Event Information
Tuesday Night Lecture Series
Every Tuesday evening the Department of Art & Art History in partnership with the Natalie and James Thompson Gallery hosts an “Open House” that includes a weekly free public lecture or presentation from 5 - 6pm, followed by receptions in the six Student Galleries located throughout the Art Building and in the Industrial Studies Building.
Upcoming Events: Speakers and Schedule
Students from within the School, the College, and the University--as well as members
of the community including private collectors, alumni, and the general public--make
use of these free cultural events to hear a noteworthy regional, national, or international
artist, designer, or art historian lecture, view art in a non-intimidating atmosphere,
and experience a sense of community sometimes difficult to find on this urban, commuting
campus.
In-person presentations will be held in the Art Building Lecture Hall, Room #133, from 5-6pm.
Registration for all events is open to the public free of charge.
Lift Off – Professionally curated and produced 'off-site' Graduate Exhibition (MFA & MA)
At the beginning of their final year at San José State, MFA students in art practice join with MA students in art history to negotiate that strange territory between theoria (thinking), poiesis (making), and praxis (doing). Both groups of students find their own voices through one another’s practices.
The essays within these catalogs reflect this temporally determined pairing: the graduate students in art history write about the work of the fine arts students. The visual artists and art historians come together and produce text, image, and object on their own terms; without assignment. Every year in the Spring, the results of this collaborative endeavor result in the publication of the Lift Off catalogue.
Upcoming Exhibitions and Gallery Events
Visit our News page and the Natalie & James Thompson Gallery website to find out more about faculty, student, and alumni events.
Archived Exhibitions
Installation View, infra-ordinary, Root Division. Photo: Alana Rios © artists retain copyright, Spring 2021
Lift Off Information
As a component of their degree, MFA Candidates at San Jose State University mount two exhibits housed within one of six University Galleries; one exhibition in their second year of study and a culminating Thesis Exhibition at the end of their third year. In addition to their Solo Thesis Exhibition, MFA Candidates have the option of participating in a group exhibition hosted off-site & pairing with an MA Candidate in Art History and Visual Culture to create an entry in the annual, Lift-off Catalogue. Past MFA exhibitions have been installed at Root Division (SF), Incline Gallery (SF), Pro Arts (Oakland), and the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art. Recent Curatorial advisors for the exhibition include Chris Gurnder & Cléa Massiani (Co-Directors of Bass & Rainer, SF), Kevin Chen (Independent Curator), and in this iteration, Marcella Faustini (co-Director of CLOACA Projects, SF).
At the beginning of their final year at San José State, MFA students in art practice
join with MA students in art history to negotiate that strange territory between theoria
(thinking), poiesis (making), and praxis (doing). Both groups of students find their
own voices through one another’s practices. The essays within these catalogs reflect
this temporally determined pairing: the graduate students in art history write about
the work of the fine arts students. The visual artists and art historians come together
and produce text, image, and object on their own terms; without assignment. Every
year in the Spring, the results of this collaborative endeavor result in the publication
of the Lift Off catalogue.
Art students at San José State join a legacy of thinkers, activists, and innovators
dedicated to the public good. They test ideas through experimentation in the university’s
robust fabrication studios, which support the technical components of artistic production
in ceramics, digital media, metals, glass, painting, photography, printmaking, and
sculpture. Individual studios create space for deep thinking and artistic creation;
adjacent communal work areas engender peer-to-peer dialogue and foster innovation
and intellectual rigor.
Students combine their in-class experiences, faculty mentorship, independent research,
and individual studio practices to produce these exhibitions. The transformations
that occur through interdisciplinary dialogue and pedagogical stewardship are nowhere
more evident than in these markers of educational maturation.
The culminating group exhibit and accompanying catalog, produced at the end of students’
final year of study, reveal the synergies that emerge from the diversity of learning
practices. The artworks speak to critical issues far beyond the University grounds;
that inevitably direct graduates' thinking, making, and far beyond their time at
San Jose State University.
Rhonda Holberton
Assistant Professor, Digital Media Arts
Associate Chair, Department of Art & Art History
San Jose State University | College of Humanities and the Arts
The archive can be accessed here.
BFA Thesis Exhibitions Archive
- BFA Exhibitions (Photography, Pictorial Art and Spatial Art)
- BFA Exhibitions (Digital Media Art)
- DMA BFA Exhibition Fall 2022 ~ Resonance
- DMA BFA Exhibition Spring 2022 ~ Rediscover
- DMA BFA Exhibition Fall 2021 ~ Proxyverse
- DMA BFA Exhibition Spring 2021 ~ Digital Autonomy
- DMA BFA Exhibition Fall 2020 ~ Dreamscape
- DMA BFA Exhibition Spring 2020 ~ Pivot Point
Natalie and James Thompson Gallery Archive
A Closer Look: Prints from the Permanent Collection, August 29- October 3, 2023
For a list of past exhibitions, visit the Natalie and James Thompson Gallery's Exhibitions Archive Page.
