A World of Art: Works in Progress

A World of Art: Works in Progress is designed to give students deeper insight into the personality of the artist, the artist's working process, as well as the works of art themselves. This series offers the student and teacher a unique avenue through which to explore a world of art. Each program follows a single contemporary artist through the process of creating one or more works of art from start to finish. The individual artists featured narrate their own video, providing the student with unparalleled insight into the creative process.

This series offers the student and teacher a unique avenue through which to explore a world of art. and emphasizes effective communication, problem solving, and critical thinking as large, often collaborative, projects are seen through to completion.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

101) Lorna Simpson
A photographer who explores the politics and social underpinnings of the camera eye, Simpson constantly explores the ambiguous terrain connecting words and images. In the fall of 1995, Simpson completed a group of large-scale landscapes printed on felt that are the focus of this episode.

102) Guillermo Gomez-Pena
A Mexican performance artist, poet, journalist, and activist, Gomez-Pena has been working since the early 1980s to draw awareness to the border between the United States and Mexico, not only as a physical barrier but as an idea. Gomez-Pena performs at the Corcoran Gallery, across from the White House in Washington, D.C., the week before the 1996 Presidential election.

103) Bill Viola
Perhaps the leading American video artist, he represented the United States in 1995 at the Venice Biennale. We follow Viola making The Greeting, the final piece in his Venice installation.

104) Hung Liu
Born in China in 1948 as Mao took over the country and classically trained in Beijing in the Russian Social Realist tradition, she emigrated to the United States in 1984 and is a leading contemporary painter. We follow Liu as she paints a series of works on the Last Emperor and his court for a 1995 exhibition in New York City.

105) Beverly Buchanan
Her work in photography, painting and drawing, and sculpture focuses on the shack in rural Southern culture, not only as habitat but as aesthetic expression. This episode reveals Buchanan's remarkable eye, her ability to capture all the beauty of the rural South.

106) June Wayne
Founder of Tamarind, the most prestigious lithography studio for artists in the country, her prints exploit her interest in scientific theory, space, and atomic structure. We follow Wayne as she
produces a series of prints in New York City.

107) Milton Resnick
One of the last living members of the New York School of Painters, also commonly referred to as the Abstract Expressionists. We watch Resnick paint five large canvases over the course of eight
months.

108) Judy Baca
Known for her mile long mural in Los Angeles depicting Chicano history, Judy Baca has taken on social and political problems facing Chicano culture as the focus of her art. In this half-hour, Baca concentrates on completing a mural on the UCLA campus.

109) Goat Island
A performance group that works collectively and collaboratively, their pieces depend heavily on visual imagery, as well as music, dance, movement, and narrative. We see the group's early
rehearsals in Chicago of a piece that toured England throughout 1996, and then watch as they perform the work and conduct a workshop in the summer of 1996 at an art college in South Devon,
England.

110) Mierle Ukeles
Since 1979, Ukeles has been artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation, where she is currently involved in redesigning and reclaiming as public space the largest landfill in North America, on Staten Island. We watch as Ukeles organizes a massive, collaborative work in Los Angeles in the fall of 1996.

For more information: E-Mail: learning@unctv.org