Biography
Irina D. Costache specializes in modern and contemporary art and critical theory. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from UCLA. Dr. Costache joined CSUCI in 2002 as Associate Professor of Art History and was promoted to Professor in 2006. Prior to CI she taught art history, humanities and film at UCLA, Loyola University, Cal State Northridge and Mount St. Mary’s University. Her extensive teaching experience and innovative methodologies have been recognized with awards and grants. She has lectured nationally and internationally and published in The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Achademia Leonardi Vinci, Film and Film Culture, Computing and Visual Culture, FATE in Review and other journals. The books she published include The Art of Understanding Art (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), translated into Chinese in 2015, Venezia, Italia / Venice, California, (Sestante Edizioni, 2015), co-authored, and the anthology Academics, Artists and Museums (Routledge, 2018), co-editor, ranked #2 “must read 2019 museum e-books.” Her current research examines issues related to modern art, digital media and museums.
Dr. Costache was the Broome Art Gallery coordinator (2008-2018). She organized and curated exhibitions on and off campus including Postmodern Calligraphies (2009), Global Voices, Diverse Narratives: One Medium, Video (2014) and Artists from the Florence Accademia (2017). Dr. Costache served twice as Resident Director of the CSU International Program in Florence (2012–2013 and 2017-2018). She was elected to and served on the Board of Directors of College Art Association. She also served as Vice-president and later President of the Art Historians of Southern California.
Representative Courses Taught
- ART 434 The Museum: Culture, Business and Education (“The Museum Course”)
- ART 436 Modern Art
- ART 101 What Is Art?
Scholarship
Keywords
Modern art, Italian Futurism, digital art history , museums and new media, contemporary art
Additional Teaching and Research Information
- The Art of Understanding Art (English edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)
- The Art of Understanding Art (Chinese translation, Wiley and Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2015)
- The Museum course and Getty College Night (2010)
- Video Art Exhibition (Broome Gallery, 2014) Review
- Santi Visalli: A Life in Pictures (Broome Gallery Exhibition, 2015) Review
- Venezia, Italia |Venice, California (Sestante Edizioni, 2015)
- Artists from the Accademia (Broome Gallery Exhibition, 2017)
- Academics, Artists, and Museums: 21st-Century Partnerships, (Routledge, Research in Museum Studies Series, 2018)