October 2019: Approaching Politics

Posted on by Ciara Pressler
Ciara PreGame Portland Oregon

Even though we’re over a year out from the next U.S. presidential election, we’re already inundated with reports of candidates, campaigns, and controversy. We’ve barely had a breather, and here we are avoiding the 24-hour news cycle again like it’s November 2016. Even if we can find a way to opt out of the minute-by-minute ticker tape of speculation and developments, to live in a society is to deal with politics. We each decide on a level of participation on the political spectrum, from habits of avoidance to a lifetime of public service. Eventually, politics demand interaction, if not on voting […]

Featured Artist: Brian Singer

Posted on by Pregame Magazine
Brian Singer someguy

Someguy, also known as Brian Singer, is a San Francisco based fine artist whose projects have received international attention. His art ranges from intimate works with paper to large scale participatory projects. The 1000 Journals Project, launched in 2000, was turned into a book, a feature length documentary, and has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The project was covered in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Better Homes and Gardens and many others. More recently, he launched the provocative project TWIT Spotting, where […]

Featured Artist: Summer Mei Ling Lee

Posted on by Pregame Magazine
Photo of Summer in performance

Summer Mei Ling Lee was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and shares time in San Francisco and Chicago. She graduated from Stanford University in 1997 and received her MFA in painting and sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2011. A multi-disciplinary artist, Summer has recently been responding creatively to site and situation, working for years with Abby Chen and most recently with Candace Huey of re.riddle. Both curators have given Summer artistic opportunities to create process-based works and performances, embracing risk-taking and collaboration. Through research and discovery, she sets the conditions for art to enter. Themes of absence and […]

Culture Feature: 50 Contemporary Women Artists

Posted on by Ciara Pressler
50 Contemporary Women Artists (@50cwa)

50 Contemporary Women Artists is a one-of-a-kind compendium that features a selection of women artists and architects who have made groundbreaking contributions to contemporary art. Profiling an international cross-section of artists, 50 Contemporary Women Artists presents fresh perspectives on feminism and notions of cultural power. Using a variety of mediums, the artists in this book address themes of social, cultural, political, environmental, and psychological issues. Heather Zises, Pregame Magazine art editor, created this book with John Gosslee three years ago. The idea came from a special Women’s Edition that John’s magazine Fjords Review ran in 2014 where Heather served as guest curator. […]

Featured Artist: Fiona Aboud

Posted on by Pregame Magazine
Fiona About Pregame

Brazilian-American artist Fiona Aboud creates images rooted in photography that are inspired by painting and natural elements. Aboud’s lyrical and humanistic style frees the imagination while challenging issues of perception, multiculturalism and stereotypes. Aboud’s practice is influenced by photographers like Edward Curtis who documented Native Americans whose culture was in danger of disappearing. This mindset influenced Aboud to create projects that preserve cultures through photography, such as Sikhs: An American Portrait. Inspired by hate crimes and American realist painters explore what it means to be American and examine the human prejudice of physical differences. This series received numerous awards from […]

Featured Artist: Kija Lucas

Posted on by Pregame Magazine
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Kija Lucas is an artist and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She uses photography to explore ideas of home, heritage and inheritance. Lucas explores how ideas are passed down and how seemingly inconsequential moments create changes that last generations. Lucas received her MFA from Mills College in 2010 and her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Bay Area at The Walter and MacBean Galleries at the San Francisco Art Institute, The Euphrat Museum at DeAnza College, The Headlands Center for the Arts, The California Institute of Integral Studies, Altar Space, […]

The Day Rosa Parks Went Viral

Posted on by Michael Roderick
Anna Hentschel + Invisible Playground Screen Shot 2018-11-06 at 8.02.41 PM

As I have continued making my way through Charles Duhigg’s excellent book The Power of Habit, I happened upon a very interesting anecdote about Rosa Parks. Most of us have heard that name and one specific story about the woman that is taught to us in our history books which is that she did not get up when asked to by a white passenger and was eventually arrested. BUT What most people don’t know about is that she was not the first in history (or even that week) to do this. So why is she in the history books? Her […]

Past Present: High School Yearbooks, Trump and Immigrants, and Barstool Sports

Posted on by Nicole Hemmer
yearbooks

In this episode, Natalia, Niki, and Neil discuss the history of high school yearbooks, how the Trump administration is defining immigrants as “public charges,” and the awful misogyny of Barstool Sports. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: High school yearbooks have been in the spotlight during the investigation of Brett Kavanaugh. Niki cited this Atlantic article that historicizes yearbooks and Natalia recommended historian Paula Fass’ book Outside In: Minorities and the Transformation of American Education for its use of yearbooks as historical sources. President Trump came to power promising to tighten immigration legislation, and a […]

Past Present: Brett Kavanaugh, Fraternity Hazing, and the Natural Beauty Industry

Posted on by Nicole Hemmer
beauty

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss the drama surrounding Brett Kavanaugh’s upcoming Supreme Court confirmation, fraternity hazing, and the booming natural beauty industry. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Conservative Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s candidacy is being marred by sexual assault allegations. Natalia recommended Anita Hill’s New York Times’ op-ed about the historical echoes with her own experience. The hazards of fraternity hazing are back in the news after the death of a student at the Riverside campus of the University of California. Natalia recommended Nicholas Syrett’s book The Company He Keeps: […]

Past Present: Crafting, the 2008 Financial Crisis, and the Marshmallow Test

Posted on by Nicole Hemmer
Marshmallow

In this episode, Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss the new reality show Making It, the 2008 financial collapse ten years later, and the death of Walter Mischel, the social psychologist who created the “marshmallow test.” Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:   Making It, a crafting competition show hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, is widely considered a welcome break from the cutthroat culture of reality television and of politics. Natalia recommended this American Conservative article on the limits of television crafting. Ten years after the economic crash of 2008, its effects are still […]