Artist Shaun Leonardo to Speak at Virtual Event Series, PLATFORM
ConSortiUm and the PLATFORM series is the first multi-campus program created by art galleries and museums of its kind within the CSU system.
In his presentation, Leonardo will discuss his multi-disciplinary work which negotiates societal expectations of manhood, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities, along with 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.
The artist will describe his investment in performance as a process of embodiment, exploring the ways in which memory and trauma are lodged within our bodies.
Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. 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 The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) then traveling to The Bronx Museum in 2021.
This presentation is free and open to the public, and hosted by San Diego State University, San Jose State University, and Sacramento State University. Registration for this Zoom webinar is available here at the link.
Launching in September 2020, PLATFORM actively engages students, faculty, staff, and communities through 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.
“Last year, after the pandemic caused us to use virtual modalities, Tina Yapelli [Professor of Museum Studies in SDSU’s School of Art and Design] and I started meeting regularly with art gallery and museum colleagues across the CSU system to talk about how we could learn from and support each other,” SDSU’s Galleries and Exhibitions Coordinator Chantel Paul said.
“It was out of these meetings about collaboration that ConSortiUm and the PLATFORM series emerged. As a group, we were all passionate about highlighting artists, collectives, and curators from around the world who were creating provocative work and ideas.”
Paul added, “I have been involved since the beginning, helping to identify artists and working with colleagues at SDSU to increase our student attendance.”
ConSortiUm members are dedicated to responding to current societal issues and the pressing demand for an end to systemic and overt racism in California and beyond.
“The experience of this type of collaboration has been so positive for all of us and it’s created an incredible opportunity to build relationships across all of our campuses,” Paul said.
For more information about the PLATFORM series and the upcoming spring 2021 events, visit the link.
The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.