Dawn Kasper

Undergraduate Discipline

Visual and Studio Arts

BFA, Virginia Commonwealth University. MFA, University of California, Los Angeles. Select solo and group exhibitions: Portikus (Frankfurt), 57th Venice Biennale (Italy), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (Portland), Tang Museum, Skidmore College (New York), Granoff Center for the Arts (Providence), ADN Collection (Italy), CCS Bard College (New York), Issue Project Room (New York) David Lewis (New York), American Academy in Rome (Italy), 2012 Whitney Biennial (New York), Tramway (Scotland), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles), Pacific Standard Time Public and Performance Art (Los Angeles), Public Art Fund, (Miami), Migros Museum fur Gegenwartskunst (Zurich). Kasper is represented by David Lewis (New York) and has work included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, (New York) ADN Collection (Italy), and Aïshti Foundation (Beirut). She has been visiting faculty and guest critic at Temple University Tyler School of Art and Architecture (Philadelphia), Yale University (New Haven), Städelschule (Frankfurt), Brown University (Providence), Rhode Island School of Design (Providence), Parsons (New York), California Institute of the Arts (Valencia), and Otis College (Los Angeles). SLC, 2020–

Undergraduate Courses 2024-2025

Visual and Studio Arts

Performance Art Tactics

Open, Seminar—Fall

ARTS 3428

Experiment and explore contemporary performance art. Through surveying a range of important artworks and movements, we will review the histories, concepts, and practices of performance art. Born from anti-art, performance art challenges the boundaries of artistic expression through implementing, as material, the concepts of space, time, and the body. Examples of artists that we will review are John Cage, Joan Jonas, Adrian Piper, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Simone Forti, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Pope.L, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Janine Antoni, Suzanne Lacy, Aki Sasamoto, and Anna Halprin, to name a few. We will review dialogues and movements introducing performance art, such as art interventions, sculpture, installation art, institutional critique, protest art, social media, video art, happenings, dada, comedy, sound art, graphic notation, scores, collaboration, and dance/movement. Students will be able to relate the form and function of performance art through research, workshopping ideas, experimentation, and improvisation—thereby developing the ability to confidently implement any method of the performance art genre.

Faculty

Previous Courses

Visual and Studio Arts

Performance Art

Open, Seminar—Fall

Experiment and explore contemporary performance art. Surveying a range of important artworks and movements, we will review the histories, concepts, and practices of performance art. Born from anti-art, performance art challenges the boundaries of artistic expression through implementing as material the concepts of space, time, and the body. Examples of artists that we will review are John Cage, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Pope.L, Laurie Anderson, Anne Imhof, Joseph Beuys, Janine Antoni, Suzanne Lacy, Narcissister, Pauline Oliveros, Aki Sasamoto, and Anna Halprin, to name a few. Dialogues introducing performance art are utilized in sculpture, installation art, protest art, social media, video art, happenings, dada, comedy, sound art, graphic notation, scores, collaboration, and movement. Students will be able to relate the form and function of performance art though workshopping ideas, experimentation, improvisation, and movement—thereby developing the ability to confidently perform in any manner of the performance-art genre.

Faculty

Performance Art Tactics: Sound as a Resource

Open, Seminar—Fall

This course offers students the opportunity to theoretically explore contemporary sound practices in visual art through a broad-strokes overview. We will explore the histories and concepts of sound art, surveying a range of important artworks in the fields of performance and sound. Examples of artists works that we will review include John Cage, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Laurie Anderson, Pauline Oliveros, and Anna Halprin, to name a few. We will discuss some technologies used by performance and sound artists; the implementation of sound in visual art; and the function of sound as utilized in performance, interactive installation, sculpture, social media, film, and video art. Students will be able to conceptually relate the form and function of sound in visual art by developing the potential to consciously implement the form.

Faculty

Performance-Art Tactics

Open, Seminar—Fall

Experiment and explore contemporary performance art. Through surveying a range of important artworks and movements, we will review the histories, concepts, and practices of performance art. Born from anti-art, performance art challenges the boundaries of artistic expression through implementing as material the concepts of space, time, and the body. Examples of artists that we will review are John Cage, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Pope.L, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Janine Antoni, Suzanne Lacy, Aki Sasamoto, and Anna Halprin, to name a few. Reviewing dialogues and movements introducing performance art—such as sculpture, installation art, protest art, social media, video art, happenings, dada, comedy, sound art, graphic notation, scores, collaboration, and movement—students will be able to relate the form and function of performance art through research, workshopping ideas, experimentation, improvisation, and movement, thereby developing the ability to confidently implement any method of the performance-art genre.

Faculty