Visual Arts Briefs

The quaint, 19th-century exterior of the red-brick apartment building that Illya Azaroff (BFA Interior Design faculty member) calls home gives no hint at the modernized interior carefully designed by the master architect. A recent article in The New York Times discusses the investments Azaroff and his wife, Kristi Spessard, have made since they purchased the three-story lodging, which was originally constructed by shipbuilders in 1899.

With a solid foundation to build upon, Azaroff added creative touches from translucent Plexiglas wall panels for doors to a stairway with steel beams and natural wood treads designed by Azaroff himself. International decor, including musical instruments and posters, add character to the rooms. One of the focal points of the home is the garden, where Azaroff’s two sons can pick raspberries, have snowball fights, or enjoy the smell of herbs such as rosemary or pineapple sage. The family considers it to be an extra room.

“I wanted light, bright and airy,” he said. “I wanted to highlight the garden, which was mostly concrete when we arrived. We did, however keep the Rose of Sharon tree. The previous owner had planted the tree, and we respected that.”

For more images of the home, visit The New York Times slideshow.

The clean precision, functionality and wide-ranging approaches to interior design are on display in “EXPLORATIONS in Interior Design,” an exhibition of work by students in the BFA Interior Design Department, at the Westside Gallery, 133/141 West 21st Street.

Featuring work by students from all levels of study in the department, the exhibition highlights the process that interior designers use to solve design challenges, including the creative forces of invention, imagination and expression, and the disciplined procedures of investigation, reason and solution. Curated by faculty members Michael Duddy and Elisabeth Martin, “EXPLORATIONS in Interior Design” is on view through Saturday, April 9.

Images: Photos by John Wyszniewski.

Each year, The Alumni Society of School of Visual Arts grants Alumni Scholarship Awards to graduate and undergraduate students working on thesis/portfolio projects, and this year’s slate of recipients has just been announced. The awards are funded by generous donations from alumni, parents and friends of SVA, and are based on detailed project proposals submitted by the students.

This year’s winners are: Angela Branco (MFA Fine Arts), Sachio Cook (BFA Animation), Michelle Czajkowski (BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects), Daniel Fishel (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay), Erin Franke (BFA Visual and Critical Studies), Sasha Friedlander (MFA Social Documentary Film), Carly Gaebe (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media), Ben Gewant (BFA Fine Arts), Susie Hong (BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects), Maya Kaplun (BFA Graphic Design), Spencer Katz (BFA Film and Video), Mark Kendall (MFA Social Documentary Film), Shien-Yuin Lai (BFA Animation), Ying Hsu Lai (MFA Computer Art), Lillian Lee (MFA Design), Sara Macel (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media), Drew Magner (BFA Film and Video), William Russell Maschmeyer (MFA Interaction Design), Jinah Min (MFA Design), Kimberly Moy (BFA Interior Design), Tempest NeuCollins (MFA Fine Arts), Alex Nuñez (BFA Photography), Nathan Ramirez (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media), Christopher Sellas (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media), Olena Shmahalo (BFA Visual and Critical Studies), Sarah Stephenson (MFA Art Criticism and Writing), Michael Williams (BFA Film and Video), Zack Williams (BFA Animation) and Selim Yang (BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects).

In addition, The Alumni Society administers several named scholarships established in honor of alumni, former students or faculty. The 2011 recipients of these awards are: Lisa Anchin (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay), Illustration as Visual Essay Award; Lauren Baker (BFA Illustration), Illustration and Cartooning Award; Alysha Colangeli (BFA Fine Arts), Amelia Geocos Memorial Award; DaYoung Jung (BFA Cartooning), Will Eisner Sequential Art Award; Kayla Jang (BFA Graphic Design), Robert I. Blumenthal Memorial Award; Amanda Lanzone (BFA Illustration), 727 Award; Bo Ae Lee (BFA Cartooning), Bob Guglielmo Memorial Award; So Na Lee (BFA Fine Arts), Sylvia Lipson Allen Memorial Award; Victoria Rivera (BFA Film and Video), William C. Arkell Memorial Award; and Heather Renée Russ (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media), Thomas Reiss Memorial Award.

