For her series States of Union, photographer and alumnus Alix Smith (MFA 2005 Photography, Video and Related Media) took color portraits of gay and lesbian couples and families, with the compositions loosely referencing classical paintings. Smith spoke with The Advocate about the series and how she chose her subjects; Smith’s work was also featured on the photography blog Lenscratch.
As summer’s characteristic weather patterns send New Yorkers to public pools and weekends out of town, SVA alumnus and BFA Fine Arts Department faculty and staff member Erik Guzman (MFA 2003 Fine Arts; BFA 1996 Fine Arts) is presenting a public-art project that is uniquely attuned to the season’s climate. Weather Beacon is a multimedia sculpture installed at the World Financial Center (WFC), 200 Vesey Street, that wirelessly pulls in weather data from the Internet and transforms the information into constantly shifting patterns of light and movement.
Guzman conceptualized Weather Beacon as a way to tie together the elemental flow of nature through weather with the contemporary flow of information via the Web. “It’s a translation tool, or oracle, that allows for the visualization of the invisible forces of nature,” he says. Weather Beacon will be on view outside of the WFC’s Winter Garden through the end of 2010. For more information, visit Guzman’s Web site or the project’s Facebook page.
Image: Weather Beacon at the World Financial Center; photo by Erik Guzman.
CUE Art Foundation is hosting an exhibition of work by recipients of the 2009 Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grants, a list that includes alumnus Trish Tillman (MFA 2009 Fine Arts).
The Foundation annually awards grants to painters and sculptors and supports outside programming such as workshops and residencies serving individual artists. The exhibition runs through Saturday, July 31, at 511 West 25th Street.
Image: Trish Tillman, Gift and Guilt,
2009.
We asked SVA students and faculty to send in work they were creating over the summer. This is one in an occasional series of Summer Session posts.
BFA Film, Video and Animation Department student Johnathan Davidsen was watching Adventure Time on the Cartoon Network and was inspired to create this piece of fan art that, according to the artist, “uses a style similar to [Japanese anime studio] Gainax shows like Gurren Lagann.”
Image: Johnathan Davidsen, Adventure Time, 2010.
For its 25th year awarding unrestricted grants to New York State artists, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) recognized 118 artists with Artist Fellowships, including MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department faculty members Elinor Carucci and Penelope Umbrico (MFA 1989 Fine Arts), who is also an alumnus. Both Umbrico and Carucci received the grants for Photography, and NYFA also awarded grants in Architecture/Environmental Structures; Choreography; Fiction; Music/Sound; Painting; Playwriting/Screenwriting; and Video.
In describing her personal philosophy, illustrator and alumnus You Byun (MFA 2009 Illustration as Visual Essay) tells Communication Arts, “The nature of truth is often double-sided and fickle; I create images that show conflicting moods (bliss and sadness, abundance and quiet), that reflect that duality.” In an interview with the magazine, Byun discusses her first paid illustration assignments and how she deals with creative block.
Image: Communication Arts Web site.
For its Dogs on Design series, Core77 interviewed Liz Danzico, chair of the MFA Interaction Design Department, along with her dog Lucy. Danzico explains what dogs can teach designers about their field, from the effectiveness of simple communication to the importance of studying subtlety. Read the article here.
The MAT Art Education Department is presenting “Keep Your Eye on the Ball,” a new exhibition of work created in the program’s summer Advanced Studio Art course. Faculty member Michael Filan, who teaches the course and is curator of the exhibition, presented a deceptively simple assignment: use a plastic toy ball as the starting point for a work of art.
The resulting works—with themes ranging from commentary on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to depictions of pregnancy and motherhood—are collected in “Keep Your Eye on the Ball,” on view at the Westside Gallery, 133/141 West 21st Street, June 26 – July 24; there will be a reception for the artists on Friday, July 9, 4 – 6pm.
Image:Jennifer Pastecchi, Protection, 2010.
From President Barack Obama to musician Kurt Cobain, alumnus Hanoch Piven (BFA 1992 Graphic Design) has created collage-style caricatures of famous people using everyday objects that reflect the person’s character. Piven spoke with fellow alumnus and SVA faculty member Yuko Shimizu (MFA 2003 Illustration as Visual Essay) in Illustration Friday about the caricatures, including the first one he completed while at SVA: Saddam Hussein, with a line of matches forming his mustache. Piven also has a DIY variant of the caricatures available as an iPhone app.
Piven’s work was included in the exhibition “The Wilde Years: Four Decades of Shaping Visual Culture” at the Visual Arts Gallery in fall 2009.
Introducing the tools and principles of digital typeface design, the week-long course Turning Letters into Type is offered through the Division of Continuing Education, with the session beginning Monday, July 12. Typography.com mentioned the course and the instructor, designer Sara Soskolne, in a recent post.
