FESTIVAL
South Asian Literature and Art Festival The South Asian Literature & Art Festival, presented at Montalvo by Art Forum SF in collaboration with the UC Berkeley Institute of South Asian Studies, was the Bay Area’s first festival dedicated to showcasing contemporary reflections of literature and the arts from the subcontinent. Read More >> |
EXHIBITION
The Mending Project The Mending Project is an interactive installation featuring several simple elements—thread, color, and sewing—as a point of departure to create meaningful connections between strangers. Originally conceived as an installation that would bring people together in conversation, The Mending Project was produced by internationally acclaimed visual artist Lee Mingwei and premiered in 2009 at Lombard-Freid Projects in New York. Read More >> |
FESTIVAL
Threads: Weaving Humanity On July 19, in a celebration throughout the Montalvo grounds, Montalvo premiered Threads: Weaving Humanity, featuring four newly commissioned works of textile by five artists whose work redefines fiber arts. These works were created to provide opportunities for contemplation, consideration and conversation on the meaning of our shared humanity, and what is necessary for humanity to thrive...This includes kindness, compassion, integrity, respect, empathy, forgiveness, and self-reflection. Read More >> |
COMMISSION
A Common Thread "In providing skeins of multicolored yarn and needles to my talented, multifaceted refugee sisters—who otherwise spend their time counting long, torturous days in flimsy crowded tents, at the mercy of inclement weather and fellow humans in power—my hope is to help them create space in their minds where they may otherwise have none: crocheting their meditative states into beautiful flowers." Read More >> |
COMMISSION
Caravan Within Montalvo’s Italianate Garden and along the Great Lawn, you will find Caravan by Hellen Ascoli, an artist, weaver, and mediator living and working in Guatemala City, Guatemala and Madison, Wisconsin. Since her migration from Guatemala to Madison, Ascoli continues to ask herself, How do you rebuild and remember at the same time? How do you make sense of where you are, when you are so deeply invested elsewhere? Caravan is a reference to movement both internal and external, both physical and emotional. Read More >> |
COMMISSION
I Dreamed About Walking in the Sky In these brightly hued and hand-embroidered panels, visitors read the concerns, hopes, and dreams of the artist as she considered the questions facing humanity today. Bangladeshi artist Yasmin Jahan Nupur has worked with jamdani, a centuries-old and disappearing fine weaving technique that she uses to express individual and collective memories across time and space. Read More >> |
COMMISSION
Forgiveness, the Misplaced Grace At the base of the Great Lawn at Montalvo once sat four statues atop pedestals, referencing the four seasons. Today, the fourth pedestal is empty, its statue likely destroyed in a past earthquake. The remaining trinity are often likened to the Three Graces of Greek mythology—minor goddesses representing beauty, charm, and creativity. Situated on that vacant pedestal, RoCoCo imagined the addition not of a fourth season, but of a fourth Grace--Forgiveness, The Misplaced Grace. Read More >> |