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John Bankston: Locating
Desire
February 25 - June 25, 2006
The de Young announces
the second Connections Gallery installation: John Bankston: Locating
Desire, which runs from February 25 through June 25, 
2006. According to Daniell Cornell, curator of American
Art and Director of Contemporary Art Projects, "The Museum asks the
Connections Gallery artists to think about their own experience as museum
visitors, and to incorporate into their own work objects from the museum's
collection. There are as many ways to go through a museum as there are artists
to interpret the cultural life we share." John Bankston: Locating Desire
is an installation of twenty 23 x 30 1/2 inch works on paper in color pencil,
watercolor, oil pastel and acrylic, as well as four oil on linen paintings,
two 72 x 96 inch and two 66 x 60 inch. (right: John Bankston, Music
(after Jess), 2005, oil on linen, 72 x 96 inches. Courtesy of the artist
and Rena Bransten Gallery)
Animated by his own desires -- to touch, own, and create
-- Bankston imagines a fictional character whose experiences while visiting
the museum lead him on a fantasy journey that incorporates the artworks
he finds most enticing: visually, emotionally and psychologically. Based
on these imaginary travels, Bankston creates a narrative in drawings and
oil paintings, juxtaposing disparate parts of the museum in surprisingly
humorous but telling ways. Together these works make up a visual narrative
of the fantasy journey Bankston's fictional character takes while visiting
the museum.
John Bankston describes his paintings and drawings as works
that engage the visual language of coloring books. He explains the formal
use of this idiom as allowing him to integrate painting and drawing, representation
and abstraction. By inviting museum visitors to follow his fantasy narrative,
Bankston encourages visitors to re-imagine their own worlds. Says Bankston:
"The idea of 'fantasy' is often thought of as the province of idle
escapists. But I like to think of fantasy as a way of re-imagining our world.
It is a means of stepping outside of one's known territory and breaking
boundaries."
Working in drawing and painting, Bankston is inspired by
the idea of the museum as a world of objects enticingly displayed but unobtainable.
In preparation for this exhibition, John Bankston met several times with
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco curator Daniell Cornell, to search the
de Young's collection database and identify works of particular interest
to him. Bankston also spent time in Golden Gate Park, sketching the museum's
physical environment. The resulting body of work reflects John Bankston's
investigations and observations, absorbing elements from works in the de
Young's American art, African art, Oceanic art and Textiles collections,
as well as the museum's park surroundings.
About John Bankston:
John Bankston is a San Francisco-based artist, whose work
is exhibited internationally. Winner of a 2002 SECA Award from the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, as well as a Fleishhacker Eureka Fellowship, his work
has been shown at the The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Andy Warhol Museum,
the Crocker Art Museum, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, and Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts, among other museums and galleries world-wide. (right:
John Bankston, Pink Flower, 2005, oil on linen, 72 x 96 inches. Courtesy
of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery)
Public Program:
- Locating Desire in the Museum: John Bankston's Connections
Gallery Project
- Lecture by Daniell Cornell, Ph.D.
- Curator of American Art and Director of Contemporary
Art Projects
-
- Saturday, March 4, 11:00 a.m.
- de Young museum, Koret Auditorium
- Admission: free
About the Connections Gallery:
Situated at the intersection of the galleries for the de
Young's three primary departments (Textiles, American Art, and Art of Africa,
Oceania and the Americas), the Connections Gallery is a newly conceived,
ongoing exhibition space that engages viewers through strong visual connections.
Through the Connections Gallery program, three artists
a year are invited to develop a body of work using the museum's permanent
collection as source material. The resulting exhibitions of site-specific
work reinterpret the de Young's collections within a contemporary context.
The gallery's location emphasizes the integrated nature of the permanent
collection. The Connections Gallery signals the new de Young's vitality
as a dynamic forum for contemporary art and reflects its involvement in
the current discourse of museum presentation and display.
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