Stephen Vitiello, Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinetic Imaging, participated in an upcoming video installation project being displayed in New York City.

AT THE STILL POINT
A new 5-channel installation.

Video by Pawel Wojtasik
Soundscape by Stephen Vitiello

March 6 – April 11 Opening reception: Saturday, March 13, 5-8 pm

Location:

The Department of Music’s Director of Orchestral Studies, Daniel Myssyk, Jazz professor Doug Richards, Pianist Dmitri Shteinberg and student Adrienne Pucky are interviewed for the new music works coming out of the VCU music department.

“This frothy concoction is the second piece by the university’s revered jazz professor, Doug Richards, that makes use of the symphonic orchestra, some jazz musicians and a choir. “Some New Threads for Eleanor and Jude” takes as its springboard the hallowed tunes of the Beatles and infuses them with a calypso flavor. The mélange of jazz instrumentation and techniques, symphonic textures and deeply revered pop tunes makes for a refreshing pastiche, one that is more than a bit surreal. Is that intentional?”

Read more here.

SunTek Chung, alumnus of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, was recently reviewed in Art in America, a prestigious magazine of the arts. He also is also a part-time faculty member for the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media.

“Culture clash has a rich history as motivation for art-making. In his first New York solo exhibition, the 39-year-old Korean-American artist SunTek Chung, who lives in Virginia, considered the East-West divide, using religious and cultural icons in humorous and provocative sculptures and photographs (all works 2009).”

Read the rest of the article here.

Richard Roth, former chair of the Department of Painting and Printmaking and current faculty member, displays works in a solo show entitled, “Perimeter Check“. On display March 5- April 17, 2010 at the Reynolds Gallery at 1514 West Main St., Richmond, VA. Opening reception for the artist, Friday, March 5 from 7-9 pm.

Mia Feuer, 2009 MFA alumna of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, was recently interviewed on the website Brightest Young Things.

Since Mia received her BFA from the University of Manitoba in 2005 and her MFA in the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth Media in 2009, she has been awarded several travel, research and production grants including a grant from the Winnipeg Arts Council to facilitate sculptural workshops in the West Bank with Palestinian children. Mia has held two-month long residencies at both the Vermont Studio Center and the Seven Below Arts Initiative in Burlington, VT. 2010 brings an art residency in a Millay Colony and in 2011 Mia will hold a residency with the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. Mia’s solo exhibitions include the Outerworks Gallery (Winnipeg, Canada) in 2006; FLUXspace (Philadelphia, PA) and the Dorfman Projects (NY, NY) in 2009; and the Firehouse Gallery (Burlington, VT) and the Contemporary Arts Center of Atlanta (Atlanta, GA) in addition to her exhibitions at the Transformer Gallery and the AAC in 2010.

In between managing time in the studio, creating private commissions and teaching sculpture at American University and George Mason University, Mia found time to give an interview for BYT. Based on what Mia has already achieved she is definitely art artist to watch, and DC is fortunate to call her a local.

(photo shows the The Yellow House team)

The 2010 VCUarts Undergraduate Student Research Grants have been announced! Thirty-nine students from across the School of the Arts will be awarded a total of approximately $25,000 in funding for their creative ideas in 2010. Eleven proposals were chosen this year from a pool of nearly sixty competitive proposals received from every program in the School of the Arts.

Funding for the VCUarts Undergraduate Research Grants began in 2006 with the purpose of encouraging curiosity, creativity, risk-taking and scholarly investigation into a project or subject of interest relevant to a student’s major. A main focus of each grant proposal is interdisciplinary research and student collaboration. Take a look at what this year’s grant recipients have in the works.

Technologically Charged Modern Dance Event
Four students will create a full evening-length multimedia modern dance event to be held at the newly renovated Dogtown Dance Theatre. The theme for the piece is the study of the human subconscious. The starting point will be the investigation from Quadrifrons, a complete collaborative dance work based on hypnosis and the human subconscious.
Amy Kaeberle, Interdisciplinary Studies (Dance and Choreography and Kinetic Imaging)
Alyssa Gregory, Dance and Choreography
Amanda Patterson, Kinetic Imaging
Nathan Altice, Media, Art + Text
Award: $3,000

Eco-Chic: Recycled Fashion
One Sculpture + Extended Media and one Craft/Material Studies student will marry their love affair with fabric in Eco-Chic. The central theme of this project is to take pre-existing fabrics such as curtains, upholstery or sheets from second-hand shops and transform them into new and original fabrics which will then be used to create a collection of one-of-a-kind clothing. A series of unique garments will be created drawing inspiration from the lines and shapes of intricate furniture.
Grace Johnston, Sculpture + Extended Media
Anne Douglas Shaw, Craft/Material Studies
Award: $1,800

Kinetic Reactions to Sounds of Public Spaces
In an ongoing Kinetic Imaging and Sculpture + Extended Media collaboration, two students will create a kinetic sculpture, which visually reacts to the sonic landscapes of public spaces in Richmond. Using audio-sensitive technology, programming, and robotics, parts of the sculpture will react to city noises. The piece will have a form suggestive of organic life and its sensitivity to our environment. Through this reaction, the project will increase awareness of the prevalence of sound and the importance of silence. Students will build on knowledge acquired in their separate robotics and sound classes, to learn about Richmond and interactive public art installation.
John Dombroski, Kinetic Imaging
Joshua Bennett, Sculpture + Extended Media
Award: $2,400

Color Me Curious
A team of four students will research the concept of using experimental film devices in a feature length narrative film. Adopting an original screenplay as the framework, their execution will include techniques such as multi-layered superimposition, traveling mattes and cut-out animation. Using high definition video and digitally transferred 8mm film and VHS, they will cross different filmmaking mediums.
Harrison Colby, Cinema
John Reaves, English
Knox Colby, Mass Communications
Jami Eaton, German
Award: $1,550

The Yellow House
Seven students from various disciplines will create an art educational television program titled The Yellow House. Puppets will play a major role in the development of this program designed to teach audiences of all ages about artists and the inspiration found in their work. Vincent van Gogh will be one of the program’s reoccurring characters. The title The Yellow House references van Gogh’s house in the south of France that became a sanctuary for artists.
Kay Milne, Art Education
Gerry Perez, Art Education
Warren A. Hamilton II, Kinetic Imaging
Dennis Williams, Theatre and Art History
Rebecca Rudolph, Theatre (Scene Design)
Brian Glass, Kinetic Imaging and Computer Science
Emily Rosko, Theatre/ Stage Management
Award: $2,500

The Persistence of Poe in Richmond, VA
Students from Kinetic Imaging, Communication Arts, Cinema and Theatre will create a thirty minute film, The Persistence of Poe in Richmond, VA. The project will document Poe’s accomplishments as a resident of the city and how his presence is still felt by Richmonders today. Through its use of live action, animation, writing, narration, music, dance, and acting, the film will demonstrate the range, power, and ability of interdisciplinary art.
Christine Stoddard, Cinema and English
David Fuchs, Kinetic Imaging
Nina Stoddard, Communication Arts
Hilary Stallings, Theatre
Erica Breig, Theatre
Award: $2,250

The Practical Uses of Electronic Aids in French Horn Performance
Two Music majors will discover whether or not electronic aids and multimedia will pave a new frontier for the French horn in solo performance and ensemble performance. By focusing on the use of microphones, click tracks, digital and analog effects, and computers, the students will conduct research that will educate horn players and music educators on the possibilities of non-traditional electro-acoustic and multimedia uses in French horn performance.
Benjamin Faught, Music Education
Jesse Williams, Music Performance
Award: $1,200

womanHOOD
As a reaction to archetypes in cultural fairytales and a discourse in the gender politics of the uniform, students from Sculpture + Extended Media and Women’s Studies will engage the imagery of Little Red Riding Hood to create an open edition of garments. Pieces will be sent to women across the country and the world who will be encouraged to modify, personalize, and alter their garment in any way they see fit and then send them back to Richmond. Using Little Red Riding Hood as a battleground for restoring the power of femininity to women, and the garment as a public space, the pieces created will function as both wearable art and social research.
Rebecca Henderson, Sculpture + Extended Media (major) and Painting and Printmaking (minor)
Shannon Le Corre, Women’s Studies
Award: $1,100

Project Persephone
Students from Cinema, Music and Theatre will create Pomegranate, VCU’s first musical film based on the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. Students will compose a visual and musical work exploring sacrifices made for love.
Mary Cox, Cinema
Savannah Berry, Music (Vocal Performance)
Jennifer Anne Ducharme, Theatre (Costume Design)
Award: $2,400

VCU’s First African Baptist Church (1876-2010):  A Cultural Crossroads
Art History and Cinema students will examine the former Old First African Baptist Church, one of the most historic buildings in Richmond and the first place a black clergyman was able to conduct services without white supervision. The church embodies legacies from most major ancient and medieval cultures, but has never been researched in detail. The project will result in a written report to be deposited at Cabell Library and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Kalitah Crawford, Art History
Thomas Flanagan, Art History (Architectural History)
Sophia Minnerly, Cinema
Award: $1,950

Eco-Fashion: Re-fashioning the Future
Five students from Communication Arts and Fashion Design & Merchandising will create their own line of sustainable fashion made from previously worn garments and eco-fabrics appealing to the millennial generation. Research will be conducted to determine what marketing materials will best inform this group of consumers to understand and appreciate eco fashion.
Laurel Rodriguez, Fashion Design
Meredith Janos, Fashion Design
Jennie Onisk, Fashion Design
Hannah Wray, Fashion Merchandising
Lindsi Bellomo, Communication Arts
Award: $1,570

VCUarts Interior Design alumna Jean Sundin is a founder and principal of the Office for Visual Interaction (OVI), a New York City-based firm that specializes in lighting design for signature architecture. Sundin and her team are transforming the way light is used in architecture and design, work that is attracting attention in the U.S. and around the world.

The Office for Visual Interaction provides custom solutions for award-winning lighting projects of all styles and scales: from Renzo Piano’s New York Times skyscraper to Zaha Hadid’s Austrian ski jump, from a prototype LED streetlight for New York City to the lighting design and master plan for the Scottish Parliament complex.

This year, Sundin’s firm has been selected to appear on the national American Life Television Network program Heartbeat of America hosted by William Shatner. Sundin and fellow OVI principal Enrique Peiniger were interviewed at the Los Angeles Heartbeat News Studio by Shatner and Doug Llewellyn of People’s Court.

OVI is also the first lighting design firm to be featured in an exhibition at the influential Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin. Entitled Lighting Powers of Ten, this year’s exhibition places OVI among the leading lights of avant-garde architecture, attesting to the firm’s respected position within the global design community.

This fall, OVI will launch a book-length monograph on the firm’s work showcasing photos, renderings, and drawings of its award-winning designs, as well as the working processes, dialogues, and ideas that created them.

Sundin and her team have a number of exciting design projects in the works in 2010 including illumination for the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Saudi Arabia, slated to be a major centre for sustainable energy research. They will also create lighting design for People’s Hall in Tripoli, Libya, which will serve as the central meeting place for the fifty-seven African nations.

Sundin is also the director for Education for the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association (PLDA) and the chairperson for its Architectural Lighting Fundamentals committee, as well as a member of several professional organizations.

Sundin has lectured worldwide on her firm’s work, and on specification integrity and cost-tracking methods for lighting design. She has led lighting design workshops and lectured widely at professional lighting congresses and design schools around the globe.

