Visual Arts Briefs

Sculptor and SVA alumnus Michelle Matson (BFA 2005 Fine Arts) makes her reality TV debut on Wednesday, October 12 on the season premiere of Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.  Along with 13 other up-and-coming artists, Matson will engage in a series of creative challenges while trying to avoid elimination, competing for a grand prize of $100,000 cash and a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum.

Since graduating from SVA, the 29-year-old Matson has worked for Zach Feur Gallery and Elizabeth Dee Gallery, served as an assistant for artist Josephine Meckseper, and currently works as an assistant for hyper-realist painter Marilyn Minter. In fact, it was Minter’s husband, Bill Miller, who dared Matson to apply for a spot on Work of Art, she recently told MyCentralJersey.com.

Watch a clip from the new season of Work of Art: The Next Great Artist below.

Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910 – 2010 (Fantagraphics Books) by Michael Kupperman (BFA 1988 Fine Arts): Having already paired Mark Twain with Albert Einstein as a superhero duo in his hilarious Tales Designed to Thrizzle comic series, Kupperman focuses solely on the current “life” of Twain in his absurdly satirical new book. To read an interview with Kupperman, visit SF Weekly.

D-Crit Chapbook #2: Dress (self-published) written and edited by students in the MFA Design Criticism Program: The second installment of this series turns a humorous eye on the fashion choices of public figures in the world of pop culture. Alan Rapp ponders Metallica frontman James Hetfield’s “bogus descent to Armani-toting sellout,” while Stephanie Jönsson critiques the wardrobe of Pope Benedict XVI. Eleven essays in all, with illustrations by Peter Arkle.

Immersion Into Noise (Open Humanities Press) by Joseph Nechvatal (MFA Computer Art faculty member): In his latest book, digital explorer and sound artist Nechvatal redefines “noise” as that which addresses us outside of our preferred comfort zones, and applies that audio understanding to the visual, architectural and cognitive domains to better understand “cultural noise.” To read the book online, click here. Part of Open Humanities Press’ “Critical Climate Change” series.

Photographer and MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department faculty member Elinor Carucci explores the complexity of familial intimacy in her new show “Born.” For this series of photos, Carucci turns her lens on her children, and the results are at once unsettling, poignant, and beautiful. On view at Sasha Wolf Gallery, 548 West 28 Street, through November 5.

BFA Fine Arts Department faculty member Melissa Meyer presents “New Paintings and Watercolors”—10 paintings and two watercolors, to be exact. These latest works showcase Meyer’s mastery of color control, and reflect the artist’s desire to be in a constant state of invigoration and renewal. On view at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., 514 West 25 Street, through October 29.

Division of Continuing Education faculty member Charles Yoder turns to nature in his new show “Still Waters and Shadows.” Inspired by a moonlit winter’s night, this collection of paintings represents Yoder’s transition from “abstract painter” to “realist painter.” On view at the Narthex Gallery at Saint Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Avenue at 54 Street, September 30 through November 20.

Image: Bath, 2006, by Elinor Carucci. Courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery.

SVA’s “Art in the First Person” lecture series continues on September 22 with two events that are sure to generate some lively discussion. At 6:30pm in the SVA Amphitheater, 209 East 23 Street, the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department in partnership with Professional Women Photographers present “The Role of Women in Photography: Are We There Yet?” Moderator Elisabeth Bondi, former visuals editor for The New Yorker, will be joined by curator and writer Lyle Rexer; photography critic Vince Aletti; and photographers Martine Fougeron, Sarah Silver, and Lisa Kereszi.

Across town at 7 pm at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street, the MFA Art Criticism & Writing Department hosts “Making It Visible,” a talk by Robert Storr, critic, curator, artist, and Dean of the Yale University School of Art. Storr will reflect on Gerhard Richter’s painting September, a work that powerfully evokes 9/11, and compare it to Robert Ryman’s paintings, which pose alternatives to “realism.”

On October 12 at 7pm at the SVA Theatre, the BFA Photography Department presents “Unseen in The Unseen Eye” in conjunction with the release of author, curator, collector and SVA faculty member Bill Hunt’s new book The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious. Hunt will discuss the book, his life as a collector, and his passion for photography with fellow author, curator, and faculty member Susan Bright. On October 13 at 7pm at the SVA Theatre, the MFA Art Criticism & Writing Department welcomes artist Carolee Schneemann as she explores the “Mysteries of the Iconographies” during what promises to be a stunning visual lecture.

