UCR ARTS features work by UCR faculty and alumni in four new exhibitions

Four new exhibitions highlighting work from faculty in UC Riverside’s Department of Art and UCR alumni debuted this fall at UCR ARTS. Part of a slate of new fall programming, the exhibitions are currently on view at UCR ARTS’s California Museum of Photography and the adjacent Barbara & Art Culver Center of the Arts in downtown Riverside.

“We are excited to present these four engaging exhibitions, especially as our campus community returns and our region begins to emerge from what has been such a trying time,” said UCR ARTS Executive Director Sheila Bergman. “Artists Brandon Lattu, Lynne Marsh, and Anna Wittenberg, each in their own ways, are engaged with deep explorations of ideas about representation, while the exhibition ‘Pachappa Camp’ showcases a fascinating and under-told history of America’s first Korean settlement — right here in Riverside.”

An opening reception featuring walkthroughs with the artists and curators of the exhibitions will be held at UCR ARTS on Saturday, Oct. 16 from 5-9 p.m. Admission to the reception is free. To attend the event, all visitors are required to reserve timed tickets in advance, show proof of vaccination, and wear a face mask. Reserve your tickets here.

Fall Opening Reception Walkthrough Schedule

5 p.m. - “Pachappa Camp: The First Koreatown in the United States”
6 p.m. - Brandon Lattu | “Empirical, Textual, Contextual”
7 p.m. - Lynne Marsh | “Who Raised It Up So Many Times?”
8 p.m. - Anna Wittenberg | “The Ruminant”

^{The fall opening reception is made possible by the generous sponsorships of Altura Credit Union and Anheuser-Busch.}

UCR ARTS Fall Exhibitions

Brandon Lattu | “Empirical, Textual, Contextual”

California Museum of Photography

^{Oct. 2, 2021-Feb. 6, 2022}

Brandon Lattu, Reciprocity of Light, 2007-10. Tracing paper, led lights, light sensors, incandescent light bulb, 20 x 20 x 12 feet. Courtesy of the artist. — Brandon Lattu, “Reciprocity of Light,” 2007-10. Tracing paper, led lights, light sensors, incandescent light bulb, 20 x 20 x 12 feet. (Courtesy of the artist)

“Empirical, Textual, Contextual” is the first U.S. career survey of Brandon Lattu’s 25-year practice. Through photography, sculpture, and video, Lattu investigates the constantly changing state of representation, challenging the conventional empiricism that pictures have traditionally invoked. His work addresses the social structures emphasized and enforced by models of perspective and abstraction as well as spatial hierarchies in architecture and commerce. Including both his pioneering work as an early adopter of digital imaging processes alongside recent and new projects, the exhibition offers insight into Lattu’s substantial creative life.

The works on view include singular photographic prints, videos and animated slideshows, computer-carved sculptures, and an interactive light installation. Together, over 40 works attest to Lattu’s experimental approach to the conceptual freedom of photography.

Lattu’s work in photography, sculpture, and video has been exhibited at galleries and museums nationally and internationally. He is a professor in the Department of Art at UC Riverside. “Brandon Lattu: Empirical, Textual, Contextual” is organized by independent curator and writer Charlotte Cotton.

Lynne Marsh | “Who Raised It Up So Many Times?”

Culver Center of the Arts, Jack and Marilyn Sweeney Art Gallery

^{Sept. 25, 2021-Jan. 9, 2022}

Lynne Marsh, Ninfa Atlas, 2021, (still) 5-channel UHD video installation with sound, courtesy of the artist — Lynne Marsh, “Ninfa Atlas,” 2021, (still) 5-channel UHD video installation with sound. (Courtesy of the artist)

“Who Raised It Up So Many Times?” is a selection of video installations by Lynne Marsh exploring labor and production in the realms of television, cinema, and 3D capture. The artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States, it features a German TV news station, the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall, an English opera house, and a Southern California mixed-reality capture studio in four video installations that reveal the orchestrated, yet invisible labor that underpins cultural production. Marsh’s works highlight the gestures, tools, and specialized skills that these workers mobilize every day, inviting us to consider the manufacturing of images, sounds, and events and reflect upon our roles as we create and consume images.

Marsh is an assistant professor in the Department of Art at UC Riverside. Her work has been exhibited and screened throughout Canada and Europe. “Who Raised It Up So Many Times?” is organized by independent curator and writer Kimberli Meyer.

Anna Wittenberg | “The Ruminant”

California Museum of Photography

^{Aug. 21, 2021-Feb. 6, 2022}

Comprised of a sculptural installation and a single-channel video projection, “The Ruminant” incorporates steel, a tree trunk, and numerous reclaimed fragments of modern detritus to give rise to a mammalian sculpture, while a video projected on the adjacent wall features footage of farm animal’s bodies, eliciting striking encounters with the rectangular irises of ungulate eyes intercut with shots of llama hooves, horses’ teeth, and the like.

Wittenberg received her MFA from UC Riverside in 2017 and works primarily in video, sculpture, and drawing. “The Ruminant” is curated by Brandon Lattu, professor of art at UCR.

“Pachappa Camp: The First Koreatown in the United States”

Culver Center of the Arts, F-Stop Gallery

^{Oct. 16, 2021-Jan. 9, 2022}

Group portrait of Koreans attending the 1911 Korean National Association of North American conference in Riverside, CA. The attendees are pictured near the Gage Canal. Dosan Ahn Chang Ho is seated fourth in the front row. Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, UCR Libraries, University of California, Riverside. — Group portrait of Koreans attending the 1911 Korean National Association of North American conference in Riverside, CA. The attendees are pictured near the Gage Canal. Dosan Ahn Chang Ho is seated fourth in the front row. (Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, UCR Libraries, University of California, Riverside)

Korean immigrant and activist Dosan Ahn Chang Ho founded Pachappa Camp, the first American Koreatown, in Riverside in 1905. The community of mostly agricultural workers flourished from 1905-1913 and was at one time home to approximately 300 men, women, and children. Yet by 1918, Pachappa Camp no longer existed. After the 1913 Great Freeze toppled the local citrus industry, Korean workers and their families moved to other California agricultural communities, including Dinuba, Reedley, and Willows.

With archival photographs, maps, newspaper articles and advertisements, and other ephemera, this exhibition examines the history and legacy of Pachappa Camp, as well as the fraught life story of Dosan, who in 1926 was deported from the United States after being falsely accused of being a Bolshevist. His lasting legacy in Riverside is commemorated by a statue on University Avenue, which was erected in 2001 to honor his life and the Korean American community that lived, worked, and died in Riverside.

“Pachappa Camp” is curated by Edward Chang, professor of ethnic studies and founding director of the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies at UCR, and Carol K. Park, a UCR graduate student researcher at the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies.

Also on View

“Lift Your Head: Bruce Davidson and the Evolution of Seeing”

California Museum of Photography

^{Oct. 24, 2020 - Jan. 16, 2022}

^{Exhibition Information | Read more about “Lift Your Head”}

“Analogues: Travon Free”

California Museum of Photography

^{Oct. 24, 2020 - Jan. 16, 2022}

^{Exhibition Information}

Visitor Information

UCR ARTS is open 12-5 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free. Advanced reservations are encouraged and can be made online. Make reservations and find more information at ucrarts.ucr.edu.

^{Header Photo: Brandon Lattu, "Beacon," 1996. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of the artist.}