To learn more about VCUarts alumna Jean Sundin and the accomplishments and mission of the Office for Visual Interaction, visit http://oviinc.com.

© Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body - 2010.

Christine Gray, an assistant professor in the AFO program, presents a series of new painting and works on paper at Rare Gallery, 547 W. 27th St., No.514, NYC. Opening February 27 and running until March 27th, her works focus on the very human impulse to purse revelatory experiences via Nature.  In order to conjure these extraordinary moments of communion, Gray crafts make-shift talismanic objects of almost prehistoric intensity and simplicity and then paints them into settings of gorgeous luminosity and otherworldliness.  The objects and their settings concentrate humankind’s desires and yearnings, transforming them into something transcendent.

AFO welcomes Max Goldfarb as visiting artist lecturer Monday, March 1st at 7pm on the Bowe Street Parking Deck, Room 535. Goldfarb will make a presentation relating two recent projects that have led to his work as a founding council member of an upcoming community radio station and media project in the Hudson Valley, NY.
Read more here.
Goldfarb’s lecture is being offered as part of an exchange between VCU’s Qatar and Richmond Art Foundation Programs.

View / 2010
Undergraduate Painting Exhibition
March 1-9, 2010
FAB Gallery: Fine Arts Building
VCU/1000 W. Broad St.
Reception: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
5:00-6:30pm
Sponsored by the Department of Painting and Printmaking

Matt Wallin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Arts, was recently profiled in the VCU News Center.

Wallin, now a veteran visual effects man and an assistant professor of communication arts in the VCU School of the Arts, has retained that fascination with the intricacies of films. Light bedside reading often means highly technical books on the latest in computer software and cameras. During the commute from his home in Charlottesville to VCU, he listens to podcasts about how special effects on newly released movies have been engineered. He attends conferences to sit in on panel discussions and presentations and reads the transcripts if he cannot be there in person. When he sees a movie with effects that impress and surprise him, he peppers his friends who worked on the movie – because, invariably, he knows someone who worked on it – with questions about the techniques they used. “Avatar,” the 3-D film breaking box office records, is a current obsession, especially the use of a groundbreaking lighting technique called spherical harmonics.

Read more about his fascinating career here.

Dr. Naresh Man Bajracharya, Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence in the Department of Art History performs the Buddhist Ritual Performance of The Sevenfold Supreme Offering
. Dedicated to Arya Tara the Buddhist goddess of Compassion, this is one of the most popular Tantric Buddhist rituals in Nepal and Tibet. The elaborate ritual illustrates the use of images in the ritual context and involves chanting, meditation, dance, symbolic hand gestures, empowerment, and blessing. Dr. Bajracharya is one of the leading ritual specialists of Nepalese Buddhism.

Saturday, March 6th, 2010
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
The Pace Center for Campus and Community Ministry
700 W. Franklin Street

The performance is free and open to the public. For more information: 804.828.2784

New Waves, an annual, juried exhibition of Virginia artists, on view February 5 - March 28, showcases multiple alumni’s work.

Contemporary Art Center of Virginia
2200 Parks Ave.
Virginia Beach, VA
757-425-0000

In the aftermath of the destruction in Haiti, the world is coming together to help Haiti rebuild. Advanced level jewelry/metal students from the Department of Craft/Material Studies want to contribute in this effort by organizing a jewelry sale and donating the proceeds to the Red Cross.

Quirk Gallery will host the sale February 11th-13th. All jewelry pieces are affordably priced and made from a variety of materials that are both precious and mundane, yet all treated with the utmost care and love. Join the opening reception for “What is Your Heart Made of?” 6-8pm on February 11th to contribute in the complex effort of rebuilding Haiti.

Quirk Gallery is located at 311 W. Broad St.

Sale Dates and Times:
Feb. 11, 12-8pm
Feb. 12, 10-5pm
Feb. 13, 11-4pm
Opening Reception:
February 11th, 6-8pm

Keith J. Varadi, MFA student in the Department of Painting and Printmaking, has a show at Public Space One in Iowa City, Iowa. The show runs from February 5th - 27th. Please see more at Keith’s website and here.

Alumna of the doctoral program in the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media, Jenn Figg uses commonplace materials like glass and metal are transformed into a narrative installation that has its roots in dark fairy tales. Viewers are led through a mysterious landscape to create new stories for themselves.

Jenn Figg: Forest Thrall
Contemporary Art Center of Virginia
February 5 - May 23
Read more here.

Students in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media are showing off all of their hard work all over the US.

To read more about it click here.

Some shows include:
3.5 Reference Gallery, Richmond, VA
New Waves 2010 Contemporary Art Center of VA, Virginia Beach
Not To Scale Cave Meta, Richmond
41º N / 71º W Art Rec Center, Providence, RI

Some Awards Include:
Eco Chic: Recycled Fashion - Grace Johnston
VCUarts Research Grants - Grace Johnston, Joshua Bennett, Rebecca Henderson
Kinetic Reactions to Sounds of Public Spaces - Joshua Bennett
Womanhood - Rebecca Henderson

Faculty from the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media have been busy not just teaching. Shows all over the US and abroad are happening right now that relate to people in Sculpture.

To read more, please click here.

Some Current Exhibitions:
Splice, VCUarts FAB Gallery, Richmond
Rites and Dust, Horton Gallery, New York City
Works on Paper, DANESE, New York City
Counter Re-Formation, VCUarts Anderson Gallery, Richmond

Roberto Ventura, assistant professor in the Department of Interior Design is giving a series of lectures at the Virginia Center for Architecture on Modern Architecture.

Modern Love: Understanding Twentieth Century Architecture
a romance in four parts
02|04: first kiss 1900-1930

02|11: true love 1930-1960

02|18: broken hearts 1960-1980

02|25: anything goes 1980-2000
From its impassioned start through its reinvention, modern architecture and design and its relationship to us is one great whirlwind romance! 


EVERY Thursday in February
 6:30-7:30 p.m.


Make a date!
 Registration is $60, or $50 for members
.
Register online here or call 804.644.3041 x 100. 

Space is limited and registration is required.

Alumni from the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media have been traveling the world exhibiting their work. There are so many right now, we’re going to send you to the Sculpture web site so you can see them all in one spot. http://www.vcu.edu/arts/sculpture/dept/news/news_alumniNews.html

Some of the Sculpture graduates currently showing work are:

Patrick Storey, image shown is Patrick’s work, (BFA)
Michael Drake (BFA)
Andre Ponticello (BFA)
Daniel Beckwith (BFA current student)
Stephen Willams (BFA current student)
Rosemarie Padavano (MFA)
Birgit Ehmer (BFA)
Bonnie Collura (BA)
Matthew Damian Ritchie (BFA)
John Henry Blatter (MFA)
Janelle Iglesias (MFA)
Shannon Wright (BFA)
Taylor Baldwin (MFA)
David Herbert (MFA)

Thirty-five Virginia art students and artists have been awarded a total of $202,000 in 2010 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowships.

29 of the recipients have ties to VCUarts as either faculty, alumni or students. Each one of the Undergraduate Awards went to a VCUarts student (in two cases, students BEGIN at VCUarts fall 2010). Those with VCUarts connections are bolded below.

Fourteen professional artists won 2010 awards of $8,000 each. They are (in alphabetical order by hometown) Kevin Everson (film-video) and Janet Grahame (mixed media) of Charlottesville; Bill Fisher (painting) of Chester; Greg Stewart (sculpture) of Harrisonburg; SunTek Chung (photography), Chris Mahonski (sculpture), Jeff Majer (painting), Michael Jones McKean (sculpture), Natalya Pinchuk (crafts), Stephen Vitiello (mixed media), and Kendra Wadsworth (drawing) of Richmond; Ann Glover (painting) and Brett LaGue (drawing) of Roanoke; and Aaron Sanders (photography) of Springfield.

The juror for the professional fellowship awards was Laura Hoptman, the Kraus Family Senior Curator at the New Museum in New York City.

Six graduate students won 2010 awards worth $6,000 each. They are Jesi Pace-Berkeley (painting) of Blacksburg; Christopher Oliver (art history) of Charlottesville; Sarah Kreiger (printmaking) of Lynchburg; and Leilani Gonzales (crafts), Justin Kroman (painting), and Jon-Phillip Sheridan (photography) of Richmond.

Twelve undergraduate students won 2010 awards worth $4,000 apiece. They are Erin Sonoda (photography) of Alexandria; Luke Harman (mixed media) of Blacksburg; Blair Condon (photography) of Fairfax; Jessica Dodd (sculpture) of Herndon; Samantha Cooper (crafts) and David Thompson (photography) of Mechanicsville; Phillip Nesmith (photography), Rachel Rainer (photography) and Allison Smith (drawing) of Richmond; Irena Stanisic (mixed media) of Roanoke; Amber Bender (photography) of Stafford; and Julianne Jamora (photography) of Virginia Beach.

In addition, three undergraduates were awarded 2010 Fellowships worth $2,000 each for their final semester. They are Michael Muelhaupt (sculpture) and Dena Sussman (photography) of Richmond and Chris Underwood (film-video) of Dumfries.

The jurors for the graduate and undergraduate awards were David Brown, deputy director of art for the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Va.; Ragan Cole-Cunningham, director of exhibitions and education at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach, Va.; Andrea Douglas, curator of collections and exhibitions at the University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville, Va.; and Dr. Theresa Leininger-Miller, associate professor of art history at the School of Art at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is at 200 N. Boulevard in Richmond, Va. VMFA’s holdings include more than 22,000 treasures spanning 5,000 years.

For additional information, telephone 804-340-1400 or visit http://www.vmfa.museum/fellowship_winners_2010.html

VCUarts Departmental Connections:

Professional Awards

SunTek Chung, Sculpture + Extended Media BFA Alumnus & Adjunct Faculty

Bill Fisher, Painting and Printmaking BFA Alumnus and Adjunct Faculty

Janet Grahame, studied Printmaking and Drawing at VCU

Chris Mahonski , Sculpture + Extended Media MFA Alumnus

Jeff Majer, Painting and Printmaking BFA Alumus

Michael Jones McKean, Sculpture + Extended Media Faculty

Natalya Pinchuk, Craft/Material Studies Faculty

Aaron Sanders, Photography and Film alumnus

Stephen Vitiello, Kinetic Imaging Faculty

Kendra Wadsworth, Painting and Printmaking BFA alumna

Graduate Awards

Leilani Gonzales, Crafts and Material Studies

Sarah Kreiger, Fall 2010 Accepted Painting and Printmaking

Justin Kroman, Painting and Printmaking

Jon-Phillip Sheridan, Photography and Film

Undergraduate Awards

Amber Bender, Photography and Film

Samantha Cooper, incoming Art Foundation student

Blair Condon, Photography and Film

Jessica Dodd, Sculpture + Extended Media

Luke Harman, Sculpture + Extended Media

Julianne Jamora, Art Foundation

Michael Muelhaupt, Sculpture + Extended Media

Phillip Nesmith, Sculpture + Extended Media

Rachel Rainer, Photography and Film

Allison Smith, Communication Arts

Erin Sonoda, Photo and Film

Irena Stanisic, Art Foundation

Dena Sussman, Photo and Film

David Thompson, Photography and Film

Chris Underwood, Photography and Film

(work shown is by Natalya Pinchuk)

VCUarts’s own Brad Birchett will have work in William Paterson University & Studio Montclair’s Exhibition, “Departures”
Studio Monclair’s 13th Annual Open Juried Exhibition
February 1 – March 5, 2010
Reception: February 7, 2010 3-5pm
Ben Shahn Galleries, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ
http://www.studiomontclair.org/

Christine Gray, associate faculty member in the Department of Painting and Printmaking, shows recent works in a solo show at Okay Mountain entitled, “Into the Light“. With Into The Light, Gray continues to explore the frenetic play between real and unreal created using sculptural arrangements as the basis for her paintings. This new body of work takes it’s inspiration from American mythological tropes, often revealing surreal landscapes, crude shelters and objects suggestive of rituals with mystical significance.

