I am a specialist in contemporary art and theory.  I will also be contributing to the expansion of the Museum Studies curriculum in the department. 

Although contemporary art can sometimes be challenging to understand, even the most difficult contemporary art is our art and emerges from and responds to the concerns and desires of the communities of which we are a part.  I am particularly interested in the ways it helps us to imagine and to image the shifting contours of our contemporary world.  

My own research focuses on the impact of globalization on the production, distribution, and interpretation of contemporary artworks, focusing on artists and institutions in Finland.  My broader research interests include: Art since 1989, Globalization, Nationalism, Photography, Film and Video, Nostalgia, Cultural Geography, and Scandinavian and Baltic Studies.  Some of my academic articles and book chapters include: “Esko Männikkö’s Global Particularities” in Pohjan Tähdet [Polar Stars] (forthcoming 2011), “National Landscape after the End of National Landscapes” in From Landscape to Place (2009), and “Banality as Critique: Contemporary Photography and Finnish National Landscapes” in Finnishness in Finland and North America - Constituencies, Changes, and Challenges (2005).  My newest research is highlighted here.

I enjoy travel, hiking, and film and lately have become a bit of YouTube and The Onion junkie.  These diverse places, stories, and images find their way into my research and teaching.

Courses:

ARTH 13500 Introduction to Visual Culture

Examines how a range of visual images - from paintings to music videos – convey cultural, social, and political meanings.  Particular focus on how images shape notions of identity and social belonging.

ARTH 28500 Art Since 1960

Offers both a chronological and thematic exploration of contemporary art, art theory, and art institutions.  Emphasizes a broad range of art practices such as painting, sculpture, photography, video art, performance art, installation, and digital art.  

ARTH 28600 Where is Contemporary Art?

Explores the intersections of contemporary art and changing ideas of space, place, and globalization since 1990.  Uses theoretical insights from cultural geography, sociology, and art theory to help make sense of institutional changes such as the rise of the art biennial and art practices such as site-specificity, interventions in public spaces, relational aesthetics, and culture jamming.

ARTH 29200 Introduction to Museology

At its heart, this course asks the question “What is a museum?”  Provides a broad introduction to the history of art museums and galleries, explores the role of these institutions in society, and addresses the issues and ethical dilemmas that they face in the contemporary world.

ARTH 39500 Performance, Institutional Critique, and the Museum

Addresses the complicated relationship between contemporary artists, art museums, and commercial art galleries since 1960 through an intense historical investigation of two contemporary art practices: performance art and institutional critique.