Getty Foundation awards exhibition grant to UC Irvine’s Beall Center for Art + Technology

Funding will support its involvement in third regional Pacific Standard Time collaboration

Irvine, Calif., May 9, 2023 — The Beall Center for Art + Technology at the University of California, Irvine has received a $200,000 exhibition grant from the Getty Foundation to present “Future Tense: Art, Complexity and Predictability,” a thematic show and artist residency program.

The Beall Center is among more than 45 Southern California awardees participating in the third collaboration of Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative. The landmark regional event, returning in September 2024 with the theme PST Art: Art & Science Collide, will feature exhibitions and programs exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present.

“This grant will permit our Beall Center for Art + Technology – one of the vital venues for future-forward creativity in Southern California – to bring its most ambitious project ever to full fruition,” said Jesse Colin Jackson, associate dean for research and innovation at UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. “We’re thrilled to continue to partner with the Getty Foundation, having participated in both previous Pacific Standard Time collaborations.”

In January 2021, Getty awarded the Beall Center a $100,000 research and planning grant for “Future Tense,” which features both emerging and established contemporary artists who utilize the concepts of complex systems in traditional media and new technologies such as computer modeling, robotics and data visualizations. The exhibition is curated by David Familian, artistic director of the Beall Center.

“‘Future Tense: Art, Complexity and Predictability’ includes international artists who examine, represent and reflect on various types of complex systems,” Familian said. “Interrogating issues such as solutions for global warming, the interworkings of cells, global warming effects on evolution, and the dynamics of an increasingly toxic social network, their works reveal both the challenges and the wonder of complex systems.

“The exhibition allows audiences to understand how complexity functions within the individual works, but also to actively experience and appreciate the overarching aesthetic of each system. Ultimately, it demonstrates that the way to solve the vexing problems that plague our world is through collaboration, interdisciplinarity and systems thinking. We can no longer afford to try to control nature but must learn to live within it.”

“Future Tense” includes existing work by Ralf Baecker, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Julie Mehretu, Clare Rojas and Theresa Schubert, as well as new works by Newton Harrison, Chico MacMurtrie, the Lucy HG Solomon and Cesar Baio collective, Laura Splan and Gail Wight that were commissioned by the Beall Center’s Black Box Projects artist residency program.

This exhibition is made possible with support from Getty through its PST Art: Art & Science Collide initiative.

About Pacific Standard Time: Southern California’s landmark arts event, Pacific Standard Time, returns in September 2024, presenting more than 50 exhibitions from organizations across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST Art: Art & Science Collide follows Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (September 2017 to January 2018) and Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 (October 2011 to March 2012). PST Art is a Getty initiative. For more information about PST Art: Art & Science Collide, visit https://www.getty.edu/projects/pacific-standard-time-2024. 

About the Beall Center for Art + Technology: The Beall Center is an exhibition and research center located at the University of California, Irvine, in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Since its opening in 2000, the Beall Center has promoted new forms of creation and expression by building innovative scholarly relationships and community collaborations among artists, scientists and technologists and by encouraging research and development of art forms that can affect the future. For artists, the Beall Center serves as a proving ground – a place between the artist’s studio and the art museum – and allows them to work with new technologies in their early stages of development. For visitors, the Beall Center serves as a window to the most imaginative and creative visual arts innovations. The curatorial focus is a diverse range of innovative, world-renowned artists, both national and international, who work with experimental and interactive media. The Beall Center received its initial support from the Rockwell Corp. in honor of retired chairman Don Beall and his wife, Joan – the core idea being to merge their lifelong passions of business, engineering and the arts in one place. Today major support is generously provided by the Beall Family Foundation. For more information, visit https://beallcenter.uci.edu.

About the Claire Trevor School of the Arts: As UCI’s creative engine, the Claire Trevor School of the Arts has proven itself to be a national leader in training future generations of artists and scholars who go on to inspire audiences in theaters, galleries and concert halls – as well as in entertainment and technology-related venues throughout the world. CTSA combines artistic training with a top-ranked liberal arts education. It is home to the departments of art, dance, drama and music, offering 15 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and two minors. CTSA is currently ranked No. 1 in affordable fine arts, drama/theater and music degrees by the College Affordability Guide. Courses include extensive studio, workshop and performance experiences; theoretical and historical studies; and arts and technology practices. CTSA’s nationally ranked programs begin with training but culminate in original invention. The distinguished, international faculty work across a wide variety of art forms and forge interdisciplinary partnerships with others across the campus. For more information, visit www.arts.uci.edu. 

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.

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