Taylor Baldwin, MFA
Made in Tucson/ Born in Tucson/ Live in Tucson
March 6, 2010 6-7pm
Museum of Contemporary Art - Tucson

Mia Feuer, MFA
Suspended Landscape
March 5 - April 17
Transformer
1404 P Street, NW
Washington, DC

James Sham, MFA
Carrying Across
Feb 19-April 30, 2010
Asian Arts Initiative
1219 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
10:00am-6:00pm Tue-Fri
215.557.0455

Matthew Lively’s (BFA 93) exhibition, “Odebla,” is on view through March 3 in the North Gallery of the V. Earl Dickinson Building at Piedmont Virginia Community College. 501 College Dr. 961-5362.

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: http://esterknows.com/?p=2987

A group of BFA alum’s from the Department of Painting & Printmaking ask you to join them at the Cross Keys Vineyards on Friday, March 12th, at 6pm for an exhibition of their work entitled, “Quit Yer Whinin’”. The Vineyards are located at 6011 East Timber Ridge Rd., Mt. Crawford, VA 22841. Students include Conor Backman, Caleb Flood, Paul Kehrer, Vianney Paul and Sabrina Recabarren.

“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.

“Sanford Biggers isn’t content to be called a sculptor, video artist, or performance artist, even though these media are central to his work. He’s an artist whose interdisciplinary skills allow him to challenge viewers with an unusual practice that resists characterization. He’s not only an idea man in the conceptual art tradition, he also makes amazing and mysterious things.  …Biggers’ works about race and racism are only a part of his overall oeuvre, though communication across and within cultures is a constant of his work. As such, Biggers has emerged as a prominent voice among artists whose aesthetic instincts are political, and whose political sensibilities affect the forms that artworks take.  Sanford Biggers is a man with a plan, and he’s got the skills to execute it, not only as a black artist, but also on the big stage of world culture.”  

From: The Big Idea by Malik Gaines, 2009

Noor Al-Kuwari, the young entrepreneur behind kro-k, graduated with a BFA in Interior Design from VCUQatar in 2003 and shortly thereafter started working for the Qatar Tourism Authority. She later worked at the Diwan Amiri and PEO (Private Engineering Office) working on interior design projects for clients that included Tajine restaurants, Soy Restaurant and Casa Flora among others.

“My desire and passion for designing made me take this leap forward,” she says. She credits her education at VCUQatar for helping her develop her skills and her personality. “VCUQatar gave me a very solid base for a good start and I continue getting support from them as well as from my family and friends who have been there for me throughout.”

Kro-k’s architects and interior designers bring with them their wealth of industry knowledge and experience as they begin to work on turnkey interior projects tailored to meet the individual requirements of their clients. The showroom connected to the interior design firm will house mainly Arab home accessories.

The dynamic designer would also like to encourage aspiring Qatari designers to follow their dreams. “I want to tell them never to let obstacles stand in their way. They need to also realize that it’s not easy, but when there is a will there is always a way,” she says hoping these designers see the potential for design-related industry in the country.

“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.

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.

Formed in 2001, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Megan Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel and cellist Daniel McDonough. The quartet has received several chamber music honors, including first prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition, grand prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, membership in Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two and Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award. The quartet also won the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and now holds YCA’s Helen F. Whitaker Chamber Music Chair. Most recently, they received an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

(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

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.

Martin Venezky is associate professor of Design at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco. Known for his visually compelling hands-on approach to design and experimental typography, he is the spirit and lead designer of Appetite Engineers, a small, internationally recognized design firm. He and his collaborators have created wonderful and surprising work for the Sundance Film Festival, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Chronicle Books, Blue Note records, and Speak, the magazine of popular culture, literature, music and art.

The lecture at VCUQatar will offer insight into the design process that drives most of Mr. Venezky’s work: experimenting with materials and their properties. “We will look at a number of concrete examples whose visual and typographic qualities could not have been predicted through sketching or brainstorming,” said Mr. Venezky. “Sometimes these strategies require jumping between different media or setting up calculated difficulties, and sometimes the process may seem silly or risky. But they all develop from a careful reading of the subject and they all contribute to the work’s ultimate meaning and pleasure,” he added.

