Two SoCal girls who use the filler “like” all too often and share a passion for the visual art scene sit down to talk outside of the Environmental Design building one Wednesday evening. Herein lies their 20-minute chat, which they’ve both decided is much too short to encapsulate a shared love for pretty things that people make. The conclusions of the conversation (edited for clarity) between Olivia Branan, current visual art beat reporter, and Stella Occhialini, former visual art beat: 20-year-old girls make the perfect art critics.
Occhialini: Do you have any favorite pieces of art that made you want to be visual art beat?
Branan: I honestly didn’t get into art at all until I joined the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive student committee. I studied abroad right after that semester, so I was studying post-modern and contemporary art, and I really got to dig into that. I like Yoko Ono –– love her. I did this project on Graciela Carnevale, a performance artist from Argentina in the 1960s. Her art was just really chaotic. There was one where they invited all these visitors to a gallery, but the work was actually them being locked in a room and having to fight their way out with hammers and stuff. That was what sparked my interest.
Occhialini: That’s crazy. I had no previous visual art critic experience. I like pretty things, and I like the fact that people make them. I chose the visual art beat because I was like, “This is the most niche beat on the form” — everyone does film, everyone does literature, everyone does music. I think what drove a lot of my writing was trying to find the most local things. And I loved doing that. What does it feel like for you to be a student reviewer?
Branan: My first time covering visual arts was last semester, which was my first semester as an arts reporter. I felt really intimidated. I was at a gallery in San Francisco; everybody was older and dressed up, and I just felt like a college student, really not knowing what I was doing. That’s something to look past. It’s important to remember that art isn’t supposed to be created for a certain viewer.
Occhialini: I feel like I’ve had a similar experience. It was the first gallery that I went to, and I was like, “Who am I to be standing here and looking at all this?” But the whole point of art is for it to be subjective. Part of me even feels like it’s a little sacrilegious to review art sometimes because there’s literally no single interpretation. As a reviewer, it’s so intimidating to try to capture the entire essence of one piece.
Branan: Yeah, I might not be a professional art critic but my opinion is valid even though I’m not seasoned yet.
Occhialini: Seasoned is such a good word for it. One of the last galleries I went to was when I started to feel “seasoned,” because they treated me so well. Everyone was very cautious that I was there.
Occhialini: I’m glad I wasn’t seasoned. I have this deep-seated appreciation for art in all its forms that maybe I wouldn’t have had going into it if I had been, like an art mogul or something, which I’m so glad I’m not. I think it gives readers who aren’t professionals a really good perspective, too.
Branan: Yeah. Our target demographic is also students, and they can engage with the visual art that we’re writing about in the same way that we are.
Branan: I also do think visual arts isn’t just about reviewing necessarily. I think my favorite article — I wrote it pretty recently — was an interview with an artist about her work. It’s really interesting to hear the thought process and the inspiration behind the works that we’re looking at, because we can’t know what the artist is thinking just by looking at it. I loved getting the artist’s perspective.
Occhialini: Who did you interview?
Branan: Her name is Smokie Arce. She’s a local artist from Oakland, and her art is specifically about her Puerto Rican culture. She was telling me about how she grew up in Brooklyn and incorporated her time as a graffiti artist into her work. She was using house paint and shoe polish and stuff. It’s not stuff that you would think of when you first look at her work.
Occhialini: That’s beautiful. Yeah, I loved interviewing people, especially the locals. They instill so much more of their being into their art as compared to more prominent and famous artists. Do you have any local things that are on your horizon?
Branan: I’m really interested in looking at student artists. I know there’s Worth Ryder. I’m interviewing someone this weekend who curated this exhibit that’s going on right now, so I’m excited to do that. I’m interested in digging around Berkeley.
Branan: How do you find student artists who aren’t necessarily affiliated with UC Berkeley?
Occhialini: Artists find other artists; they’re all connected. Start with students and go from there.
Branan: Have you ever given a bad review?
Occhialini: Actually, I have. I don’t know if I want to say the title because the artist actually ended up coming for me with a nasty email. It was a small artist and small gallery. To be honest, I feel like most people would have felt that way given the art there. Don’t be afraid to be brutally honest, because someone out there is going to agree with you.
Branan: I think that’s something that I need to consider when entering this work. My opinion is valid.
Occhialini: It’s definitely a learning curve. I think it is such a thing for reviewers to be so conscious of giving a bad review, but, oftentimes, those are the most interesting ones to read because you’re not trying to lie. Lying comes across in your writing as kind of fake. In art, bad reviewing is high risk and high reward. It’s always so hard to toe that line, you know?
Branan: Is there anything I should know going into this beat?
Occhialini: Art is so personal –– so is music, so is film –– but visual art specifically. Don’t be afraid when you’re reviewing stuff to sit on the floor and lay out on the ground.
Branan: (She laughs) You do that?
Occhialini: Yeah, I just love getting to know it. Sometimes you’ll go to opening day showings that are packed, but sometimes I had them to myself, so it was nice to just lay on the floor and look up at art, especially at the bigger pieces. I think you’re going to kill it, Olivia