Rearranging Abstraction Panel in Feb. 2009

I am hosting and presenting at a panel at the College Art Association conference in Los Angeles in Feb. 25-28 2009, titled "Rearranging Abstraction". The conference will be held at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. For registration: College Art Association: www.collegeart.org

The session will field a dialogue of new understanding around Abstraction in contemporary art. Much has been said in the academies about the "difficulties" of making Abstract art in contemporary times. Artists create the new
"canon" and are grappling with such contradictions. While giving Modernism its due the evoution of abstraction can be traced both backward and forward. In the global context, there is new evidence of Abstract references and tendencies coming from outside purely Modernist aesthetics. Abstract sources have become peculiar, mundane, spectacular, and pop, what are they?How has the liberation of materials influenced this new Abstraction? How do artists create abstract form in their work in this contemporary moment? How are questions of authenticity and originality fielded?

The panelists include: Tirza Latimer speaking on Queer Abstraction/ Queer Narration; Liam Kelly speaking on Abstraction, Trauma, and Release from Belfast; Stephen Hillerbrand/Mary Magsamen speaking on Abstraction from everyday life and they will be showing videos; Clarence Morgan will be speaking on Pretext & Context: Abstraction and Representation in the 21st Century; and myself, Kim Anno speaking on Radiance: Abstracting with a little "a".