On display from January 16- February 13th.

Okay Mountain
Gallery Hours: Wednesday 7-9pm and Saturday 12-5pm

Location: 1312 E Cesar Chavez St. Ste B Austin, Texas 78702

Jonathan Marshall, a current MFA student in the Department of Painting and Printmaking, shows multiple pieces at the Art Palace in Houston, TX.
Entitled Doubled Vision, the exhibition runs January 15-March 6.

About the Exhibition
The search for truth in our universe is futile, but the act of seeking is of the utmost importance. A continuation of the premises presented in The Book of Lenny, Doubled Vision is set in a post-catastrophe landscape. We follow Lenny and Johan Pilgrim, two everyman-survivors on a quest to find meaning. Using various approaches to image-making, including painting, drawing, video and sculpture, Marshall reflects on ideas of survival, landscape and vision quests to create his own folk-mythology and D-I-Y hero’s journey. Marshall uses exploration as a metaphor for the practice of both art-making and the art of living: not just a means to an end, but valid, in and of itself. Marshall urges us to embark on this search as both rationalists and dreamers, for it is through journeys of body and mind that reality comes to know itself.

About the Artist
Following his solo exhibition at Man&Eve gallery in London, Jonathan Marshall’s Doubled Vision will be the Virginia-Based artist’s first show at Art Palace since the accaimed Book of Lenny opened in the fall of 2007. Working with impressive dexterity in a variety of media, Marshall is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies and is included in the collections of both the Jack. S. Blanton Museum of Art and the Austin Museum of Art. Jonathan Marshall received his BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003, and is currently pursuing his MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Reference Gallery, a group of VCUarts current students, alumni and faculty, present 3.5, two weeks of open drawing night picnics, sound performances and noise-making, performance art, video screenings, and last – but certainly not least – Patrick Henry, brought back from the colonial past and into Reference Art Gallery. Two weeks of accumulated events, collisions of ideas, noises, and sliced fruit, all inviting the public to intercept the Reference Art Gallery space.

3.5 highlights the importance of community and audience by repeatedly altering the gallery’s typical identity as a white cube. The general public is invited to watch, listen, and exhibit their own work through the multitude of changing event platforms.

All events are free and open to the public, 7pm to 9pm.

Schedule of events:
Fri Jan 22 Open drawing night #1
Sun Jan 24 Sound performances with Stephen Vitiello and Molly Berg, Anduin, Tulsa Drone, Leah Beeferman
Wed Jan 27 Open drawing night #2 with special guest Patrick Henry
Sat Jan 30 Sponge with Hope Ginsburg
Sun Jan 31 Video screening #1
Wed Feb 3 Video screening #2
Fri Feb 5 Closing party

Reference Gallery is located at 216 E. Main St., Richmond, VA and can be found online here.

Calvin Burton, alumnus of the MFA program in the Department of Painting and Printmaking, is having his first solo exhibition in New York at Gallery SATORI. In Burton’s paintings, photographic imagery forms both the locus of a pictorial strategy and a foil to more underlying concerns about the nature of representation. Through his combination of non-objective intuitive processes and the use of sources that are alternately iconic, banal, personal and historical (subject matter includes Yellowstone Park, Arcosanti - a commune in the Arizona desert, and early 20th century skyscrapers), Burton astutely explores the linguistic potential and boundaries of his medium. The resulting work wavers between transcendent aspiration and the here-and-now quality of the materials, blurring the separation in the process.

Gallery SATORI
Gallery Hours: Wed – Sun, 12:00 – 6:00pm
164 Stanton Street / 646. 896. 1075 / www.gallerysatori.com

Hodge Podge is a gallery show made up of work from a number of young artists in the Hooligan House Collective including work by AFO students David Bordett, Mara Hyman, and Chelsea Harman. The show opened January 7th at Gallery 788 and will run until the end of the month. Additionally Hooligan House will be having weekly arts events at the gallery till the end of the month. Gallery 788 is located at 788 Washington Blvd. in the Pig Town area of Baltimore a short drive from interstate 95.

Jeff Vick alumni and faculty member of the Department of Craft/Material Studies and Sarah Mizer, alumni of the Department of Craft/Material Studies and AFO faculty member are both exhibiting work at Riverviews Artspace Emerging Sculptors show, from January 8 through February 21. Located at 901 Jefferson St. Ste. 113 in Lynchburg, VA. Contact the space at 434-847-7277 or read more here.

Faculty members Sally Bowring and Brad Birchett are being honored at the Mid-Atlantic New Painting 2010 exhibition. The preview reception for the show is on Thursday, January 21 5 to 7 p.m. The preview show will also contain the presentation of awards and remarks by the juror, William Dunlap, artist, critic, educator. The show takes place at the Ridderhof Martin Gallery. Open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10-4pm. For more information, see galleries.umw.edu or call 540-654-1013.

Stephen Vitiello, Department of Kinetic Imaging Associate Professor, speaks in an online video at the youtube.com VCUarts Channel about his art.

“Sometimes I tell people I’m a sound artist, sometimes I tell people I’m an electronic musician and sometimes I tell people I’m a gallery artist. I make sounds. I record sounds. I process sounds.”
Visit Vitiello’s website.

This month C3, Richmond’s Creative Change Center, presents:

Collaborating on Creativity: Rob Ventura, a local designer and assistant professor at VCUarts Department of Interior Design, and Joshua Poteat, a local poet, teamed up to create “For Gabriel” a mixed media work of art for 1708 Gallery’s InLight Richmond (2009).

This was their first collaboration and they were selected by juror Adelina Vlas (from the Philadelphia Museum of Art) as the Best in Show. They will present “For Gabriel,” discuss what it’s like collaboratig for the first time, their creative process and share their insights and lessons learned from the experience.

Date:   Thursday, January 21st

Time:   7:30 - 9 a.m.

Venue:  1708 Gallery, 319 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220

Cost: $15 at the door (cash or check) or payable online when you register.  You can register by sending an email to chrystalwake@c3richmond.org

About the art:

For Gabriel illustrates buried narratives that occupy the space between Richmond’s historic past and its evolving ambitions. Two hundred years ago, slaves were traded, executed and buried in a now parking lot near St. John’s Church in Richmond.

About the Artists: Roberto Ventura, from Richmond, VA, heads roberto ventura design studio and holds an MA in Architecture from Miami University. In addition, he teaches Interior Design at VCU. Joshua Poteat is a poet from Richmond, VA.  His first book, Ornithologies, won the 2004 Anhinga Poetry Prize, judged by MacArthur Genius Grant winner Campbell McGrath. He was also awarded the Poetry Society of America’s 2004 National Chapbook Award, judged by Pulitzer Prize winner Mary Oliver.  Besides making poems, Joshua assembles light boxes using various found materials.

Joshua Poteat and Roberto Ventura were among 26 international artists chosen to create installations for the 2009 edition of 1708 Gallery’s InLight Richmond outdoor art exhibition.

About C3: Richmond’s Creative Change Center, is a volunteer based non-profit 501 (c)(3), launched on January 3, 2005. Our mission is to be the region’s creative resource and catalyst. Our vision is to improve the quality of life and economic vitality of Richmond by engaging, connecting and strengthening Richmond’s creative community.

The C3 Breakfast Club is designed to bring corporate leaders and entrepreneurs together to hear from experts, share experiences and take away practical strategies for implementing innovative practices in the marketplace that will yield growth and sustained impact.

Michael Jones McKean, assistant professor in VCUarts Department of Sculpture + Extended Media exhibits new work in…

rites and dust

Horton Gallery, Chelsea, NY
Jan. 15- Feb. 20, 2010
opening Jan. 15

504 West 22nd Street, Parlor Level
New York, NY 1001
22-243-2663

http://hortongallery.com/

Running Through Three Rooms / Could Stand To Sit Still
January 8 – January 22, 2010
In the new exhibition space Phonebox at IMO, Copenhagen.

Opening January 8, 5-9 PM

On January 8th, American artist and VCUarts Kinetic Imaging faculty member Stephen Vitiello inaugurates the new exhibition space Phonebox at IMO with a piece conceived for the occasion. Phonebox is located in a former phone cabin, which will serve as an intimate exhibition space with room for only one person at a time. Here the public is invited to experience the sound work A Run Through Three Rooms / Could Stand To Sit Still from January 8 - January 22.

Stephen Vitiello has been active since the 90’s and is today one of the pivotal figures among artists working with sound as a medium. He is particularly interested in the physical aspect of sound and how it determines the shape and atmosphere of a given space. During a six months residency at World Trade Center in 1999 he made a famous series of recordings. With contact-microphones he captured and amplified the sounds of the creaking building as it swayed in the wind. For Phonebox Vitiello has made a new piece A Run Through Three Rooms / Could Stand To Sit Still. The piece is a two-channel audio loop based on recordings of kinetic sculptures, a bell, a rolling ball and clicking sounds from a unique Buchla prototype synthesizer. The intimate room of Phonebox where the work is presented is lit by a single blue light and the work unfolds as a tightly knit and atmospheric composition of the recorded material.

The opening of Stephen Vitiello’s show also marks the beginning of a series of sound-based works presented in Phonebox at IMO in the first half of 2010. The series is titled Sounds Up Close #1-12 and is curated by Kristoffer Akselbo and Rune Søchting. It is the intention to present a number of important artists who work with sound as a medium. The different pieces reflect a number of variety of approaches to the work with sound as medium. Over a period of six months a total of twelve pieces will be presented each for a fortnight. Some of the up-coming artists in Phonebox are Alejandra and Aeron (ES/US), Ursula Nistrup (DK), Ultra-red (US) and Jio Shimizu (JP).

Phonebox has earlier served as a phone cabin for the employees at Carlsberg. During the next six months the space, which is acoustically isolated, will function as a unique frame for display and reception of sound-based works. Moreover, the space itself will play an important role in the conceptions of many of the presented works.

For further information see www.stephenvitiello.com or contact IMO at +45 33797272 / info@imo-projects.com

Diana Al-Hadid, alumna of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, was just selected as one of 10 visual artists to win the United States Artists Grant. The unrestricted $50,000 grants are given each year to 50 artists in the fields of architecture and design, crafts and traditional arts, dance, literature, media, music, theater arts and visual arts. The recipients were announced last night in Los Angeles.

The Department of Graphic Design presents its Senior Show, exhibiting extensive work from seniors including Steven Conoway, Rob Green, Matt Holt, Sarah Irons, Sae Hee Kim, Sean Kuhnke, Jason Mamaril, Mary McCormick, Dave Mizelle, Jay Park, Sara Romaine, Sarah Spear and Bridget Walsh.

