Spring 2010 – Kelly Baum and Ruth Frisch Dealey
Dr. Kelly Baum’s presentation: March 1, 2010, 3:30-4:45 p.m., Fine Arts Center, Room 202 , University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I.
Ruth Frisch Dealy’s gallery talk: April 7, 2010, 3.30-4.45 p.m., Main Gallery, Fine Arts Center, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I.
Locks Curatorial Fellow for Contemporary Art at Princeton University Art Museum, Kelly Baum and acclaimed Rhode Island painter Ruth Frisch Dealey will be the Italo Scanga visiting art historian and artist at the University of Rhode Island Kingston campus this Spring.
Baum’s presentation, “Nobody’s Property: Art on Land and Space, 2000-2010,” will explore how over the last 10 years, “land” and “space” have become pressing subjects for artistic investigation, so much so that we can now speak of a new generation of environmental artists. This presentation is based on research for a 2010 exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum, “Nobody’s Property: Art on Land and Space, 2000-2010” that explores this development and probes the reasons for its appearance at the beginning of 21st century.
Baum earned a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware in 2005. From 2002 to 2007, she was the assistant curator of contemporary art at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. She has published a number of articles, brochures, and catalogues on contemporary art and has organized several exhibitions, including Carol Bove (2006); Jedediah Caesar (2007), The Sirens’ Song (2007), Transactions (2007), and Body Memory (2008, with Joel Smith). Kelly’s area of specialty extends to modern and postwar art as well. She recently published an article on a 1972 performance by Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta for PUAM’s Record.
Ruth Dealy’s gallery talk is in conjunction with her solo exhibition of recent work at the URI Main Gallery. Dealy is a graduate from Rhode Island School of Design ISD and winner of several Rhode Island State Council of the Arts fellowships and the Pell award for Excellence in the Arts. Her work was featured on the DVD Networks 2008.
Dealy writes: “My work falls into two major groups, self-portraits and landscapes. Both are constants, mutated by time, light and season. I try to paint directly from my eye to my hand, without the shadow of editorial opinion falling in between.”
Baum and Dealy’s visit is supported by funds from the Italo Scanga Foundation and the URI Department of Art and Art History. URI recently was awarded $5,000 from the foundation to support the Italo Scanga Visiting Artist Program at URI. The award, the second donation from the foundation, will enable URI to continue to invite artists and scholars who are regionally, nationally and internationally recognized.
Italo Scanga was an accomplished artist who taught at a number of Universities including the University of Rhode Island, Brown, RISD and the University of California, San Diego. His work was included in the 1983 Whitney Biennial. He won numerous awards including two National Endowment for the Arts Grants and his work is in a number of prestigious collections including the Fogg Museum, Guggenhiem Museum, MOMA and the RISD Museum. The Foundations support of the visiting artist series reflects his commitment to the arts in education.
For more information on the Italo Scanga Visiting Artist Program or to receive emails about future presentation at URI contact Professor Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, 18percent@uri.edu.