Visual Arts Briefs

• “Mentors,” an exhibition of work by students in the BFA Photography Department inspired by their mentorships with leading figures in the New York arts community, has been featured in Daily Candy, ArtDaily, the Sundance Channel and Artnet. The Sundance Channel called “Mentors,” “the kind of program you probably wish was an option when you were in school.” The exhibition will be on view at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor, through Saturday, April 3.
• The New York Times interviewed Katrin Eismann, chair of the MPS Digital Photography Department, in an article about how the field of photojournalism is changing. Eismann discusses the difference between professional and amateur photography.
• MFA Design Criticism Department Chair Alice Twemlow was interviewed on BBC Radio Wales this past Sunday. Twemlow spoke about the recent acquisition of the @ symbol by The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Twemlow explains the move in terms of current design thinking, which she says is moving from considering objects to considering systems and symbols. Click here to listen to Twemlow speak, beginning at 29:52.
• In an interactive piece for The New York Times, alumnus Drew Hodges (BFA 1984 Graphic Design) speaks about various posters his advertising agency SpotCo designed for the Broadway revival of La Cage aux Folles. Hodges explains why certain posters were rejected and how they decided on the final version. Click here to read the accompanying article.

Image: from Dailycandy.com.

For three weeks this spring it will be nighttime around the clock at The National Arts Club (NAC). The venerable arts institution is painting its Marquis Gallery walls black to present “Night Watch,” a series of 17 stark black-and-white photographs by alumnus Richard Bachmann (BFA 1990 Photography), depicting late-night views of New York City.

To create this series of large-format (2×2’ and 40×40”) photographs, Bachmann brought his equipment to rooftops and elevated water towers around the city over the course of a decade, capturing graphically illuminated views of NYC in the overnight hours. “Night Watch” is on view at the NAC, 15 Gramercy Park South, March 31 – April 18; there will be an opening reception on Wednesday, April 7, 6 – 8pm.

Image: Richard Bachmann, SOHO-Downtown, photographed in 1999. Photo ©2010 Richard Bachmann, NYC.

As the MFA Design Criticism Department continues preparations for its inaugural D-Crit Conference, the program is presenting its spring 2010 lecture series. Following recent visits to the department by design curator Zoë Ryan and Design Trust for Public Space Executive Director Deborah Marton, upcoming lectures include E Pluribus Unum: Creating Design Policy in the U.S.A., a talk by Casey Jones, director of Design Excellence and the Arts for the U.S. General Services Administration (Tuesday, March 30); Defining the Story, a discussion with designers Brian Collins and John Fulbrook (Tuesday, April 6); and On the Design of Certain Films about Design, a talk by independent filmmaker Gary Hustwit (Tuesday, April 13). All D-Crit lectures take place at 136 West 21st Street, 2nd Floor, 6 – 8pm; admission is free, but please RSVP to 212.592.2228 or dcrit@sva.edu. Click here for a complete list of scheduled lectures.

In addition to the designers and critics coming to SVA, the design critics on the department’s faculty are popping up outside the College. Faculty member Paola Antonelli recently posted to MoMA’s Inside/Out blog about the museum’s decision to add the @ symbol to its collection; click here to read her thoughts on the unlikely acquisition of a typographical icon. And in a story about the MoMA acquisition, the U.K. newspaper The Independent turned to Department Chair Alice Twemlow for her insights; read it here.

The fourth in a series of one-on-one conversations with SVA department chairs.

The College’s newest graduate program, the MPS Branding Department, is getting ready to welcome its first students in the fall 2010 semester. The department offers students a one-year curriculum that examines the power of design thinking as a way to combine creative skills with problem-solving and decision-making processes, and will be chaired by Debbie Millman, partner and president at Sterling Brands, host of the Design Matters radio show, and a longtime member of the SVA faculty. Millman talked to the Briefs as she was reviewing applications for the program’s inaugural year.

How did you come to chair the new MPS Branding Department?
I’ve been working in branding for over two decades, and Steven Heller [co-chair of the MFA Design Department and co-creator of the new branding program] asked if I’d be interested. I immediately said yes.