“Martin is both a graphic designer and a curator of visual ephemera. He has an insightful aptitude to digest and organize fragments of words and pictures from our everyday culture, then reconfigure them into vast magical landscapes you can wander through all day. As a teacher, he has a wonderful ability to carefully listen to your ideas, then push you to cut them up, throw them in the air and acutely piece them back together in a way that is not only more beautiful aesthetically, but more reflective of the message,” said Michael Hersrud, assistant professor of Graphic Design at VCUQatar.

Martin Venezky is a graduate of Cranbrook Academy and is currently based in Los Angeles. His intricate, complex and often handcrafted work is documented in the recent monograph “It Is Beautiful…Then Gone,” and was recognized in the first, groundbreaking Design Triennial at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. He is also coauthor and designer of “The Push Pin Graphic” a monograph of the extensive influence of the Push Pin Studio. In addition to running his practice, Mr. Venezky has lectured at several schools around the U.S. and has taught in the graduate design programs at California College of Art (CalArts), Art Center College of Design and The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). For more information on Martin Venezky, please visit www.appetiteengineers.com.

VCUQatar’s Spring Lecture Series aims to present prominent international professionals from the fields of fashion design, graphic design, interior design and painting and printmaking while exposing students and the industry to design as the interdisciplinary glue that informs the future of business. The series will host one more lecture during the semester.

‘Appetite Engineers: Inventing Visual Language through Process and Discovery’ on 23 February is held at the VCUQatar atrium and starts at 6:00 PM. The lecture is open to the public.

Janet Koplos is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication who also holds a master’s degree in art history from Illinois State University. She has been writing about art since 1976 and has published more than 2,000 articles, reviews and essays in newspapers, magazines and catalogues in America, Europe and Japan. She lectures, juries and critiques frequently, and is a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art and the College Art Association. She lived in Tokyo from 1984 to 1989 and continues to write about Japanese contemporary art. She is the author of Contemporary Japanese Sculpture (New York, Abbeville Press, 1991) and The Unexpected (Museum Het Kruithuis, the Netherlands, 1997); her history of American studio craft (with co-author Bruce Metcalf), is forthcoming from the University of North Carolina Press. Since 1988 she has been associated with Art in America magazine, first as a freelancer, then a staff editor, now a contributing editor, and recently served as guest editor of American Craft magazine. She lives in New York City. between creating works that both emulate and satirize contemporary Japan

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.

In a heated discussion with Arab and international students studying at American branch campuses at Qatar Foundations’ Education City, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited students from around the Middle East to study in the US.

During the discussion aired on Al Jazeera’s Arab-American affairs program “Talk to AlJazeera,” Secretary Clinton said the US is doing its part to close the gap between the Muslim and Western worlds by investing in educational opportunities to encourage students from Muslim countries to study in the US.

Secretary Clinton fielded sharp questions from students on Iran’s nuclear policies, US foreign policy – especially in Gaza, and the US role in peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine. She said frank and open discussions like the town hall meeting are important in strengthening relations between the US and other countries around the globe.

Secretary Clinton said she was impressed by Qatar’s commitment to education, highlighting the important work of Qatar Foundation as an example. “Education City is so important for Qatar and beyond,” she noted. “It sends a strong message, not just here in the region, but around the world.”

“We must look for ways to celebrate our differences while finding a common cause in the human objectives of peace and prosperity,” she said. “What kind of future will we provide for students, including the ones here today?” She noted that education and cultural values are not mutually exclusive. “It’s not what you wear that’s important, but what you have in your minds and your hearts,” she said.

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

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

The honors program at VCUQatar is modeled on the honors program at VCU Richmond, and was implemented five years ago. Dr. Timothy Hulsey, Dean of the Honors College at VCUR is “very pleased, and proud of how successful the VCUQatar honors program has become. In only a few short years the program has graduated 15 students. Given the demands of a VCU honors degree, this is quite an accomplishment.”

Graduating with honors is the highest award that an undergraduate can achieve and it represents extraordinary academic excellence. There are several requirements that must be met in order to graduate with honors. In addition to maintaining a minimum grade point average of 3.5, and completing 18 credits of honors course work, students must demonstrate a commitment to intellectual development that integrates a diverse program of study. The students must also complete an honors dossier that is presented to the Dean of the Honors College and the Honors Council in the penultimate semester of the student’s academic work. The dossier includes a comprehensive essay that demonstrates the central objectives of the Honors College: good scholarship and sound learning in the best of the university’s tradition.