Friday, December 11
6-9pm
1509 W.Main Street

Buie Harwood, former professor and chair of the VCUarts Department of Interior Design, was awarded the 2009 Joel Polsky Prize for Architecture and Interior Design, from the 19th Century: An Integrated History (2008, Prentice Hall). Co-authors Bridget May and Curt Sherman also shared in the award, given by The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Educational Foundation. This prestigious award is given each year to recognize authors who have made significant contributions to design research and literature. The jury complimented the book on its scholarship and extensive work in the history of interior design. Their earlier book, Architecture and Interior Design, to the 18th century: An Integrated History (2001, Prentice Hall) also won the Polsky prize in 2002. Both books are used in interior design programs across North America and in a few schools in England.

The Department of Music alumnus Steve Wilson merited #2 Rising Star/Soprano Sax, #6 overall Soprano Sax, #7 Rising Star/Alto Sax, #11 overall Alto Sax, and #12 Rising Star/Flute. Victor Goines placed #6 in the Rising Star/Clarinet category and #12 overall Clarinet. Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza, with whom alums Genus and alumnus Clarence Penn often perform, placed #9 in the Female Vocalist category and #3 in Rising Star Female Vocals. Dave Douglas (regularly collaborating with Genus and Penn) was again named Trumpeter of the Year. Violinist Regina Carter, in whose combo our drum alum Alvester Garnett performs, again placed first in the Jazz Violinist category.

Some of VCU Jazz’s recent guests were duly noted. Last April’s guest, Conrad Herwig, merited #3 in Trombone; VCU and CD guest trombonist Wycliffe Gordon placed #4; Ray Anderson was #6. Guitarist Anthony Wilson placed #4 in Rising Star Guitar. He tours regularly with vocalist Diana Krall, who placed fifth in the Female Vocals category. Matt Wilson placed in Rising Star Jazz Group, #6 in Rising Star Drums, and #6 in overall Drums. John Hollenbeck won Rising Star Composer and Arranger of the Year, his big band #2 in the Rising Star Big Band; Seamus Blake and Tony Malaby placing in Rising Star Tenor Sax. Violinist Mark Feldman placed #3 in the overall Violin category.

Grammy-winning composer/bandleader Maria Schneider, who spoke this fall for the second time to VCU’s Music Industry class via teleconference, again won in the categories of Big Band, Composer, and Arranger of the Year. (The drummer in her band is VCU alumnus Clarence Penn, and Steve Wilson has also performed and toured with her.) Mat Domber, who assisted in bringing The Statesmen of Jazz to VCU last year, was cited as Producer and Rising Star Producer. The list of yet earlier VCU Jazz guests saluted in this Poll continues to maintain and grow, such as Scott Colley, Drew Gress, Brian Lynch, Bob Cranshaw, Billy Hart, and John Abercrombie.

VCU Jazz continues to bring our students and our community some of the most important artists in jazz. If you’d like to assist that cause, please see information above as to how you can contribute to the VCU Jazz Students Fund.

da Vinci Center for Innovation in Product Design and Development’s portable operating table for developing countries won in the category of “Greatest Potential for Patient Benefit” at the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology Congress poster contest in Boston on Oct. 27 and 28.



“We are exceedingly proud of our students and the way they are representing VCU at some very rigorous competitions,” said Russell D. Jamison, Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Engineering. “Our students take the real-world education they are getting here and stack it up against working professionals and students from some big-name institutions, and they make us proud every time.”

The students involved within the da Vinci Center come from multiple majors across VCU.

Inside of the School of the Arts:
Jennifer Farris, The Department of Interior Design
Mike Garrett, The Department of Graphic Design
Lauren O’Neill, The Department of Graphic Design

Outside of the School of the Arts:
Ana Cuison, Marketing
Jennifer Koch, Marketing
Chris Johnson, Mechanical Engineering
Mike Mercier, Mechanical Engineering
Skylar Roebuck, Computer Engineering

For the innovation poster contest, Department of Graphic Design alumna, Lauren O’Neill, won for “Operation Simple: A Low-Cost, Collapsible Surgical Table for Developing Countries”. O’Neill was part of a team that worked on a prototype for the table last year in the da Vinci Center, which brings together students from VCU’s schools of Engineering, Business and the Arts.

“Winning the award has inspired us and shows that what we’re doing is real,” said Skylar Roebuck, a senior computer engineering major and member of the Operation Simple team. “We had a good, cohesive team and everybody is still interested in the project. This award is self-validation.”

As a result of winning in Boston, the team is now one of 10 semi-finalists in a second-round CIMIT competition for clinically relevant primary care solutions. They’ll vie for a top prize of $150,000 to support the continuation of the project.
The last stage of the project is the production of five tables to be provided as a gift to hospitals in Bangladesh and Honduras for field testing in spring 2010.

CIMIT is a nonprofit consortium of Boston-area teaching hospitals and engineering schools, CIMIT provides innovators with resources to explore, develop and implement novel technological solutions for today’s most urgent healthcare problems.

Project Winterfood is a local food event and art exhibition organized by a student group inside the Department of Graphic Design students. The theme of the event is spinach, apples, and sweet potatoes: all seasonal foods available in Virginia during the Winter.

Event + Art Exhibition
December 2nd, 2009
7-10 PM
1509 West Main Street

Continued Art Exhibition
December 4-31st, 2009
Gallery 5, 200 W. Marshall St.

What is it?
Project Winterfood is a local food resource, art exhibition, and benefit event. Project Winterfood was created by a group of VCU Graphic Design students to help share and preserve the culture of food in our Richmond community. The students who organized the event know how easy, practical, and beneficial it is to utilize local food options. With the help of some community partners, we are excited to share this knowledge with the public.

Project Winterfood will house a fascinating art exhibition made up of work that celebrates three winter foods: apples, spinach and sweet potatoes. The artwork has been donated by local artists and will be on sale during the exhibition. All proceeds from the artwork will go to benefit non-profits who are working to make a positive difference in the Richmond community.

At the event, there will be a gathering of partners involved in the Richmond area food community to answer questions and share information about local food options, resources, and benefits. Visitors will be able learn more about how they can easily enjoy food from local farms as well as restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients. The community partners include such local businesses as the Farm to Family Veggie Bus, Dominion Harvest, and many more to come, which will be included on the website as the project comes together.

During the event there will be live fiddle music, sample & tasting booths, and delicious coffee provided by Rostov’s Coffee & Tea. Each visitor will leave with a complimentary take-home brochure designed by Project Winterfood. The brochure will contain information & resources as well as recipes that include the three featured winter foods.

After the event, the artwork will be on display in Gallery 5 throughout the month of December. It can be purchased during that time as well.

Why is it important?
The team at Project Winterfood is passionate about sharing and preserving food culture. It is our mission to share with others in the community how easy, accessible, practical, beneficial, inexpensive, and fun it is to utilize local food options. Project Winterfood is reaching out to everyone— those who already enjoy farm fresh foods and those who have heard the phrase “eating locally” without getting a chance to learn what it’s really all about.

The Project Winterfood event will present seasonal winter produce in a unique way that creates a memorable, informative, and fun experience.

Who are we?
Project Winterfood is combined of a group of VCU Graphic Design students who are interested in promoting positive change through community service learning. They are part of Noah Scalin’s Design Rebels course striving to make a positive difference as Graphic Designers in the Richmond Community.

www.winterfood.org

The Department of Kinetic Imaging presents:

Show Your Stuff Nite
on the first floor of Franklin Terrace

Tuesday, November 24, 5-8pm

Non-juried student works in video, animation, sound.

No Judges! No Bull! Just art, Art, ART!
(come see what we’re making!)

The Department of Fashion Design & Merchandising have been given accolades by Lucky Magazine fashion director, Hope Greenburg, on her blog at luckymag.com. Alumna Katherine Kim turns Salvatore Principe’s graphic paintings into sleek silk pieces that Principe considers his “mobile canvas.” The collection will be available this spring at Nikki Laura.

Reference Gallery presents its second group show “No Promo” with an opening reception Friday, Nov. 20th from 7-11pm. The show features work by Kari Altmann (New York), Øyvind Aspen (Norway), Caitlin Denny (San Francisco), Jessica Hans (Baltimore), Nina Hartmann (Chicago), Parker Ito (San Francisco), Michael Muelhaupt (Richmond), Whitney Rainey (Richmond), and Lazaro Rodriguez (Miami).

Reference is located at 216 E. Main St, Richmond VA.
Gallery hours: Wednesday-Saturday 2-6pm.
For more information visit www.referenceartgallery.com

Reference Gallery is owned and operated by alumni and current students from departments inside of VCUarts.

SunTek Chung, alumnus of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media (BFA), is displaying work entitled, “Kingdom Come” at Collette Blanchard Gallery in New York City, on view from November 18 - January 20, 2010.

Neon light sculpture and staged photographs appear with bronze sculptures, all of which, in the specificity of their presentation, are informed and re-contextualized by circumstances dictated by the artist. Leveraging verbal language and mixed mediums, Chung presents narrative works that linger between exhaustive detail and minimalist form. At any juncture within this spectrum, his work presents alternatives to preconceived notions that are never completely lucid, thus requiring incessant interrogation. Adept in his use of color, neon-light and form, Chung seduces the viewer into the essence of his work at once with a combination of references to current happenings and in response, conceptualized fictions. The work of SunTek Chung requires the viewer to abandon the pedantic discourse of cultural affinity and identity in its reconsideration of the misconstrued.

For more information, please contact the galllery at 917.639.3912 or gallery@colletteblanchard.com.

Andrew Crockett, Fashion Design senior at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Fashion Design and Merchandising, Richmond Virginia was selected as the winner of the ATEXINC Award for Excellence in Marketable Textile Design at the annual ITAA (International Textile and Apparel Association) conference in Seattle, Washington last weekend (October 31, 2009).
A total of 102 pieces were juried into the 2009 ITAA design competition of 380 items submitted representing a 27% acceptance rate. There were two undergraduate design awards, and 41 undergraduates competed from universities throughout the world including Cornell University, Marymount University, University  of North Texas, University  of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Iowa State University, and Hanyang University in Korea.

Mr. Crockett received this award based on his overall concept, finished garment and the use of textile design. The cash award was for $300.00 and his work was shown to in a live audience of over 200 conference attendees at the Bellevue Museum of Art. His work was also shown in a full color catalog of finalists and distributed to all design entrants, audience members and conference attendees.

Richard Roth, former chair of the Department of Painting and Printmaking is taking part in a group exhibition in Australia.

opening:
3pm - 6pm
Saturday, November 7

November 7-29, 2009
SNO Contemporary Art Projects
First Floor, 175 Marrickville Rd.
Marrickville, Sydney, NSW Australia 2204

In the second of a series of week-long exhibitions in the FAB Gallery by the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media graduate students, Andrew Brehm, Nicholas des Cognets and Oscar Santillan present their group exhibition, SUSIE DEBBY ADELA.

First-year student, Andrew Brehm, came to us from Philadelphia where he had developed a body of performative work. His undergraduate degree is in Crafts from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania where he made furniture and began his sculptural pursuits.

Nicholas des Cognets is originally from western Massachusetts. He earned his BFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2001. After living and working in Brooklyn for seven years he is currently a second-year sculpture candidate.

