The Printmedia program welcomes Bay-Area / Montréal artist Shanna Strauss for an artist talk and a hands-on relief printing session. Shanna's practice spans multiple geographies, cultures, and languages to create multi-layered print works. Her work explores oral tradition, family legacy, ancestral memory and spirituality in African diasporic traditions, paying homage to the women in her family and communities she is connected to. Printmedia students will have the opportunity to print together with Shanna on a special edition of her work, and all members of the CCA community are welcome to attend.

BIOGRAPHIES

Shanna Strauss is a queer, Tanzanian-American-Canadian mixed media artist and printmaker. She grew up in Tanzania and later moved to the United States, then Canada where she lived for 12 years.  Her experience of living in and navigating multiple geographical spaces, cultures, languages and histories has greatly informed her practice. Her work explores oral tradition, family legacy, ancestral memory and spirituality in African diasporic traditions, paying homage to the women in her family and communities she is connected to. Shanna holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California College of Arts and a Masters of Social Work degree from McGill University. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and abroad. Recent exhibitions include Relations: Diaspora and Painting at the Phi Centre in Montreal, Women Pathmakers at Euphrat Museum in Cupertino and Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Public art and community engagement are also a part of her practice. Her commitment to radical social transformation has inspired the creation of collaborative projects and public murals that center the experiences and stories of BIPoC individuals and communities. Her public artworks can be seen in Montreal, Tucson, San Francisco, El Cerrito and Sacramento.

In 2020 Shanna was awarded the Prix Powerhouse from La Centrale Gallery in Montreal and the Kala Fellowship Award from Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California. She recently moved to Oakland California, where she is expanding her art practice and working on various collaborative projects.

Anthea Black is a Canadian artist, art-publisher and Assistant Professor in Printmedia at California College of the Arts. Their studio practice addresses queer-feminist archives, collaboration, and artist-publishing, and has been exhibited in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands and Norway. Black is co-editor of two books, The New Politics of the Handmade: Craft, Art and Design (2020) and HANDBOOK: Supporting Queer and Trans Students in Art and Design Education (2018), and the designer and co-publisher of the artists’ newspaper The HIV Howler: Transmitting Art and Activism with Jessica Whitbread. Black’s new curated exhibition The Embodied Press: Queer Abstraction and the Artists’ Book will tour through 2023 with a publication released by Women's Studio Workshop.

This talk is part of the Democratic Multiple exhibition and cross-border print exchange

November 4 - 15

CCA Nave exhibition, SF Main Campus

November 18 - December 2

RayKo Print and Photo Centre, San Francisco and Emily Carr University, Vancouver, Canada

The Democratic Multiple is a cross-border exhibition and print exchange coordinated by Anthea Black that focuses on experiences of global citizenship and democratic engagement. This program coincides with the midterm elections in the United States and amplifies the political voices of citizens and non-citizens alike, especially international students and faculty who maintain political connections through their own immigrant, cross-border and international experiences. In art, International printmakers have been some of the most important voices on politics and democratic engagement. Political print traditions run deep throughout many places and communities - often driven by students: Mexico, France, China, Ukraine, and North American anti-war activists and Black, Indigenous, and Queer communities. The Democratic Multiple is presented by Printmedia Program's Introduction to Printmaking class in collaboration with Professor Beth Howe's Printmedia class at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada to expand print as a tool for activism and democratic debate.

SOCIAL MEDIA TAGS

@anthea.black and @shanna.strauss 

#ccaprintmedia

Creative Citizens in Action

This event is funded by an endowment gift to support The Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Series at CCA, an annual series of public programs focused on creative activism.