Image: Ann Diener (UCSB, MFA 2005), Vertical Field #3, 2006. Graphite, Prismacolor, gouache and cut paper on paper. 93 x 51-1/2 in., framed. Gift by Ann Diener in Memory of Marie Vierra. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; UC Santa Barbara.
The AD&A Museum presents alumni artists and their work held in the Fine Arts Collection during April's All Gaucho Reunion month. Thirty-four alumni and faculty artist biographies were produced by the Museum's interns during Winter quarter 2021. Under the guidance of Leticia Cobra Lima, Internship Program Coordinator, and Susan Lucke, Collections Manager and Registrar, the undergraduate interns researched and wrote the pieces, exercising their art historical skills and contributing scholarship to further enrich the Collection.
The first artist alumni is Ann Diener (MFA 2005). Ann Diener earned her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA and her Masters of Fine Arts from UC Santa Barbara, where she also taught. Through drawing, Diener maps the layered history of place, charting ways that spaces are changed over time by those who inhabit them. Diener’s artworks investigate, record, and trace the diverse elements that comprise the complicated history of place. Often large in scale, the works are multi-layered narratives. By incorporating maps, charts and printed materials, the artist examines the social and political ramifications of how land and urban spaces are cultivated, manipulated, developed and controlled. Through references to land, culture, time and memory, her complex works move beyond mere geographic representations and engage with the anthropological layers of place. They chart the way a location is inevitably changed by its inhabitants over many generations and are often informed by the changing sociological and topological landscape of Central California amidst agricultural development. In 2016, she expanded her practice to include lithographs and tapestries.
-- Biography by Misha Farrahi, AD&A Museum Intern 2020-21
We will be sharing the alumni and faculty artist biographies and their works of art all month long. Check back soon.