And first-year student, Oscar Santillan, is from Ecuador. He tells us that “some time ago while writing a text for a project that was later rejected, I was overwhelmed with humility. At that point I decided to never again claim authorship of a phrase; I left that to Kandinsky. But I changed my mind a few minutes ago, and want it back.” He goes on to quote: “If there is a reason why artists and prophets are similar, it is not because artists, like prophets, can predict the future. It is that both share the same fate: neither can modify upcoming events.”

October 20 – 23, 2009

Please join us for a reception in the FAB Gallery
1000 W. Broad Street, Richmond VA 23284
Tuesday, October 20 at 5:00pm

Faculty member in the Department of Photography and Film, Jacob Dodd, will be screening his short 35mm film Darkness There at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum on Thursday, October 29 at 8pm.  The film will be presented as part of the October Unhappy Hour: “The Spirits of the Dead” event.

Darkness There explores Edgar Allan Poe’s dark romanticism through the fictional blending of his life and stories with authentic historical artifacts.  Shot on location at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum and Maymont Gardens in Richmond, Virginia, the film focuses on the atmosphere and mythology that surrounds Poe. In a style that references classic cinema, Darkness There visually presents the macabre while questioning our contemporary relationship to Poe, the man, and to Poe, the myth.

For more information, please visit www.spoospictures.com.

Craft/Material Studies alumni and jewelers Dave and Roberta Williamson are featured in the new documentary, Craft in America, premiering on PBS in October (watch a preview on the Craft in America web site). Dave and Roberta both received MFAs from the School of the Arts in 1976; Roberta’s concentration was metals area and Dave’s was ceramics. Both currently teach at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. The pair recently received a 2009 Ohio Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship for $5000 and a $1000 Award of Excellence from the Best of 2009 exhibition of Ohio Designer Craftsmen at the Ohio Crafts Museum. Roberta is newly elected to the Board of Trustees of Ohio Designer Craftsmen; David has been selected as the Neal Malicky Distinguished Chair in the Humanities for the next 5 years at Baldwin-Wallace College. Roberta and David participated in the Smithsonian Craft Show last spring and will have work featured in this year’s Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show in November. Both have had pieces placed in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and The Tacoma Art Museum.

http://www.craftinamerica.org/artists_metal/story_334.php
http://www.craftinamerica.org
http://www.ohiocraft.org/about.html
http://smithsoniancraftshow.org/indexmain.asp
http://pmacraftshow.org/

Sanford Biggers, affiliated faculty member in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, will exhibit work in the Jack Wolgin Internal Competition in the Fine Arts Exhibition, an annual award and exhibition will showcase three emerging artists nominated by a jury of international art professionals. Based on practices that engage new ways of working within the mediums of painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, ceramics, metals, glass and/or fibers.

Public Opening 
Thursday, October 1, 6 - 8 pm
Artist in Residency 
October 21-22
Prize Reception
 Thursday, October 22
Lecture by prize winner 
Friday, October 23, 1 pm


Tyler School of Art, Lower Level B04

Space is limited; RSVP at www.myowlspace.com

If you weren’t able to attend InLight Richmond, or even if you were, check out this beautiful video of the inspirational event. This night was truly one of Richmond’s most amazing spectacles, thanks in part to the help of many VCUarts students.

InLight Richmond 2009 is the second annual exhibition of outdoor light-inspired contemporary art.  It took place September 25th in downtown Richmond between East Grace and East Broad Streets and 5th to 8th Streets and was transformed by art installations presented in various public spaces.

InLight Richmond is an exploration and celebration of contemporary art free of charge for the whole community. Facades, walls, storefronts, doorways, parking lots and other unexpected places will be transformed by 27 international (US, Australia, Canada and Germany) emerging and established artists with video projections, sculptures, installations, multi-media art works and performance arts.  Guest juror Adelina Vlas, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, selected the artists from the 65 submissions received from all over the world. The juror also selected four proposals to be considered for a permanent art installation.

1708 Gallery presented several awards to participating artists during InLight Richmond 2009 on Friday, September 25. The 26 international artists that participated were selected by this year’s juror Adelina Vlas, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Among the recipients were Department of Interior Design faculty member Roberto Ventura for his and Joshua Poteat’s mixed media piece, “For Gabriel” which received Best in Show distinction, and Department of Sculpture + Extended Media alumnae Amanda Long, for her kinetic video installation, “White Light (Phase 2)”, which received the Best in Green award.

Alumni of the Department of Painting & Printmaking, painter Eric Sall and sculptor Rachel Hayes are going big at Kansas City gallery, Dolphin with large-scale artworks in separate exhibits.

Eric Sall: Isolated Incidents and Rachel Hayes: Ice Cold Daydream continue at Dolphin, 1600 Liberty St., through Nov. 7. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Eric Sall’s (left) exhibit features new paintings, including “Riptide” (2009), made during a residency at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Rachel Hayes’ (right) mixed media installation, “Ice Cold Daydreams” (2009), is on view in the front gallery at Dolphin.

For more information, 816-842-4415 or www.thedolphin gallery.com.

Matthew Damian Ritchie, alumnus of both of the Department of Painting & Printmaking and Sculpture + Extended Media, is participating in several shows throughout Richmond, VA currently.

Like Water Yoga Studio
“Otherworldly”
October 2nd - November 4th

Lift Coffee Shop
“Dangerously Cute”
October 2nd - November 4th

Cafe Gutenberg
“The Rise and Fall of Iron Town”
Opening October 7th, 7pm

Ruth Bolduan, associate professor in the Department of Painting and Printmaking, displays work in Dark Rococo.

On display October 8 - November 15.
Opening reception October 11, from 4-6pm.
Gallery talk November 1 at 3pm, The Ripple Effect: Influence and Inspiration.

Athenaeum
Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association
201 Prince Street, Alexandria VA 22314
703-548-0035
www.nvfaa.org

Lehmann Maupin is pleased to present a group of new works by Teresita Fernández, alumna of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, for her fourth exhibition at the gallery’s Chelsea location. Made entirely of graphite, the works in the exhibition establish a unique and unconventional vocabulary with the material itself. Referring to Borrowdale, England where graphite was first discovered and mined in the early 1500s, Fernández pushes the boundaries of this once sought-after and coveted material. Reimagining the graphite landscape of Borrowdale, her works reflect elements of sculpture and installation and redefine the notion of precisely what constitutes a drawing.

Teresita Fernández’s work has explored issues in contemporary art related to problems of perception and the fabrication of the natural world. Often her sculptures present spectacular optical illusions and evoke rainbows, sunlight, fire and water. For a 2002 solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery she made works which consisted of abstracted representations of natural phenomena such as a sweeping waterfall made from acrylic bands of white and blue and a parabolic sand dune covered in glass beads representing the shimmering effect of light on sand. In 2005 she exhibited the Ring of Fire, a piece created during her residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia and constructed from thousands of silk threads from Scalamandre. The threads were held taught between two rings and suspended from the ceiling, creating a unique optical illusion of transparency and dense color. In 2007 Fernández had her first gallery exhibition since being awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2005. The exhibition, also at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, focused on the artist’s interest in opacity, transparency and the psychology of looking. Fernández employed mirrors throughout the exhibition, with specific reference to an 18th century painter’s tool containing a lustrous black mirror used to view tonalities in the landscape.

Teresita Fernandez
22 October - 19 December 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 22, 6-8pm

Lehman Maupin
540 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
t 212-255-2923

Drawn Waters (Borrowdale) (detail), 2009
natural and machined graphite on steel armature
121.18 x 43.5 x 86 inches
307.8 x 110.5 x 218.4 cm
Installation at USF Contemporary Art Museum, 2009
Photo : Aaron Igler, Greenhouse Media
Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York

Nataliya Slinko, 2nd year MFA student in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, is displaying new work titled, Benefit of the Doubt, at Possible Projects in Brooklyn, NY.

Possible Projects
Opening reception 6-9pm, October 1st
Show runs from October 1-26th
68 Jay St. #510, Brooklyn

Julie Harvey, alumna of the Department of Painting and Printmaking recently created a Go-Go performance that was filmed in the Museum of Modern Art. Such activities are typically not permitted alongside the museum’s priceless artwork.

How did this project originate? Ms. Harvey best describes this as a dream that was intercepted by a video artist Thilo Hoffmann who created a project called “30 Seconds” currently being filmed at the MoMA. Mr. Hoffmann selected a few museum members and allowed them to do whatever they desired in the museum for 30 seconds. Ms. Harvey told the filmmaker that she wanted to create a Go-Go dance performance within the galleries of the MoMA. This instantly raised his curiosity because most other proposals were similar to the usual mundane art lecture. Both Ms. Harvey and Mr. Hoffmann felt the Go-Go production was something that must be done. Within 3 days Ms. Harvey put together a crew of dancers and musicians; the level of excitement for these artists was off the charts.

On Tuesday, September 1, Ms. Harvey and her performers arrived at the MoMA in mini skirts, false eyelashes, and wigs. They were escorted through the museum to the gallery where Matisse’s “Dance (1)” painting is displayed. Julie Harvey choreographed this performance to specifically take place within the Matisse gallery, which holds some of her favorite artworks from the museum’s collection. Everyone who performed in this project had an out-of-this-world experience. Ms. Harvey worked along side 7 exuberant souls who brought only the pinnacle of their passion to this project.

The piece began with 5 dancers (including Ms. Harvey) in a static stance hiding the view of Matisse’s 5 bronze portraits of “Jeanette.” When the music started the dancers suddenly hit the ground in a squat exposing the sculptures. They arose as Egyptian gods and spun across the room toward the “Dance” painting. Spinning was something Ms. Harvey was very cautious about doing in the MoMA; she thought it would be absolutely out of the question. The dancers quickly joined together underneath Matisse’s vibrant “Dance” painting and did a synchronized set of flamboyant moves which featured a sassy flare of their derrières. Then they swiftly scurried into the next room, past Duke Guilliame who stood rhythmically playing saxophone to their background music. They wrapped up their performance with more spins and a final engaging hip gesture.

The Go-Go event was created as a parody on the art world. The many actors and dancers who were selected to perform mingled and danced throughout the event while secretly playing the role of art critic, artist, or dealer. The entire event was staged to mock and exaggerate the drama within the art community. These actors and dancers have become the subjects of Ms. Harvey’s current paintings.

Department of Painting and Printmaking student, Chinonyeelu Uchechi Amobi who performs as Diamond Black Hearted Boy, is “recontextualizing hip-hop with noise music, world music, new identities like Goth — stirring it all up”, and has recently performed at Knowbody’s Place, a warehouse on 234 E. Broad Street this past Saturday (September 26).

Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinetic Imaging, Stephen Vitiello is, and has been interacting with multiple artists in a number of creative areas.

Shown:
Dietz-Marchant at Music Theatre Group’s space in Brooklyn

Also:
Finishing a new DVD of music for 6 different video artists, including Eder Santos (Brazil), Seoungho Cho (NY), Andrew Deutsch (Hornell, NY) and 3 Richmond-based artists - Kevin Gallagher, Matt Flowers, Nic DeSantis.

Preparing for performances in Winnipeg, Canada and Montreal as part of the Send + Receive Festival - October 2009.