Kelly Shircliff, coordinator of Academic Affairs at The Honors College at VCUR was “very impressed that all eight of the dossier essays from this year’s VCUQatar honors graduates were approved in the first round of reviews. These students have demonstrated outstanding diligence and academic excellence in their efforts, and we are proud to recognize them as part of our honors community.”

The dossier helps to broaden a student’s horizons and exemplifies a liberal arts program at its finest. Completing the Honors Dossier requires the student to synthesize and contextualize their entire university experience. Jeanne Hodges, an instructor in the VCUQatar Writing Center, noted that both she and the students “engaged in a fascinating process of recognition and appreciation of the journey that has prepared our honors students to take their places as members of a new generation of leaders.”

The honors program at VCUQatar is coordinated by Byrad Yyelland, director of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Patty Paine Gibbons, assistant professor of English. They look forward to the continued growth and success of the Honors Program at VCUQatar, and with the VCUQatar community at large congratulates the 2010 honors graduates on their impressive achievement.

This final performance will culminate a weekend of events honoring the Richmond 34 both at CenterStage and at Virginia Union University. Please follow the links below for more information and/or to see a full schedule.

For the full schedule click here.

Brief History:
On February 20, 1960, more than 200 students from Virginia Union University walked from the Lombardy Street campus to the shopping district along Broad and Grace streets. Once there, they entered the “Whites Only” lunch counter at Thalhimers and were refused service, though they remained in their seats until the store closed.

Two days later, on February 22, 34 VUU students returned to Thalhimers and were again refused service. This time around, they were arrested for trespassing at the request of store management. The students became known as the Richmond 34, a reference to their place in the Civil Rights Movement as sit-ins began being used as a form of peaceful protest against segregationist policies.

Over time, Thalhimers responded by integrating its facilities, and other local businesses followed. The 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act outlawed racial discrimination in schools, public spaces, and in places of employment.

As part of the Spring Lecture Series, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar is presenting a lecture by renowned Italian architect Stefano Mirti entitled ‘Design for a Low Cost World’ on Tuesday, 9 February, 2010 at 6:00 PM in the Atrium in VCUQatar. The lecture is open to the public.

Stefano Mirti is an architect, writer and professor who has worked in Italy, Japan and Thailand. In this lecture at VCUQatar Mr. Mirti focuses on design for a low cost world with some hints on how to survive and thrive in it. The lecture asks - “If Ryanair makes us fly at one-tenth of the normal cost, if IKEA convinces us to pay for the pleasures of building our own furniture, can we build a museum based on similar principles? Can we create a university or a business organized by such principles?” – and answers these questions.

Stefano Mirti received his degree in architecture and a PhD in Technology of Architectonic Design from Politecnico di Torino in Turin, Italy in 1998. Between 1998 and 2000, he moved to Japan for his post-doctorate degree from the Department of Architecture of the Engineering School of Tokyo University, under Professor Tadao Ando (Tadao Ando Laboratory) with a subsequent teaching assignment at the Tama Fine Art Academy, Tokyo from 2000 to 2001. From 2001 to 2005 Mr. Mirti worked as an associate professor at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy where he was also in charge of its exhibition design unit E1, which was later spun off to form an independent company, Interaction Design Lab.

Mr. Mirti is one of the founders of Cliostraat, one of the most successful groups of Italy’s so-called new wave and as a partner is currently in charge of operations at Interaction Design Lab, a start-up company working in the crossover between technology and design. He is also director of the Naba Design School, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan, Italy. He has been visiting professor and lecturer at several universities around the world such as the Architectural Association School of Architecture, UK, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Politecnico di Milano and Parsons School of Design, New York, among others. He was also one of the three consultants of ‘Torino World Design Capital 2008’. Mr. Mirti writes for several newspapers and magazines, Italian and International, some of which include Domus, Hunch, AD and Abitare and has published several books for Postmedia Books.

As part of the Islamic Lecture Series, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar is presenting a lecture by Paula Sanders entitled ‘Texts and textiles: thinking historically about material culture in the medieval Islamic world’ on Wednesday, 17 February, 2010 at 6:00 PM at the Atrium in VCUQatar. The lecture is open to the public.

Medieval Arabic chronicles are filled with references to clothing and textiles, but no artifact from an archaeological excavation has ever been associated with a known literary reference. How, then, do medieval Islamic historians interpret the abundant literary evidence about textiles? And how do they provide a historical context in which to understand the textiles that are known to us? This lecture explores these questions by discussing how historians can use a combination of archaeological finds, Arabic literary texts of different genres and scarce Judeo-Arabic documentary materials from the Cairo Geniza to reconstruct the meanings of terms found in literary texts, to gain an understanding of the functions and meanings of objects within their societies and to address broad questions of historical interpretation.

