to an inaudible soundtrack.

SJMA’s growing photography collection is represented by works by John Chiara, Katy Grannan, and Huang Yan. The Museum acquired two works from Huang’s 2008 series “The Four Seasons” following the popular 2013 exhibition Rising Dragon: Contemporary Chinese Photography.

Also included are works by: Lisa Adams, Jim Barsness, Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Chitra Ganesh, Sam Hernandez, Robin Kandel, Kara Maria, Ranu Mukherjee, Marc Pally, and Sarah Ratchye.

The works included in Initial Public Offering were acquired by the Museum by purchase and gift. Funds were contributed by the Collection Committee, the Council of 100, Tad Freese, and Barbara and William Hyland. Gifts of art were received from: TJ Dermot Dunphy and Dunphy Family Foundation; Dixon and Barbara Farley; Harold and Loretta Gambill 2002 Revocable Trust; Sam Hernandez; Robin Kandel and the Andrea Schwartz Gallery; Merry Karnowksy and James Panozzo; the Lipman Family Foundation; Kara Maria; Dipti and Rakesh Mathur; Anne Sconberg and Mark Henderson; and Stephanie Syjuco and Catharine Clark Gallery.