County Art Museum’s 2016 Exhibit Highlights Human Rights

— from Diane Martindale for the Islands Museum of Art —

Art intrigues all ages — San Juans Islands Museum of Art opens 2016 with three exhibits on the common thread of human rights

San Juan Islands Museum of Art opens 2016 with a powerful set of exhibitions by Ai Weiwei, Dana Lynn Louis, and Francisco Goya

January 23 – April 11, 2016

The San Juan Islands Museum of Art is set to start its 2016 season with three extraordinary exhibitions, linked by the common thread of human rights: Ai Weiwei’s Ai Weiwei: Fault Line, Dana Lynn Louis’ site-specific installation, As Above, So Below, and Sleep of Reason: Selected Prints by Francisco Goya.

Ai Weiwei: Fault Line stems from Ai Weiwei’s investigation into the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, a magnitude 8.0 quake that killed over 5,000 schoolchildren when government-built schools collapsed. The government refused to release the names of the dead or even how many died. Ai Weiwei’s investigation determined these facts, also exposing the corruption at the heart of the building code violations. During his investigation, Ai Weiwei endured frequent and brutal clashes with authorities, including 81 days of being disappeared in secret detention. He persisted, and Ai Weiewei: Fault Line is the incredible result.

Dana Lynn Louis’ installation As Above, So Below also references social and political concerns. For over a decade, Louis worked in West Africa helping to create the Ko-falen Cultural Center in Bamako, Mali. That work had to end in 2012 due to the Mali Civil War. Since then, her work, including her upcoming installation, has been deeply informed by the loss of place. The site-specific response to the San Juan Islands re-places the self within this specific environment, an act in which she invites viewers to participate.

Sleep of Reason: Selected Prints by Francisco Goya presents images from Los Desastres de la Guerra (1810–20) and Los Caprichos (1797–8), produced in response to the atrocities of the Peninsular War and the breakdown of Spanish society. These prints of Los Desastres were so politically charged they couldn’t be printed in Goya’s lifetime, and were only printed posthumously several decades after his death. Famous for both impeccable technique and unwavering commentary of war and corruption of the human condition, the pieces articulate his despair and endure in the universal acuity of this vision.

Art museums and human rights share a long entwined history. Museums house the works of artists who simultaneously inhabit their cultures even as they stand outside of them. Ian Boyden, Executive Director of San Juan Islands Museum of Art and curator of these exhibitions, says, “The artist’s mind is often noted as one that poignantly feels and responds to injustice, and rebalances the scales through expression that exists outside of words. These three exhibitions provide a perfect example of how art and human rights are intimately linked—and are a beautiful testimony to the value of museums in our communities.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that human rights “bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and values.” The three artists featured in SJIMA’s first exhibition set of 2016 produce works that achieve this ideal, despite their differences in approach, materials, and cultures. With visions arising from Asia, North America, Africa, and Europe, Boyden states, “These artists form a global community together by the beauty of transformation and the triumph of indomitable spirit. SJIMA is a proud associate of museums everywhere that provide both space, context, and support for art that invites, challenges, and inspires—as an essential component of being human.”

Curator:
Ian Boyden is the Executive Director of the San Juan Islands Museum of Art. With degrees in the History of Art from Wesleyan University and Yale University, Boyden’s exhibitions explore diverse subjects such as contemporary artists of the Northwest, Chinese calligraphy and scholars stones, and climate change. His work demonstrates ecological awareness, place-based thought, East Asian aesthetics, and intense interest in material relevance. For the past twenty years, Boyden has shared his time between the Northwest and China. As the Artist/Scholar-in-Residence at Suzhou University in 2011–12, he conducted research on Chinese inks and had a solo exhibition of paintings, books, and video installation at the contemporary wing of the I.M. Pei-designed Suzhou Museum in China.

San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA):
SJIMA is one of the newest visual art museums in the Pacific Northwest, officially opening the doors of its new facility in 2015. SJIMA champions artists, the arts, and arts programming because it champions authenticity of expression, place, and connections. Through its exhibitions, education, programs, and events, SJIMA establishes the San Juan Islands as a place of legacy making—legacies of art-inspired transformations, of expansion and wonder, and of support for our artists and arts communities.

Hours:
Friday, January 15 – Monday, April 4, 2016
11am – 5pm, Friday – Monday