Paula Sanders has written extensively on the history of medieval and modern Cairo, the history and legacy of the Fatimid caliphate, and the history of Jewish communities in the medieval Islamic world. Her most recent book is Creating Medieval Cairo: Empire, Religion, and Architectural Preservation in Nineteenth Century Egypt. She is Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and Professor of History at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Wendy Maruyama is a professor at San Diego State University and has been making furniture/art since 1970. Maruaya’s work is often inspired by extended residencies and visits to various countries such as France, England, Japan, Korea and China.

In the past 15 years her work has taken on stylistic influences from Asia. Born in La Junta, Colorado, to second-generation Japanese American parents, Maruyama has made several pilgrimages to the land of her heritage, Japan. At times reverent of Japan’s craft history and advanced technology, and appalled by Japan’s self-indulgent, materialistic and almost faceless and patriarchal society, she vacillates between creating works that both emulate and satirize contemporary Japan.

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

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

Paul Pfeiffer was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1966, but spent most of his childhood in the Philippines. Pfeiffer relocated to New York in 1990, where he attended Hunter College and the Whitney Independent Study Program. Pfeiffer’s groundbreaking work in video, sculpture, and photography uses recent computer technologies to dissect the role that mass media plays in shaping consciousness. In a series of video works focused on professional sports events—including basketball, boxing, and hockey—Pfeiffer digitally removes the bodies of the players from the games, shifting the viewer’s focus to the spectators, sports equipment, or trophies won. Presented on small LCD screens and often looped, these intimate and idealized video works are meditations on faith, desire, and a contemporary culture obsessed with celebrity. Many of Pfeiffer’s works invite viewers to exercise their imaginations or project their own fears and obsessions onto the art object. Several of Pfeiffer’s sculptures include eerie, computer-generated recreations of props from Hollywood thrillers, such as “Poltergeist,” and miniature dioramas of sets from films that include “The Exorcist” and “The Amityville Horror.” Pfeiffer is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, most notably becoming the inaugural recipient of The Bucksbaum Award given by the Whitney Museum of American Art (2000). In 2002, Pfeiffer was an artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at ArtPace in San Antonio, Texas. In 2003, a traveling retrospective of his work was organized by the MIT List Visual Arts Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

From: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/pfeiffer/index.html

Other links:
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/paul-pfeiffer/
http://www.carliergebauer.com/en/artists/paul-pfeiffer/works-by-paul-pfeiffer.html
http://www.thomasdane.com/artist.php?artist_id=12
http://www.bortolamigallery.com/closingdown/cd5.htm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_7_39/ai_75761326/

Josephine Durkin’s research and studio practice has involved the creation of drawings, videos, sculptures, and large-scale, interactive and kinetic installations that personify recognizable or manipulated objects and materials. These are then used to suggest, mimic, invite or isolate human gestures, activities and relationships. She works with a variety of methods to investigate how materials and objects can be manipulated and positioned to function as human surrogates.

Josephine Durkin holds a BFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. She has also studied at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C. and the Lorenzo de Medici School of Art in Florence, Italy. Before joining the Department of Art at Texas A&M University – Commerce, she taught drawing and woodworking classes in Virginia and Connecticut and then worked as a sculptor and set designer at The Puppet Company in Glen Echo, Maryland.

A solo exhibition, Excerpts and Conversations is currently on view in Richmond at Metro Space Gallery through January 30, 2010.

www.josephinedurkin.com
www.tamu-commerce.edu/art
http://www.metrospacegallery.com/

Winner of the Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award, the story of the Joad family and their flight from the dust bowl of Oklahoma is familiar to all. Desperately proud, but reduced to poverty by the loss of their farm and the Great Depression, the Joads pile their few possessions on a battered old truck and head west for California, hoping to find work and a better life. The play stays true to Steinbeck’s novel and remains a soaring and deeply moving affirmation of the indomitability of the human spirit, and of the essential goodness and strength which—then as now—resides in the hearts and minds of the “common man,” throughout the world. “A thrilling theatrical achievement that gets its power from the still sharp relevance of its human message…” —NY Post

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

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

The Department of Photography and Film presents artist Hank Willis Thomas visually explores subject matter concerning race, advertising and popular culture, especially the branding and commodification of African-American males in society. He is the winner of the first ever Aperture West Book Prize for his monograph Pitch Blackness (November, 2008), received his BFA from New York University?s Tisch Schoolof the Arts, and his MFA in photography; along with an MA in visual criticism from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco. He has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the; Studio Museum in Harlem; P.S. 1, New York; the International Center of Photography, New York; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas; Artists Space, New York; Leica Gallery amongst others.

