Janet Bishop receives Insignia of Chevaliers des Arts et des Lettres

Janet Bishop, Emanuelle Lebrun-Damiens (Consul General of France), Florence Buatois (President, Board of Directors, FACS)

Janet Bishop, Emanuelle Lebrun-Damiens (Consul General of France), Florence Buatois (President, Board of Directors, FACS)

Janet Bishop, SFMOMA curator for painting and sculpture and first FACS Curatorial Travel Grant recipient received the insignia of Chevaliers des Arts et des Lettres, the highest distinction awarded by the French Minister of Culture and Communication.

Janet Bishop, SFMOMA curator for painting and sculpture, and first FACS Curatorial Travel Grant recipient, was honored with the insignia of Chevaliers des Arts et des Lettres, the highest distinction awarded by the French Minister of Culture and Communication.

Ms. Bishop is the SFMOMA’s Thomas Weisel Family Curator of Painting and Sculpture. Janet Bishop is curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). In this capacity, Bishop's primary responsibilities include the acquisition, research, presentation, and interpretation of objects in the permanent collection of the Painting and Sculpture Department and the organization of special exhibitions.

Ms. Bishop was one of the lead curators for The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde — an award-winning and critically acclaimed historical exhibition that premiered at SFMOMA and traveled to the Grand Palais, Paris, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011-12). Other exhibition projects of special note include 75 Years of Looking Forward: The Anniversary Show (2010-11), a major reinstallation of SFMOMA's collection assembling some 400 works in all media; Robert Bechtle: A Retrospective (2005-6), the first comprehensive exhibition of the California realist's paintings and drawings; and 010101: Art in Technological Times (2001), which brought together the work of 20 international contemporary artists on the occasion of the millennium, as well as the Matisse/Diebenkorn exhibition (co-organized with the Baltimore Museum of Art), and the first David Park exhibition to examine the full scope of the artist's output. She also managed the SFMOMA's off-site exhibition programming during its expansion construction period from the summer of 2013 through early 2016.

Ms. Bishop joined SFMOMA as a curatorial assistant in 1988, was promoted to Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture in 1992, and was named Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture in 1997. She was promoted to her current position in 2000. Prior to joining SFMOMA, Bishop worked at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University (1987-88) and at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University (1984-85). She received her BA in art history and psychology from Cornell University in 1985 and her MA in art history from Columbia University in 1988.

Ryoji Ikeda: Premiere in San Francisco

January 9 - 21, 2018

WARNING : A very small percentage of people may experience a seizure when exposed to certain visual images, including flashing lights or patterns. If you or any of your relatives have a history of seizures or epilepsy, consult a doctor before watching. Footage from Ryoji Ikeda's mind-blowing video installation at the Park Avenue Armory.

Paris based Ryoji Ikeda will be starting San Francisco's Artistic year with the presentation of a diptych project at Gray Area and Minnesota Street Project. The project is presented by Ars Citizen who also curated last year's Sophie Calle's exhibition in San Francisco. Ryoji Ikeda (b. 1966 in Gifu, Japan) is one of the most renowned artists working at the intersection of art and sciences. Over the last twenty years, he has developed a body of work that includes large-scale audiovisual performances and installations, presented either in night clubs or in art institutions like museums.

‘supercodex [live set]’, audio-visual concert, Gray Area, January 9, 7pm Ars Citizen partnered with Gray Area to present the San Francisco premiere of ‘supercodex [live set]’, Ikeda’s celebrated most recent audio-visual concert. supercodex [live set] takes its title from Ikeda’s eponymous 2013 album, the final instalment in his pioneering ‘datamatics’ trilogy focusing on quantum information. ‘supercodex [live set]’ is described as the result of a complex research exploring the potential to perceive the invisible multi–substance of data that permeates our world, and more importantly, the nuances existing between “data of sound” and “sound of data”. Using raw data and physical laws to generate music and digital imagery projections, the stage show becomes an immersive experience expanding through mesmerizing layers of beats and pulsations to include all the audience. Tickets: $40 – $50 (on sale here)

‘A [4ch version]’, site-specific exhibition, Ars Citizen temporary space, Minnesota Street Project Gallery 200 (2nd fl.), January 9–21 The sound-installation A with its site-related versions may be perceived as Ikeda’s most radical work. It returns to his roots as a composer while charting new territories in sound creation and definition. The title A stands for the concert pitch also called “La”. “A” lies at the origin of music. It is the origin of all sonic creations, and by extension, of the cosmos and of elements. Before “A=440Hz” was defined as the standard concert pitch, there were many different historical standards that still vary depending on orchestras or countries. Specifically adapted to Gallery 200 of Minnesota Street Project, A [4ch version] will transform the space into a sensitive environment filled with invisible patterns of complex sound fabrics formed through the historical concert pitch A. It will lead the visitors into a physical and mental space where they can, in the artist’s words, “walk through and move around the invisible sound ocean of the history of standardizing of music.”