Caroline A. Jones, Professor of History, Theory and Criticism, Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Administered by SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art), an SFMOMA art interest group, this biennial award honors local artists of exceptional promise with an exhibition. This year’s four recipients — Tauba Auerbach, Desirée Holman, Jordan Kantor, and Trevor Paglen — employ a wide spectrum of artistic approaches, including painting, sculpture, photography, and video. They also share strategies and thematics (about veiling, media, and hidden systems). Tonight, art historian Caroline A. Jones, whose latest book, Eyesight Alone: Clement Greenberg’s Modernism and the Bureaucratization of the Senses (U of Chicago Press, 2008) re-evaluates the core values of mid-century modernism and its legacies, addresses the 2008 SECA artists. A book signing with Jones and the artists will follow.