Semester Break

Check out my cover story

by Rebecca Rafferty

in

ARTVOICES

The semester has come to an end but the show goes on.  Terrence Sanders is a curator and book publisher who is establishing a real presence in the art world, now in Los Angeles, and he is opening the new "Makeshift Museum" in the gallery section of that city this winter.  Along with that he publishes the magazine ARTVOICES, and here he presents my artwork with an interview by our local art critic, Rebecca Rafferty.  Check it out online, and also it will be sold as a magazine in print soon - it is their 9th Anniversary issue, so I am very pleased to be part of this production.  

Now, before we turn the page to the new year, I wanted to share some images and ideas about the practice of the visual arts here at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Program Review

First, we had an engaging opportunity to catch up with what our students have been doing during our recent program review  ( see above with faculty member Christine Shank ).  The reviews created groups of students who might not have been introduced before - and we all looked over our students artworks for the semester with a couple of faculty members.  We are building on our strengths as a college and we invited professors and faculty from other disciplines to come and join in the give-and-take.

Bri Nelson shares her sculpture work-in-progress

during the program review

In the galleries we have had a wonderful cross-section of paintings and prints by Norman Ives who was a well-regarded teacher at Yale University.  Norman Ives was a graphic designer, painter, and printmaker who understood modernism in all of its forms - and employed type in whole or in part in most of the artwork on view.  There is a strength to formalism and we see that in Norman Ive's work - whether it is a painting or a logo like the one we see below.

Norman Ives retrospective

at 

Bevier Gallery and the Vignelli Design Center

Walking over to the NTID Dyer Art Center on campus, I found Danlin Zhao and her wonderful new artwork that she has put together for her Thesis exhibition ( Becoming ) - and it is worth taking the time to go and check it out.  Danlin has a real grasp of what it takes to be an artist, her sculptural works are beautiful and sensitive to behold.

Danlin Zhao upstairs in the Dyer Art Center, at R.I.T.

Finally, down in my classroom in Booth Building, I teach a painting class for non-majors and we had our final reviews for the work done in my class and I found some extremely interesting paintings like this one done by Anna Hall.

Painting by Anna Hall

Every one of my students also created self portraits and there were several which stood out here are two ones that had a good likeness, and some vitality as works of art.  Thank you to my students for a very engaging year!

Painting by Alia

Painting by Alexandra

Graduating

Shwanda Corbett

graduates this week from

the

Studio Arts at R.I.T.

We have a very diverse range of students here in the School of Art, at R.I.T. and this coming week we have graduating ceremonies for many students who we have come to know and work with, and today one of our own students has been featured on the front page of the local paper: The Democrat & Chronicle.  You can find a link here to look at the piece written by James Goodman.  There is also a short video clip of Shwanda working in her studio, take a look and learn..

Here is the link: 

-        http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/05/12/rit-artist-shwanda-corbett-oxford/83869656/

Time for Critique

Final Reviews in A172

School of Art

at Rochester Institute of Technology

May 6, 2016

There was a whole table with food and a whole bunch of people gathered together for the final reviews of the Spring 2016 semester.  What made this gathering unusual was that we had a guest critic visiting on Friday who is an art critic for The New York Times,  and that was Martha Schwendener.  She is regularly in and out of the galleries and museums in the New York City area so she knows her way around the contemporary art scene, and has been writing reviews since the early 1990's.

The group split up into cells, that is a few students and a few guest faculty members to lead the reviews, and we went off into the warren of studios to see the art work and to talk with the student artists.  For many of the visiting faculty - this art was new to them, so they were seeing it with fresh eyes.  A lot of good discussion comes from this, and it isn't limited only to the grad students or upper level undergrads - but all students who have space in A172, or have their work up on the walls to see.

Show and Tell

Each student had a segment of time to explain what they have been doing, and explore the artistic territory with the advisors who came in to see what was happening.  Suggestions were made about the relative value of the artwork on display.  Names of artists to follow were mentioned, and everyone had a chance to have their say.

For the shy artists  in the group, they get over their fears by talking in a conversational way with their advisors.  For the more demonstrative artists, they were able to show their stuff and see how it played to the crowd.. there is always a lot to learn about the studio visit.

