From left, Howardena Pindell is receiving the 2019 Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement and Joyce J. Scott is delivering the CAA conference keynote address.
THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE of the College Art Association (CAA) is happening this week in New York City. Students and art historians are gathering at the New York Hilton Midtown to participate in more than 300 sessions exploring the latest issues in visual art.
There is a diverse slate of panel discussions. Topics surround art by African American, Latinx, Native American, and LGBTQ artists; migration, immigration, and globalism; and activism and the role of art in politics, among many other subjects of scholarly inquiry. In addition, CAA is hosting professional development workshops, a book and trade fair, receptions, gallery tours, and many other events.
Each year, the artist talks and annual Awards for Distinction are among the conference highlights. Guadalupe Maravilla and Julie Mehretu are the subjects of the 2019 Distinguished Artist Interviews (Feb. 15). In November, New York-based Mehretu’s first-ever comprehensive retrospective opens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Baltimore-based artist Joyce J. Scott is giving the keynote address at the Feb. 13 convocation, the opening event that features the awards presentation. Artist Howardena Pindell is receiving the 2019 Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement. Pindell’s traveling retrospective just opened at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. The Distinguished Feminist Award—Visual Artist is going to Senga Nengudi.
Scholars and curators who authored “Race Experts: Sculpture, Anthropology, and the American Public in Malvina Hoffman’s Races of Mankind,” “Adrian Piper: A Synthesis of Intuitions 1965–2016,” “Axé Bahia: The Power of Art in an Afro-Brazilian Metropolis,” and “Fahamu Pecou: Visible Man,” are among the finalists for awards recognizing excellence in publications
Mindful that registration for industry conferences is often cost-prohibitive, CAA is offering a pay-as-you-wish one-day pass for the 2019 conference. This is the third year the option has been made available for those who can’t afford to pay the full-registration fee. CT
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BOOKSHELF
“Joyce J. Scott: Harriet Tubman and Other Truths” documents the artist’s exhibition at Grounds for Sculpture, her largest and most comprehensive exhibition to date. “Julie Mehretu: Grey Paintings” was published to coincide with “Hoodnyx, Voodoo and Stelae,” the artist’s 2016 exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery and features an essay by artist Glenn Ligon. A newer publication “Julie Mehretu: A Universal History of Everything and Nothing,” was released last year. A full-color catalog, edited by curators Naomi Beckwith and Valerie Cassel Oliver, accompanies the retrospective exhibition “Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen.”
From left, Julie Mehretu and Guadalupe Maravilla are subjects of CAA’s Distinguished Artist Interviews