February 16, 2:30 PM at the Commons Theater

The Department of Dance & Choreography presents VCU Dance NOW on Thursday, Friday & Saturday, February 18, 19 & 20, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. at the Grace Street Theater, 934 West Grace Street. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $5 for students with a valid VCU I.D. and can be reserved beginning February 8 by calling 804-828-2020.

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.

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)

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)

As part of the Spring Lecture Series, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar presented a lecture by renowned architect, Joy Monice Malnar, entitled ‘Stepping Toward Sensory Design’.

Joy Monice Malnar, AIA, is a professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously she was a professor at Loyola University Chicago teaching interior architecture. She has co-authored The Interior Dimension: A Theoretical Approach to Enclosed Space, and lectured on aspects of sensory design in Singapore, Sydney and Seoul. Her latest book is titled Sensory Design, which develops a sensory typology to assist designing for the full range of the human sensory system. Professor Malnar is one of the founding editors and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the journal The Senses & Society published by Berg, UK. For four years her main responsibility was the “Sensory Design” section which focused on the review of architecture, landscape architecture and products.

Joy Malnar believes that if designers had a better understanding of the human senses, and sharpened their skills in perception, our designed environment would be enriched. Information on the senses, and built examples by designers who have been well aware of their discipline’s sensori-emotional dimensions will illustrate the significance of this design approach in her lecture at VCUQatar.

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/

“Pots Living in the Real World” Ayumi Horie will discuss her functional ceramic work, as well as her involvement with various collaborative projects such Obamaware, the Artstream library, and “Who Lives in Greenwich Village?”

Ayumi Horie received her BA from Mount Holyoke College, her BFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and her MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is on the board of the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana and has taught many workshops in functional ceramics and dry throwing across the U.S. and internationally including the Archie Bray, Haystack, Penland, Greenwich House Pottery, the Northern Clay Center, and the International Center for Ceramics in Denmark. Ayumi makes functional pottery in earthenware, drawing from folk traditions and comics in the U.S. and Japan. In 2008, she organized “Obamaware” a ceramics fundraiser for Obama’s presidential campaign. Ayumi Horie works as a studio potter in upstate New York.

Lecture
Thurs. Jan. 28th
3:00-4:00pm
609 Bowe St.
Room 535
Demonstration
Thurs. Jan 28th
9:00am-12:00pm
1000 W. Broad St.
Clay Studio

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

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.

The Department of Painting and Printmaking is proud to present artist Chuck Webster.
Thursday, January 28 3pm
“Fishbowl” room 301 Fine Arts Building

Chuck Webster’s exhibition record includes solo exhibits at ZieherSmith NY,NY and Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provinceton, MA. Group exhibitions include The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA and P.S. 1 Contemporary NY, NY.

“Chuck Webster” by Shane McAdams
Since the 1960s, certain portions of the conceptual art world have been on a mission to emancipate art’s intellectual essence from its corporeal burden—to make art into pure idea. Lucy Lippard gave her account of this purging in her book, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. No one really doubts that materiality in art will endure because human beings, no matter the level of intellectual development or technological reinforcement, are at heart smarter monkeys who like to use their senses to navigate the world. This tends to be forgotten though when the art market shakes up and sends the pendulum swinging toward the immaterial. I was reminded of this recently at Chuck Webster’s exhibition, O My Soul at ZieherSmith, where, with my somnolent material desires in tow, I think I saw that pendulum switching directions.

Webster has made a reputation for painting and drawing eccentric, often biomorphic abstractions on paper or panel with an endearing informality. Remembering his last show of works on paper at ZieherSmith, this new suite of paintings struck me as being particularly substantial and solid. The subject matter looked familiar: motifs that could have been gleaned from Navajo rugs, Anatolian Bronze necklaces, the back of a leaf or a bisected gourd. However, this time, the quirky forms took a back seat to process and material and, more essentially, to the time and matter implicit in Webster’s painting.