Martha Schwendender

guest art critic

checks

her phone

Martha Schwendender, Visiting Critic

Visiting Art Critic

Martha Schwendender

of the 

New York Times

at R.I.T. this week

Martha Schwendender visited Rochester Institute of Technology on Thursday to give a public talk, which she announced was her "boilerplate" introduction to her work as an art critic for the paper of record, "The New York Times".  At R.I.T. in the past I have invited a variety of art critics to come and visit including Barry Schwabsky from The Nation, Jed Perl who now writes for The New York Review of Books,  Bill Zimmer and Michael Kimmelman who also are associated with The New York Times,

this was over the span of about ten years. 

Martha has also written art reviews for The New Yorker, and Artforum and The Brooklyn Rail among others and she recently received her Ph.D in Art History from the City University of New York, so she knows her way around the art world.  One of her specialties is photography and she has been writing reviews of shows since the early 1990's.

Jasper Johns "The Art Critic"

Early in her talk at R.I.T., Martha offered some highlights of the art critic's life as seen in the creative works of visual artists ( and there is so much to choose from ).  The little sculpture by Jasper Johns features a pair of glasses with two mouths where the eyes should be- and it is a witty clue to his feelings for the art critic.  Being an art critic and getting paid for this work in the digital age is becoming rare indeed, but Martha seems to be doing alright, and I read her work regularly in the paper and am thankful she gets around to seeing as much as she does ( and writes the reviews ).

Painting by Elena Sisto

from her recent show reviewed by Martha Schwendener

in 

The New York Times

What I learned from this talk was that Martha was also engaged by the Occupy movement in New York City and also what that movement came to stand for within the cultural institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art.  Martha talked about shows that have also made a big impression on her and she brought along a selection of images from shows she has recently reviewed.  All in all a very worthwhile talk, and a way to catch up on current events and trends in the Big Apple..

Cover of the new May-June 2016

ACS Magazine

Our students were all asked to work up a press release which I sent out to editors and this week our grad student Lingfei Zhao was accepted for publication in the magazine above, edited by Renee LaVerne Rose who works out of Chicago.  Her magazine is a wonderful publication that has a worldwide view of the art world.  Artists are given feature length spreads in this online publication.

Artists like Lingfei Zhao then have their work out for people to see who may want to view the magazine on their tablet or smartphone.

Lingfei's artwork in the majority is figurative, and he also documents his interior life, or the life of the imagination, in very intriguing ways.  In the magazine he has a dialog that is printed out in English and Chinese, and this greatly increases his audience.

Opening page from ACS Magazine

article on the art of Lingfei Zhao

a student at Rochester Institute of Technology

Hopefully you will go online and subscribe to ACS Magazine, because it is a terrific publication, and it is sent to you for free, online.  This kind of e-magazine has become very popular, and a great way of having your artwork viewed by a potential and very large audience.

Congratulations to Lingfei Zhao, and now it is your turn to go out and let people know about the art you create, and the story you want to tell.

Martha Schwendender

will be

visiting

Rochester Institute of Technology

May 5th

If you read the New York Times for the Friday art reviews, you will have read articles by Martha Schwendener, and she will be giving her art critic talk on May 5th, at 5 pm in the Liberal Arts Auditorium ( A 205 ).  Don't miss it!  All are invited to attend!

Art critic Martha Schwendener (The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, etc.) will be speaking at Rochester Institute of Technology on Thursday May 5th at 5:00 pm in Auditorium A205 in the College of Liberal Arts (building 6). 

Brought to you by the School of Art.

Ready For Take Off

Fine Art studio show 

at

Gallery r

100 College Avenue, Rochester, New York

The six women who participate in the new show at Gallery r are getting ready to take off.  They are about to enter a new chapter in their lives, and we think that R.I.T. has a positive effect on their individual skill levels and on their ability to connect with an audience.  The art scene is more open and willing to take a look, and each of these people have a story to tell with their installations.

Megan Mahaney is the first painter you see when you enter the gallery.  She has powerful paintings in a heightened palette and her figurative work will certainly capture the audience she is looking for.  For this viewer I had to think about the tradition of painting that Megan relates to - and that is an emotional attachment to drama like that of Carravagio, except all of Megan's paintings are centered on a woman's world.  Her paintings have a lustrous surface, but it is really the stories that go on in each work which will capture and hold your attention.  One woman's hair is on fire, while another one ( an Eve figure ) holds a shiny apple while giving birth through a C-Section to a trio of snakes.. Oh My!