As part of Performa 11, the BFA Fine Arts Department and the BFA Visual & Critical Studies Department present “I Feel Your Pain,” a new multimedia performance by artist Liz Magic Laser based on the idea of a “living newspaper.” Laser’s politically charged work will be performed at 8pm on Sunday, November 13 and at 8pm on Monday, November 14 at the SVA Theatre.

Most “Art in the First Person” events are free and open to the public. For more information on the more than 20 events, visit sva.edu/artinthefirstperson.

Images: (top) Photo of Robert Storr by Lyle Ashton Harris. (bottom) A still from “I Feel Your Pain” by Liz Magic Laser.

What could be more all-American than an 800-pound bag of M&Ms?

Robin Antar (BFA 1981 Fine Arts), who was featured in the NY Daily News recently, sculpted the bag of chocolate treats after 9/11 in an effort to honor the nation in an original way. “I thought, what’s American?” she says in the article. “America is junk food. Let’s do something fun. So I started doing Milano cookies, M&Ms, Oreos, pencils, jeans, jackets.”

Antar began sculpting in 1974 when she took a class at a high school in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. It inspired her to eventually attend SVA instead of her original plan of becoming a bookkeeper. “I’ve been doing it ever since, and it’s been a lifesaver because no matter what trauma you’re going through, if you just worked all day in the shop, you can tackle anything, “ she says.

Other sculptures in Antar’s collection include a Skechers boot, a pair of Everlast boxing gloves, a bottle of Heinz ketchup, and a York Peppermint Pattie cast in stainless steel that she created for a woman who had a fetish for the snack.

Antar is currently working on a bag of chips that she carved down to 3,000 pounds from its original form as a 6,000-pound block of marble, a project she has been at for the past decade. She says sculpting is empowering, and she lets nothing hold her back—not comments that her art is crazy, not even the fact that she is nearly blind in one eye. “The real objects expire, but my sculptures never do,” she says.

Read the full article at NY Daily News.

The New York Times, Forbes and ARTINFO are just a few of the publications that have taken notice of SVA alumni Kenny Scharf (BFA 1981 Fine Arts) and Keith Haring (1979 Fine Arts) as featured artists in “Art in the Streets.” On view at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles through August 8, 2011, “Art in the Streets” is the first major U.S. museum exhibition on the history of graffiti and street art. It was supposed to come to New York next year, but plans for the show to travel to the Brooklyn Museum in the spring of 2012 were canceled recently for financial reasons.

The Briefs spoke with Scharf shortly after the Brooklyn Museum announced their cancellation. “I’m really happy to be a part of MOCA’s ‘Art in the Streets,’” said Scharf. “I have come across a lot of fear where street art/graffiti is concerned and I want to shake the fearsome and say ‘It’s only paint!’ It’s just a painting, it’s not a gun! I wish people could see that paintings full of color and expression enhance the boring gray cityscapes that people are so worried about defending. It gives joy and humanity to the ever increasing corporate atmosphere surrounding us.” Regarding Brooklyn Museum’s cancellation, Scharf said,  “I think it is a mistake on their part as the show is bringing record attendance in LA. What museum doesn’t want that?”

While new plans for “Arts in the Streets” to travel have not been announced, MOCA has posted extensive behind-the-scene photos and installation shots on The Curve, the museum’s blog.

An after-hours look at “Art in the Streets” created by artist Craig R. Stecyk III, who teamed up with directors Felipe Lima and Andy Bruntel, can be seen below:

Image: (top) Kenny Scharf painting at “Art in the Street.” Photo by Gregory Bojorquez. (middle) Installation view of Kenny Sharf mural. Photo by Alissa Walker.

Suzanne Anker, chair of the BFA Fine Arts Department, was the keynote speaker at last month’s Imagining Imagination International Conference, which took place at the Royal College of Art in London. Her presentation, Between Awe and Artifice: Welcome to Wonderland, capped off the two-day symposium, which examined how culture informs creativity, and included renowned speakers and researchers from all over the world.

