Chris copycat oxtales sept2019 2
Faculty and Staff

Chris Thorson in Group Exhibition at SFSU

09/18/19

Chris Thorson is showing new and recent work in Copycat a group exhibition at San Francisco State University that opens on September 21, 2019 and runs through Thursday, October 31, 2019. The exhibition also features former visiting artist lecturers Enrique Chagoya and Nina Katchadourian among other great artists!

"Copycat explores what it means to value an original in the age of technical reproducibility and hypothesizes how original artworks themselves can be preserved through reproductions and replicas. Art in the modern era emphasizes originality, truth, and identity. Artists continue to serve as essential components to the ever-evolving conversation around these matters. Although artists’ voices and works are highly celebrated for their creativity and uniqueness, they exist precariously in a culture that increasingly normalizes appropriation, knock-offs, and forgeries, especially on the internet and social media. Tackling broader intellectual property issues including appropriation, infringement, derivative works, fair use, parody, and satire, Copycat raises questions of authorship, interrogates notions of integrity, and reflects upon shifting cultural and technological norms."

Featuring: Libby Black, Enrique Chagoya, Kota Ezawa, Nina Katchadourian, Scott Kildall, Scott Kildall & Bryan Cera, Michael Mandiberg, Sean Peeler, Stephanie Syjuco, Charlene Tan, Chris Thorson, and Daren Wilson. With work from students in SF State's Spring 2019 Language of Observational Painting classes taught by Libby Black and Pablo Cristi. Curated by Kevin B. Chen.

Chris Thorson is Oxbow's Dean of Arts Practice and Painting faculty. christhorsonstudio.com

I want to thank you all for being so supportive and wonderful, thank you for running this incredible program. And half of my acceptance to RISD is because of Oxbow. (Especially thanks to Chris who wrote my letter of rec, to Jennifer who revised my essays, to the admissions team who helped me with my portfolio.

— Jeff Shen, Fall 2014

I learned to drop all previous assumptions I had about people because I had never met anyone like the other students at Oxbow. For the first time, my peers and their insightful thinking inspired me. For example, during the ‘Einstein’s Dreams’ presentations, I kept looking around the room thinking, I can’t believe all of these students are talking the way I think.

— Sara DeLong, Spring 2010

In the year leading up to Oxbow, I became obsessed with the program, I was entranced with reading testimonials and researching interdisciplinary learning styles. When I arrived at Oxbow I was never disappointed, despite my endless expectations. I will forever cherish the time I spent at Oxbow and the connections I made there. Through Oxbow I was able to hone into the ideas I was thinking about, to refine my artistic process and to see the world in a new light every day of my life. I'm not going to say that without Oxbow I wouldn't be the person I am today, but I will say that without Oxbow it would have taken me at least four years to become who I am after one Oxbow semester.

— Phoebe Dubisch, Fall 2018

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