Lonnie Graham: A Conversation with the World: San Francisco

October 2007–June 2008

An Artist Project in Three Parts:

1. City Hall, North Light Court Exhibition
2. Recorded Interviews
3. Kiosks Posters

PART ONE- City Hall, North Light Court Exhibition (Completed)

City Hall, North Light Court Exhibition: November, 2007– May, 2008

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery is very pleased to announce the installation of a massive photo banner exhibition in the City Hall North Light Court that features portraits and interview excerpts of San Francisco residents. These banners dynamically represent the vitality and diversity of contemporary San Franciscans within the halls of city government.

For over two decades the artist Lonnie Graham has been traveling the globe asking people he meets the same set of eight questions about the human experience. In the spring of 2007 Graham was commissioned to continue his world-wide dialogue with the residents of San Francisco.

“I simply want to provide a means by which people might address issues, assimilate facts, or interact on some level with individuals they may not ordinarily have been able to connect with. As an artistic pragmatist, I feel that I bring a skill set forward to achieve a respectful and dignified interpretation of the humanity that I encounter.” –Lonnie Graham

PART TWO AND THREE

Online Recorded Interviews: December 20th, 2007

Downtown Kiosks Posters: January, 2007– April 1, 2008

Before the end of the year, MP3 audio files containing complete interviews will go up on our website and in January kiosks will go up across the city. For more information about this project see call Gallery Director Meg Shiffler at 415.252.2568.

About Lonnie Graham

Since 1980, Lonnie Graham has traveled throughout Asia, Africa, and North America interviewing people and recording their opinions and beliefs regarding their culture, heritage, and traditions. In 1994, he was awarded with the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the PEW Travel Grant, enabling him to expand his travels, broadening the scope of his project. A Conversation with the World is a combination of visual art and socio-anthropology. Through his work, Lonnie Graham illustrates the basic needs of the human condition by asking eight questions. The responses he gathers explore the essential and fundamental motivations of human beings while clearly illustrating the bond that is inherent in our humanity.

About San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery

Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery makes contemporary art accessible to broad audiences through curated exhibitions that both reflect our regional diversity and position Bay Area visual art production within an international contemporary art landscape. By commissioning new works, collaborating with arts and community organizations and supporting artist’s projects, the SFAC Gallery’s programs provide new and challenging opportunities for contemporary art to engage with a civic dialogue.

The SFAC Gallery was founded in 1970 and is the exhibitions program of the San Francisco Arts Commission, the arts agency of the City and County of San Francisco.