Amy Franceschini
Encyclopedia
Amy Franceschini is a contemporary American artist and designer
. Her practice spans a broad range of media including drawing
, sculpture
, design
, net art, public art
and gardening
.
She is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow.
in 1995 as a way to bring together multidisciplinary artists. Through Futurefarmers
she has collaborated with a number of artists, including Sascha Merg, Josh On. She teaches courses at Stanford University
and the San Francisco Art Institute
Frequent themes in Franceschini's work are gardening
, public space
, technology
, and social change
.
Franceschini's work often takes a visual approach to articulating perceived conflicts between humans and nature, and the individual to a community. She works both as an artist as well as a designer. In 2010 she co-authored (with Daniel Tucker) the book "Farm Together Now: A portrait of people, places and ideas for a new food movement" for Chronicle Books which features interviews and photos essays (by Anne Hamersky) with politically engaged farmers across the United States.
, showing the work Homeland Security Blanket (made with Michael Swaine). In 2006 she participated in the SECA Art Award
exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
. She has also exhibited at the Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center
in Istanbul
Turkey, ZKM, Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe
Germany, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
in New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
in San Francisco, California and Gallery 16 in San Francisco, California.
Futurefarmers was featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial
.
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
. Her practice spans a broad range of media including drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
, net art, public art
Public art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
and gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
.
She is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow.
Life and work
Franceschini founded FuturefarmersFuturefarmers
Futurefarmers is an international artist collective practicing a form of cultural activism that exploits the interactive potential offered by new media and public spaces...
in 1995 as a way to bring together multidisciplinary artists. Through Futurefarmers
Futurefarmers
Futurefarmers is an international artist collective practicing a form of cultural activism that exploits the interactive potential offered by new media and public spaces...
she has collaborated with a number of artists, including Sascha Merg, Josh On. She teaches courses at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
Frequent themes in Franceschini's work are gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
, public space
Public space
A public space is a social space such as a town square that is open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry, nor are the entrants...
, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, and social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
.
Franceschini's work often takes a visual approach to articulating perceived conflicts between humans and nature, and the individual to a community. She works both as an artist as well as a designer. In 2010 she co-authored (with Daniel Tucker) the book "Farm Together Now: A portrait of people, places and ideas for a new food movement" for Chronicle Books which features interviews and photos essays (by Anne Hamersky) with politically engaged farmers across the United States.
Exhibitions
In 2005 she was part of the "SAFE: Design takes on risk" exhibition at MoMAMuseum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, showing the work Homeland Security Blanket (made with Michael Swaine). In 2006 she participated in the SECA Art Award
SECA Art Award
The SECA Art Award is a contemporary art award program that has been administered by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and its auxiliary SECA since 1967 to honor San Francisco Bay Area artists. It includes an exhibition at SFMOMA, an accompanying catalogue, and a modest cash prize...
exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
. She has also exhibited at the Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center
Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center
The contemporary art institution Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center opened in 2001 and was located on the pedestrian Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Turkey...
in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
Turkey, ZKM, Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
Germany, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum, a subsidiary of the Smithsonian Institution, is the United States' national museum of design history and contemporary design and the only museum in the U.S. whose collection is solely focused on contemporary and historic design...
in New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a multi-disiplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, national, and international artists and the Bay Area's diverse...
in San Francisco, California and Gallery 16 in San Francisco, California.
Futurefarmers was featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
.