Bright Path

September 5th – September 26th, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday, September 5 at 6:00pm

Little Berlin Gallery
119 West Montgomery
Philadelphia PA, 19122
www.littleberlin.org

Little Berlin is proud to present Bright Path, a group show inspired by the protagonist. The exhibition intends to explore in varying forms the spiritual essence present in physical acts unique to the human experience, both superhuman and unremarkable. Featured artists include Andrew Brehm (MFA), John Henry Blatter, Kristen Taylor, Duke Riley, Daniel Petraitis and Alexander MacDonald. The work is comprised of sculpture, sound and performance and may reveal some insight into what prompts us to make decisions to move forward or to stand still. The initial stimulus for the show was influenced by the teachings of Joseph Campbell, the writing of James Baldwin, and the life of Jim Thorpe.

In addition, please join us again on Thursday, September 10th at 7:30 pm for the screening of Andrew Brehm’s survival film “Landman and the Thunderbird” which will be projected and shown in its entirety in the gallery. Refreshments will be provided for a small donation.

video link from opening night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDk3g0K1zE0

__________________________________________

Andrew Brehm (MFA)

Summer Shorts features a selection of video works by artists from Philadelphia. Each of the seven works will be shown continuously in the Morris Gallery for one week. During the final week of the series, all seven works will be shown consecutively in a video loop. Summer Shorts gives audiences an opportunity to sample some of the variety of video art being made by artists in the city.

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Morris Gallery
Historic Landmark Building, Ground Floor
118-128 N. Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Timothy Shearer
Repeat Trying To Forget; Remember Not To Repeat

September 13 - October 10, 2009
opening reception: September 12, 2009 7-10 PM

Galerie Mülhaupt 
Deutz-Mülheimer-Str.216 
51063 Köln 
0163 4576700

Amy Feldman, graduate of the Department of Painting & Printmaking, is currently taking part in a group show at RedFlagg in New York City that lasts until October 17th, 2009.

“Amy Feldman’s gesturally painted doughnut shape is the perfect counterpoint to the thick, square canvas it’s painted on, neither overwhelming it nor overwhelmed by it.”

RedFlagg
638 West 28th Street
New York, New York 10001
Ground Floor, between 11th & 12th Avenues

Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 10-6pm
Web: redflagg.com
Email: info@redflagg.com

Christopher Winton-Stahle, Department of Photography and Film alumnus, has been interviewed by Shutterbug magazine on his use of social media as an additional strategy to reach new clients. The article appears in the October 2009 issue.

Affiliated Sculpture + Extended Media faculty member, Sanford Biggers, has won the 2009 William H. Johnson Prize, a twenty-five-thousand-dollar award given annually to an early-career African-American artist. The foundation reports that it received nearly two hundred applicants this year, the most ever.

To read more, please visit ArtForum

Micael Jones McKean, associate professor in Department of Sculpture + Extended Media to Exhibit throughout United States and Italy in 2009-2010.
Exhibitions:
August 26 – September 11, 2009
Objet Petit A
curated by Matthew Jacques Dupont and Dayton Castleman
Spoke Gallery
119 N. Peoria St.
Unit 3D
Chicago, IL 60607

 
September 11 - October 31, 2009
Strangers in Conversation
Inman Gallery
3901 Main St.
Houston, Texas 77002

September 17 - 20 , 2009 in Italy
ArtVerona, with Project Gentili
Project Gentili
Prato 59100
Via del Carmine 13
0574 400445
 
October 6 - November 5, 2009
HCC 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Houston, Texas
Houston Community College
Central Fine Arts
3517 Austin at Holman
Houston TX, 77004
 
Speaking engagements:
September 14, 2009
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska
Public lecture discussing the upcoming project Certain Principles of Light and Shapes Between Forms, a large-scale public rainbow project slated for the spring of 2010.
 
September 28-29, 2009
University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
Public lecture.

October 20-21, 2009
University of Oregon, Eugene, Eugene, Oregon
Public lecture discussing the upcoming project Certain Principles of Light and Shapes Between Forms, a large-scale public rainbow project slated for the spring of 2010.

November 9, 2009  
Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Public lecture.

Casing the Promised Land

Gallery SATORI
164 Stanton Street
New York, NY 10002

September 16 – October 18, 2009

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 17th, 6:00 - 8:00pm

Gallery SATORI is pleased to announce the first solo show of Benjamin S. Jones (MFA from Department of Sculpture + Extended Media) in New York. Evoking a sense of rapid production and consumption, the exhibition features a group of sculptures that utilize architecture and urban planning as metaphors to probe issues of growth, frailty, and self-destruction.

Jones explores pattern, fractures, shifts, and realignment to question the idea of development, destruction and co-dependence, and in turn obsessive fetishes and vain ambitions. He explores the dualities of the habitat that is at once residential and industrial, private and public, constructed and de-constructed. These dualities are further explored through a language of form that pairs elements that are highly finished and completely raw, explicit and evocative.

http://www.gallerysatori.com

David Herbert, alumnus of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, has a large sculpture called “Holiday” in a show called “Uncharted” at the University Art Museum at the University at Albany curated by Janet Riker and Corinna Ripps Schaming.

September 15 - December 13

University Art Museum
University at Albany
1400 Washington Ave
Albany, NY 12222

Amy Hauft, chair of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, will be exhibiting recent works, titled Counter Re-formation, at Western Michigan University’s Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery from September 10 - October 9.

Western Michigan University
Gwen Frostic School of Art
1903 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49008

For more information, please contact:
Don Desmett
Director of Exhibitions
269 387 2455
donald.desmett@wmich.edu

GALLERY HOURS
Monday–Thursday 10:00 a.m.– 6:00 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m.– 9:00 p.m.
Saturday 12:00 p.m.– 6:00 p.m.

Jason Dilworth, alumni of VCU’s Design/Visual Communication graduate program recently participated in Project M, a short term project that intends to bring people and social entrepreneurism together. Project M + Winterhouse recently held a free pizza grilling event on August 29th in Canaan, CT with the support of local farmers, growers and the community.

For more information, check out – www.winterhouse.com/project_m

VCU Department of Painting & Printmaking professor, Richard Roth has multiple upcoming exhibitions:
Triple Candie, Painting, Smoking, Eating, an installation of collections assembled especially for the Case Room by Richard Roth. September 13 – October 25, 2009.
Triple Candie – 500 West 148th Street, NYC. Opening Reception: 4 –6pm, Sunday, September 13.

Frederieke Taylor Gallery, Color as Structure, curated by Julie Langsam, new paintings in a mini-four-person exhibition in the Viewing Room. September 15 – October 17, 2009. Frederieke Taylor Gallery – 535 West 22nd Street, 6th Floor, NYC. Opening Reception: 6 – 8pm, Tuesday, September 15.

Rocket Gallery, Book A Table; group exhibition of tables and artists’ books, London, U.K., September 18 – November 7, 2009. Book A Table is an affiliate exhibition of the London Design Festival.  Rocket Gallery, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London, UK. Opening Reception: 6 –9PM, Tuesday, September 22.

Local artist Michael Pierce and VCU instructor and artist Ginna Cullen curated this exhibit that presents a broad array of bookart works, both one-of-a-kind and editioned. The work will be exhibited on pedestals in the gallery and selected images of the work will be displayed on-line and in a printed catalog. In addition, the public can spend some time in a “Reading Room” at the gallery created by Douglas D’Urso; there you can sit and handle some of these bookart works (when artists have granted such permission) and experience them in time and space.

See the work here.

Fourth Friday Reception: 7:00 - 10:00 PM, Friday, October 23, 2009
Open Friday Evening: 7:00 - 10:00 PM, Friday, October 30, 2009
Closing Curator / Artist Talk: 4:00 PM, Sunday, November 1, 2009
Artspace Gallery, Zero East Fourth Street, Richmond, VA 23224.

A racially mixed collective of Virginia Commonwealth University students, led by Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, a Department of Theatre associate professor is building a new play in collaboration with the Healing Place and the Daily Planet. With a mission to “promote open and honest dialogue about racism in America,” the Conciliation Project has expanded its repertoire through the years to include related topics of social consequence.

The Conciliation Project play will be performed as the centerpiece of the 40th anniversary gala for the Daily Planet at the Empire Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 24.  Tickets are $40 and may be purchased by contacting Maureen Neal at the Daily Planet, 783-2505, ext. 242.

To read more, please see Style Weekly.

After 10 years as a commercial illustrator extraordinaire, associate professor in VCU’s Department of Communication Arts, Sterling Hundley has created a dramatic series of oil paintings for this debut solo show. The show, titled “Emergent” runs from September 4th - 26th at Ghostprint Gallery in Richmond, VA. In addition to the show, Sterling also has an interview in RVA mag this week.

For more information on Sterling Hundley, please go to his blog at http://sterlingclintonhundley.blogspot.com/.

Ghostprint Gallery can be found at 220 West Broad Street Richmond, VA 23220 and reached at (804)344.1557.

Project 4 presents “Make/Shift”, a two-person exhibition featuring work by Christine Gray, an assistant professor in VCU’s Painting & Printmaking department and Andrea Cohen. Both artists explore the intersection of natural and artificial through the use of man-made and synthetic materials. Together, their sculptures and paintings depict the struggle to interpret reality within the context of an objectified world.

August 15-September 12th 2009
Artist Talk Saturday September 12th at 4:30
Closing Reception to follow 5:30-8:30

Project 4 Gallery, 1353 U St NW, Third Floor, Washington, DC

Leah Beeferman, MFA student in the Painting & Printmaking department is exhibiting in multiple locations, both national and international. Below are some of the highlights.

Washington Project for the Arts: Options 2009
curated by Anne Collins Goodyear, National Portrait Gallery
Presented at Conner Contemporary Art
Washington DC
September 17 – October 31, 2009
Opening Reception Thursday September 17th from 6-8PM

Decidedly Ambivalent
New Art Center
Newton, Massachusetts
September 14th – October 25th, 2009
Opening Reception Friday, September 25th from 6 to 8PM
Curator’s Talk Sunday, October 4th at 2PM

INSIDERS
part of EVENTO, the urban art biennale in Bordeaux
Entrepôt, Bordeaux, France
October 2009 – February 2010

Paper City: Urban Utopias
Architecture Space
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BD
July 31 – October 27, 2009

VCU Photography & Film alumni Will Connally will be exhibiting in his first solo show, September 4th from 7 to 9PM at Richmond Public Library’s Dooley Foyer (101 E. Franklin Street). The exhibit will be on display until Sept. 29th.

Paintings by Painting and Printmaking Associate Professor Ruth Bolduan will be featured in a solo exhibition at LA Cova de les Cultures cultural arts center located at Carrer de Angel, 12 bjs, in Barcelona, Spain. The show runs from June 2-24, with an opening reception on June 2 from 5 to 10 PM.

Twenty recent paintings and ten works on paper reflect the influence of Rococo art in Bolduan’s new work.

Lively color and intricate linear patterns animate these figurative paintings, with additional references to 18th century paintings of country life and portraiture. Bolduan writes, “The eighteenth century fascinates me as a woman and as an artist. Yet, a sense of political and global unease underlies this light-hearted façade, layering a 21st century feeling of malaise over the work.”

Peter Baldes, associate professor in Painting & Printmaking has embarked on a cross-country roadtrip, virtually. Baldes and traveling companion Marc Horowitz tried to make their dreams of the classic American cross-country journey come true, but because of finances, schedule conflicts, and time constraints, they just couldn’t make it work. The solution: googlemaps.

