Contemporary Art Commons^™

The Art Of Martin Wong, And The Traditions He Drew From, Janie Mendosa

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

Martin Wong was a singular figure in the art world, drawing from diverse influences including Pan-Asian traditions, Western modernism, social realism, and the emerging graffiti movement. As a queer artist who lived in urban New York City to San Francisco's Chinatown, he existed on the margins.

A Northwest Perspective: A Comprehensive Survey Of Sally Haley's Life And Career, Mary Timbrook

University Honors Theses

Sally Haley is a successful artist who built a long career in the second half of the 20th century as a painter in Portland, Oregon. Her work has been part of several solo and group exhibitions within museums and galleries across the country and she was awarded the Oregon Governor's Award for the Arts in 1989. She is best remembered for her unique still life paintings, frequently painted in egg tempera, which sold immensely well during her lifetime and after. Haley trained at the Yale School of Art in the late 1920s and early 30s, where she learned to paint …

Public Art And Military Technology At The Mexico-U.S. Border: Disrupting Boundaries On Battlegrounds, Anna Luise Kaunert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how contemporary artists Rubén Ortiz Torres, Chico MacMurtrie, rafa esparza, and Cassils transformed military technologies into powerful artworks that interrogate the Mexico-U.S. border as a battlefield. Together, their works illuminate militarization and surveillance technologies at the border and the violent enforcement of U.S. immigration policy.

Containment, Quin Mittelstead

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores “containment" (the act of keeping something within limits) as both oppressive control and a mode of self-regulation, grounded in the author’s experience with epilepsy. Paintings deploy grayscale grounds, restrained palettes, and contrasting rapid/slow gestures; emergent color, texture, and altered substrates map psychological states, bodily impulses, and reactive processes. Research into witchcraft, remedial items, and eugenics (notably Buck v. Bell) informs works that link historical censorship and institutional violence to contemporary stigma. Sculptural installations (nets, jute, flawed Faraday-like enclosures) and cannibalized studio materials probe systems that restrain thought, media, and bodies. By introducing unpredictable variables with found supports, …

The Southwest Black Artists Collective: Afro-Modern Ecology, Kinship, And Collectivity In The Desert Southwest, Bradley L. Petty

Art History Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the Southwest Black Artists Collective (SBAC) as a site of

Afro-diasporic kinship, artistic production, and spatial intervention within the Desert

Southwest. Operating within a region where Black populations are comparatively small

and institutional support is diffuse, SBAC emerges as both a response to and a

reconfiguration of the regional artistic landscape. The Collective constructs an affirming

community through shared artistic practice, exhibitions, and the maintenance of The

Projects/Space in Tucson, Arizona, where public engagement and private creative

exchange coexist.

Drawing on theories of human ecology, this study expands existing frameworks

by introducing the concept of Afro-modern ecology, …

Fugitive Formalisms: Strategies Of Dissemblance And Dissent In The Work Of Queer-Identifying Artists, 1970–Present, Rowan Diaz-Toth

Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing case studies of works by Hélio Oiticica, Scott Burton, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres as points of departure, this thesis puts forth a speculative historical framework for reconsidering queer art practices up through the present day in opposition to regimes of visibility and transparency, exploring the subversive, fugitive potential of non-representational formalisms.

Sparks: A Love Story, Stacey Kramer

MA Projects

In 1953 Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns met through a mutual friend, thus sparking a romantic and creative partnership that would endure until late 1961. At a time when it was illegal to be in a same-sex relationship, these two artists collaborated and inspired each other, and together they changed the course of contemporary art. Breaking free of the Abstract Expressionists, they chartered an artistic path forward and beyond while working from their adjacent studios, sharing intimacies and a similar mindset.  The two artists often channeled a shared sensibility and aesthetic, developing their own symbolic language even as they avoided …