Images: (top) Daniel Fishel, Unnecessary Neighborly Competition, 2010; (bottom) So Na Lee, Skin of something, 2009.

The New York Times Home and Garden section reported on an unusual competition that involved an SVA alumnus. Given one month and $5,000, Adam Greco (BFA 2007 Interior Design) was one of three designers chosen to design a studio or one-bedroom apartment in the 99 John Street Deco Lofts, a 442-unit condo built in 1933 as the Insurance Company of North America Building.

The competition was sponsored by the condominium’s developer TF Cornerstone and judged by prospective buyers and others voting on a Facebook page.

See more of Greco’s 99 John Street work in our online album.

Since graduating three years ago, Jess Shirley (BFA 2007 Interior Design) has worked on a multitude of projects that vary as much in location as they do in artistic medium. Lighting is her primary focus at the moment, and in a recent interview she talks more about her various interests with the local culture site Scoutmob, which suggests that Shirley, “may just be the Most Interesting Woman in the World.”

With projects ranging from a broadcast design for a Mark Rothko exhibition that animates one of the artist’s iconic paintings, to a print advertisement for tissues featuring a crying face strategically placed over a body of water, seven students from SVA had work included in the Art Directors Annual 88, a collection of groundbreaking communication and design work published by the Art Directors Club (ADC). Anthony Cafaro (BFA 2009 Graphic Design) won a Gold award; Kil Jae Kim (BFA 2007 Graphic Design) won a Silver award; Tonya Douraghy (current student, MFA Design Department) won a Bronze award; and Sungkwon Ha (BFA 2009 Advertising), Sang Hee Jin (BFA 2008 Graphic Design), Hyojoo Kim (current student, BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department) and Alex Sunyoung Koo (BFA 2009 Advertising) won Merit awards.

The ADC annual also highlighted the inaugural group of ADC Grandmasters, a selection of educators who, for more than 10 years, have influenced students and helped shape the visual communications field as a whole. Of the five designated instructors, two were from the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department: Carin Goldberg and the late Jeffrey Metzner.

In addition, the ADC is playing host to this year’s thesis exhibition for the BFA Interior Design Department. From April 19 – 23 (with an opening reception on Tuesday, April 20, 6pm), the ADC’s gallery at 106 West 29th Street, visitors can see senior thesis projects from the class of 2010, which transform environments including an environmentally friendly apartment complex, a college residence hall, a dog grooming salon and a casino. The collection of projects was curated by faculty members Anthony Lee and Neville Lewis.

Image: Sungkwon Ha, from Art Directors Annual 88.

When the students at Acorn Preschool on East 26th Street returned to class this semester, they were greeted by a series of colorful murals, courtesy of more than 20 SVA student volunteers. Last November, Zach Brunner, a current student in the BFA Film, Video and Animation Department and a student assistant in the Office of Student Activities, along with Tina Crayton, associate director of student activities, made contact with the principal at Acorn to set up the community service project. Together they brainstormed ideas for the murals and came up with a series that represented the four seasons and various iconic images of New York City, including the American Museum of Natural History and the city skyline. The murals were completed over two weekends and cover the concrete walls surrounding the school’s playground.

Brunner said of the project, “It was great to see the preschoolers actually playing with the drawings and pretending they were real. I think we all had a lot of fun being creative and making things simple and enjoyable to 2 – 6 year olds.”

The participating students were Alex Thiel from the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department; Zach Brunner, Yanise Cabrera, Pat Hughes, Thomas Minerva and Melody Shaiken from the BFA Film, Video and Animation Department; Adam DePalma,  Jesse Keating, Maria Petrovskaya, Andrea Solow and Ximena Velazquez-Arenas from the BFA Fine Arts Department; Hyang  Mi An, Yura Kim, Melissa Matos and Louis Spano from the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department; Suh Hwang, Shashank Mittal and Kristen Vincent from the BFA Interior Design Department;  Luke Nilsson and Samantha Yudin from the BFA Photography Department; and Yvonne Andrea Castellanos from the MFA Fine Arts Department.

