April 4, 2022
Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago
"Rip Tales and Other Ruptures: A Talk by Jordan Stein"
Stein will speak in depth about his most recent publication, Rip Tales: Jay DeFeo’s Estocada & Other Pieces (Soberscove, 2021). Rip Tales tracks the material history of a destroyed painting-in-progress by Bay Area artist Jay DeFeo, weaving in little known microhistories, in the forms of personal essays and interviews, about eight other Bay Area artists who share a similar ethos, including Zarouhie Abdalian, April Dawn Alison, Ruth Asawa, Lutz Bacher, Bruce Conner, Dewey Crumpler, Trisha Donnelly, and Vincent Fecteau.
During this talk, Stein will also screen a number of moving image works related to the artists discussed in Rip Tales, including a recently restored version of Bruce Conner's celebrated THE WHITE ROSE, which documents DeFeo's legendary painting on the day of its eviction from her apartment on Fillmore Street.
About the speaker: Jordan Stein is a curator and writer based in San Francisco. With Will Brown, he is the author of Bruce Conner: Brass Handles (J&L Books, 2016), and with Jason Fulford, he coedited Where to Score (J&L Books, 2018). He has organized exhibitions at venues including the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Artists’ Space, the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Matthew Marks Gallery, and many others. In addition to working independently with institutions, he operates Cushion Works, an exhibition and program space in the Mission District.