University of South Florida

College of The Arts

University of South Florida

USFCAM Presents “Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of the Coronavirus” Online Exhibition

Tuesday, June 02, 2020
Cristina Lucas, La Anarchist (The Anarchist), 2004. An elderly woman stands with a lit molotov cocktail in hand in a dining room.
On Saturday, June 6, the USF Contemporary Art Museum, part of the USF Institute for Research in Art in the College of The Arts, will launch its first major virtual exhibition, Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of the Coronavirus.

It humbly engages a select company of international artists to respond to the overwhelming realities of the crisis that has gripped the planet since March 5, the date the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

The exhibition takes full advantage of one of the few outlets artists still have—the Internet. It aims to mobilize sentiment, thought and activity around art and its enduring possibilities: its role as a conceptual catalyst, its ability to trigger ideas, stories, conversations, emotions, feelings and mental states. Separately and together, each artist contribution provides a picture of a planet in crisis, but also images of hope and optimism in the face of a global emergency.

The exhibition will continue to evolve with the addition of new artists and materials. Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of Coronavirus is supported in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Online Opening Celebration | Saturday, June 6, 2020 1-3pm EDT
Join online from the exhibition website at lifeduringwartimeexhibition.org
(Exhibition website opens 10am EDT; Zoom link will be live at 12:45pm EDT)
The opening celebration will be held virtually via Zoom on June 6 from 1-3pm EDT and will feature an artist/curator talk, a virtual walk-through of the exhibition and a public Q+A. Additional artist talks and events will be announced along the run of the exhibition, as artist contributions are unveiled.

Participating artists include:
Marcos Agudelo, Diana Al-Hadid, Atelier Van Lieshout, Alberto Borea, Sebastiaan Bremer, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Seth Cameron, Samantha Casolari, Rebecca Chamberlain, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Patricia Cronin, Godfried Donkor, Dysturb, Zhao Gang, Rico Gatson, Mark Thomas Gibson, Patrick Hamilton, Ellen Harvey, Yishai Jusidman, Deborah Kass, Basil Kincaid, Glenda León, Matvey Levenstein, Cristina Lucas, Narsiso Martinez, Eva and Franco Mattes, Richard Mosse, Angel Otero, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Edison Peñafiel, Dagoberto Rodríguez, Anastasia Samoylova, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Guy Richards Smit, Kiki Smith, Bosco Sodi, Tavares Strachan, Superflex, Sarah Sze, Jorge Tacla, Newsha Tavakolian, Janaina Tschäpe, Spencer Tunick, Rodrigo Valenzuela, Kennedy Yanko, Lisa Yuskavage.
 
In consideration of the fact that artistic expression has been significantly recontextualized by the current pandemic, Life During Wartime will present artworks made before as well as contributions made during the current period of quarantine. The exhibition will feature artist contributions that are not limited exclusively to finished artworks, but also include interviews, personal reflections, observations, texts, social media posts and even playlists.
 
Follow us for Life During Wartime updates!
Instagram: Institude for Research in Art 
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About the Curator

Christian Viveros-Fauné (Santiago, 1965) has worked as a gallerist, art fair director, art critic and curator since 1994. He was awarded a USF Kennedy Family Visiting Fellowship in 2018, a Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Grant for short-form arts writing in 2009, was named Art Critic in Residence at the Bronx Museum in 2011, and has lectured at Yale University, Pratt Institute, and Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Viveros-Fauné is Chief Critic for Artland and writes regularly for ArtReview and Sotheby’s/Art Agency Partners’s in other words. He serves as Curator-at-Large at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum. He has curated numerous museum exhibitions around the world and is also the author of several books. His most recent, Social Forms: A Short History of Political Art, was published by David Zwirner Books in 2018.

About USF Contemporary Art Museum

The University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum (USFCAM) organizes and presents significant and investigative exhibitions of contemporary art from Florida, the United States, and around the world, including Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Exhibitions and educational programs are designed to introduce students, faculty, and the community to current cultural trends. USFCAM also publishes relevant catalogues, schedules critically important traveling exhibitions, and underwrites new projects by artists emerging on national and international fronts. USFCAM maintains the university’s art collection, comprising more than 5,000 art works.
 
The USF Contemporary Art Museum is recognized by the State of Florida as a major cultural institution and receives funding through the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The USF Contemporary Art Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

Press Coverage

Tuesday, June 30, 2020
The Guardian: 'Pressure Leads to Unity': celebrating art in the time of coronavirus

Monday, June 29, 2020
Creative Pinellas: Virtual Reality: Art in the Age of Coronavirus

Friday, June 05, 2020
Tampa Bay Times: USF Contemporary Art Museum debuts first virtual exhibit: ‘Art in the Age of Coronavirus'

WTSP: Art in the Age of Coronavirus