Helen's interactive sculpture

Helen Danz has an interactive sculptural installation that allows one to play with the fluorescent forms that are magnetized and grip the large grey steel trapezoids like barnacles on a rock in the ocean.  On one wall there are three distinct stages of Helen's project to take chance sketches and graffiti and make them into something that has a strong sense of color and animation.  Helen is really into the engagement of her audience, and she is moving into a career in Art Therapy.

Paintings by Helen Danz

Shwanda Corbett has video, photos and installations which include three porcelain domes on a plinth on the floor.  The three domes receive a projection from above and the images are of a certain kind of clown.  At our faculty review, Shwanda talked about Charlie Chaplin, but in her work there is also a reference to minstrels and performers in blackface.  Shwanda is the star in all of the rolls she plays in the videos and in the large scale photo portraits where she can be seen in colorful "make-up.

Shwanda Corbett

Shwanda Corbett,

porcelain and projection

Shwanda uses the masking concept in her work, and the colors act like the paints that tribes use to distinguish themselves, and this also is like what one might see in rituals among native peoples of the South Pacific.

Diane Baron with Lauren Miyoko on the back wall to the right

Diane Baron has a variety of artwork on display, and all cross reference nature and the various stages of life and the passing of life, especially in her welded chain sculpture that rises like a snake charmer up and up into the room to end in a metal hook.  Diane also has an accordion book with twigs coming out on top and a wall work that includes decorative paper, found stones, and woodblocks attached to the wall.

Lauren is showing a hairy toy creature, while the drawings on the wall remind me of Edward Gorey. Lauren's artwork is illustrational, and I would love to see how she could build up a scene by using her techniques to build some further atmosphere for her work.

Maria Victoria Savka

Finally, there is a vital set of portraits from Ms. Savka who is also a gifted printmaker and she has something to say in a variety of media - all about the people in her life.  I get the feeling that she is energetic and always on the move and on the lookout for interesting personality and character. Her paintings have a bit of the French artist Redon in them.  This painting above is full of action and one can only speculate on what it all means... 

Near Graduation

Putting on the show

for 

Graduate Students 

at R.I.T.

Opening April, 2016

The bustle of activity as graduate students prepare for their Thesis show in the Bevier Gallery at R.I.T. - and the anticipation of crowds on opening night puts some electric in the air.  There is a lot of work to be done, as the student artists unpack and mount their works.  Suddenly their work looks so different when it is taken out of the studio and put into the gallery space.  Different light, and different vantage points can help or hinder your appreciation of all that work.  Does the artwork stand up to scrutiny?  What kind of feedback will the student get once the work is out of their studio space, and what will they have to say about the experience?

Nadine Longmore

at 

Bevier Gallery

R.I.T

At the opening I met with Nadine and her twin sister, and we spoke about her artwork. I wonder if the intention of the artist carried across to the visitors to the show - her feelings were about making paintings that expressed a deep bond between her and her sister...  Does the abstraction allow for this kind of reading?  Will the paintings lead to a new direction in the artists work and life?  How will the lessons learned doing these paintings affect her in the future...  Many questions remain to be answered.

Garvin Sealy

at 

Beaver Gallery

R.I.T.

Garvin Sealy introduced me to his mom who was visiting from her home in Florida.  I hope she feels good about all the artwork her son has produced.  Garvin has an interesting use of scale and materials with the giant metal head that takes hold of your eyes the minute you step into this show - very engaging.  The heads are sometimes in cast blue glass and they occupy a strategic place in the one sculpture above.  You could say that the little blue face is the apple of my eye, or something like that.

The total output from Garvin is very unexpected.  I knew his work from printmaking but not from this vantage point.  We all hope he gets the job he is seeking, and we know he will move forward and make a name for himself...

Dongyi Wu

at 

Beaver Gallery

R.I.T.

We walked over to see what Dongyi Wu had produced.  She was feverishly at work for the past month making all the pieces for this show.  All manner of wood carving, casting, welding - she does it all with a flair, and a smile.  These works are about the dreams she has,  and I think this artwork  will serve her well in the future as well as looking terrific here in the present.

Visionary

Shwanda Renee Corbett

student at R.I.T.

“My art is grounded in the belief in one Universal Energy which runs through everything […] My works are the irrigation veins of the Universal fluid. Through them ascend the ancestral sap, the original beliefs, the primordial accumulations, the unconscious thoughts that animate the world. There is no original past to redeem; there is the void, the orphanhood, the unbaptized earth of the beginning, the time that from within the earth looks upon us. There is above all the search for origin. (Ana Mendieta, English translation in Jan Blocker. Where Is Ana Mendieta, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1999, p. 34) 

The well-being of humanity is the main focus of my work and how social issues affect it. On the surface, it appears to be about the social problem, but the more it is revisited, the more it becomes more about the person. I try to give humanity a face and an emotion. I believe everything is connected. How we cope with the pressures of society varies with each individual. What I present in my work could be the mask I use to hide the true feelings, or it’s about whatever I’m hiding from the world.

