SAN FRANCISCO (May 7, 2014)—The de Young will host interdisciplinary and socially engaged artist, Lexa Walsh, from May 7, 2014, through June 1, 2014 as part of the de Young Artist Fellows Program. In collaboration with the Oakland Museum of California, Walsh’s current project, Mapping the Archive, is a visual record of local art and archival practices spanning the last 50 years. Through a creative process centered on social involvement and participation, Walsh seeks to explore objects and the stories behind them, both real and imagined.

Mapping the Archive presents the different ways in which art, artistic practices and local history have been archived or remembered by cultural institutions throughout the Bay Area. Drawing upon her interviews with artists, archivists and cultural workers, Walsh has created a timeline of archival practices that invites viewers to think about how objects are preserved, what purpose an archive serves and how individuals interact with and derive meaning from archival objects. True to her collaborative methods, Walsh invites de Young visitors to take part in her project throughout the month of May. Visitors can participate by adding or removing items from the timeline, by rearranging them, by donating objects to the archive or by creating stories about the objects in a taxonomy station.

Based in Oakland, CA, Walsh has lived and exhibited all over the world. Her interdisciplinary projects, which combine visual, performance and interactive elements, have been hosted by cultural venues that include Apexart, The LAB, the Oakland Museum of California, the Portland Art Museum, Smack Mellon and the Walker Art Center. Walsh has also held a number of residencies throughout the U.S. and internationally, and she worked at the international art center CESTA in the Czech Republic for several years. Walsh is a graduate of Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice MFA program.

Patrons are invited to visit Lexa Walsh in the Kimball Education Gallery Wednesdays through Sundays from 1‒5 p.m. and Fridays 1‒5 p.m. and 6‒8:30 p.m. For more information about Lexa Walsh, visit lexawalsh.tumblr.com.

An Artist Reception will be held in the Kimball Education Gallery on May 30 at 6 p.m.

The Artist Fellows program is made possible with major support from the James Irvine Foundation’s Innovation Fund.

The Periscope Project
Lexa Walsh is also a participating artist in the Periscope Project, a multimedia online platform created in order for visitors to continue engaging on- and off-site with de Young Artist Fellows and Artists-in-Residence. Not only can visitors interact with artists and their work during on-site residencies, but they can also discover and experience art online through the Periscope Project. This interactive forum aims to enrich relationships between artists and audiences, and serves as a resource for ongoing artistic exploration and conversation. Offering a variety of interactive material, including artist talks, chats, DIY projects, and other online programs, the Periscope Project seeks to foster a dynamic, growing community around art, both locally and globally.

The Periscope Project is generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Explore the Periscope Project here.

Visiting \ de Young
Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118. Tuesdays–Sundays, 9:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m.–8:45 p.m.; open select holidays; closed most Mondays. For more information, visit deyoungmuseum.org.

Admission
General admission tickets range in price from $6‒$10. Members and children under 12 are admitted free. Additional fees may apply for special exhibitions. Prices subject to change. Tickets are available at deyoungmuseum.org.

About the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, are the largest public arts institution in San Francisco.

The de Young originated from the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition and was established as the Memorial Museum. Thirty years later, it was renamed in honor of Michael H. de Young, a longtime champion of the museum. The present copper-clad, landmark building, designed by Herzog and de Meuron, opened in October 2005. It showcases the institution’s significant collections of American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries; art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; costume and textile arts; and international contemporary art.

The Legion of Honor was inspired by the French pavilion, a replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris, at San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. The museum opened in 1924 in the Beaux Arts–style building designed by George Applegarth on a bluff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Its holdings span four thousand years and include European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; ancient art from the Mediterranean basin; and the largest collection of works on paper in the American West.

Media Contacts
Clara Hatcher \ chatcher@famsf.org

Arlo Crawford \ acrawford@famsf.org