BOOK READING / SIGNING @ 11 AM WITH DR. ANDREA LISS

Lora Schlesinger Gallery at Bergamot Station (near the 26th St. exit).

Dr. Liss, professor of contemporary art and cultural theory at California State University San Marcos, will read from her recently published book Feminist Art and the Maternal (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) at Lora Schlesinger Gallery at 2525 Michigan Ave. T-3 at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica.

Feminist Art and the Maternal is the first book to critically consider the dilemmas and the promises of representing feminist motherhood in contemporary art and visual culture and, further, from the previously unheard perspectives of the artist-mothers themselves. Intertwining theory with passionate first-person voices, Feminist Art and the Maternal puts forth a new ethics of the maternal: how to be in the place of the other and inside one's self, how to care for a child and one's self. Dr. Liss reconceives the mother-child relationship as a model for relations among races, genders and ages and radically reinterprets maternal traits as vital forms of cultural, artistic and political address.

In the May 9th reading. Dr. Liss will focus on issues of intersubjectivity, the "sentimental," an early text and photograph project, Ten Months (1979) by Susan Hiller and her own maternal/pedagogic experiences. Limited copies will be available at the reading — attendees may wish to purchase and read an advance copy from Amazon.com.

ANDREA LISS Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Visual and Performing Arts Dept. at California State University San Marcos. She is also the author of Trespassing through Shadows: Memory, Photography and the Holocaust. She also serves on the Advisory Board for the exhibition and documentary titled "Feminist Artists and Mothers: Breaking in Two and Mending." Following her illustrated talk, Liss will sign books. Artists Kimberly Merrill and Cynthia Sitton will also be present to answer questions about their work currently on view in the gallery.

ART VIEWING @ Bergamot Galleries, 12 -1 PM

View on your own selected Bergamot highlights from this month's “Women Around Town” column that we'll discuss during Art Matters: Kimberly Merrill and Cynthia Sitton at Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Jean Lowe at Rosamund Felsen Gallery and Terry Braunstein at Craig Krull Gallery.

ART MATTERS @ Bergamot Cafe, 1-3 PM

Networking, No Host Lunch & Informal Discussion.

RSVP to AvingerNelson@scwca.org by May 7th and be sure to say if you're coming for the whole day or just for Art Matters!

Bergamot Station is situated at 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404. Directions to Bergamot are online at http://www.bergamotstation.com./directions.html