Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University

Every month, we host a series of free curator talks at lunchtime and in the evening to dive deeper into our featured exhibitions! These tours are a great opportunity to ask our staff curators questions about their processes and learn about the larger significance of select works on view. This Thursday, curator of 'Handle with Care' Patrick R. Crowley will lead a group on a tour of the exhibition at 12pm. On April 3, join curatorial assistants Kathryn Cua and Jorge Sibaja on a highlights tour of 'Dwelling: New Acquisitions.' For more details and registration information, visit https://lnkd.in/gPq-Vu9m.

‘Handle with Care’ is divided into 3 sections: → This Is My Handle, This Is My Spout → Unhandy Handles → This Way Up The ‘Unhandy Handles’ section highlights handles whose function remains unusable because it’s all that is left of an object, purely decorative, or ceremonial. Philosopher Martin Heidegger describes this unusability as “un-handy” and obtrusive. In this section are objects with impractical handles including a gemstone-adorned jade dagger handle missing its blade, an Egyptian glass perfume jar with miniature handles, and a Cyprusian anthropomorphic fragment of a water jug, among others. Despite this negative definition, unhandy handles retain their power to induce more positive states of fascination and admiration by playing with form, material, and size. Curator Patrick R. Crowley will give a free highlights tour of the exhibition on Thursday at 12! Register here: https://lnkd.in/gjmhXQ96 [Artist unknown, Dagger handle, 17th-20th century, Jade inlaid with malachite, turquoise, rose quartz, and rubies, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Goodman. Artist unknown, Fragment of water jug (hydria), 6th-5th century BCE, Terra-cotta, Stanford Family Collections. Artist unknown, Perfume jar (amphoriskos), 4th-1st century BCE, Glass, Stanford Family Collections.]

‘Handle with Care’ is NOW OPEN?? Engaging a broad swath of the Cantor’s collection in an imaginative way, the exhibition features 40 unique, handle-bearing objects in all shapes and sizes. In the days leading up to opening, curator Patrick R. Crowley and exhibition designer Albert Lewis made the final placements for a case inside the exhibition containing a fourth century terra-cotta lamp, a nineteenth century beer stein and other centuries-old, fragile works. Did you notice how these works were carefully transported onto their platforms? For museum professionals, a cardinal rule to follow is to never pick up an object by its weakest point, which is often its handle. This challenge to the instinctive urge to grasp an object by its handles presents yet another meaning to the exhibition’s title.

The power of this photograph is undeniable, but what IS it exactly? These blue and green pools are actually salt flats, integral to the largest lithium mining operation in Chile. This mirage-like installation appears to hover mid-air through a play of light, and is part of photographer Edward Burtynky’s Anthropocene project, which uses imagery to raise awareness about the often-devastating effects of human activity on the earth. While?Edward Burtynsky sweeping aerial works often verge on abstraction, these breathtaking landscapes scarred by human industry, are very much real. Check out this work, on view in 'Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene,' and head to our link in bio to learn more ↑ [Edward Burtynsky, Born in St. Catharines, Canada, 1955, Lithium Mines?#1, Salt Flats, Atacama Desert, Chile, 2017, Pigment inkjet print on Kodak Professional Photo Paper, Courtesy of Weinstein Hammons Gallery, Minneapolis / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto]

Handle with Care opens in just one week on March 19th! Working with the Cantor Art Center’s encyclopedic collection of over 40,000 objects, the exhibition curated by Associate Curator of European Art Patrick R. Crowley explores a typically overlooked design element that invites us into the world of objects: the handle. Handle with Care uses this unique focus to connect various objects from different cultures across time and space. Items ranging from Greek drinking cups to Mughal shields to Chinese hand mirrors invite visitors to see the handle as an extension of both the hand and the object, the place where form and function meet. Learn more about the exhibition: https://lnkd.in/gk9x37fh [Artist unknown, Mirror, 19th century, Jade (white nephrite) with gilt metal frame, Cantor Arts Center Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles D. Field.]

Celebrating the beautiful new exhibition—and my cover story—last night at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center. Thank you Catherine Barry for the opportunity and Rebecca Silverstein for the company! The exhibition "Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene" is on view through August 3. Stanford University Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University

Using performance, video, installation and narrative forms, Los Angeles-based educator and Stanford University Denning Visiting Artist Patty Chang considers identity, gender, transnationalism, colonial legacies, the environment, large-scale infrastructural projects and impacted subjectivities in her work. Last Thursday, the Oceans Department, the Department of Art and Art History, and Cantor screened a selection of Chang’s works ranging from 1998-2022 reflecting her interests in the ocean and motherhood. Accompanied with each screening was a response about the work from members of the Stanford community: Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and, by courtesy, of Anthropology, Associate Professor of Islam & the Arts Denise Gill, Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at Cantor Maggie Dethloff and Associate Professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, of Oceans, of Anthropology and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment Krish Seetah. In their responses, the event’s participants reflected on Chang’s videos and installations to understand her pairing of rituals of care with collective anxieties about the climate crisis. For a list of upcoming lectures and events at Cantor, click here: https://lnkd.in/gPq-Vu9m

'Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene' is now open! Originally organized by Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the exhibition traveled to Cantor and was reimagined for our museum by our Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media Maggie Dethloff. On view are photo-based works by 44 artists exploring the complexities of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch marked by human activity. Read more about the exhibition in this feature from The Guardian US!

This incredible work by?Pacita Abad, Foothill Cabin (1976), is on view in 'Dwelling: New Acquisitions.' This painting depicts Abad’s partner Jack Garrity enveloped by a patchwork quilt, resting his head against a wall decorated with Indigenous American imagery and a large swath of phulkari, or Punjabi embroidery. Abad amassed the featured textiles from her yearlong sojourn with Garrity as they hitchhiked overland across Asia from 1973 to 1974. As one of Abad’s earliest paintings, Foothill Cabin references a one-room cabin located in Palo Alto’s foothills that the couple made their home while Garrity completed his graduate studies at?Stanford University. Abad has been to +60 countries across 6 continents in her lifetime, during which she developed a vibrant painting style that incorporated many traditional fabrics from the Global South. Visit https://lnkd.in/gF2QRaQ3 to learn more about other acquisitions featured in 'Dwelling.'

???????????? ????????????: ?????????????????????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???????????????????????? opens in just one week, on February 26th (!!) Comprised of forty-four photo-based artists working in a variety of methods from studios and sites across the globe, this exhibition explores the complexities of the Anthropocene: vanishing ice, rising waters, and increasing resource extraction, as well as the deeply rooted legacies of colonialism, forced climate migration, and socio-environmental trauma. Artist Gohar Dashti believes that "people are transient while nature is a constant, it will be here long after we are all gone." She has developed a practice concerning social issues with references to history and culture in modern society. She creates artwork using different media, including photography and video. [Gohar Dashti, Untitled?#2?from the series Home, 2017. Archival digital pigment print, artist’s proof 1/2, 31 3/8 x 47 3/16 inches (80 x 120 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery. ? Gohar Dashti]