TALK: Conversations with Artists: Merav Tzur and Tucker Nichols June 1, 2012

Two local artists featured in The Dorothy Saxe Invitational portion of the current exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought, Merav Tzur and Tucker Nichols, discuss the playful manipulation of scientific practices in their work with Assistant Curator Colleen Stockmann.

Merav Tzur’s video piece Grafted Arboreus sabius, or a failed attempt to propagate the Tree of Knowledge is part of the ongoing investigations conducted by the artist’s alias, Sarah Gray, who engages in comical, sometimes absurd, “hypothetical and implausible scenarios.” Born on a kibbutz in Israel, Tzur immigrated to the US when she was 22. Tzur received her MFA from UC Berkeley and BFA from California College of the Arts. She lives and works in Oakland, California.

Tucker Nichols’ drawing Untitled (mo1131) represents a failed attempt to rebuild a tree out of human-made objects constructed from its wood. Nichols has had recent solo shows at ZieherSmith Gallery in New York, Gallery 16 in San Francisco, and the Kunstpanorama in Luzern, Switzerland. His work has been featured at the Drawing Center and John Connelly Presents in New York, Den Frie Museum in Copenhagen and the 2010 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. His drawings have been published in McSweeney's, J&L Books, The Thing, Nieves Books and the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times. Recent residencies include Headlands Center for the Arts, Acadia Summer Arts Program, and the deYoung Museum in San Francisco. He is the founder of Anonymous Postcard, a mail-based suggestion box for the world.

INFO:
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