How does your professional practice carry over into the structuring of the new department?
I think my reputation in the business has helped generate excitement for the program. Also, my ‘day job’ has given me exposure to more students and faculty. I’m in a very fortunate position—Sterling Brands has done work for brands like Burger King, Hershey’s, Kleenex and Häagen Daz. Because our work is seen by millions of people every day and designers are aware of who did what, that exposure has been extremely helpful.

Why is it important to learn about branding in the contemporary marketplace?
Brands do more than they ever have in our society and in our history. They help define our beliefs and affiliations. We wear amulets to define that we’re married or unmarried, if we’re part of the Nike tribe or Starbucks tribe—brands help telegraph who we are to the world. It seems to be deeply ingrained in the human experience, and we’ll be studying human anthropology as well as economics and creativity. Students will get a full, in-depth portrait of why humans behave the way they do, because brands help document and tell the story of our humanity.

What are you most looking forward to as you prepare to open the program’s doors?
I’m looking forward to the first class graduating! It will realize all of our hopes, dreams, plans and potential for the program and our students. But before that, I’m looking forward to being in the trenches with the students, getting our hands dirty and opening up our minds.

Image: ©Nebojsa Babic.

On Tuesday, March 23, the BFA Photography Department and the Visual Arts Gallery welcomed a capacity crowd of over 1,000 department supporters, industry insiders, family and friends to the opening reception for “Mentors,” an exhibition of work by graduating students in the undergraduate photography program.

The images on display were inspired by the students’ mentorships with leading figures in the New York City arts community. Drawn from the ranks of the city’s best-known photographers, curators, art directors, publishers, art dealers, critics and writers, this year’s mentors include picture editor and The New York Times writer Philip Gefter; critic and New Yorker contributor Vince Aletti; and photographers Tina Barney, Ryan McGinley and Platon. Curated by Department Chair Stephen Frailey, “Mentors” will be on view at the Visual Arts Gallery through Saturday, April 3.

Images: (top) Pedro Arieta, Stephen Frailey and Todd Matarazzo at the “Mentors” opening, photo by Colleen O’Connor; (bottom) Todd Matarazzo, Prospect Park Snow 1, 2010.

Renowned architect, artist and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar will be joining MFA Art Criticism and Writing Department Chair David Levi Strauss for a screening and discussion of Jaar’s new short film, The Ashes of Pasolini, on Thursday, March 25, 7pm, at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street. Jaar is a Chilean-born artist who is bets known for his “public interventions,” a series of extended installation works that examine hot-button socio-political issues like the Rwandan genocide and immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border. This event—which is part of the Art in the First Person series, and is presented by the MFA Art Criticism and Writing Department in partnership with Aperture—will focus on Pier Paolo Pasolini, a controversial Italian poet and critic who was murdered in 1975. Admission to the event is free and open to the public.

The following evening, Friday, March 26, at 6.45pm, Strauss will be taking part in The Review Panel, an event billed as “an evening of critical conversation about art.” He will be part of a panel that includes Michelle Kuo, Mark Stevens and moderator David Cohen, discussing several current art exhibition in New York City: Mike Nelson at 303 Gallery, Joan Jonas at Yvon Lambert, Anya Kielar at Rachel Uffner Gallery, and Robert Ryman at PaceWildenstein. The event is presented by the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, in partnership with artcritical.com, at 1083 Fifth Avenue, across from the Guggenheim Museum. Space is limited, so please contact cortiz@nationalacademy.org to register for the event.

Video: Alfredo Jaar discussing Pier Paolo Pasolini in PBS’s Art21.

• The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust, by Deborah Durland DeSaix (MFA 1986 Illustration as Visual Essay) and Karen Gray Ruelle, was included on the American Library Association (ALA) list of 2010 Notable Children’s Books. The ALA singled out this true story of Muslims in a French mosque who saved Jews from capture by the Nazis in the Middle Readers category.
• MFA Social Documentary Film Department faculty member Tom Hurwitz was recently admitted into the American Society of Cinematographers. Hurwitz is an award-winning cinematographer for TV and film, and whose work has been seen on PBS’ American Masters series, HBO’s The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and the feature-length documentaries Down and Out in America and Wild Man Blues.
• Natan Dvir, a current student in the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department, is one of the winners of the Myartspace.com 2009 Art Scholarship Competition. The online venue for contemporary art awarded Dvir its third-place prize for his work examining the ways in which people practice their religions and the contexts in which they do so.
• The sustainable innovation think tank Societás and Medium Magazine named alumnus Yoko Furusho (BFA 2008 Illustration) the first runner-up for the 2009 Static Art Prize, which recognizes the work of emerging artists from around the world.