BFA Fine Arts Department faculty member Dr. Sabine Flach, one of the organizers of the event, said it “covered the full range of disciplines that do research in the area of mental images, including medicine, psychology, literature, art history and music.” Anker’s lecture contributed to the overall success of the conference, Flach added. “Her expertise as an international, well known artist and theorist was absolutely necessary for the conference, and we were happy and honored that she accepted our invitation to speak.”

While in Europe, Anker also stopped at the Pera Museum in Istanbul to take part in the Suna Kirac Conferences on Neurodegeneration: Recent Themes in Motor Neuron Biology and Neurodegeneration. There she delivered a talk entitled Fundamentally Human: Contemporary Art and Neuroscience, which corresponded with a show she recently curated for the museum and explored the ways in which science and technology relate to perception and expression.

Alumnus Jason Bailer Losh (MFA 2007 Fine Arts) has started a unique artistic and cultural exchange in Chinatown. For the current exhibit “Chinese Take Out,” Losh and nonprofit group Art in General have placed works by contemporary artists inside seven Chinese restaurants throughout the neighborhood. What they have taken in trade are decorative objects from the eateries, which are on display at Art in General’s nearby gallery (79 Walker Street) until July 2. The items from both sides of the swap are meant to represent cultural identity and offer a glimpse into the participants’ lives in New York.

Tonight at 6:30pm at the Museum of Chinese in America (215 Centre Street), Losh and the project’s participating artists and restaurant owners engage in a roundtable discussion about ideas of public space, how food relates to art in Chinatown, and what they have all learned through the exchange.

Read more about “Chinese Take Out” at NY1 and The Wall Street Journal.

Images: (top) Martin Basher’s The Possibility of an Island, 2011. Duratran print, 48 × 110. Image courtesy of artist; (bottom) Installation image at Art in General. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Alumnus Scott Carpenter (BFA 1994 Fine Arts) was recently featured in an article at MLB.com for his creation of an entirely synthetic baseball glove. Ten years in the making, the mitt had its Major League debut June 16 on the left hand of Yankees pitcher Brian Gordon, who himself was making his first start for the Bronx Bombers.

Carpenter eagerly made the trek from his hometown of Cooperstown, New York to attend the game. “I was ecstatic,” he told MLB.com. “I had chills. I almost couldn’t believe it. It’s something I’ve been imagining and hoping for for a long time.” But Carpenter had confidence in his project and his perseverance paid off. “I had a firm belief early on that the future of baseball gloves would be in synthetic materials and I believed that I could be the one to break it to the Major Leagues by making the first non-leather glove used in a Major League game,” he said.

Image: Scott Carpenter works on a glove in his studio. Courtesy of the artist.

The first in a series of reports on the 2011 summer Arts Abroad programs.

It’s almost impossible to imagine Leonardo da Vinci’s legacy without the notebooks he left behind, but his is just the most famous example of the importance that journaling has had for artists going back centuries. Connecting with this tradition in da Vinci’s native Italy was one of the goals of The Artist’s Journal, a new Arts Abroad program set in two world-renowned cultural capitals: Istanbul and Florence. The Briefs caught up with faculty member Peter Hristoff and his students as they were just beginning to discover the Italian city’s cultural riches.

The Museo di San Marco is a 15th-century monastery where the monk’s cells were decorated with masterful frescoes by Fra Angelico and his assistants. As captured in the students’ notebooks, the paintings dominate their austere surroundings with vivid color and engrossing compositions. If ever confinement seemed enlightened, it is here. As no photography of the interiors is permitted, the students’ drawings were the only tangible record of their visit.

The next day the group headed to the Specola, the natural history museum of the University of Florence that was established in the 18th century to house the wealth of scientific collections of the Medici, long Florence’s “first family.” In addition to taxidermy specimens from seemingly every corner of the world, the museum holds a world-renowned collection of wax anatomical models from the period when research on cadavers was punishable by death.

Explaining the appeal of drawing on location in a place like this, one student said, “Drawing every day puts you in the realm of history. You’re really experiencing the city because you’re visually recording it.” History is everywhere in Florence, but for Hristoff’s students, no camera is needed to capture it.

Images: (top) Cassandra Levine, untitled drawing, 2011; (middle) the Museo di San Marco in Florence; (bottom) drawing at the Specola.