“The Toughest Riddle,” a spiny, burnt-orange form quivering in the middle of a scarlet field, looks like the product of a prolonged engagement with the painting’s surface. Despite its far-reaching graphic clarity, a close examination of it reveals significant layering and reworking with traces of previous compositions peeking through its poker-faced countenance. What first seems a resolved composition becomes a palimpsest of erasures, abrasions, paint, and sizing which only barely lost the battle for survival to the fitter final image. Similarly, “Figaro Figaro,” a small painting of either clustered gastropods or abstracted tongue-shapes, quickly whisks the viewer from exterior to interior. Hints of green bleed from its pale red and salmon-hued seams. The closer one gets to its surface the more jewel-like and sophisticated it becomes. The stylized tongues come to read less like the preordained inheritors of the present than as the result of a contingent and fortunate evolution. Like tiny, unpolished versions of the sedimentary shelves of marble created from eons of accumulating seashells over which their lucky descendents thrive, Webster’s paintings seem simultaneously light-reflecting and light-absorbing, giving off a dim satiny glow.

Despite their discrete objecthood, the relative lack of compositional variation in Webster’s work leads one to accept each painting as part of an uninterrupted sequence. For example, “Gannet,” an O’Keeffian-looking ribcage-shape set against a pale, worked-in background, functions on the same premise as the other paintings in the exhibition—a centered graphic floating in a monochromatic field. This one-off repetition makes the paintings seem more personal and ephemeral, but runs somewhat counter to the notion of them as time-worn jewels. But who’s keeping score? As Barnett Newman said, “Aesthetics is for the artist as ornithology is for the birds.” I don’t think Webster considers himself a maker of objects any more than time is a maker of fossils, so let the viewers and the paleontologists (respectively) sort out the details after the fact.

I can’t help but see my somatic response to Webster’s work as an indicator of a more general need to revisit some artistic fundamentals. I think as the American art world, and America in general, sobers up from a period of financial decadence, it will become more sensitive to basic needs and desires: food and shelter in life; form and tactility in art. I also think, and hope, that we will see more work that supports these qualities in the way Webster’s does, either indirectly or directly. And, from an informal survey of the landscape, it seems this may already be happening. My prediction: Six Years: The Re-materialization of the Art Object from 2008 to 2014—pub. date, October 2014.

For more information please visit: http://www.stevenzevitasgallery.com/Artist_Pages/webster2.html

The Department of Photography and Film are proud to welcome visiting artist Alec Soth. Born in 1969, Soth is a photographer based in Minneapolis, MN. He is the recipient of several major fellowships from the Bush, McKnight and Jerome Foundations and was awarded the 2003 Sante Fe Prize for Photography.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Singleton Center for the Performing Arts - Sonya Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Monroe Park Campus
Seating is limited so please attempt to arrive early.

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.

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

Farheen who was born in India but raised in Saudi Arabia spoke about her passion for design and how the only university she applied to was Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. “my [family’s] reason for moving here was VCUQ. It was a big sacrifice from my family’s side and I really appreciate that.”

Hanin, a Palestinian student noted, “I really love design and art and I knew I would be majoring in these.” Sara the Qatari student spoke about how despite the current financial crisis she is “thinking of building her own company.” Upon being asked about how this was possible in a challenging economic climate Sara responded by saying as a member of the junior class she will have to “work with five real clients and have an internship to satisfy and meet the client’s requirements.” Experiences such as these at VCUQatar gave Sara Al-Qatami the confidence to succeed in the real world.

“VCUQatar provides this opportunity to students and parents to meet and speak with university professors and gain insight into the admissions process. All those who want to learn how to turn their artistic and creative talents into a vocation should attend the event and meet the faculty and staff to get answers. This year VCUQatar, along with BFAs in Interior Design, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, will also offer Painting and Printmaking,” said Moamer Qazafi, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at VCUQatar.

The process of how to assemble a portfolio and the types work expected for the design and drawing exercises in a successful application will be explained at the reception. VCUQatar personnel will provide details about scholarship opportunities at VCUQatar and the no interest loans available from the Qatar Foundation Financial Aid Office. Students and parents are invited to learn about the university application process including TOEFL, IELTS test score requirements for taking classes at VCUQatar. The faculty and administrators will also discuss the growing career possibilities in the fields of art and design in Qatar and the Middle East. The presentations by the faculty start at 6:30 PM but faculty and staff will be at the venue from 6:00 to 8:00 PM to address any queries that prospective students and their parents may have.