• Alumnus Thomas Prior (BFA 2002 Photography) was included in PDN’s 30 2010, a list compiled by Photo District News (PDN) of new and emerging photographers to watch. PDN describes Prior’s photographs as “stunning observations of ordinary people seeking out their own versions of adrenaline rush.”
• Kevin O’Callaghan, chair, 3D Design, was mentioned in a National Public Radio segment on author Jason Vuic’s book The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History. In 1995, O’Callaghan organized traveling exhibition “Yugo Next,” in which SVA students converted salvaged Yugo cars into monumental household objects; Vuic details the exhibition in the introduction to the book.
• Fernanda Cohen (BFA 2004 Illustration), alumnus and faculty member in the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department, was recently featured in DART. Cohen, who is currently working on a floral mural for a downtown New York City restaurant, spoke about her recent projects and student assistants from SVA.
• MFA Design Criticism Department faculty member Alexandra Lange recently contributed an article to Design Observer. Lange challenges the work of The New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff, an assignment she often gives to her students.

One of the most anticipated events in the American art community, the Whitney Biennial, opened last month at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue. The exhibition, simply titled 2010, is a presentation of contemporary American art from 55 artists, including two SVA alumni: Kate Gilmore (MFA 2002 Fine Arts) and Marianne Vitale (BFA 1996 Film and Video). (Gilmore and Vitale will be giving a talk at the SVA Theatre on Tuesday, April 6, 7pm; click here for more information.) Another alumnus, Aimee Walleston (MFA 2009 Art Criticism and Writing) recently wrote a series of profiles on five Biennial artists for Art in America.

The critics have also been kind to Gilmore and Vitale, who are both showing videos in the exhibition. The New York Times review of the Biennial called out Vitale’s work: “Most of the performance-based art in the show is on film, and some of it is really good. In a sort of stand-up comedy video the artist Marianne Vitale spits out abusive commands like a psychotic drill sergeant.” Additionally, Gilmore was one of three Biennial artists selected as a “must-see” by WNYC. Click on the image below to view a video of Gilmore preparing for her performance.

Gilmore spoke with the Briefs about the Whitney Biennial:

Tell me about the work you are exhibiting in the Biennial.
It’s a new site-specific sculpture and video that was shot at the museum. The video consists of me entering a column-type structure and then kicking and punching footholds in the structure to create a ladder-type system. When I kick and punch, splashes of color emerge, changing the environment from a banal grey to a vibrant yellow. After the footholds are created, I am able to climb the column and turn off the camera.

What was your reaction when you found out your work had been selected?
Needless to say, I was very happy. It is one of those shows that most artists, at some point in their lives, hope to be a part of.

How do you think participating in the Whitney Biennial will affect your career?
No idea. I’ll have to wait and see. It certainly will allow a lot of people to see the work!

Image: still from video, Whitney Museum of American Art.

This semester, students in the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department were visited by John C. Jay, the executive creative director at Wieden + Kennedy (W+K). Best known for its iconic work for Nike, W+K is one of the largest independently owned advertising agencies in the world.

In addition to his guest lecture in Department Chair Richard Widle’s Visual Literacy class, Jay taught an advanced seminar to a select group of students from the department. The subject: What makes you truly unique and why should anyone care? Jay described the day’s assignment to the students with a philosophical approach: “Despite the advances of technology, we suffer today from a disease of sameness. Being authentic and original has never been more important.”

On February 27, students met Jay in the Tribeca offices of W+K and each brought along a meaningful object. They were then asked to discuss how the object represented them and use it as a jumping-off point to design a poster that express the student’s original voice.

“His assignment really made me think about who I am,” said current student Yumi Nakamura. “It gave me the freedom to express my originality and forced me to question myself and my uniqueness. This is a lifetime question and challenge.”

Image: (top) John C. Jay and Richard Wilde with students from the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department, photo by Harry Zernike; (bottom) student Guilet Libby and John C. Jay, photo by Harry Zernike.