Ann Schnake

Ann Schnake (b. Oakland Ca1955, MFA California College of the Arts 2012) is a social practice and visual artist who builds installations and sculptural works. Her concerns are the activation of objects, space and ideas in failing economic and ecologic systems; she investigates visual, bodily felt,  spiritually laden and coveted materials as pillars of capital, accumulation and ecologic disaster, employing dense and oppositional organic materiality: cotton, indigo, silver, gold, pig parts, wood, feathers, cement, clay.  Her works are exhibited locally and internationally in art venues and in unexpected locations, from gallery to hospital to tent. Often though, Schnake is ringleader of collective endeavors: Dream Farm Commons, founder of an experimental exhibition and project space in Oakland 2018-present; MobileInTent pushing on borders from the permeable walls of a tent (2012-16); Odd Sunday Dinners, a series of curated meals and conversations (2010-14); Traveling Medicine Show and Empanada Stand guest artist at dOCUMENTA(13) Germany (2012):  ArtsChange, exhibitions, performances and social dialogue in public sites in Richmond, CA (1996-2011).