Raphael and Spada explore the intersections of astronomy, evolution, mythology and countless other subjects. Like latter-day alchemists, they transmute a diverse selection of visual materials into rich, multi-layered perspectives on the nature of the universe.

Last summer, Raphael and Spada began to explore the libraries' rare holdings in fields ranging from Kabbalism to geometry. Inspired by their discoveries, the Southern California artists created "From Zero to Infinity," a series of digital prints that confront the eternal principles — creation and destruction, harmony and strife, infinity and void — that define our existence.

"From Zero to Infinity: The Story of Everything" traces Raphael and Spada's creative journey in three exhibitions: the objects that inspired their work, the multi-layered digital prints of "From Zero to Infinity," and visual materials that continue the artists' explorations of these exotic mysteries. Complementing Raphael and Spada's digital artworks, the libraries present "Notes from the Story of Everything," an exhibition of rare books and other materials from the special collections that partly inspired their creative journey.

An opening reception is scheduled for September 3, 5:30-7 p.m. Please RSVP by going to www.usc.edu/esvp and entering the code ARTSCIENCE, or by calling (213) 740-1744.

Daily: Thursday 09/03/2009 - Sunday 12/13/2009; All day

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library

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An exhibit follows each step in the selection of a new justice, highlighting historical figures, famous incidents and recent events.

With the recent confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the USC Gould School of Law takes a closer look at the nomination and confirmation of new justices.

The exhibition “The Path to the Supreme Court: The Nomination and Confirmation Process of a Justice” explains each step of the process, using photographs, political cartoons, news clippings, and the official Supreme Court Justice bobbleheads.

Daily: Thursday 09/03/2009 - Friday 12/18/2009; All day

University Park Campus Musick Law Building Foyer

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The exhibition will include pieces from the ongoing Space Field series, as well as work from Japan, Paris, Turkey, Mexico and Alaska. It will also feature work from several collaborations between Raphael and other artists.

Victor Raphael (born 1950) works in a wide range of media, spanning painting, photography, filmmaking, printmaking and digital technology. He creates complex and beautiful images that expand conventional views of time and space. For the past three decades, Raphael has produced a unique body of work by merging traditional media such as painting, photography and printmaking with modern electronic media, including video, digital printing and interactive technologies. In addition to his central themes of the exploration of the cosmos and aspects of travel — through space or time — and their visual records, the artist has developed an important body of paintings, in which water and its protean and timeless qualities form an important part.

Raphael's photography process of digitally manipulating NASA photographs of planets and other natural celestial phenomena into Polaroid prints, and next altering them by hand with metallic paints and gold and metal leaf, earned his work inclusion among the 50 best examples of Polaroid photography in Polaroid 50: Art and Technology, a 1996 international touring exhibition that commemorated the company's 50th anniversary.

Related Events

October 15
Songs in the Earth and Air, a concert of vocal improvisations inspired by Raphael's work.

October 23, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Artist talk. Raphael will discuss his body of work. Refreshments will be served.

October 29
Videos by Victor Raphael, a screening of six Raphael videos, and a discussion with the artist and David Wilson, director of the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Weekly: Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat 09/09/2009 - 12/19/2009; 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM

University Park Campus USC Fisher Museum of Art Harris Hall

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Children from the USC Family of Schools express themselves artistically using only one color.

Each academic year, the USC Fisher Museum of Art plans, curates, and professionally installs four temporary student art exhibitions at the University Village Shopping Center food court for the Art in the Village program.

For this year's first exhibition, elementary school kids belonging to the USC Family of Schools (32nd Street/USC Magnet, Alexander Science Center School, Foshay Learning Center, John Mack Elementary, Norwood Elementary, St. Agnes Parish School, St. Vincent Parish School, Vermont Avenue Elementary and Weemes Elementary) were invited to create and submit artwork fitting the theme "Color Me..."

Each exhibition kicks off with an opening reception honoring the forty students with the best artwork. The children have the opportunity to speak with family, friends and community members about their artwork. They are congratulated for their achievements during an award ceremony, where they receive a certificate signed by Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks. 

Funded in part by a USC Neighborhood Outreach Grant, Art in the Village represents a partnership between the USC Fisher Museum of Art the University Village Shopping Center and the USC Family of Schools. 

Daily: Tuesday 10/27/2009 - Friday 12/04/2009; All day

University Village Shopping Center Food Court 3375 South Hoover Street Los Angeles CA 90007

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Undergraduates explore the end times through painting, drawing, photography, videography, printmaking, and mixed media installation.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! These familiar words acknowledge the current sense of alarmism, while evoking the potential for real danger. Based on real or perceived fears, the Apocalypse takes form as a shared social psychosis. The work in "Apocalypse Wow!" reconsiders this phenomenon by questioning the role of dominant structures and irreverently injecting humor into the veins of a serious subject. Working with issues as diverse as environmental vulnerability, the digitization of everything, future dystopia, and the complexity of connectedness, the young artists of "Apocalypse Wow!" are examining a more nuanced set of possibilities for their existence in a time of great uncertainty... while you run for the hills!

