The Creative Life Series: Bibbe Hansen

Bibbe Hansen, pop cultural icon, performance artist, musician, and actress known for her work with Andy Warhol will visit the University at Albany for a conversation with WAMC’s Joe Donahue as part of The Creative Life: Conversation Series.

Free and open to the public, the event will take place 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at the University Art Museum on UAlbany’s Uptown campus.

The Creative Life series is a major arts initiative of the New York State Writers Institute, UAlbany Performing Arts Center and University Art Museum in conjunction with regional public radio station WAMC Northeast Public Radio produced with major support from the University at Albany Foundation..

Bibbe Hansen (b. 1952) is a performance artist, musician, and actress born to the bohemian poet Audrey Ostin Hansen and Fluxus artist Al Hansen. In 1964 she was introduced to Andy Warhol when her father took her to the popular bohemian artist hangout, Stark’s coffee shop, in New York City. She became the youngest of the Warhol Superstars at just 12 13 years old starring in his films Prison and Restaurant. She also sat for two Screen Tests for Warhol the following year. These Screen Tests are currently on view at The University Art Museum as part of the exhibition Younger Than Today Photographs of Children (and sometimes their mothers) by Andy Warhol through September 15, 2018.

In both her Screen Tests with Warhol, Hansen gazes directly into the camera with her expression impassive and never losing her composure. Of seeing her Screen Test for the Andy Warhol Film Project in 2004, Hansen says, “The child looks so delicate and fragile, but there’s a hardness. I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now.” In later years, Hansen founded a theater company, operated an arts cafe in downtown Los Angeles, and became an iconic figure in the L.A. punk music and arts scenes. She is the mother of two sons, the artist Channing Hansen and the recording artist Beck.

Younger than Today: Photographs of Children (and sometimes their mothers) by Andy Warhol features over more than 50 Polaroids and photographs related to childhood, sibling relationships, and the influence of the maternal. Younger Than Today is part of Warhol x 5, a collaborative project curated from the shared holdings of University at Albany Art Collections; The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College; Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase; Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz; and Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College.

The Creative Life series, a major arts initiative of the New York State Writers Institute, UAlbany Performing Arts Center and University Art Museum in conjunction with regional public radio station WAMC, brings leading figures from writing, music, dance, choreography, visual arts, architecture, theatre, and filmmaking to the University for conversation with Donahue about their creative inspiration, craft, and careers.

UAlbany’s Creative Life series continues with sculptor and public installation artist Jean Shin at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 1, at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center, and author, social activist, and documentary film writer Esmeralda Santiago at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 8, in at the Campus Center Ballroom.

Previous guests in The Creative Life Series have included fiction writer Joyce Carol Oates, tap dancer-choreographer Savion Glover, jazz violinist Regina Carter, painter David Salle, author Lois Lowry and choreographer Garth Fagan.

For more information, call (518) 442-4035 or visit our website at www.albany.edu/museum. Museum Hours: Tues, 10 am – 7 pm; Wed through Fri, 10 am – 5 pm; Sat, noon – 4 pm. Free parking in campus visitor lots on Saturdays.

Major support for The Creative Life is provided by The University at Albany Foundation with additional support from the UAlbany Alumni Association, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost, and University Auxiliary Services.The Creative Life series brings leading figures from writing, music, dance, choreography, visual arts, architecture, theatre, and filmmaking to the University for conversation with Donahue about their creative inspiration, craft, and careers.