Posts Tagged ‘uc santa cruz’
San Francisco’s reputation as a city on the forefront of culture is one that’s still very much in good standing. Thanks to the radical creativity of the local artists who can recognize what it has to offer, there are still plenty of places where ideas push against each other. Sometimes these give way to some splendid new experiments, and sometimes they lock, pushing against each other in new and exciting ways.
The best work probably does a little bit of both, provoking and conceding, only to provoke again. That’s how a good conversation flows, and art is always a conversation. There are many visitors to the city who come looking for a chance to explore an unusual place with the most unusual weather patterns, and then there are those who come for the food, or those who want to see what the west coast hotels are like. All of these usually have an eye for art as well.
Anyone who happens to be looking a little carefully will come across the work of John Leanos at some point. This young artist, whose work has been moving gracefully and confidently out of the emerging category lately, is working in a variety of challenging forms, and in this case the form and function are both remarkably interconnected.
He’s got a teaching history that’s as impressive as his artwork, and he’s now on the faculty at UC Santa Cruz , where he teaches Social Documentation. He also teaches a variety of other classes, most reflecting his own art practices, with subjects that range from new media theory, critical theory, and public art in the realm of social practice. The work is uniquely situated at many crossroads of culture, and is also very specifically located in San Francisco, in many instances. It’s also very large in scope, encompassing critical artistic questions that take on national and international concerns, reflecting an artistic mind that is very much ahead of its time, and well-suited to a place that’s ahead of its time.