Natalie and James Thompson Gallery

Artist Beatriz Cortez photo credit Carolyn Cole, LA Times
Beatriz Cortez, Tzolk'in I, 2018. Steel, motor, battery, timer, solar panel, acrylic, and lacquer marker. 132 x 64.5 x 64.5 inches. Commissioned by Clockshop. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles. Photo Credit: Scott Lynch, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY.

PLATFORM: Beatriz Cortez and Erin Christovale

PLATFORM is a virtual event series that actively engages students, faculty, staff, and communities through visual arts-based dialogue. Presented by ConSortiUm, a collaborative project of art museums and galleries from the California State University (CSU) system. The first event brings together artist Beatriz Cortez in conversation with Curator Erin Christovale on Thursday, September 24 at 5:30 p.m.

Learn more

Opening reception of Shadow Knowledge
Opening reception of Shadow Knowledge

Rosa Menkman: Shadow Knowledge

Rosa Menkman has worked extensively on pushing the boundaries of technology through the exploration of glitches, compressions, encoding, and other artifacts that are produced in analogue and digital media. Shadow Knowledge presents four recent bodies of work by Menkman which explore oversaturation and its effects on perception. Working against tech standardization and the loss of agency that is forced on users, Menkman imagines a world without resolution, material or other constraints, where the possibilities of creation extend beyond knowledge and into the unseeable.

View the opening reception photos

News

Jessica Landrum BFA Pictorial Arts Exhibition - Two young women facing each other against a dark background

Explore the Virtual Exhibitions

Spring 2020 BFA Student Exhibitions and Culminating Class Exhibitions are presented in a virtual format.  View work from all disciplines of study in the Department of Art & Art History.

Titus Kaphar Time cover

Titus Kaphar: “Art Can Shift Perspectives”

A 2018 MacArthur Fellow, Titus Kaphar, ’01 BFA Art/Pictorial Arts, says he sees painting as a language that offers diverse perspectives on history, justice and change.

Artist Rosa Menkman with two Digital Media Art professors

Shadow Knowledge Exhibition Extended through October 30, 2020

Shadow Knowledge features four bodies of work by new media artist Rosa Menkman. The exhibition has been extended through October 30, 2020, and will be open by appointment only during the fall semester. 

Virtual Events

Event OnSep1

Rosa Menkman: Shadow Knowledge

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnSep8

South Bay Art Organizations Panel

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnSep21

Sondra Sherman: Jewelry Talks - Thought to Form

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnOct6

Renee Billingslea: Picturing Hidden Stories

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnOct13

Dana Frankfort: Process

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnOct20

Cate White: At the Margins of Psyche and Culture

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnOct27

Jiabao Li

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnNov3

Tamiko Thiel: Hidden Histories Project

Time:12 p.m. - 1 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnNov10

Gelare Khoshgozaran

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnNov17

Stephanie Dinkins

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Event OnDec1

Anuradha Vikram - An Ethic of Caring Beyond the Human: Posthumanism and Performance

Time:5 p.m. - 6 p.m.Location:Tuesday Night Lecture Series: Virtual Zoom Webinar
Alena Sauzade headshot
Alena Sauzade

New Gallery Director & Art Collections Manager

The Department of Art & Art History welcomes new Gallery Director and University Art Collections Manager Alena Sauzade. Alena comes to SJSU from the City of Pleasanton, where she served as the Visual Arts and Gallery Curator at the city’s Harrington Art Gallery. She earned her PhD in Art History from Stony Brook University where she specialized in public art and commemoration and wrote a dissertation on memorials to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. She's currently working remotely from a pillow and blanket fort built by her two and four year old daughters.

Read a message from the Director