Transmission/Reception, Ma'ayan Noy

MA Projects

From the 1940’s to the 70’s the California-based artist Wallace Berman produced a wide-spreading oeuvre, encompassed drawing, collage, assemblage, single channel video, and three dimensional object making. His practice was deeply informed by his interest in Jazz, Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, film, and poetry, and more. The transmission and reception of an everflowing stream of references which informs Berman’s creative intake and output adopts a mystical undertone in his grand oeuvre. The unifying theme for Transmission/Reception asserts the centrality of Kabbalistic influences on Berman’s practice, his affinity and spiritual regard for the act of creating. Transmission/Reception underscores Berman’s underlying belief …

The Lost Art Of Club Photography: Capturing Nyc’S Nightlife And Cultural Legacy From The 1980s To The 1990s, Madeleine M. Canfield

MA Theses

This thesis examines how club photography in New York City’s nightlife of the 1980s and 1990s both shaped and reflected cultural identity, and investigates why this visual practice has largely disappeared in the age of social media. By focusing on photographer Steve Eichner and his documentation of iconic moments from one of Peter Gatien’s four mega-clubs, this thesis analyzes published photographs and articles to examine how visual representation shaped the culture it portrayed. The research demonstrates that club photography was instrumental in shaping public perception of nightlife, capturing the spontaneity, creativity, and energy of the era. It also highlights how …

Constructing Minimalism: Canon Formation, Exclusion, And The Afterlives Of An Aesthetic, Lucy Ewert

MA Theses

Academics, critics, curators, and artists alike have perpetually struggled to agree on a coherent definition of Minimalism since its inception. Who is included in the historical canon, what its defining characteristics are, and the movement's legacy have long since been contested. This thesis will explore the origins of Minimalism, tracing its emergence from movements such as Abstract Expressionism, and discuss the early values that shaped its perception through a handful of fundamental voices. The study will also survey three of Minimalism’s modernist predecessors, questioning the extent of influence these movements may have had.  Understanding the origins of Minimalism will set …

The Postmodern Frontier: Richard Prince And The Neoliberal Spectacle Of The American Dream, Taïs Khassanova

MA Theses

This thesis examines the oeuvre of Richard Prince’s as a sustained allegory of contemporary American visual culture, beginning with his Cowboys series as the point of origin from which his later appropriations, including Girlfriends, Spiritual America, and New Portraits, unfold. Through the recursive gesture of appropriation, Prince’s Cowboys expose the myth of rugged independence as a corporate fiction, revealing how the frontier ethos was redeployed under the Reagan presidency to naturalize neoliberal ideology. Building on this premise, the thesis traces how such logic extends throughout Prince’s subsequent body of work, as his Girlfriends refigure the cowboy’s masculine autonomy as the …

Aura For Sale?: Art Merchandise And The Totalizing Culture Of Reproduction, Lily Paternoster

MA Theses

The art historical discipline largely excludes art merchandise from critical analysis, relegating it to being a marketing gimmick or gift shop opportunity. This failure to reconcile with the rapidly expanding enterprise for brand collaborations with fine artists has led to an overwhelming and unregulated commercial licensing industry, similar in mystique and ascend to that of the fine art market. Through the case studies of two post-humous artists and two living- Keith Haring, JeanMichel Basquiat, KAWS (Brian Donnelly), and Maurizio Cattelan- I argue that art merchandise exists on a constantly fluctuating scale between democratizing force and commodity. Despite its status on …

Tailoring Black Style And Its Powerful Pieces: From West Africa To The U.S. West Coast And Everything In-Between, Gabriel Capellan

Occasional Essays

Introduction:

On September 19, 2025, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum (MET) with some of the Bronx African American History Project team. The people in attendance were Graduate Assistant, Anthony Rosado, and Undergraduate Assistants, Serena Velasquez and Emma Garr, wonderful people, I tell you. After the tour, we ended up at the American art exhibit and had podcast conversations about history for what felt like both hours and very brief minutes... We went to the MET to see a particular piece that was in the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibit curated by Barnard professor, Monica L. Miller …

“Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum?”: An Exploration Of Contemporary Feminist And Women’S Exhibitions And Collectives, Demi R. Dauterive

