W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery

PLATFORM CSU ConSortiUm Event

Artist Shaun Leonardo

Date: February 11, 2021
Time: 5:30pm to 6:45pm
Location: Live via Zoom

Primitive Games - performance, 1 hr. at Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 6/21/18.Photo by Paula Court
Primitive Games - performance, 1 hr. at Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 6/21/18. Photo by Paula Court.

PLATFORM an event series of socially engaged artists, collectives, and curators in conversation presented by ConSortiUm, a collaborative project of California State University art galleries and museums

About the CSU ConSortiUm

The newly formed ConSortiUm, a collaborative project of art museums and galleries from the California State University (CSU) system, is pleased to announce a virtual event series that actively engages students, faculty, staff, and communities through visual arts-based dialogue. The inaugural program, PLATFORM, was launched in September 2020 and includes six live virtual conversations with contemporary artists, collectives, and curators whose work is critical to current re-imaginings of the art world and the world at large.

ConSortiUm recognizes that CSU students are integral to creating a new future, and is therefore committed to providing access to a multiplicity of voices and inspiration as students discover and nurture their own agency.

All events will be presented live via Zoom with access for all CSU campuses. These events are free and also open to the public.

Recordings of most events will be available for post-live-stream viewing and archived by the sponsoring institutions.
Artist Shaun Leonardo, Hosted by San Jose State, San Diego State, and Sacramento State, Thursday, February 11 at 5:30 p.m.; image of Mirror/Echo/Tilt. production still. Photo credit: Melanie Crean

Event Info

The first event for Spring 2021 will take place Thursday, February 11 at 5:30 p.m. featuring a presentation by artist Shaun Leonardo.

Event Registration Closed.

Close-captioned Event Recording Coming Soon.

From Seeing to Witnessing

In his talk titled, From Seeing to Witnessing, Leonardo will discuss his multi-disciplinary work, which interrogates societal expectations of masculinity, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities. Speaking to his most recent body of work in The Breath of Empty Space, he will describe the physical and psychosocial negative space that is activated when viewers fill in the blanks, reframe details, and remix narratives based on both personal experience and perceptions ingrained by media and cultural biases. The artist will also describe his investment in performance as a process of embodiment—exploring the ways in which memory and trauma are lodged within our bodies.

About the Speaker

image of Shuan Leonardo sitting in a chair

Shaun Leonardo

Shaun Leonardo’s multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities, along with its notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure. His performance practice, anchored by his work in Assembly—a diversion program for court-involved youth at the Brooklyn-based, non-profit Recess—is participatory and invested in a process of embodiment.

Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a recipient of support from Creative Capital, Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice and A Blade of Grass, and was recently profiled in the New York Times. His work has been featured at The Guggenheim Museum, the High Line, and New Museum, with a solo exhibition, The Breath of Empty Space, currently at MASS MoCA, then traveling to The Bronx Museum in 2021.

About the Performances

Primitive Games - performance, 1 hr. at Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 6/21/18. Photo by Paula Court

Primitive Games

Primitive Games - performance, 1 hr. at Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 6/21/18. Photo by Paula Court.
Testimony #1: Interactions with Police - workshop and performance, 1 hour at The Nathan Cummings Foundation for No Longer Empty: Hold These Truths, 12/16/17. Photo by Whitney Browne

Testimony #1

Testimony #1: Interactions with Police - workshop and performance, 1 hour at The Nathan Cummings Foundation for No Longer Empty: Hold These Truths, 12/16/17. Photo by Whitney Browne.
ConSortiUm’s participating CSU art museums and galleries include venues at campuses in BakersfieldTodd Madigan GalleryChico, Janet Turner Print MuseumDominguez Hills, University Art GalleryEast Bay, University Art Gallery; Fresno, Center for Creativity and the ArtsFullerton, Nicholas & Lee Begovich Gallery and Grand Central Art CenterHumboldt, Reese Bullen Gallery and Goudi'ni Native American Arts GalleryLong BeachSchool of Art and Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art MuseumLos Angeles, Luckman Gallery, Luckman Fine Arts ComplexNorthridgeArt GalleriesPomona, W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery and Don B. Huntley GallerySacramentoUniversity GalleriesSan BernardinoRobert and Frances Fullerton Museum of ArtSan Diego, University Art GalleriesSan FranciscoFine Arts GallerySan Jose, Natalie and James Thompson GallerySonoma, University Art Gallery; and StanislausUniversity Art Gallery and Stan State Art Space.
CSU The California State University Logo

Press Contact: Kelly Lindner
Galleries & Collections Curator
University Galleries, Sacramento State
kelly.lindner@csus.edu

CPP Campus Contact: Michele Cairella Fillmore
Galleries & Collections Curator
University Art Galleries & Collections, Cal Poly Pomona
michelec@cpp.edu

logotypes for all participating CSUs: ConSortiUm’s participating CSU art museums and galleries include venues at campuses in Bakersfield, Todd Madigan Gallery; Chico, Janet Turner Print Museum; Dominguez Hills, University Art Gallery; East Bay, University Art Gallery; Fresno, Center for Creativity and the Arts; Fullerton, Nicholas & Lee Begovich Gallery and Grand Central Art Center; Humboldt, Reese Bullen Gallery and Goudi'ni Native American Arts Gallery; Long Beach, School of Art and Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum; Los Angeles, Luckman Gallery, Luckman Fine Arts Complex; Northridge, Art Galleries; Pomona, W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery and Don B. Huntley Gallery; Sacramento, University Galleries; San Bernardino, Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art; San Diego, University Art Galleries; San Francisco, Fine Arts Gallery; San Jose, Natalie and James Thompson Gallery; Sonoma, University Art Gallery; Stanislaus, University Art Gallery and Stan State Art Space