Expand Your Horizons With Photography Month Sacramento

Photo Month Sacramento is just around the corner. The biennial event brings organizations from Sacramento County and the surrounding areas together for a month of programs and exhibitions that celebrate the art of photography. This year we're hosting three exhibitions and three corresponding programs to deepen your understanding of, and appreciation for a remarkably dynamic art form. Plus, check the blog again in late April for related content from Associate Curator of Art Jayme Yahr!

Dust Bowl. Home. Land.

We're pleased to announce a new, ongoing installation of photography from our collection. First up is a selection depicting the land, home, and life of Depression-era America. Gelatin silver prints by famed artists Brett Weston, Lewis Hine, Marion Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, and Peter Stackpole represent a cross-section of the Museum’s collection of over 1,000 photographs. As a series, these pictures reference the Dust Bowl, New Deal, photojournalism, and the ways in which artists shaped popular magazines like LIFE, LOOK, and PARADE. The installation will be on view from March 1 to August 1, after which new works will be featured.

Beginning in March, a rotating selection of photographic works from the Museum's collection will be available on the third floor.

Image: Brett Weston (American, 1911–1993), Dunes, 1947. Gelatin silver print, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. Crocker Art Museum, gift of Margaret W. Weston, 2019.81.3.

“Bill Viola: The Raft”

Bill Viola (American, born 1951) is a major figure in the development of video and installation art. For over four decades, the artist has created video work, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, and works for television broadcast. "The Raft" exemplifies Viola’s powerfully affecting work. Originally created as a commission for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, this presentation is part of a new national tour. Meticulously captured in slow-motion, "The Raft" arouses a visceral experience of human calamity and shared humanity, provoking a consideration of the range of responses to crisis.

"The Raft" will be on view at the Crocker Art Museum from February 16 through May 10. This presentation of "Bill Viola: The Raft" is organized by the American Federation of Arts (AFA) and Bill Viola Studio. "The Raft" is part of ArtRoom, an ongoing series of contemporary art installations organized by the AFA. This presentation is made possible, in part, by funds from the A.R. Brooks Trust.

Photography for personal use is permitted inside both exhibitions. (Don’t forget to disable your flash!)

We're partnering with Viewpoint Photographic Art Center for photographic-themed student and community exhibition.

Photography Month Voices

For our last Photography Month-themed exhibition. we're partnering with Viewpoint Photographic Art Center to showcase photographic works by local college and high school students. The exhibition will be on view in the Museum's historic building from March 26 through April 26. A reception for the artists will be held on April 19 at 1 PM.

Contemporary Monotype with Image Transfers

Starting March 10 at 6 PM

Create experimental and spontaneous monotypes — a type of printmaking — using water-based inks on plexiglass plates. Once your monotypes are complete, transfer copies of your own drawings, black and white photographs, and other printed media directly and seamlessly on top! Click HERE for instructor information and to register.

Picturing the Atmosphere

Since its invention in 1839, photography has been an essential tool for probing and documenting Earth’s atmosphere. Photographic imagery has evolved from simple, ground-based documentation of local weather phenomena in the 19th-century, to the global depiction of circulations using space-based platforms today. In this interactive class with Professor Terry Nathan, learn how scientists have used photography for more than 180 years to reveal the hidden worlds of snow crystals, raindrops, clouds, lightning, storms, and climate change. Click HERE for tickets and pricing information.

Don't forget to break free for the night of revelry and relaxation with ArtMix | SNAP!

ArtMix | SNAP!

Focus on the best parts of Sac with a night of super selfies, high fashion shoots, comedy sets, and improv. Immerse yourself in the powerful and affecting video-sound installation Bill Viola: The Raft. Flash your dance moves with DJ Epik, and get an exclusive peek at rarely seen photographs from the Crocker Art Museum's photo collection vaults. Click HERE for tickets and pricing information.

The Secret Lives of Buildings

Learn how to look at buildings in a different light with local artist Andrea Stone. Best known for her architectural photography, Stone transforms modernist structures into glowing, beckoning organisms, each one pulsating with light and color. Her study of reflections invites us to consider how buildings converse with each other and how they see us, rather than how we see them.

Stone’s work has taken her to twenty cities in North America and Europe and can be found in private and corporate collections throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, including the Crocker. In her presentation, Stone will discuss the origins of her inspiration, the creative process, and her ongoing, artistic evolution. Click HERE for tickets and pricing information.

Top Image: Bill Owens, (American, 1938), "Our House Is Build With The Living Room In The Back, So In The Evenings We Sit Out Front Of The Garage And Watch The Traffic Go By", circa 1962. Gelatin silver print, 6 1/8 x 8 in, Crocker Art Museum Purchase.

By Crocker Staff