Nikhil Chopra, Drawing a Line through Landscape (Part 2: On the Road), 2017; commissioned by documenta 14 ,2017 and supported by Piramal Art Foundation, Payal, and Anurag Khanna, Galleria Continua, and Chatterjee & Lal; courtesy the artist, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, and Galleria Continua, San Gimignano; photo: Madhavi Gore
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 11, 2019) — The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announces an exciting schedule of contemporary and media arts exhibitions opening at the museum this fall, underscoring the museum’s commitment to contemporary art. SOFT POWER, the first major exhibition for SFMOMA organized by Curator of Contemporary Art Eungie Joo, will span two floors of the museum and includes new commissions and recent work by 20 international artists working in 12 countries. SFMOMA’s Media Arts department will present an in-depth look at the story of migration in Richard Mosse: Incoming, with an expansive three-screen projection. The 2019 SECA Art Award exhibition will feature Bay Area artists and Award recipients Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Sahar Khoury and Marlon Mullen in the California galleries.
SOFT POWER
October 26, 2019–February 17, 2020
Floors 4 + 7
SOFT POWER is an exhibition about the ways in which artists deploy art to explore their roles as citizens and social actors. Appropriated from the Reagan-era term used to describe how a country’s “soft” assets such as culture, political values and foreign policies can be more influential than violence or coercion, the title SOFT POWER suggests a contemplation on the potential of art and offers a provocation to the public to exert their own influence on the world. Presented exclusively at SFMOMA on two floors of the museum, this exhibition will feature new and recent work by 20 international artists working in 12 countries. More than three quarters of the works in SOFT POWER are commissions and new works never before presented in the United States.
Major support for SOFT POWER is provided by Shawn and Brook Byers, the Ford Foundation, Diana Nelson and John Atwater, Katie and Matt Paige, and Helen and Charles Schwab. Generous support is provided by Sabrina Buell and Yves Béhar, Sean Leffers and Tom Buttgenbach, Sir Deryck and Lady Va Maughan, and Aey Phanachet and Roger Evans. Meaningful support is provided by Alka and Ravin Agrawal, Fundación Botín, Dolly and George Chammas, Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard, Oya and Bulent Eczacibasi, and the Friends of Contemporary Art at SFMOMA.
Richard Mosse: Incoming
October 26, 2019–February 17, 2020
Floor 7
Richard Mosse’s three-screen digital projection Incoming (2017) charts the current refugee crisis in Europe. Epic in scope and by turns lyrical and vivid, harrowing and violent, the video installation tracks two major flows of migrants from war-torn regions of Africa and the Middle East to emergency shelters in France and Germany. Utilizing military-grade camera technology, the otherworldly footage evokes the sense that viewers are watching the action covertly as if through night-vision goggles. This presentation will be the West Coast premiere of the 52-minute immersive work, and will also be accompanied by a selection of related photographs of refugee camps.
Support for Richard Mosse: Incoming is provided by Meyer Sound.
2019 SECA Art Award
November 16, 2019–April 26, 2020
Floor 2
The 2019 SECA Art Award exhibition will feature three Bay Area artists, each with a dedicated gallery: Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Sahar Khoury and Marlon Mullen. Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle’s interdisciplinary practice explores “the historical present,” her term for the persistent residue of history in contemporary life. Sahar Khoury transforms discarded materials into sculptures animated by freewheeling experimentation and personal narrative. Marlon Mullen takes magazine covers as his primary source imagery, translating them into vividly painted abstractions. The SECA Art Award, established in 1967 by SFMOMA’s Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art, has recognized more than 70 Bay Area artists with an exhibition and accompanying publication.
illy is the Presenting Sponsor of the 2019 SECA Art Award: Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Sahar Khoury, Marlon Mullen. Generous support is provided by Concepción S. and Irwin Federman and SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art), an SFMOMA art experience group.