Recent News

Strange Birds

Oct 22, 2024

Cal Poly is pleased to present Strange Birds, a multi-faceted show by Interdisciplinary artist Heidi Neilson. The show is open from Nov. 7 to Dec. 6 in the University Art Gallery in Dexter, blg. 34. An opening reception and talk are set to take place on Nov. 7 from 5-7pm, with the talk commencing at 5:30 in the gallery.

Satellites, nicknamed “birds” in aerospace and ham radio circles, are critical to our lives but are essentially invisible. Heidi Neilson’s exhibition Strange Birds uses video, electronics, prints, photographs and book works to investigate our relationship with satellites. The different works expose the relationship from different angles—our history and future visions—as well as how these orbiting devices extend our sensory capacities and allow us to participate in environments which we would be unable to perceive well, or even survive at all, ourselves.

Bio

Heidi Neilson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores connections between people on the ground and off-planet conditions and infrastructure. She works in multiple mediums including radio transmissions, sound, prints, books, sculpture, electronics, and video. She is currently co-operating Here GOES Radiotelescope, a sculptural receiving station for the GRB transmission from GOES-16, a NOAA weather satellite, and mining the volumes of earth observation and space weather data collected by the station for a variety of projects. Other recent work includes Moon Arrow, a mechanical sculpture which continually points at the moon, and Sonic Planetarium, an immersive sound installation made from recordings of orbiting satellites.

From the New York Foundation for the Arts, Neilson is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Digital/Electronic Arts and a 2015 Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work. Neilson has been awarded Individual Artists grants from the New York State Council on the Arts (2024, 2022), a Media Assistance Fund for Artists Grant—New York State Council on the Arts in Partnership with Wave Farm (2018), Art Matters Grant—Art Matters Foundation (2013), and Individual Artist Support—New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Queens Council on the Arts (2021, 2018, 2007). She has been awarded artist residencies at the NYC Urban Field Station, SPACES, Wave Farm, Klondike Institute of Art & Culture, Provisions Library, Elsewhere, Lower East Side Printshop, Center for Book Arts, Visual Studies Workshop, and Women’s Studio Workshop. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and her artist books and other works are held in over 100 collections, including those of the Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Institute of Art, Columbia University, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and Yale University. Writing about her work has appeared in Hyperallergic, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Popular Mechanics, among others.

Neilson holds a BA in biology from Reed College and an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute. She is a board member of Wave Farm, teaches art and design at Parsons School of Design | The New School, and lives and works in New York. Her ham radio call sign is KD2ESI.

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Alumni Show

Aug 27, 2024

The Art & Design Department is Celebrating its 55th Anniversary!

To celebrate we are showcasing the work of 20 Alumni who span the graduating generations.

The show opens Monday Sept. 16th and runs through Oct.18th. The Celebration will take place on Friday Sept. 27 in the University Art Gallery in Dexter, bldg. 34 from 5-7pm.

The Galleries regular hours are Tues. - Sat. 11-4

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2024 BFA Exhibition

May 21, 2024

The 2024 BFA show features the culmination of these student’s hard work here at Cal Poly in the Department of Art and Design. This year features two concurrent events:

“After All, I Exist” is the Photo/Video component and is located in the Dexter Foyer right outside the gallery. “Safety in the Hot Shop” is the Studio Art component, located in the University Art Gallery.

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Juried Student Exhibition

May 15, 2024

The juried student show is a time for the department to celebrate the art we make here by displaying it for your classmates and the public to view.

This year we wer fortunate to have Alicia Piller as our juror. Alicia Piller was the solo artist behind, "Reconstructing Ruins," the latest show at the University Art Gallery. Piller is also faculty member at CalArts and University California of Irvine.

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Alicia Piller : Reconstructing Ruins

Mar 20, 2024

Moving backwards then forwards in time, the sculptural works in Reconstructing Ruins tackle the legacy of Americana. Mimicking forms of cellular biology as a method to locate the root of human histories; this selection of works equally fixates on materiality and content. An exploration of history, examining the pathways through which we all got here today; the present, with its anxiety ridden energy; and the future, represented as objects in a liminal space of transition. Elements of nature are purposefully infused into almost every work, emphasizing the vital connection between humanity and the Earth. Glimpses of hope are seen through this integration, the hopes of planting new seeds that nourish the future for everyone.

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LIFELIKE

Nov 30, 2023

LIFELIKE, a group exhibition curated by writer, curator and artist Katie Peyton Hofstadter, explores the work of ten artists logging biological, genetic, and behavioral information on a digital ledger, to invoke a conversation about body sovereignty in our technopresent. The exhibition also features an interactive and VR experience, presented by EPOCH, and a performance schedule spanning the Cal Poly University Gallery, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA) and the Center for Expressive Technologies (CET).

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June Edmonds

Mar 9, 2023

June Edmonds is an American painter,teacher, and public artist. Edmonds' work is notable for its colorful, layered surfaces that draw on meditative practices to explore the relationships between color, repetition, spiritual contemplation, the power of archetypical systems, and interpersonal connection. She is an active and prominent contributor to the Los Angeles area art scene, and is a member of both the Artist's Alliance of Southern California and the Women’s Caucus for Art. Her work has been shown extensively at such venues as the California African American Museum, Huntington Beach Art Center and Watts Towers Art Center. Her paintings are held in collections throughout the United States including the California African American Museum, Los Angeles; Mead Art Museum, Amhurst College, Amhurst, MA; Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University, Muncie, IN and The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH.

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