SFAI Memory Collection: New Genres Department

Join us for a special Memory Collection Talk focused on the legendary New Genres department at the San Francisco Art Institute. Artists and educators Tony Labat, Jennifer Locke, Aaron Young, and Juan Luis Matos will share stories, influences, and pivotal moments that shaped experimental practices at SFAI—from performance and video to installation, sound, and social practice.

This conversation is part of the ongoing SFAI Memory Collection, an initiative to preserve living histories from students, faculty, and staff. Your memories enrich the archive—come to listen, share, and help us build this collective record.

Speakers:

Tony Labat (MFA 1980) Tony Labat is a Cuban-born artist whose four-decade career spans performance, video, and installation. Known for incisive works addressing identity, politics, and popular culture, Labat has exhibited internationally at venues including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Venice Biennale, and the Centre Pompidou. He taught at SFAI for over 30 years, serving as director of the New Genres department, where he influenced generations of artists through experimental practice and critical dialogue.

Jennifer Locke (BFA 1991, MFA 2006) Jennifer Locke is an artist and educator recognized for her durational performances, body-centered video work, and explorations of power, endurance, and spectatorship. Her projects often merge live action with video documentation as a strategy to pit the figure's physical distress against its flattened, digital double. Locke has presented work at institutions such as SFMOMA, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and international performance festivals, and she has taught widely in art schools and universities.

Aaron Young (BFA 2001) Aaron Young is a New York–based artist whose practice confronts risk, violence, and spectacle through large-scale, action-based works. Best known for his 2007 MoMA PS1 performance Greeting Card, in which motorcycle riders left burn-out marks on plywood panels later exhibited as paintings, Young engages with the aesthetics of destruction, labor, and subculture.

Juan Luis Matos (BFA 2010) Juan Luis Matos (b. Havana, Cuba) is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker based in Miami, FL. He studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany and received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. He is a member of Third Horizon, a film collective that hosts an annual film festival in Miami, and the producer for Masisi Radio, an online radio centering Black, Queer, and Caribbean voices.

This is an online event. After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link and details on how to join. A recording may be available to registrants after the event.

Share your memory

Have a story, image, or short video related to New Genres at SFAI? Submit to the SFAI Memory Collection archive.

Tickets

Free with RSVP. Donations are appreciated and directly support the SFAI Memory Collection and future public programs.

Accessibility

Live auto-captioning will be enabled on Zoom. For additional accessibility requests, please contact us at least 72 hours in advance.

Recording & Photo Notice

By attending, you consent to being recorded. Please keep your camera off if you prefer not to appear in the recording.

Questions?

Email us at info@sfartistsalumni.org.

Presented by SF Artists Alumni in collaboration with the SFAI Legacy Foundation + Archive as part of our Memory Collection series.