Along the trip, they’ve received a lot of interest from outside media like NPR, Jimmy Fallon and ReadyMade Magazine.

Check out their photostream here.

This summer BravinLee programs will present Rachel Hayes and Nina Bovasso on two different construction sites in Lower Manhattan.

In mid August, Sculpture+Extended Media alumna Rachel Hayes will install Rainbow Conversation at the Louise Nevelson Plaza construction site, part the of New York City Department of Design and Construction’s Liberty Street reconstruction project, located at the corner of William Street and Maiden Lane. In Rainbow Conversation, Sculptor Rachel Hayes creates spectacular experiences of color and motion in an area that might otherwise be overlooked or avoided. Strips of opaque and sheer fabrics and vinyl have been sewed into striped panels. These materials are not only objects with boundless properties for manipulation, but also historical signifiers of gender, fashion, decoration and gesture. Hayes’ installation will transform the 41 aluminum fences that surround the construction zone into a sensual and vibrant experience, building experimental multihued landscapes with line and light. Some of the pieces will flutter in the wind so that one will see both movement and color from either end of the Plaza, beckoning the viewer to move around it. Hayes is interested in the deep conversation going on behind the fence, consisting of mostly grueling and heavy activity, engineered with giant machines. Rainbow Conversation has been just as carefully engineered as the construction going on behind it: Each piece was meticulously hand-sewn, and incorporates not only Hayes’ own physical labor, but also that of family and friends, including both her mother and mother-in-law. According to Hayes, “It is almost as if my work doesn’t care what is going on behind it, yet I am responding to the construction site, offering sheer windows to peep through and witness the hard work of others. It is quite interesting that all this construction surrounds Louise Nevelson’s ‘Shadows and Flags’, 1978, a powerful sculpture by an important woman artist. It is almost cyclical.”

Rachel Hayes hails from Kansas City and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has had solo exhibitions at Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge, Solvent Space, Richmond, VA, LAB Gallery, NY and Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM. Group exhibitions include the Sculpture Center, NY, Kansas City Jewish Museum, Grand Arts, Kansas City, and Fakespace LA. Awards and Residencies include Sculpture Space Residency, Art Omi International Residency, Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship in Sculpture. Most recently she was awarded the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Memorial Fellowship in Sculpture and will have a solo show 2010 in Cornish, NH.

Project management for Rainbow Conversation: Eric Sall

BravinLee programs is a contemporary art gallery specializing in works on paper, artist book projects and public art installations. In 2006 they curated and produced Studio in the Park, 11 art installations in NYC’s Riverside Park (catalog available).

For more information and images, contact Karin Bravin, BravinLee programs 917-885-2047 or Karin@bravinlee.com
526 West 26th Street, Suite 211
New York, New York 10001
phone 212 462 4404
fax 212 462 4406
inquiry@bravinlee.com
Tuesday-Friday, 10a-5p
Saturday, 11a-5p

INCIDENT REPORT No.23:
HOPE GINSBURG (Assistant Professor, Art Foundation)
SPONGE WORKSHOP & INSTALLATION

July 22 - August 24

@ THE INCIDENT REPORT VIEWING STATION
348 Warren Street. HUDSON, NY 12534 USA

August Aug 3-14 and 17-21 are the dates for the next “Jazz Boot Camp, Big Band, & Jazz Funk” at the Richmond Youth Jazz Guild. Events are 9a-12p, with participants ages 10-18. VCU Jazz student Mary Lawrence Hicks (pictured above with Guild students) has been assisting the kids this summer. You can find related videos at here and in the right-hand menu of that web page. For further information, visit www.musecreativeworkspace.com, e-mail terri@musecreativeworkspace.com, or call 819-0253.

2009 Communication Arts graduate Stanley Rayfield has been selected as an artist for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009.

The juried exhibition includes 49 works that will be on view from Oct. 23 through Aug. 22, 2010.

Of these works, submitted by people from across the nation, seven were selected for the shortlist. Our own Stanley Rayfield is one of the seven. Each of these seven will win cash awards, and the first prize will include an award of $25,000 and a commission from the museum to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. The prizes will be announced in a private event Oct. 22.

“The second Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition represents a significant milestone for the National Portrait Gallery,” said Martin Sullivan, director of the museum. “We opened the entries to all visual arts media and received a wonderful response.”

The competition received 3,300 entries in a variety of visual arts media, from digital animation and video to large-scale drawings, prints and photographs and a plethora of painted and sculpted portraits. It was open to artists working in the United States who had created portraits after Jan. 1, 2007, in any visual art form. The exhibition of the finalists’ works includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs and video.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION MRC 973 PO Box 37012 Washington DC 20013-7012 Telephone 202.633.8293 Fax 202.633.8290

Stanley Rayfield - “Dad”
oil on canvas 60″x48″

Department of Sculpture + Extended Media Professor Elizabeth has four spreads in the latest Sculpture magazine. Click here to read the article/interview by Gregory Volk.

The documentary film on anthropologist Melville Herskovits, whose score VCU Music instructor Darryl Harper co-composed with Xavier Davis, is moving around the country at several film festivals and won best documentary at the Hollywood Black Film Festival in June 2009.

Herskovits:  At the Heart of Blackness Screenings:
Boston International Film Festival
April 25, 2009
www.bifilmfestival.com

Hollywood Black Film Festival
June 7, 2009
Winner “Best Documentary”!
www.hbff.org

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
July 23-Aug 10 (screening date tba)
www.sfjff.org

Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival
August 4-8 (screening date tba)
www.mvaaff.com

The film Herskovits: At the Heart of Blackness examines how anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits re-defined black history, making it possible for a people formerly despised as “Negroes” to pride themselves as African-Americans. Herskovits himself was not black; he was a white man of Jewish ancestry. But he acquired the power to re-make the historical understanding of black people, and in the process engaged in conflicts with black scholars and white institutions of the day and helped to propel African Americans’ struggle against white supremacy. The film includes rarely seen archival footage, provocative animation, photo montage re-enactments, interviews with leading scholars of race and culture, and a score co-composed by Darryl Harper and Xavier Davis.  The film is produced by Vital Pictures.

Clarinetist Darryl Harper has opened concerts for Max Roach, The Billy Taylor Trio, and The Wynton Marsalis Quartet.  He has performed with Tim Warfield, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Roscoe Mitchell, Dave Holland, Uri Caine, and Regina Carter. His projects as a leader include The Onus Quintet, The Onus Trio, Into Something, and The C3 Project. Harper serves on the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University.  Visit www.darrylharperjazz.com for more information.

Painting and Printmaking alumna, Julie Harvey, takes part in SUMMER VIEWS
Gallery Artists & Invitational

Berdarducci. Meisel. Gallery
37 W. 57th Street, NY NY 10019
11 June - 17 July, 2009

Frank Bernarducci and Louis K. Meisel are pleased to announce the opening of the group survey exhibition entitled, Summer Views: Gallery Artists & Invitational. Recent contemporary paintings from Gallery artists as well as invited artists comprise this show reflective of the summer season.

Participating artists include Luigi Benedicenti, Roberto Bernardi, Paul Caranicas, Ester Curini, Julie Harvey, Gus Heinze, Charles Jarboe, Robert Neffson, Jud Nelson, and Nigel Van Wieck.

Julie Harvey’s Charity is a painting of youthful energy. The dramatic and pop style background is contrasting with her mini-skirt, go-go boots and hair style evocative of the “Swinging Sixties.” And then on the other end of the spectrum, Charles Jarboe’s intimate work 59th Street Bridge captures not only the industrial aspects of New York City, but gives glimpses into the brilliantly hued sunsets that are offered during the steamy summer.

This exhibit remains on view through Friday, July 17, 2009.

For further information and images of works from the exhibition, please contact Frank Bernarducci or Elizabeth Reeve at 212-593-3757, or visit us on the web at www.bernarduccimeisel.com.

Viewing hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 to 5:30.
Hours for July are Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 to 5:00.

Berdarducci. Meisel. Gallery
37 W. 57th Street, NY NY 10019

(Above)
Julie Harvey
“Charity”
2008
oil on polychromed aluminum 50 x 34.75″

Former Painting and Printmaking Chair, Richard Roth, will be part of a three-person exhibition in Paris, June 27 - July 25, 2009 at ParisCONCRET:

Renowned Islamic calligraphy artist and VCUQatar Joint Advisory Board member Mohamed Zakariya was recently commissioned by U.S. President Barack Obama to create a gift of calligraphy for King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.  Zakariya has been represented exclusively by Linearis Institute since 2005.

The commissioned gift is a work of Islamic calligraphy in Arabic Sulus script with ink and gold on Ahar paper with Ebru borders and backing, created on June 2, 2009 for the occasion of President Obama’s visit to the Middle East.  The gift was presented to King Abdullah shortly after President Obama’s arrival on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, when the two leaders met privately at King Abdullah’s farm.  Taken from the Qur’an (Chapter 49:Verse 13), the English translation of the script reads:

“O people, we created you from the same male and female, and rendered you distinct peoples and tribes, that you may recognize one another. The noblest among you in God’s sight is the most conscientious of you. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware.”

In echoing King Abdullah’s important calls for interfaith and intercultural dialogue, President Obama included this quote from the Qur’an in his speech at Cairo University in Egypt on Thursday, June 4.

Commenting on this historic occasion, Linearis co-principal and managing director Suleyman Cooke has remarked, “The profound power of art has played a key role in the President delivering his message of inclusion. Like many times in the past, art was used as an instrument of change, in this case, positive change. We are deeply appreciative for the opportunity to be part of history and the promotion of the President’s positive message to the greater Muslim world.”

In response to the President’s commission, master calligrapher and artist Mohamed Zakariya has expressed, “I am deeply honored that President Obama chose my work as part of his historic initiative to open new doors between America and the Muslim world.  I believe Islamic art can be a fitting ambassador of much-hoped-for policy change.”

Mohamed Zakariya is an American master of Islamic calligraphy.   With no formal education, Zakariya learned his trades in aerospace-industry machine shops; in the Los Angeles atelier of Oscar Meyer, the French impresario of antiques and objects de virtu; at the British Museum; and at Istanbul’s Research Center for Islamic Art, History, and Culture, where he earned two licenses in Islamic calligraphy—the first Westerner to do so. Since settling in the Washington, D.C., area in 1972, Zakariya has traveled frequently to Turkey and the Persian Gulf and has exhibited and lectured extensively in this country and abroad. Known for his design of the “Eid Greetings” U.S. postage stamp, he concentrates primarily on classical Arabic and Ottoman Turkish calligraphy.

Dr. Pamela G. Taylor and her interdisciplinary research team (Dr. Joan Rhodes and Dr. Frances Smith from the School of Education, and Jan Johnston from the Department of Art Education) received notice that their proposal, “Research for eLASTIC: Electronic Learning and Assessment Tool for Interdisciplinary Connections among the Visual Arts, Reading, and Writing” has been awarded a $1,050,000 grant under the 2nd cycle of the Qatar National Priorities Research Program (NPRP).

This proposal, along with 92 others from such prestigious institutions as Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers, Ohio State, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, University of British Columbia, University of Malaysia, etc.), was selected from 482 international submissions with an approximate 20% success rate.