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the creation and evolution of feminist art exhibitions and collectives in the United States from the early 1970s through the 2020s. These exhibitions and the work they contain are analyzed alongside each wave of feminism that ran parallel to their existence. Beginning with the 1970s and Second Wave Feminism, Chapter One explores Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro’s Womanhouse in addition to Lucy Lippard’s Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists and the work of other smaller collectives. Chapter Two explores the DIY initiatives and subversive ideologies of Third Wave Feminism through artist groups such as the Guerrilla Girls and …

Cartography, Botany, And Violence In The Codex Rodriguez-MondragóN, Maria Davison

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how Sandy Rodriguez deploys the visual language of the Florentine Codex and other sixteenth-century Mesoamerican sources to examine the persisting effects of colonialism on people and land in Mexico-U.S. borderlands in Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón (2017-present), her ongoing series of maps, botanical illustrations, and landscape paintings.

Ghost Highway: De-Touring Albuquerque's Route 66, Madison A. Garay

Art & Art History ETDs

Route 66 was a U.S. Numbered Highway stretching from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA, rising to fame through music and popular culture. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Route 66 has a troublesome twin life as Central Avenue, a highly politicized space where bodies are contested. In this thesis, the function of public arts and architecture of Albuquerque’s main street thoroughfare, Central Avenue, will be analyzed as visual devices of U.S. Highway 66, or known in popular culture as “Route 66.” I employ a critical Derridean framework through Mark Fisher’s theorization of hauntology and Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Ojibwe)’s theory of …

The Seeming Beginning: The Drawings Of Dorothy Hood, 1942-1986, Natalia Lopez

Art History Theses and Dissertations

The notable career of American artist Dorothy Hood (1918-2000) spanned nearly six decades which she witnessed, and contributed to, the transformative shifts in art history from the 1940s through the late 1990s. Today, Hood is known as a cult figure in her native Houston, celebrated for her large-scale abstract paintings that are said to evoke the expansive Texas skies. While these paintings create a large portion of Hood’s oeuvre, they represent only a fraction of her prolific artworks. Equally significant are her meticulously detailed and surreal drawings, which form a substantial, often overlooked portion of her legacy.

Hood’s drawings embody …

Cuentos De Barro, Daniel Anthony Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations

Cuentos de Barros addresses the complexities of creating art and processing indigenous heritage and personal history as a Salvadoran immigrant within a neo-colonial society. Centering ritual, care, and healing, the artist imbues sculptures with tenderness using abstract forms and the tactile manipulation of unfired clay and graphite.

The Imposition Of A Narrative Line: The Bildungsroman As Form In Contemporary Art, Brianne Chapelle

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the work of contemporary American artists and writers Moyra Davey, Chris Kraus, Frances Stark, and Martine Syms within the context of feminist art history, theory, and practice in the post-1970s artworld. While often read as autobiographical or self-referential, their work across media uses personal narrative as a means of engaging broader theoretical and institutional concerns. Through the literary form of the bildungsroman, these artists employ narrative, fiction, and memoir—often through new and time-based media, but also through interdisciplinary modes rooted in writing—to reflect on their ongoing education as artists within an increasingly globalized Euro-American artworld. By …

Artistic Interventions In The Public Sphere: Keith Haring & Jenny Holzer, Matilde Sirolli

MA Theses

This thesis investigates the intersection of art and the public sphere in late 1970s and 1980s New York, a period characterised by significant socio-political and cultural transformations. Grounded in Jürgen Habermas’ conception of the public sphere, the study examines how the unique historical phenomena of the period yielded unprecedented opportunities for artists to intervene in the public sphere. The research provides a comprehensive analysis of the period’s political, economic, cultural and sociological landscapes. It then delves into case studies of Keith Haring and Jenny Holzer, exploring their distinct approach to public engagement: Haring’s blend of art, commerce and populism, and …

How Social Media Is Reshaping The Art Market: Catalyzing The Rise Of The Art Agency Model In The United States, Leo Braudy

MA Theses

The art world is undergoing a fundamental transformation, marked by a shift from the traditional gallery-centric model to a talent agency model akin to those in the entertainment and music industries. This evolution is driven by the increasing influence of social media platforms, which empower artists to directly engage with audiences, bypassing the traditional gatekeepers of galleries and auction houses. Drawing on insights from industry reports, social media analytics, and case studies, this thesis explores how social media has catalyzed this shift and examines its implications for artists, collectors, and the broader art market. It argues that the rise of …

Crafting Cultural Power: Artistic Interventions As Tools For Political Organizing Among Los Angeles Street Vendors, Corina M. Silverstein

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis focuses on the intersections of collaborative and artistic interventions (such as collective songwriting and poetry) within the ongoing fight to legalize and decriminalize street vending in Los Angeles. Through the close partnership with Community Power Collective (CPC), this thesis analyzes the use of narrative in artistic collaborations and oral traditions throughout the political mobilization of street vendors in Los Angeles. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this investigation explores the use of early influences of street theater, to collective songwriting workshops, as well as artistic collaborations with local artists. Ultimately, suggesting CPC’s use of artistic practices and collaborations are essential …

Shifting Forms: Queer Placemaking Amidst Neoliberalism In New York City Through Art, Colin J. Donnelly

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

This project explicates how queer people produce space for themselves through art in New York City amidst the prevalent neoliberal frameworks that have existed since the 1980s. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with queer artists and nonprofit workers, participant observation in art spaces, and close reading of art compiled through archival work, I explore sites of presentation (places in which art is displayed) and modes of presentation (how specific artists decide to present their art). I analyze museums and nonprofit spaces, and engage with queer artists that create what I consider to be site-specific art. I zoom in on spatial art …

Texas Gothic, Taryn Uribe Turner

Art Theses and Dissertations

The emotional and the ecological combine to create my body of work titled, “Texas Gothic.” My thesis tells the stories of my oil paintings created through personal connections to a variety of landscapes, animals and experiences that share the setting of Texas.

Desire and regret take shape as animals and figures not fully formed or real. Unreliable narratives of the past are entangled with present tensions to create a painting that haunts and stalks.

And yet, there is hope!

Through nostalgia and sweetness and burdens, my paintings confront a shrouded future. The contradictions of time passing are explored in my …

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

Stephen Antonakos: The Spiritual Tenets Of Neon, Seville Partida

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Working without paint or brushes, Stephen Antonakos (1926—2013) created murals of neon light. These sweeping gestures of buzzing color achieve a meditative and spiritual quality yet remain accessible in their communal and urban settings. Douglas Crimp's 1981 essay, “The End of Painting '' argues that the most promising art of the time mounts a thorough critique on the myths of humanism, and consequently the cherished tropes of expressive painting. Antonakos’s career spans this period of upheaval, fraught by fears over the looming death of modernist painting as well as critical and curatorial activity that interrogated art’s structures. Although Antonakos seems …

Ripe Spoils, Yan Cynthia Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Chen’s practice primarily focus on sculptures and installation. She explores the interplay between the idea of nature and the constructed environment, by examining how language informs what we know. The central thesis, "Ripe Spoils", employs citrus fruits as symbols for bodily experiences and personal identity, investigating their cultural and historical significance. Her sculptures summon the qualities and embedded meanings in materials like paper pulp and clay, wax and citrus fruits, often resulting in abstracted forms evocative of the human body. This thesis paper and exhibition reflect on themes like mortality and the essence of self.

Chinese-English Dictionary Enable Select Search …

The Black Arts And Black Power Movements In The Artwork Of John T. Riddle, Jr., Isabella Vitti

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the under-studied work of the Black sculptor John T. Riddle, Jr. and how he was influenced by the politics of Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Police brutality, the Vietnam War, the Black Power Movement, and the Watts uprising had a major impact on Riddle’s work.

Lutz Bacher: 1975-2019, Jeremy Gloster

Theses and Dissertations

"Lutz Bacher: 1975-2019" is a monographic study of the artist Lutz Bacher (1943-2019), detailing the artist's trajectory from participant in the Bay Area photography scene of the mid-1970s to an established figure in the art world. Alongside this exposition, the thesis contends theoretically with Bacher's work, turning toward the theorist Peter Osborne's recent writings to examine Bacher's multifarious engagements with the photographic image and her own stagings of contemporaneity.