My Business Practices class includes diverse approaches to visual art, and Shwanda is an exponent of that.  Her work includes performance art and much more, and it is all part of her expressive nature to deal with some big questions of our existence on this planet and how we will get along.

Mix Masters

"God in Cloud", Fine Point & Photoshop by
"Tony" 

Cai Hexuan

a student in the MFA Studio Art Program at R.I.T.

I call this post Mix Masters for the way these two artists and MFA candidates dig into a legacy of images associated with history.  For "Tony" we have a deep interest in Art Nouveau and a narrative that extends into character development, and for Abiose Spriggs we see icons associated with his thesis work titled: "The New Negro Has No Fear".  As artists we deal with personal desire and family history and we can express ideas directly or obliquely.  It is also interesting to speculate on who the intended audience is for this art.. who will be receptive to it...

Cai "Tony" Hexuan writes about the image above:

God exists everywhere on our planet, this also includes its presence in the human soul.  People share a deep connection with everything around them just like their conversation with God.  The Goddess in my artwork is waiting for people as in a dream.  She stands guard in forests, lakes, seas and in countless stars.  The Goddess in this dream is a fusion of the abstract and nature; people’s divinity can only be sought in nature. 

"Horsewoman" ,  Fine Point & Photoshop, by

"Tony"

Cai Hexuan

In the artwork shown above, "Tony" writes:

“A girl achieves her own destiny gradually growing up to be a brave knight.  Her expression changes from young and arrogant into mature and modest.  Her belief is getting stronger in her heart.  Her inner strength is shown through her expression." 

 Next, we have two very different images from Abiose Spriggs and the central theme he writes about for his artwork has a focus on social activism.  See here how it is reflected in his artwork:

Abiose Springs, a painter 

in the Studio Art Program, MFA candidate

at

R.I.T.

"Abiose Spriggs is in his last semester of his two year MFA thesis program. In his thesis work THE NEW NEGRO HAS NO FEAR, he works with a contemporary manifestation of the philosophy and principles of the UNIA (United Negro Improvement Association) and it’s

founder Marcus Garvey. His artwork depicts Garvey and the UNIA as a forgotten dream in which one tries to recall every detail but only can remember fragmented pieces of that dream. Using vibrant pastel colors to recreate what once was, the pride and

rich history of those who were once members of the since past organization. During his residence in RIT’s MFA program he has participated in four group shows in the Rochester area and plans to pursue more endeavors as a professional artist. "

Abiose Springs

Getting Physical

"Precious"

Brianne Nelson

cast in yellow brass

2015

A group from the School of Art at R.I.T. went to China on an invitation to work on their sculptures. 

Here is what Brianne Nelson wrote about the experience: "This was one of three pieces cast in Jingdezhen, China during my study abroad.  It is bubble wrap that has been memorialized in yellow brass.  I have taken a common object, usually used to protect something precious that one wouldn't want damaged, and recreated it in a very strong, heavy, precious metal.

Brianne makes art that is literally about transformation.  In this case she takes something light and very flexible, and reworks it into a much more stable, colorful form that probably won't pop under pressure.  The cast edges are still rough and invite you to touch them.  The piece is also about color and texture as you can see in the photograph above.

In the following transformation by Leena Sonbuol, we have a view of a garment, made of cloth that is transformed into something that is like a diagram, or a drawing in space using wire and color to fill a void.  Leena provides a description and two photos which are almost like a before and after.  First study the documentary photograph and then see two views of the sculpture.

  

photo by Leena Sonbuol

The shemagh

Artwork size: 4' 5"

The shemagh (شماغ šmāġis) is a traditional headdress which is common for hundreds of years in the Middle East. I wove the shemagh sculpture from more than 1,750 feet of the silver, and red metal wire twisted to create the real size of shemagh, and I decorated it with 480 red beads. On a symbolic level, this shemagh presents the missing man in my life that is my father. The red complex wire line in the sculpture reflects the life line and the obstacles that he was facing until he passed away.

"The Shemagh"

Sculpture by Leena Sonbuol