All the posts for the University Union site
A floral collection reflecting the tension between the familiar and the unknown. Paintings by Erica Avila.
Exhibition Dates: November 18, 2024 – December 12, 2024
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 21, 6 pm – 8 pm
A visual exploration of lost ancestral culture and how we come to find we belong no place, every place, and to ourselves. An exhibition of work from Uli Smith.
Exhibition Dates: October 21, 2024 – November 14, 2024
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 24, 6 pm – 8 pm
Our campus community’s visual representations of why we vote, participate in politics, and engage in our communities. This interactive exhibit asks viewers to consider others’ reasons and then share their own reasons for participating in politics and their communities.
Exhibition Dates: October 7, 2024 – November 7, 2024
A series of photographs documenting the raw and unfiltered everyday life in the city. A body of work by Joseph Anderson.
Exhibition Dates: September 23, 2024 – October 17, 2024
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 26, 6 pm – 8 pm
Joseph Anderson, 29 year old published photographer from Sacramento, California, has explored various photography genres throughout his career. However, his creative focus gravitates towards the documentary and street photography styles, shaping both his approach to shooting and the storytelling within his work.
Joseph’s photography has been featured in prestigious publications such as Thrasher Magazine, Docu Magazine, Street Photography Magazine, Mob Journal Magazine, and Sacramento’s Epiphany Magazine among other publications. These opportunities have allowed him to share his unique perspective and narratives with a wider audience, enriching his artistic journey and establishing deeper connections with viewers.
Moving forward, Joseph is dedicated to furthering his artistic growth, surpassing past achievements, and setting new standards within his craft. With each photo, he aims to capture moments that resonate, provoke thought, and stir emotions, leaving an enduring impact while pursuing both artistic fulfillment and professional success.
An exhibition of work by Mario Estioko that chronicles the art and humor of the new all-ages card game, “RUN!”
From little hands comes big ideas. Discover the beauty, excitement, and creativity inspired by infants, toddlers, and preschoolers of ASI’s Children’s Center as they show their understanding of the world in which they live.
Exhibition Dates: August 26, 2024 – September 19, 2024
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 5, 6 pm – 8 pm
More than just Scribbles is a vibrant collection of art by the children of the ASI Children’s Center who are as young as 6 months through Kindergarten. The exhibit showcases the beauty and complexity of young children’s work. Go beyond the scribbles and explore how each mark, splatter of paint, and non-discriminate shape represent significant learning, growth, and culture. Photos and descriptions capture the enthusiasm of the creative process and allow viewers to gain a deeper understanding of the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development that occurs when children are engaged in creating art. The collection features collaborative pieces in a variety of media inspired by the children’s interests and experiences. Find inspiration in the beauty, diversity, and awe captured by these budding young artist as you see the world through their eyes.
We will be celebrating with an opening reception on Thursday, September 5 from 6:00–8:00 pm. Gallery patrons can find kid-friendly appetizers and refreshments throughout the evening. We will also have an art activity room down the hall in the Forest Suite where children can participate in several art activities.
An exhibition of interdisciplinary art practice to explore the impacts of biodiversity, environment, and humanity. Works by Brenda Louie and Qinqin Liu.
Exibition Dates: February 20, 2023 – March 16, 2023
Brenda Louie
Brenda Louie’s “Water Series” is inspired by the concept of the essential quality of water that it goes beyond dignity and justice, it is spiritual…
Louie’s work traces the creative development of one of the most exciting Asian-American artists working today. Over the course of serval decades, Louie has merged the aesthetic principles of traditional Chinese culture with the experiment of post-war art, arriving at cutting-edge approaches to painting that speak to diverse audiences.
Louie’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States, China and Middle East including in Crocker Art Museum, Monterey Art Museum, Oceanside Art Museum, California, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, P.R. China, Farhat Art Museum, Lebanon,
Louie holds a Master of Arts in Painting from California State University in Sacramento in 1991 and a Master of Fine Arts from Stanford University in Visual Arts in 1993. She was a member of art faculty at the Art Department, CSUS, from 1996 to 2019.
The second edition of Brenda Louie’s monograph, “Moving from Zero”, with essays by six esteemed scholars whose diverse backgrounds speak to the universal appeal of her work and the veritable internationalism of contemporary art in general. “Moving from Zero” will be available for purchase in Summer 2023, for more information, please visit: www.brendalouie.com, brendalouie.wordpress.com or contact Brenda Louie at: blouie@csus.edu.
Qinqin Liu, Ph.D.
Qinqin Liu is an accomplished interdisciplinary artist and scientist with a Ph. D in botany and ecology study. Connecting humanity’s heart, mind, and soul to nature and environments is her life’s journey. She has a long-term passion for the interplay of art and environments, especially with deep concerns about the changing climate on our mother earth. Her art practice includes drawing, Chinese ink, watercolor, and mixed media collage with rice paper and natural objects (http://www.drqliu-artscience.com/). Integrating Chinese calligraphy, culture, and design elements into Western art styles and connecting art and nature with humanity contribute to the unique character of her contemporary artworks.
These artworks have been selected for exhibitions in the National Science Museum in Taipei, California Art Center Museum, Crocker Art Museum, and universities in Asia, and the US. Her artworks have been collected in the US, Asia, and Europe. Her art projects foster conversations for art-science collaboration and creative activism for urgent climate actions in California, New York, Oregon, Europe and Asia coastal regions.
