Michael Smith's Latest Show Opens September 17, 2016 at Dan Gunn in Berlin
Sat. September 17, 2016
Transmedia professor Michael Smith exhibits "Timeline" at Dann Gunn in Berlin. The exhibition will be on view from Sept 17 - Nov 12, 2016. It was recently mentioned in Artforum's "Must See: Berlin" art guide listings.
Inaugural Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Intern Thomas Edwards Spends Summer as Curatorial Fellow
Fri. September 9, 2016
With the generous help of the Tom and Charlene Marsh Family Foundation, Thomas Edwards (M.A. Art History, 2016) was the first University of Texas at Austin graduate selected to intern with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Over the course of the inaugural internship program, Edwards gained experienced as a curatorial fellow, working to organize the museum’s incredible research archives that serve as host to reviews and critical essays written about O’Keeffe, from 1916 to the present. “Under Curatorial Director Cody Hartley, who entrusted me with great autonomy while guiding me with meticulous care, I completed challenging projects that fostered in me a confidence and self-sufficiency with museum work that I will carry for the rest of my career,” Edwards writes.
Additionally, he updated this collection, honing in on articles written between 1916 and 1970 that enhanced and complicated the understanding of O’Keeffe’s critical reception. Edwards writes, “I gathered popular features written about O’Keeffe during her lifetime, obtained copies of the original publications, and began a long-term project to insert these magazines into the gallery space, offering visitors exciting contextual frameworks for O’Keeffe’s paintings and public image.”
As a separate endeavor, Edwards spent much of the summer developing the research and writing a proposal for a forthcoming exhibition narrating O’Keeffe’s excursions to Glen Canyon and the Colorado River in the 1960s, before and during its contested damming. This period, these trips and their associated stories, became especially relevant to Edwards’ work because O’Keeffe made some of her last paintings and charcoal drawings during this time.
“Opportunities like these, to work hands-on with collections and direct original research, are nearly unheard of in the category of internships and entry-level museum work,” Edwards remarked. “and as such the three months provided experience normally only available upon years of entry-level labor.”
To read more about his experience, visit the O’Keeffe museum blog.
Ezra Masch to exhibit at Mattress Factory
Fri. September 9, 2016
Ezra Masch, "Mind the Gap", 2016
After a summer as one of the Mattress Factory’s artists-in-residence, Ezra Masch (M.F.A. Studio Art, 2012) will exhibit all new installation work on September 30, 2016. The Mattress Factory is renowned as a leader in site-specific, contemporary art and continues its tradition of unparalleled support of its resident artists.
Masch will exhibit a multi-channel video installation comprised of footage shot in the NYC subway system. Masch has synchronized and arranged cell phone footage collected from passersby in Pittsburgh who were asked to shoot video with their own cell phones simultaneously out of different windows of a moving train. Together they create an unfolded view of the tunnels, platforms and people underground.
“When I moved to NYC last year, I began to document my surroundings by making drawings and video sketches,” writes Masch. “In part, the shift from sculpture to drawing/video was out of necessity (I couldn't afford a studio space in New York, and I had to find a way to sustain a creative practice in this challenging environment), but the sketches have turned into a catalyst for exploring new territory in my work. I'm excited about using video in a sculptural way.”
Twelve videos in all, six on each side, the exhibit is intended to be an immersive audio-visual experience.
Laurel Shear Presents Work at Solo Show in Los Angeles
Fri. September 9, 2016
Laurel Shear (M.F.A. in Studio Art, 2015) presents work in show entitled Where Dreams Come True and Go To Die at Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Los Angeles. The exhibition will be on view from September 10 - October 1, 2016.
Visual Art Studies students visit The Floating Piers during Learning Tuscany study abroad program in Italy
Thu. September 8, 2016
“Once we set foot on the dock, we were greeted by hundreds of people fighting their way to leave and to start their journey upon the water.”
For four Visual Art Studies students, traveling to Tuscany through the Study in Italy program turned out to be incredibly more than what they bargained for. During the Learning Tuscany program, students and faculty are based in a small town in Eastern Tuscany. In this location they are uniquely positioned to visit and take in the rich cultural sites of many of the great art cities in central Italy. Michelle Zhou, Elysium Gonzales, Anabell Horton and Anamarie Delgado joined the program excited to tour the famous museums and historical sights, while putting their educational practice into a greater art historical context. And they did! But they also were given the once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Floating Piers.
The Floating Piers is a large-scale public art project conceived by internationally known artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Thirty years in the making, and the first project from Christo since Jeanne-Claude’s death in 2009, The Floating Piers spans a three-kilometer walkway across Lake Iseo and the two and a half kilometers of pedestrian streets in Sulzano and Peschiera Maraglio. For many of the students, this was beyond compare, “As a girl whose family has never stepped foot on international waters, this one-of-a-kind experience of traveling to Italy and seeing The Floating Piers has given me a special kind of privilege,” writes Elysium Gonzales. “Knowing that this unique exhibition was temporary, and that we had arrived on only the second day of its opening was something I never would have dreamed of doing.”
The four students spent long hours of traveling and waiting to experience The Floating Piers, but ultimately found the experience worthwhile. “Being fortunate to see The Floating Piers and Studying Abroad in Italy has made be believe that I am capable of doing anything,” one of the students, Anamarie Delgado, writes while reflecting on the experience. “I had always seen studying abroad as a possibility, but never thought that I would actually be able to have the experience. But I am so glad that I let those worries go and just let myself experience the opportunity. This is what I hope to teach my future students. I want them to know that they should not limit themselves on what they think they can and cannot do. They should just take an opportunity that comes in their life and pursue it.”
To read more about their trip to The Floating Piers, visit the Learning Tuscany blog.
