Julia Couzens / Julia Couzens

In Conversation: Maria Porges & Julia Couzens

Zoom Date: May 8, 2021

Julia Couzens ☆ Stitch ‘n Bitch

April 3rd – May 22, 2021

Since the late ‘80s, Maria Porges has pursued dual practices as both writer and artist, teaching in both areas at California College of the Arts. A graduate of Yale University (BA) and the University of Chicago (MFA), her critical writing has been published widely in Artforum, Art in America, Sculpture, American Ceramics, Glass, the New York Times Book Review, and a host of now-defunct art magazines. She has also authored essays for more than 120 exhibition catalogues and multiple book contributions. Her exhibition career of image/text sculpture and drawings has included solo shows at galleries, museums and alternative spaces. She is currently working on a book about mending as an art form across multiple platforms. Maria Porges is Professor at CCA, serving in the Graduate Program in Fine Arts, the Graduate Program in Visual and Critical Studies and the undergraduate Fine Arts Program.

In Conversation: Jenni Sorkin & Julia Couzens

Zoom Date: Saturday, April 10th at 1pm PST.

Julia Couzens ☆ Stitch ‘n Bitch

April 3rd – May 22, 2021

Jenni Sorkin is Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She writes on the intersections between gender, material culture, and contemporary art, working primarily on women artists and underrepresented media. Her publications include Live Form: Women, Ceramics and Community, Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women Artists, 1947–2016, and numerous essays in journals and exhibition catalogs. She was educated at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bard College, and received her PhD from Yale University. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Modern Craft.

The Kingsley Art Club of the Crocker Art Museum presents the third in their series of on site visits with Julia Couzens, which they are doing in lieu of our in auditorium Speakers Series. 

In Response: Julia Couzens

… I am mostly at sea in the studio, adrift in reverie on good days, awash in doubt on the bad.  But forty years of working has taught me that moves come from failure and from the work I make while waiting in the wings.  These are creative truths that can be brought to our community life.  I don’t think we should hold on to “back to normal” or rebuild old orders and routines.  My best work comes from letting go of what I know.  Not knowing is the richest place to be if we are willing to let go and evolve, if we are willing to let these current events change us.

Read full post HERE

Julia Couzens created a compelling installation of gathered last words presented at the California State University, Sacramento. In the University Library Gallery visitors to the exhibition were treated to an expanse of textures and colors that captured the diverse phrases that Julia chose from contemporary and historical research. These phrases offered to her were recreated in fabric, wire and many other materials.