The opening reception will be held November 19, 5-8 p.m. The exhibition will run through November 27 and will be open Monday through Friday, 12-5 p.m.

The show will feature the work of Janelle Carabajal, Heber Rodriguez, Isabelle Alford-Lago, Renata Popenhagen, Jen Wohlner, Betsy Lastar, Jon Wingo, Katie Martinez, Nicole Arnell, Mor Germezi, Robin Hextrum, Senna Chen, Max Skeen, Martin Benson and Sydney Mills.

Dates: 11/19/2009, 11/20/2009, 11/23/2009, 11/24/2009, 11/25/2009, 11/26/2009, 11/27/2009: All day

Pacific Design Center B239 8687 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles CA 90069

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Children from the USC Family of Schools artistically express ways in which they can make a difference.

Each academic year, the USC Fisher Museum of Art plans, curates and professionally installs four temporary student art exhibitions at the University Village Shopping Center food court, for the Art in the Village program.

For this year’s first exhibition, elementary school students belonging to the USC Family of Schools (32nd Street/USC Magnet, Alexander Science Center School, Foshay Learning Center, John Mack Elementary, Norwood Elementary, St. Agnes Parish School, St. Vincent Parish School, Vermont Avenue Elementary and Weemes Elementary) were invited to create and submit artworks on the theme “Making a Difference.”

Each exhibition kicks off with an opening reception honoring the 40 students with the best work. The children have the opportunity to speak with family, friends and community members about their art. They are congratulated for their achievements at an awards ceremony, where they receive a certificate signed by Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks.

Funded in part by a USC Neighborhood Outreach Grant, Art in the Village represents a partnership between the USC Fisher Museum of Art, the University Village Shopping Center and the USC Family of Schools.

Daily: Tuesday 12/08/2009 - Friday 02/12/2010; All day

University Village Shopping Center Food Court 3375 South Hoover Street Los Angeles CA 90007

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Burtynsky is one of Canada’s most respected photographers, and an advocate for sustainable living practices.

Burtynsky’s remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes are included in the collections of more than 50 museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. His numerous distinctions include the TED Prize, the Outreach Award at the Rencontres d’Arles, three honorary doctorate degrees, and Canada’s highest civil honor: Officer of the Order of Canada.

Burtynsky takes us around the world in photographs, revealing places rarely seen. He makes beautiful yet terrifying images that illustrate a vital discussion about the colossal effects of economic and industrial growth upon our planet.

“During the course of my work — as the years have turned to decades — it has become clear to me that the plant, animal and mineral resources of the earth are overwhelmed by the robust wheels of economic progress. Cheap fuel in the form of oil, coupled with the internal combustion engine, has begun to tear at the edges of nature’s envelope. As my ideas have evolved, I’ve looked at railcuts, mines, quarries, oil fields and refineries, homesteads, farms, animal husbandry, taxidermy — all in search of images that describe our changing and complex relationship to nature.” — Edward Burtynsky

Organized by the USC Fisher Museum of Art

Thursday 01/28/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Harris Hall Gin D. Wong FAIA Conference Center

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The USC arts schools offer an exciting array of hands-on workshops in art, photography, theater, dance, music, architecture and film.

In response to popular demand, the USC arts schools team up once again to present a daylong festival, an exciting opportunity to get your hands dirty with the arts. Learn how to salsa dance, make a sculpture, play guitar or take architectural photos. Join us, get your hands dirty, and experience the creativity and thrill of making art!

Organized by the USC arts schools

Saturday 01/30/2010: All day

University Park Campus

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How can museums attract the public today? Join us for an important conversation featuring several star museum professionals.

With multimillion-dollar blockbuster shows a dying species due to the economic crisis, how can museums attract the public? Who will go to them, and why should they bother?

This talk will delve into the subject of the new book Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values, edited by Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Alvarez. Three museum professionals will join Holo and Alvarez to discuss the crisis in museums today and the opportunities to rise above it.

Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and one of our most dynamic and creative art museum leaders, will discuss the transformation he is leading to make LACMA more relevant to a vital contemporary life in Los Angeles. Donny George Youkhanna, who served as director of the Baghdad Museum during the American invasion of Iraq and was witness to the looting of some of civilization’s keystone culture monuments, will share his thoughts about archaeology collections and their future in an ever more globalized world. Dr. Jorge Wagensberg, scientific director of the Foundation “la Caixa” and creator of CosmoCaixa in Barcelona, one of the world’s most exciting science museums, will contribute his idea that, unlike any other institution, museums can provide an experience of authenticity — a way of learning that emanates not from the word, but from the world.

The event will be moderated by Selma Holo, director of USC’s Fisher Museum and its new International Museum Institute. It will also include remarks by Mari-Tere Alvarez, project specialist in the department of education at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Holo and Alvarez’s new book, Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values, examines what museums — whether devoted to art or science or history — must do to be indispensable to society today and in the future. Their book is changing the conversation in the museum world from “How many came to the show, and how much money did we make today?” to “How did our museum serve and change society today? How did it help to make society better, smarter, more tolerant and more creative?”

Please join us and be a part of this new conversation.

A reception and book signing will follow.