Art Foundation Assistant Professor Hope Ginsburg’s Sponge project is headed to Socrates Sculpture Park for Makers Market, an open-air marketplace featuring a curated selection of skillfully crafted projects.  Ginsburg will be on hand to vend her handmade felt mittens, boots, kitchen sponges and sea sponges. Those products, and other artifacts, are the material manifestations of Sponge, Ginsburg’s “immersive” teaching, learning and discipline-bending project.

Preview event: Friday, June 26, 6-8pm, $50
Saturday, June 27, 11am-7pm
Sunday, June 28, 11am-5pm

Rain or shine

Be among the first to shop the Makers Market and enjoy cocktails by St. Germain and hors d’oeurves on the waterfront as the sun sets over the Manhattan skyline.

Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Boulevard at Broadway
Long Island City, NY 11106, 718-956-1819

David Herbert, who graduated from Sculpture + Extended Media in 2006, will exhibit new works through June 27.

May 21-June 27, 2009
Postmasters Gallery
459 W. 19th St. (at 10th ave.)  NY  10011

“Nostalgia for Infinity”
opening reception, Thursday, May 21,  6-8pm

Postmasters Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by David Herbert. The show titled “Nostalgia for Infinity” will open on May 21 and will be on view until June 27. The reception is scheduled for Thursday, May 21 between 6 and 8 pm.

David Herbert’s sculptures, video installations, paintings and drawings combine images of pop culture and American history with a fearless use of materials. In earlier works Herbert created his  transformed versions of the Black Monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Superman, Hindenburg Zeppelin, the Bates Hotel, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, and Starship Enterprise rendered in fabric, plexiglas, aluminum, sculpey, paper pulp, cement, and conduit pipe.

In the current show, Herbert’s second with Postmasters, he continues this exploration into pop images and materials by focusing on the creations of illustrators and animators as a point of departure to navigate the slippery divide between fact and fiction, decay and resurrection, past and future, and comedy and tragedy. He pulls works of fantasy down to earth and levitates the mundane.  In Herbert’s work apocalypse meets hope and exuberance.

A centerpiece of “Nostalgia for Infinity” is “Monarch” (2008) – a monumental, twice the human scale sculpture of a silver bodied creature from the movie “Alien” made from chicken wire and spray foam that sits, slumping, in a rocking chair. The chair, made from layered plywood, has been weathered and is visibly repaired with rusty steel strips and mounds of oozing glue. Resting on the alien’s hand is a butterfly. This regal, larger-than-life husk of an soulless killer alien, is part Grandma Moses and part tragic Shakespearean figure. It evokes existential turmoil and resignation but also hope and resilience.

Second gallery is occupied by “Séance for the Symphony” (2009) – a near exact replica of the classic first Mickey Mouse cartoon and vessel of Americana , “Steam Boat Willie” (1928). Herbert’s seven minute long video, combining puppetry, stop-animation, and motion graphics, is made exclusively from cardboard, paper, wire and string. The re-created cartoon plays within a translucent sculpture of a floating movie palace. A ghost-like set for what was once a giant step in filmmaking and corporate identity, “Séance for the Symphony” becomes a personal attempt at resurrection – a do-it-yourself copy of an icon that no longer stands.

He was included in “Freedom” The Hague Scupture Project 08 and his works were recently on view in “Carnival Within – An Exhibition Made in America,” curated by Sabine Russ and Gregory Volk at Uferhallen in Berlin.

Semi Ryu, assistant professor in VCUarts Department of Kinetic Imaging will present Parting on Z: Virtual Interactive Puppetry + Pansori.

Wednesday, May 27 at 7pm
Chelsea Art Museum
556 West 22nd Street, NYC, 212.255.0719

Parting On Z is a real-time virtual puppetry that responds to the puppeteer’s voice, walking balance, and fan movements, integrated with the traditional Korean oral storytelling known as Pansori. This live performance explores the paradoxical relationship between virtual puppet and puppeteer via the distance between the avatar and user - symbolic lovers facing each other, continuously exchanging dialogues of love and farewell. For more info: http://www.semiryu.net

Squirrelly Girls summer 09 traveling exhibit

Following a reverse storm path the Supercell opens May 1st at ADA Gallery, in Richmond, Virginia, then heads west to Columbus, Ohio at the Junction View Art Gallery, and concludes the tour in Wichita, Kansas at Shiftspace (Wichita State University).

Participating Supercell Artist (the majority are alumni):
Sandra Luckett: Installation Artist (VA)
Kirsten Kindler: Cut Paper, 2D & 3D work (VA)
Lisa Rundstrom: Linear, Color-Saturated, Lit Installation/sculptures (KS)
Kristin Beal-DeGrandmont: Installation Artist (found & manipulated materials) (KS)
Suzanna Fields: Colorful 3D Object art (VA)
Matt Kenyon: Conceptual Art (PA)
Barbara Tisserat: Printmaker (VA)
Carrie Dyer: Digital/Mixed Media Artist (AR)
Peter Baldes: Digital Artist (VA)
Vaughn Garland: Painter/Mixed Media Artist (VA)
Ginnie Baer: Manipulated Found Objects (OH)
Bryan Condra: 2D Artist (VA)
Stu Hollins: Sculptor (conceptual) (VA)
Langdon Graves: Fabric Sculpture/Mixed media Artist (NY)
Rachel Hayes: Fabric Artist (NY)

Squirrelly Girls are Melanie Christian, Sandra Luckett, Katie Shaw Sweeney, and James Busby.

Conundrum

Sanford Biggers at The Kitchen
Featuring Imani Uzuri, Martin Luther, Terry Adkins, Mark Hinds, dre.dance and other special guests

Thursday and Friday, April 16 and 17, 8pm

Tickets: $10

Curated by Rashida Bumbray

Visual artist and musician Sanford Biggers’ (Sculpture + Extended Media) work examines the complex collisions between culture and commodity in contemporary society. For these evenings, Biggers presents a unique mash-up of improvised music, live video mixing, and text, with a small ensemble of dancers whose choreographed movements cast geometric light patterns throughout the space. Drawing from ancient African and Buddhist spiritual traditions, Dadaist theory, YouTube music culture, and John Biggers’ afro-futurist paintings, Biggers explores the specific cultural concerns of the contemporary political climate, using the socio-spiritual meanings of coded symbols and geometries to transform the mundane into the remarkable. These performances feature Biggers (keyboards, laptop), Mark Hinds(video), Imani Uzuri(vocals), Martin Luther (guitar and vocals), and Andrew Palermo and Taye Diggs’ dre.dance (dance) alongside several other guest performers.

Sanford will also be lecturing in London at the Buddhist Sculpture Contemporary Art Forum
Victoria and Albert Museum
Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery
London, England
April 25, 2pm

and the US at the Maryland Institute College of Art
Baltimore, MD
July 16, 4:30pm

Sculpture + Extended Media graduate students Ian McMahon and Nataliya Slinko have been selected to receive the prestigious Jacob K. Javits Fellowship. Both will receive 4 years for financial support. Ian and Nataliya join fellow graduates Angie White, John Blatter, Sami Ben Larbi as recipients for the award. In seven years the department of Sculpture + Extended Media has had six of its alumni awarded this incredible honor.

With the financial help of an undergraduate research grant, students Peter Soroka, Kevin Estes (Music), John Labra (Graphic Design), and Brittany Shade (Sculpture + Extended Media) unveil aMUSEment, a very unconventional instrument that began with a goal to: build a noisemaker, make it big, make it pretty, and make it amusing.

aMUSEment was unveiled on Friday, April 3 with more plans to feature it in the senior recital held Saturday, April 11.

Additional Information
Undergraduate Research Grants
Article in Style Weekly

Jessica Langley (MFA Painting and Printmaking) & Ben Kinsley

The exhibition opens on Saturday the 11th April at 16:00 and is open until 7th June.

“The Thirteenth Day” exhibition at Skaftfell – Center for Visual Art is a presentation of work created, both collaboratively and individually, by Jessica Langley and Ben Kinsley during their extended stay in Iceland. The title “The Thirteenth Day” refers to Þrettándinn, the celebration held on the 13th day after Christmas when the last of the Yule Lads is said to return to the mountains after a holiday season of mischief - a transitional time between the imaginary and the everyday. Having the opportunity to experience the famous Þrettándinn celebration in the Westman Islands has proven to be a corner stone of the artists’ time in Iceland. Both the event itself and the ideas it represents are reflected in the work featured in this exhibition.

Þrettándinn marks and end to a period where the imaginary commingles with daily life. It is at this same juncture, at the boundary between the supernatural and natural worlds,  where Jessica Langley’s work is situated. Her work draws from idealized nature photography, Romantic landscape painting, mythology, and new age spiritualism. It explores the in-between, the gray area, the liminal place between what is perceived as real and what is imagined.

The all-inclusive nature of the Westman Islands’ Þrettándinn parade (featuring costumed performers, hundreds of enthusiasts, torches, fireworks, a raging bonfire, and the local search and rescue team) and the accompanying house parties, dances, and other community-wide celebrations is a more perfect realization of what Ben Kinsley attempts to achieve in his greater body of work. His staged events and performances are ongoing investigations into community interaction and creative play, often requiring a suspended disbelief on the part of participants and viewers.

Jessica Langley is in Iceland as a 2008-2009 Fulbright Fellow as well as a Leifur Eiriksson Foundation Scholar. She graduated with her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2005 and received her MFA from the department of Painting and Printmaking in 2008. She has been featured in New American Paintings and has exhibited in galleries internationally. While in Iceland she has participated in artist residencies at SIM (The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists) in Reykjavik, Nes Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, and Skaftfell Art Center.

Ben Kinsley has exhibited in the United States and abroad in museums, galleries, and film festivals and has work included in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. He received his BFA in 2005 from the Cleveland Institute of Art, is a 2006 alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and received his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. Ben is living and working in Iceland with the aid of the First Agnes Gund Traveling Award from the Cleveland Institute of Art and has participated in artist residencies at SIM (The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists) in Reykjavik, Nes Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, and Skaftfell Art Center.

Rex Richardson (Associate Professor the Department of Music) performed Stephen Paulus’ Concerto for Two Trumpets with Vincent DiMartino and the Lansing Symphony on March 6th and with Allen Vizzutti and the Baton Rouge Symphony on March 19th. In between those events, he presented at “Trumpet Day” with DiMartino at Michigan State University and spent a week in Greece (Corfu and Athens) over spring break presenting jazz workshops and performing/recording at the Guru Bar in Athens. The recording should be released as Jazz Upstairs Vol 2: Live at the Guru Bar in the coming year. In addition, in February Richardson collaborated with VCU Orchestra director Daniel Myssyk in performing/recording Dana Wilson’s Concerto for Trumpet and String Orchestra with Myssyk’s wonderful Appassionata Ensemble Instrumental in Montreal. Currently, Richardson is collaborating with faculty member Doug Richards to record Richards’ Intercontinental Concerto for Trumpet and Jazz Orchestra during the month of April. Both concertos should be released on Summit Records by early 2010.

Elissa Armstrong, assistant director of Art Foundation will be in the exhibition “The Margins: A Non Traditional Approach to Clay” at The Icehouse, in Phoenix, AZ. The opening for the exhibition will be April 9, and is in conjunction with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference.

“The Margins: A non traditional approach to clay”
The Icehouse
429 W Jackson St.
Phoenix, AZ

April 8-12, 2009
opening April 9