Muraling at Ox-Bow
with Alex Bradley Cohen and Chris Johanson
$175 lab fee | May 31–June 13 | Communal
In this class, students will have the opportunity to design, propose, and implement a large outdoor mural that will beautify and celebrate Ox-Bow. Visible from the main entrance road into campus, the mural will greet all visitors and participants. Students will learn strategies for planning, drafting, scaffolding, and collecting supplies for their collaborative mural. The class will draw inspiration from the style and signage of Ox-Bow and consider the work of muralists Diego Rivera, Ben Shahn, Seymour Fogel, Thelma Johnson Streat, Keith Haring, and Bernard Williams, among others. In the first few days of the course, students and faculty will work together to design three proposals, to be reviewed and approved by Ox-Bow's leadership team. The remainder of the course will center on the implementation of the selected design.
SAIC students: This is a 3-credit course; use the course code PAINTING & DRAWING 605 001.
Alex Bradley Cohen (he/him) utilizes painting to visualize the push and pull of political life. Working with acrylic paint on canvas, Cohen depicts friends, family members, and himself in scenes that foreground everyday moments. Originating from personal photographs and memories rather than direct observation, each painting serves as an exercise in imaginative world-building. Recent group exhibitions include In Relation to Power: Politically Engaged Works from the Collection, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; State of the Art 2020, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; and Triple: Alex Bradley Cohen, Louis Fratino, and Tschabalala Self, University Art Museum, University of Albany, NY. His work has also featured in exhibitions at venues including the Studio Museum of Harlem, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; Elmhurst Art Museum, IL; and the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles. He is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and was an artist-in-residence at Ox-Bow.
Chris Johanson (he/him) is a multimedia artist whose wide-ranging practice spans painting, drawing, and sculpture using wood, metal, fabric, and paper; building a small house; sound installations and music performance; writing music; publishing zines and books of his own work as well as work by others; curating; producing music and performance events such as the Quiet Music Festival in Portland, OR; and creating numerous murals, some with the participation of young people. A college dropout, he has shown his art internationally for many years, including as part of the Whitney Biennial. Recent projects include paintings or installations at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and de Young Museum, all in San Francisco, as well as a gallery exhibit at The Modern Institute, Glasgow, Scotland. He has made many monographs, including one with Phaidon, and is the recipient of a SECA Art Award from SFMOMA.