Thursday 02/11/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library Room 240

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Gritty short films, music videos and docs from Kourtrajmé Productions, a Paris-based collective of emerging visual artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians.

“Beautiful women, ugly illegal immigrants, Romanian sneaker pimps, coked-up fashion babes, down-and-out thugs eating shish kebab at 3 a.m. Welcome to our Paris.” — Kourtrajmé Productions, as quoted in Anthem magazine

Kourtrajmé Productions is a collective of emerging French and Francophone visual artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed directors Mathieu Kassovitz and Vincent Cassel, this production house and artist collective has garnered increasing attention and acclaim after getting millions of hits on online sites like Dailymotion and YouTube. Founded by Kim Chapiron, Romain Gavras and Toumani Sangaré, Kourtrajmé produces playful innovations and cutting interventions in popular culture and society that represent the cultural dreams, lives and crises of transnational urban and peri-urban French youth today.

This is a chance to explore the short films, music videos and documentaries that represent what legendary French filmmaker Chris Marker calls a “nouvelle nouvelle vague” of French cinema. Directors from the collective, including Ladj Ly and Toumani Sangaré, will be on hand to answer questions and discuss the group’s history and work.

Organized by Edwin Hill (French and Comparative Literature). Co-sponsored by the Department of French and Italian and French Cultural Services, Los Angeles.

Friday 03/05/2010: 6:00 PM

University Park Campus School of Cinematic Arts, Room 108

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As part of Visions and Voices’ new museum series, USC students visit the Norton Simon in Pasadena.

This trip is for current USC students only. You must use the provided transportation to participate. Space is limited, and advance registration is required. RSVP beginning Wednesday, March 3, at 9 a.m. Check-in for the event will begin at 11:15 a.m. on campus. Buses will depart at 12 p.m. and will return to campus at 5 p.m.

Lunch will be provided.

Los Angeles has a rich tapestry of museums with extraordinary collections, from the Getty Villa in Malibu and the Norton Simon in Pasadena to MOCA and LACMA in the heart of Los Angeles. The Museum Series — an exciting new take on the Visions and Voices experience — will offer students the opportunity to explore Los Angeles through its museums’ remarkable collections and the philosophies behind each world class institution.

The Norton Simon Museum is known around the world as one of the most remarkable private art collections ever assembled. Over a 30-year period, Norton Simon (1907–1993) amassed an astonishing collection of European art from the Renaissance to the 20th century and a stellar collection of South and Southeast Asian art spanning 2,000 years. Among the most celebrated works he collected are Branchini Madonna, 1427, by Giovanni di Paolo; Madonna and Child with Book, c. 1502–03, by Raphael; Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose, 1633, by Francisco de Zurbarán; Portrait of a Boy, c. 1655–60, by Rembrandt van Rijn; Mulberry Tree, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh; Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878–81, by Edgar Degas; and Woman with a Book, 1932, by Pablo Picasso. Highlights from the Asian collection include the Buddha Shakyamuni, c. 550, India; Shiva as King of Dance, c. 1000, India; and Indra, 13th century, Nepal. Throughout the year, approximately 1,000 works from the permanent collection of 12,000 objects are on view in the museum’s galleries and sculpture garden.

Friday 03/26/2010: 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Norton Simon Museum of Art 411 West Colorado Boulevard Pasadena CA 91105

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Explore the utopian aspirations — and dreams of transcendence — in ’50s and ’60s automotive design and youth car-mod subcultures.

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Car Show
Trousdale Parkway

3 p.m. Panel Discussion
Alumni Park

Throughout the day, stop by Trousdale Parkway to check out a display of historic automobiles from the golden era of California car culture, including space age concept cars and vintage hot rods.

In the afternoon, join us for a panel discussion with Curtis Marez, professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Cinematic Arts at USC; Leslie Kendall, curator at the Petersen Automotive Museum; and Beth Werling, collections manager of Material Culture at the Museum of Natural History.

In addition, the USC Libraries will present an exhibition of historic photographs showing the influences of futurist design and lowrider, hot-rod and street-racing subcultures on Southern California car culture, immortalized in such films as American Graffiti.

Wednesday 04/07/2010: All day

University Park Campus

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A dynamic multimedia presentation explores the exciting possibilities for using art and technology to explore humanity and create community.

The extraordinary work of internationally acclaimed electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is engaging, provocative and beautiful. Born in Mexico City and currently living in Montreal, Lozano-Hemmer develops large-scale interactive installations in public space, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. Using robotics, projections, sound, Internet and cell phone links, sensors and other devices, his installations aim to provide, in his words, “temporary anti-monuments for alien agency.” His kinetic sculpture, responsive environments, video installations and photography have been shown in more than 30 countries, and his work has been commissioned for such events as the United Nations’ World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the celebration of the expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004), the 40th anniversary of the Tlatelolco student massacre in Mexico City (2008), and the Vancouver Olympics (2010).

In this multimedia event, Lozano-Hemmer will discuss his award-winning work.

Organized by Visions and Voices. Co-sponsored by the USC Fisher Museum of Art and the USC Roski School of Fine Arts.

Wednesday 04/14/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

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