Image: Photo by Melissa Matos.

The University and College Designers Association’s (UCDA) annual design competition has become a yearly reason for SVA to celebrate, and it’s time to break out the champagne again. The Visual Arts Press earned a quartet of Gold Awards: two top prizes for the 2009–10 Undergraduate Catalog, and one each for the fall 2008 and spring 2009 issues of the Visual Arts Journal. These four prizes represent nearly half of the nine Gold Awards given by the UCDA overall.

From among the 1,300 entries received by the UCDA, another dozen works from the Press got Excellence Awards: alumnus and faculty member Gail Anderson’s (BFA 1984 Graphic Design) fall 2008 SVA subway poster; The Annual 2008; two separate nods for the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department’s Portfolio 29; the printed materials for the 2008 Alumni Society Auction; the BFA Fine Arts Department’s 20/20 portfolio; printed materials for SVA’s 2009 Commencement Exercises; the 2008 staff and faculty holiday party invitation; the BFA Interior Design Department’s Portfolio 9; the BFA Photography Department’s Portfolio, Class 2008; and Dear Dave, Issues #4 and #5. All of the winning publications will appear in the 2009 UCDA Design Show, which will be on view at the organization’s 39th Annual Design Conference, October 3 – 6 in Seattle.

And the Press is already getting a leg up on next year’s competition: Gail Anderson’s latest poster campaign, a series of five posters that will run until June 2010 throughout New York. The new posters combine Anderson’s signature blend of innovative typography and composition with a quote from President Barack Obama’s inaugural address: “In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned.”

Images: (top) Visual Arts Journal, spring 2009 issue; (bottom) Gail Anderson, SVA subway poster, 2009. ©Visual Arts Press, Ltd.

Each year, the Angelo Donghia Foundation awards scholarships of up to $30,000 to select students entering their senior year in interior design programs around the country. A panel of industry experts selected Sarah Schwartz, who is about to begin her final year in the BFA Interior Design Department, as one of this year’s 14 recipients. This marks the second year in a row that an SVA student has received the Donghia scholarship, and she is the fifth member of her department to be recognized since the award was initiated. Schwartz spoke to the Briefs this week about the scholarship competition and her winning project.

How did you come to win the Donghia Foundation Scholarship?
My instructor Ken San Felippo chose me to apply for it—you have to be chosen to enter. I had to send in an essay and my resume, and I had to submit one project. I chose a project I had just finished for finals: a design for a restaurant in Chelsea that I called Silhouette.

What sort of impact does this have on you and your work in interior design?
It’s gigantic. The judges for the scholarship include designers and editors of major industry magazines. So not only is it money for school, but it’s also recognition in the field before I even graduate.

What have you been working on this summer?
My wedding! Now we’re going to England, and because I won this we can actually go on a honeymoon.

Image: Sarah Schwartz, Bar View of Silhouette, 2009.

The BFA Interior Design Department hosted a lively crowd of students, parents and industry professionals on Tuesday night to celebrate the department’s annual thesis exhibition. Held this year at the Art Directors Club, the show makes dramatic use of the warehouse-like space with a series of floor-to-ceiling printouts documenting the designs of graduating students. Many of the ambitious projects on view seem to answer President Obama’s call for rebuilding and modernizing the country’s infrastructure, from Mohamed Amer’s luxe airport terminal in San Francisco and Stephen Parker’s ferry terminal/entertainment multiplex at New York City’s Battery-Maritime Building to Jamie Slaper’s sustainable New Jersey Transit rail station.

After a welcome from Department Chair Jane Smith, the evening was capped off by the presentation of awards for outstanding thesis projects to four students: Mohamed Amer, Hayley Gardner, Ambar Margarida and Larissa Raywood.

Curated by faculty members Anthony Lee and Neville Lewis, “BFA Interior Design Department Thesis Exhibition” remains on view through Friday, April 24, at the Art Directors Club, 106 West 29th Street; viewing hours are from 10am to 6pm daily.

Images: Photo by Tanya Braganti; rendering by Mohammed Amer.