Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

Artist Jean Shin and Curator Joanna Marsh discuss the exhibition Jean Shin: Common Threads at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Topics include: new work commissioned by the American Art Museum titled Everyday Monuments, a cityscape constructed from losing lottery tickets called Chance City, and Unraveling, an installation inspired by the complexities of the Asian American Art community.

Pema Rinzin paints a mural of the Buddhist Guardian Kings of the Four directions. Pema Rinzin on his personal decision to paint the Four Great Guardian Kings: “They are unique imagery in that they are solid; they are protectors; and they are closest to our human form. For example, in Tibet at the largest monasteries like Drepung, all the Guardian Kings are in the front of the monastery. I thought they would also protect us here in the United States and at the Rubin Museum.

This teen-produced interview with Joshua Mosley focuses on the artist’s mixed-media installation, dread (2007), which consists of a short animated film and five bronze sculptures that philosophically explores the human necessity to confront and apprehend nature. Mosley’s labor-intensive practice combines computer animation, stop-motion animation, digital sound, sculpture, as well as his own music and dialogue. In the film, an animated photographic forest is the background against which two characters–modeled on French philosophers Jean Jacques Rousseau and Blaise Pascal–hold a conversation on the relationship between God-given natural order, free will, and the human and animal conditions.

Learn about current IMA events with Melvin and Bren Simon Director and CEO Maxwell Anderson. This episode features a conversation with senior curator Ronda Kasl and conservator Christina O’Connell about the painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe, for the IMA’s exhibition Sacred Spain, running through January 2010. Listen in as they discuss the painting, its history, and how it was restored in the IMA’s conservation lab.