CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts presents an exclusive solo exhibition Ana Jotta: Never the Less
![Ana Jotta, Entrada dos Artistas [Stage Door], 2020.](https://media.cca.edu/images/press-release_ana-jotta-nevertheless_2023_b.min-1040x585.jpg)
Ana Jotta, Entrada dos Artistas [Stage Door], 2020. Courtesy of the Artist and greengrassi, London. Photo © Marcus Leith.
On view from September 7 to November 11, 2023
San Francisco, CA—August 17, 2023—California College of the Arts (CCA) and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts proudly presents Ana Jotta: Never the Less, a new solo exhibition by acclaimed Portuguese artist Ana Jotta. The exhibition showcases Jotta's unique artistic vocabulary, challenging classifications and identities in her diverse and irreverent works.
Jotta, a former actress and decorator for theater and cinema, has embraced various artistic mediums, from painting and sculpture to installation and photography. Her approach is characterized by an eclectic collection of unclassifiable images, objects, phrases, and marks on walls.
Never the Less will be Ana Jotta's first solo exhibition in the US, running from September 7 to November 11. The exhibition narrows its focus around a specific aspect of her work and uses it as a lens to reflect on her approach more broadly: the expanded sense she brings to the act of drawing—drawing on, drawing out, drawing in, drawing from. Never the Less will feature work from the mid 1990s until the present day, as well as a series of new wall drawings made by the artist on site.
Ana Jotta: Never the Less is curated by Anthony Huberman and Miguel Wandschneider, and organized by Diego Villalobos. The exhibition is possible thanks to the generous support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Fundação EDP, Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento (FLAD), and Camões, Instituto da Cooperaçãoe da Língua / Portuguese Consulate in San Francisco; additional thanks to Pedro Álvares Ribeiro, Miguel Nabinho, Silvia Dauder, and Cornelia Grassi; and special thanks to Robin Laub, and the Wattis Leadership Circle.
About Ana Jotta
Ana Jotta (b.1946, Lisbon) has built a body of work that challenges notions of authorship and that obscures the line between art and life. After first working as an actress and stage designer in the late 1970s, she began a practice as an artist working across all media. She has had monographic exhibitions at Casa São Roque - Centro de Arte, Porto (2019), Temporary Gallery, Cologne (2018), and Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine (2017) among others. A first retrospective of her work was presented at the Serralves Museum in Porto in 2005 and a second one at Culturgest, in Lisbon, in 2014. She lives and works in Lisbon.
About CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
Founded in 1998 at California College of the Arts in San Francisco and located a few blocks from its campus, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts is a nonprofit exhibition venue and research institute dedicated to contemporary art and ideas. As an exhibition space, it commissions and shows new work by emerging and established artists from around the world. Recent solo exhibitions include Josh Faught: Look Across the Water Into the Darkness, Look for the Fog; Maia Cruz Palileo: Long Kwento; Jeffrey Gibson: Nothing Is Eternal; Lydia Ourahmane: صرخة شمسية Solar Cry; Cinthia Marcelle: A morta; Vincent Fecteau; Abbas Akhavan: cast for a folly; Akosua Adoma Owusu: Welcome to the Jungle (which traveled to the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans); Diamond Stingily: Doing the Best I Can; Rosha Yaghmai: Miraclegrow; and Adam Linder: Full Service (which traveled to Mudam Luxembourg). For more information, visit wattis.org.
About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. Benefitting from its San Francisco Bay Area location, the college prepares students for lifelong creative work by cultivating innovation, community engagement, and social and environmental responsibility.
CCA offers a rich curriculum of 22 undergraduate and 10 graduate programs in art, design, architecture, and writing taught by a faculty of expert practitioners. Attracting promising students from across the nation and around the world, CCA is among the 25 most diverse colleges in the U.S. Last year, U.S. News & World Report ranked CCA as one of the top 10 graduate schools for fine arts in the country.
Graduates are highly sought after by companies such as Pixar/Disney, Apple, Intel, Meta, Gensler, Google, IDEO, Autodesk, Mattel, and Nike, and many have launched their own successful businesses. Alumni and faculty are often recognized with the highest honors in their fields, including Academy Awards, AIGA Medals, Fulbright Scholarships, Guggenheim Fellowships, MacArthur Fellowships, National Medal of Arts, and the Rome Prize, among others.
CCA is creating a new, expanded college campus at its current site in San Francisco, spearheaded by the architectural firm Studio Gang. The new campus design will be a model of sustainable construction and practice; will unite the college’s programs in art, crafts, design, architecture, and writing in one location to create new adjacencies and interactions; and will provide more student housing than ever before.
Calendar editors, please note:
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts presents
Ana Jotta: Never the Less
September 7 to November 11, 2023
Location: 360 Kansas Street (between 16th and 17th streets), San Francisco
Gallery hours: Wednesday–Saturday, noon–6 pm; closed Sunday to Tuesday
Admission: Free
Information: wattis.org or 415-355-9670