Dr. Jouda, Chief Special Environmental Health Programme and Acting Field Engineering and Construction Services Officer for UNRWA in Gaza will address the current situation in Gaza, one year following the December 2008/January 2009 Israeli war on Gaza and after more than three years of siege. The lecture will elaborate the major challenges in providing basic humanitarian needs, fostering education and supporting community development. Dr. Jouda will also discuss the role of UNRWA in Gaza, its response during and after the war and what is needed to pave the road for sustainable development of the destroyed economy of Gaza.

“Containing the humanitarian crisis is only the first step on a long road to rebuilding the shattered lives of Gaza’s residents,” said Dr. Jouda. “Rubble and unexploded ordnance can be cleared, land decontaminated, and homes and mosques reconstructed, but the human cost of the crisis will be felt for generations.”

“A strategic response should be designed to build on humanitarian relief efforts, develop exit strategies from dependency on humanitarian assistance, and address the early recovery needs of the people in Gaza, while putting in place the foundations for longer-term reconstruction, sustainable development and equitable growth,” Dr. Jouda added on what he hopes the workshop here at VCUQatar will help achieve.

Dr. Jouda’s presentation is given in connection with a three-day workshop sponsored by QSTP, UNRWA, VCUQatar and Qatar Foundation International whose objective is to develop specific design and technology-based solutions in support of human, economic, and social development in Gaza, and in collaboration with leading international relief agencies including Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Alliance, and ANERA. “The three day workshop will draw upon the diverse expertise of architects, planners, engineers, policy makers and scientists. Both projects highlight how designers are addressing some of the world’s most pressing needs through innovation and collaboration,” said Roman Turczyn, Director of CRID at VCUQatar.

photo Sarah Silver

VCU Dance presents a public performance by the internationally acclaimed, New York-based Stephen Petronio Company, on their 25th Anniversary tour to kick off its hosting of the 2010 Mid Atlantic Region American College Dance Festival. The company will perform Mr. Petronio’s latest work, which premiered in April, 2009 at The Joyce Theater in New York.

“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.

SPLICE

Curated by Jeannine Harkleroad

Featuring:
Siemon Allen
Amie Cunningham
Tim DeVoe
Justin Lincoln
Matt Spahr

January 19 - February 12, 2010

Opening reception: Tuesday, January 19 at 5:00 pm

VCUarts FAB Gallery
1000 W. Broad, 1st floor
Richmond, VA

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.

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/

The VCU Department of Dance and Choreography will present Ten of Hearts, the 2010 Student Dance Concert, on Friday and Saturday, January 29 and 30, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. at the Grace Street Theater, 934 West Grace Street. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $5 for students with a valid VCU I.D. and can be reserved beginning January 19 by calling the Grace Street Theater box office at 804-828-2020.

Some of VCU’s most talented up and coming choreographers come together with ten unique visions to present a diverse evening of dance, representing the breadth of the student population. Bringing to life their visions, these moving stories encompass a range of emotion; they touch on human relationships, conflicts, trials and triumphs. Some whimsical, some riveting, the works blend into a beautiful representation of the creativity and talent of the students in the VCU Dance Department. So to ring in 2010, VCU Dance brings ten distinct works that come from the hearts of its students.

In Margaret Allen’s La Connaissance et la Fête, we are introduced to two colorful characters who find themselves caught in the web of romance that pulses throughout Paris, France. We watch as their own love story unfolds as the night goes on, and we may find ourselves tapping our toes to the sounds of French jazz at their final destination.

Three friends struggle together to find strength to persevere through their different obstacles in Felicia Stevens’ Help me Preserve. Although there is a constant struggle within each person, they are able to look to their friends for positive reinforcement.

In A Perfect Mess by Jasmine Domfort and Corrine Bates, two dancers play with the emotions that come along with a relationship. Love, hate, jealousy and forgiveness are mischievously woven into this competitive partnership. Inspiration is taken from styles of the past to create a modern world where anything goes.

And Don’t You Forget It! dives into the topic of how Felix Cruz got his heart broken and the process of him mending it back together with the assistance of Cher. Cruz also presents a second collaborative work entitled Love Me Damn It! where two women explore their emotional baggage in hopes of finding closure.

Amy Kaeberle and Nathan Altice’s Snakes Eyes explores the competitive human drive for success over others. The piece sets up a dog-eat-dog society full of deceit and skepticism by using metaphors and images inspired by the game “Chutes and Ladders”.

