Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here

Exhibitions

Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here

April 20–August 4, 2019

Suzanne Lacy is a pioneer of socially engaged art and public practice, promoting dialogue and collaborations with communities — artists, activists, organizations, schools — throughout her prolific career.

Since the 1970s, she has used community organizing strategies and media interventions to galvanize discussions about pressing social issues including feminism, violence against women, racism, and labor rights. These projects often culminate in large-scale, highly choreographed performances that bring together diverse groups of participants to share their stories.

Co-organized by YBCA and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here is the first full retrospective of the Los Angeles–based artist. The YBCA presentation offers a new, experimental approach to authorship and participation, inspired by Lacy’s own commitment to collaborative creation. YBCA will celebrate the rich legacy of youth work in the Bay Area through an in-depth focus on The Oakland Projects (1991–2001), a series on youth empowerment, media education, and policy, presented alongside works by contemporary artists, and youth arts and activist organizations. At SFMOMA, visitors can explore Lacy’s entire career, from her earliest feminist work to her latest immersive video installations. Several projects on view honor the voices and contributions of women to public life. Both venues will host live activations in the galleries and a vibrant range of public programs.

The exhibition is jointly curated by SFMOMA Curator of Media Arts Rudolf Frieling, YBCA Curator-at-Large Lucía Sanromán, and Director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University and former Curator of Education and Public Practice at SFMOMA Dominic Willsdon.

Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here is co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here, installation view, co – organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Photographs by Charlie Villyard

MediaJustice Timeline, 1996–2019. Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here, installation view, co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Photograph by Charlie Villyard.

Caleb Duarte and the Fremont High School Newcomer Educational Support and Transition Program (NEST), Pink Ladder, 2016–19. Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here, installation view, co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Suzanne Lacy and Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, La piel de la memoria revivida / Skin of Memory Revisited (1999, 2011, 2017). Installation view, Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here, co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Suzanne Lacy with Leslie Becker, Lisa Findley, Amana Harris, Leuckessia Hirsh, Unique Holland, Annice Jacoby, Sheila Jordan, and Maxine Wyman, Expectations, 1997. Installation view, Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here, co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Photograph by Charlie Villyard.

Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School Sixth-Grade Students, Interactive acrostic poetry installation, 2018–19. Installation view, Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here, co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Photograph by Charlie Villyard.

Unique Holland and Suzanne Lacy, Revisiting the Roof: Voices from The Oakland Projects, 2019. Installation view, Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here, co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Suzanne Lacy

Based in Los Angeles, Suzanne Lacy has created artworks ranging from intimate body explorations to large-scale public performances, often involving hundreds of performers. Born in 1945 in Wasco, California, Lacy became a key participant in the feminist movement and performance art scene in Southern California in the 1970s.

Where We Are: Defining Youth Engagement and Social Practice

A convening that explores youth organizing, civic engagement, and social practice.

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Catalogue for Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here

by Rudolf Frieling (Editor), Lucía Sanromán (Editor), Dominic Willsdon (Editor)

This generously illustrated book sheds light on the groundbreaking career of Suzanne Lacy, an artist, writer, and educator whose participatory, socially engaged performances helped define social practice art and continue to resonate with many of the most pressing issues in American culture.

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Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here is co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The YBCA presentation is made possible in part by National Endowment for the Arts and the Circle of Advisors for Changing the Ratio: Female Artists at YBCA: Abundance Foundation, Berit Ashla, Diana Cohn, EMIKA Fund, Jennifer C. Haas Fund, La Mar Cebichería Peruana, Rekha Patel, Catalina Ruiz-Healy and Jonathan Kevles, Vicki Shipkowitz, and Meg Spriggs, with thanks to the Facebook Artist in Residence Program. Additional support provided by Amanda Weil.

At SFMOMA, major support is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Generous support is provided by Lionel F. Conacher, Joan T. Dea, and Susan Swig. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The James H. Zumberge Faculty Research and Innovation Fund from the University of Southern California provided partial support for The Oakland Projects presentation.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is grateful to the City of San Francisco for its ongoing support.

YBCA Exhibitions are made possible in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Panta Rhea Foundation, Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellows Program, and Kevin King and Meridee Moore.

Free youth admission to YBCA galleries is made possible through the support of Nicola Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson.

YBCA Programs are made possible in part by Bloomberg Philanthropies and The James Irvine Foundation, with additional funding by National Endowment for the Arts, Grosvenor, and YBCA Members.

Lead Image: Unique Holland and Suzanne Lacy, Revisiting the Roof: Voices from The Oakland Projects, 2019. Installation view, Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here, co-organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Photographs by Charlie Villyard

Bio Image: Suzanne Lacy, Annice Jacoby, and Chris Johnson, The Roof Is on Fire (1993–94), from The Oakland Projects (1991–2001); performance, June 4, 1994, City Center West Garage, Oakland; © Suzanne Lacy; photo: Nathan Bennett, courtesy of Suzanne Lacy