Long Beach Post: Opening Reception At UAM Tonight

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Opening Reception At UAM Tonight

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B.G. Hacker, Rhona Bitner, and Christopher Scoates

10:00am | Tonight at 6 pm the University Art Museum is hosting a public opening for three new exhibitions. As I mentioned in my podcast interview with Ulrich Krieger, they're presenting an immersive 3D

multi-channel sound installation of a live performance by Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio. This, by itself, would be well worth the visit but wait! There's more!

Split Moment is a thought provoking mixed media exhibition featuring photography, sculpture, installation, video, and drawings. It was curated by students in CSULB's Graduate Program in Museum and Curatorial Studies. I'll be interviewing Mary Coyne, one of the curators, next week.

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to get a sneak peak at the third exhibition, Static Noise. It is a collection of photographs, taken by Rhona Bitner as part of her Listen series, which documents significant music performance and recording venues. Even as Christopher Scoates, Director of UAM, spoke about the show and introduced Rhona, and even as Rhona herself began to speak about the work, my mind was drawn away from them and to the images displayed beautifully in the central room of the museum.

The images didn't feel documentary at all. First, there are no people in any of them. The images felt both intimate and expansive, abstract and objective, and each echoed with a history that wasn't evident, necessarily, but palpable.

I'm not prone to wax poetic, so I'll reign myself in and simply say that I'm incredibly pleased and proud that we have such an amazing institution in our midst. If you've never been to the University Art Museum, go tonight at 6 PM. Really. Go.

Seriously.

One last thing: Lou Reed is making a stop at Fingerprints today at 3 PM. Don't bother going, though, because Rand Foster, the owner of Fingerprints, told me that the list for admission is full. If you're not already on the list, you will not get in. After the visit to Fingerprints, I believe Reed will be heading over to UAM for the opening. At 8 PM, he's engaging in an on-stage conversation with legendary producer Bob Ezrin at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Tickets are still available.

To learn more about Rhona and her work, visit RhonaBitner.com.

To learn more about Lou Reed, visit LouReed.Com.

To get more information about past, current, and future exhibitions at UAM, visit CSULB.edu/org/uam.

To get ticket and performance information for the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, visit CarpenterArts.org.

Related Stories: Carpenter Arts Center, Bob Ezrin, Rand Foster, Christopher Scoates, B.G. Hacker, CBGB, Lou Reed, University Art Museum, Rhona Bitner, CSULB, Fingerprints, UAM

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2 Comments so far.

LB Bill
Thanks for getting this info out. I heard too late to plan to be there, but I appreciate the fact that this was the subject of an article.

Sander
Tonight was the opening, but the show runs through April 15th. You've got plenty of time to check it out.

Sander lives with his wife, step-daughter, dogs, and cats. He's an avid photographer, and enjoys creating close-up images of flowers and plants, and capturing urban landscapes. He's been involved in music production since the early 80's, and worked professionally as an audio engineer, live sound mixer, and producer.

Sander Roscoe Wolff is a musician, artist, and was co-founder and Executive Director of LongBeachCulture.org, the City's first comprehensive, and free, arts calendar and registry.

He has served on the boards of the 2nd City Council Art Gallery + Performance Space and the East Village Arts District, curated a 6 month gallery exhibition in the Long Beach World Trade Center, and produced Songs For Bethune, a CD of original and traditional holiday songs by local artists, to raise funds for the Arts Council's Passport to the Arts program.

His work has been featured in local gallery exhibitions, in SoundWalk, and L.A. Siggraph's Photon Ballet.

His current music project is Ain Soph Aur, a systems based improvisational performance duo and studio team.