This exhibition, Echo Climate is an extension of her living climate art projects addressing deep time, sustainability, risk of drought and fire, and global actions, including examples as “Climate Color Spheres I, II, III”, “Vulnerability Window”, “Sun, Earth, and Climate.” and international publications.
Join us in the Hinde Auditorium on reception night, Thursday, February 23, from 5:00–6:00 pm for an artist lecutre.
Brenda Louie, studio art professor and mixed media installation artist, and Dr. Qinqin Liu, scientist and artist will present a public lecture as a part of their jointed art exhibition at the University Union Gallery.
Professor Louie will discuss her paintings on canvas, Water Essential Series, which began as a response to the 2012 CSUS campuswide project, One World Initiative theme of water. Water Essential Series has become Louie’s primary visual investigation in her work in more than ten years. The depth of this visual investigation led her to a deeper understanding of our relationship with water that goes beyond the survival of our body, beyond dignity and justice, it is spiritual…The scale of each of these paintings from the Water Essential Series ranged from 9 x 6 feet to 9 x 54 feet. Professor Louie will discuss her studio and research practices as well as her painting process during her lecture.
Dr. Liu will share her long-term passion and experience with the interplay of art and ecology, especially her deep concerns about the changing climate on mother earth. She will show her publications and interdisciplinary artworks that are informed by critical issues of climate, watersheds, endangered species, and biodiversity to help the audience better understand the comprehensive scientific research in these areas. She will also share her art-science journey from China to the US, and the emotional art expression of her countryside experience adapting to the crisis of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She will explain examples of her works as living projects addressing deep time, sustainability, climate risks of water, drought, fire, biodiversity, and global actions. These works include “Climate Color Spheres I, II, III”, “Vulnerability Window”, “Endangered”, “Climate Extremes”, “Changing Life cycle”, “Watersheds”, “My Footprint”, “Sun, Earth, and Climate.” and international publications.
An exploration of Black life entering a promised dream that was denied us from the start. Work by JUPITER.
Exibition Dates: January 23, 2023 – February 16, 2023
My work is created to make the viewer feel comfortable and uneasy at the same time. Focusing on beings who are daily ostracized. Giving light to the humanity of dark-skinned people, who originate from Africa. Capturing the essence of the figures on canvas, through a child’s eye. Reminding the viewer of the innocence, that we as Black Americans are robbed of daily. Wings, halos, and crowns, help me nudge the viewer into broadening their minds about certain stereotypes they’ve learned since childhood. Helping them to break away from harmful thought patterns and actions.
My goal as an artist, is not to make the viewer like me, but to make them see the world through a pair of eyes that will convict the ignorance we have been taught in this great nation.
A SOFT AND COMFORTING EXPERIENCE CREATED THROUGH VARIOUS MEDIUMS INCLUDING POTTERY, HANDMADE PAPER, AND PAINTING. WORK BY ADRIENNE BELAIR.
Exibition Dates: April 22, 2024 – May 16, 2024
When I was a child my father used to practice his guitar at night. He played jazz music and I remember the guitar sounded so warm. On occasion I would sneak out of bed, into the living room to find it transformed by a single blue light, and what was once so familiar felt like a new world. I always thought these songs where my own personal lullabies, but of course it was just a guitarist practicing while is daughter was supposed to be asleep.
I’ve held onto these memories tight, they are something I return too often when I seek a feeling I wish to evoke in my artwork, a feeling of calm, a world transformed.
Of course as we age our memories change, our nostalgia will revise itself, while we look onto our childhood with new eyes. This shift in reality is sometimes filled with sorrow but never the less it is important for us to decide how we will choose to hold onto our past.
Lullaby is a collection of artwork that has served as a safe space for me to process how those memories have changed over time, creating works of art that have provided the same soothing effect that those songs once did, and a decision to let those memories stay sweet.
These artworks span many mediums from clay, handmade paper, painting and other avenues of creation. Although these mediums vary they each embody techniques that evoke a meditative and calming experience, bringing a sense of peace and a road for me to find my way home to myself.
To create these artworks, I work in collaboration with my materials rather than in command. Listening to them and nurturing them, my hope is to allow them to tell me what they need so I can respond and help them along to their final form. The process is organic and allows my work to develop something unexpected, often abstract and inspired by our natural world.
Because my artwork serves as a soothing mechanism for myself I can only hope that this is translated to the viewer. Lullaby is meant to be a comforting and calming space, somewhere for one to sit in a transformed world and believe those lullabies where created just for them.
—Adrienne Belair
A JURIED EXHIBITION OF WORK BY SAC STATE’S VERY OWN STUDENTS.
Exibition Dates: March 25, 2024 – April 18, 2024
The Student Purchase Award Show is an annual art exhibit, which is an integral part of the University Union Art Gallery. It is a tradition that dates back to the late 70s, shortly after the original University Union opened in 1975. Artwork submissions are completely open to all students currently enrolled at Sacramento State.
Students submit their artwork during a three-day period and then off-campus visual arts professionals are chosen to judge the submitted work. Three “Best of Show” awards (in addition to Purchase Awards) are selected solely on the basis of artistic quality, and are awarded a cash prize. The works selected for Purchase Awards are chosen using the following criteria: artistic quality, adaptability into the University Union permanent collection, and the relative price of the piece. Those pieces then become part of the Union’s permanent collection and will be displayed in the facility for years to come.
This year’s featured artists include: