In and Out of Context Bios

Amanda Curreri. Occupy the Empty, 2010; installation view, Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco.  Courtesy of the Artist and Romer Young Gallery.

________

Katie Grinnan. Rubble Division Interstate, 2006; performance still at Rhyolite Nevada. Courtesy of the Artist and ACME, Los Angeles. Photo: Dawn Kasper.

________

Drew Heitzler. for Sailors, Mermaids, Mystics. for Kustomizers, Grinders, Fender-men. for Fools, Addicts, Woodworkers and Hustlers. (Doubled), 2009; appropriated video; 53 minute infinite loop. Courtesy of the Artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles.

________

Conrad Ruiz. Multiple Peaks, 2010; watercolor on canvas; 80 x 80 in. Courtesy of the Artist and Silverman Gallery, San Francisco.

________

Zachary Royer Scholz. Shared Holding Pattern, 2010; installation view, We Have As Much Time As It Takes, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco. Courtesy of the Artist.

Amanda Curreri

Amanda Curreri is an interdisciplinary artist working in San Francisco. In her work, art provides a framework for need-based social action and interaction. Objects, images, installations, events, and conversations function as activators and instigators. Recent work has addressed the role of desire in the performance of American democracy. Curreri received a Joan Mitchell Foundation fellowship in 2009, a SF Guardian Goldie Award in 2010, and she is co-editor of Color & Color, a serial publication that aims to tactically connect artists with new audiences and expanded dialogue through the medium of small books.  Curreri is represented by Romer Young Gallery (formerly Ping Pong Gallery) in San Francisco.

_________

Katie Grinnan

Katie Grinnan was born in Richmond, Virginia and received her MFA from UCLA in 1999.  She has had solo exhibitions at The Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria in New York, the Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, Colorado, and at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles. Grinnan has been included in many group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; Real World: The Dissolving Space of Experience at Modern Art Oxford in Oxford, England; and most recently The Artist Museum at MOCA in Los Angeles.  Her work is included in collections at MOCA, the Hammer Museum, and LACMA in Los Angeles, and she has been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and a Pollock-Krasner grant. She lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented by ACME gallery in Los Angeles.

________

Drew Heitzler

Drew Heitzler was born in Charleston, South Carolina and received his MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2000. His films and film-based projects have been screened and exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions including Renwick Gallery, The Project, Orchard Gallery, The Swiss Institute, Sculpture Center, Anthology Film Archives, and PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York; Blum and Poe, Redling Fine Art, China Art Objects, TRUDI, and LA><ART, in Los Angeles; The Suburban, in Chicago; Locust Projects, Miami; Zacheta National Gallery of Art, in Warsaw, Poland; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, in St. Gallen, Switzerland; and Magasin Centre National d’Art Contemporain, in Grenoble, France. Drew’s collaborative film with Amy Granat, T.S.O.Y.W., was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial and his work is currently on view at the Orange County Museum of Art as part of the 2010 California Biennial. Heitzler lives and works in Los Angeles.

________

Conrad Ruiz

Conrad Ruiz is a painter who received his MFA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. His large-scale watercolor-on-canvas paintings are inspired by the epic scope of Hollywood cinema and history painting. These fantastical compositions capture moments of collective euphoria and historical rupture, while also exploring popular notions of class, race and gender. Ruiz has been exhibited in San Francisco, New York, Miami and Los Angeles, most recently in “Material Witness” at the UC Berkeley Art Museum. His work is part of numerous collections, including the Peggy Cooper-Cafritz Collection, the UC Berkeley Art Museum, and the ArtNow International collection. Ruiz is currently working on a large-scale commission, and preparing for an upcoming solo exhibition in Mexico City. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

________

Zachary Royer Scholz

Zachary Royer Scholz is an artist based in San Francisco. His diverse artworks use sculpture, installation, drawing, video, and photography to investigate the shifting relationships that allow material to produce meaning.  In addition to his art practice, Scholz is an active critic and the author of numerous catalog and monograph essays.  Scholz received his BA from Stanford University, and holds both an MFA in Painting and Drawing and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from The California College of the Arts in San Francisco. 

________

Moderators

Patricia Maloney is a curator and writer living and working in Berkeley, CA. In addition to her role as editor-in-chief for Art Practical, she works with the alternative exhibition space Ampersand International Arts, is a contributing writer to Artforum.com and a frequent commentator on the weekly contemporary art podcast Bad at Sports. She holds her MA in Theory and History of Contemporary Art from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Catherine Wagley studied studio art at Grinnell College and Depaul University and holds an MFA. in Painting and Drawing from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA. She co-writes the "Looking at Los Angeles" column for Art21 and writes the weekly "L.A. Expanded" column for Daily Serving.