On December 2, 2023, artist Reniel Del Rosario and Associate Curator Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander joined in conversation on the occasion of Del Rosario's exhibition, The Store of Sturtevant's The Store of Claes Oldenburg. This artist talk was hosted at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA and recorded on Instagram Live.
Reniel Del Rosario (b. Iba, Philippines) is an artist that primarily uses ceramics, quantity, and satire to discuss themes of commodification and value. His projects range from interactive mimicries of consumer establishments, reimaginings of artifacts, and imperfect copies of already-existing objects. He holds a BA in Art Practice from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a 2019 recipient of the Center for Craft’s Windgate-Lamar fellowship, a 2022 SFMOMA Artists Soapbox Derby racer, and has been featured in ARTFORUM and Bon Appetit magazine. His work has been exhibited internationally through traditional and alternative venues such as West Coast Craft, Meta Open Arts, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and on public sidewalks. He was previously featured in Punchline (2022), a Praise Shadows curated exhibition at Jane Lombard Gallery in New York.
Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander is the Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Cantor Arts Center, as well as the Co-Director of the Asian American Art Initiative, both at Stanford University. She is curator of The Faces of Ruth Asawa (July 2022 – ongoing), East of the Pacific: Making Histories of Asian American Art (Sept. 28, 2022 – Feb. 12, 2023), and The Medium Is the Message: Art since 1950 (Feb. 23, 2019 – ongoing). The Asian American Art Initiative (AAAI) aims to transform the Cantor into the preeminent institution for the collection, display, and study of Asian American/Asian diasporic art in the United States. She received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2018.