Through the mix of dance and vocals, Alyssa A. Gregory’s Exit Strategy shows the affects of a tortured soul and its painful struggle to be released.

A quirky tale about roommates, Tiffany “Jonezy” Jones’s The Boiling Point explores the everyday trials and tribulations that one must endure when sharing a living space. Anyone can relate to the powerful bond a group living together experiences as well as the raging force that may come between them.

Courtney Cook’s piece entitled Crowded Thoughts is an expression of how negative thoughts, thoughts of being inadequate, can consume people’s minds like a virus and keep them away from finding complacency.

Intersection by Courtney Cook and Jaimé Dzandu displays the relationship between two characters on different paths yet going through similar situations and how that indirectly connects them both.

Ten of Hearts is the fifth event of the VCU Dance 2009-2010 Season, a thrilling year of concerts, film screenings, master classes and more. The VCU Dance 2009-2010 Season is made possible in part by funding graciously provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; the Virginia Commission for the Arts; the New England Foundation for the Arts, and VCUarts.

The presenting program of VCU Dance is committed to building and engaging dance audiences in the University and Richmond community while providing opportunities for artists to present and create work. Recognized by professional dancers and choreographers as “a place where things are happening,” Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Dance and Choreography offers a vibrant and stimulating atmosphere where students prepare for careers in dance.

Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Dance & Choreography
P.O. Box 843007, 1315 Floyd Avenue, Richmond, VA 23284-2007
804-828-1711 www.vcu.edu/arts/dance/
blog.vcu.edu/dance

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

The exhibition, a retrospective of Don Earley’s work produced mainly in the last decade, comprised 25 drypoint and five oil paintings with many figurative impressions of the people of Qatar. Marilyn Cooper, the director of Cooper Gallery said they had already sold several of Mr. Earley’s drypoint paintings adding, “Donald’s drypoint paintings are very sensitive and sensual. He is definitely an artist’s artist.” She also expressed the hope that Mr. Earley would become one of the gallery’s full time artists.

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.

First prize in the ‘Best Piece of Furniture’ category went to Sara Al Mulla. In the hotly contested ‘Best Interior Space’ category the winner was Dima Masoud, while the award for ‘Best Presentation’ went to Maryam Al Kuwari.

The three female designers, all students at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, received their prizes in front of 500 guests during a glittering Gala Dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Speaking at the Prize Winners press conference, ‘Best Piece of Furniture’ award winner Sara Al Mulla said: “I’d like to thank the jury and the INFDEX Best Young Designer Awards sponsored by Qatari Diar for presenting me with this award. I’m honored to be recognised, especially considering the high quality of the other entries.”

Maryam Al Kuwari noted, “My project was part of my final year’s thesis. I wanted to encourage environmental sustainability by making use of environment-friendly material in design.”

Their interior design instructor, Maja Kinemark, said of the works, “I thought this was a nice opportunity to showcase our interior design students from VCUQatar. Participating in competitions and design fairs plays a significant role for an up-coming young designer in building her resume and contact networks for a successful future practice. I am very proud to have our students not only represent the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar at this event but to win three of the top prizes, actually all top prices. Mabrook!”

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

Reception and Opening: 2 December 2009, 7:30pm
The Gallery: 2 December 2009 - 23 January 2010

Rachael Starbuck
Michael Horton
Michael Muelhaupt
Paloma Wall
Daniel Beckwith
Conor Backman
Alexa Leister-Frazier
Lucia Strini
Terence Edwards
Cave Metal

Friday, December 4, 6-9 pm
222 West Broad Street
Richmond, VA

The Department of Music presents

The VCU Music Holiday Gala
Friday, December 4, 2009
8:00-10:00pm
at the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts

Proceeds from this festive annual event benefit the Hospital Hospitality House.

Tickets $5; donations appreciated.
Call the Music Box Office at 828-6776 for tickets and information.

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.

“Boudoir Boutique” is the Fashion Department’s first ever fashion trunk show for VCUQatar alumni fashion designers and the aim of this show is to promote these designers. Some of them include: Roqaya Al-Thani, Class of 2009, who is currently selling her collections online through Facebook.com; Sara Abdulghani, Class of 2008, who is operating her own boutique “Sara’s Secrets” in Al Saad; Pegah Simi, Class of 2008, who is part of the project designing uniforms for the Qatari Military; Anfal Berair, Melina de Moura and Kholoud Al-Mosallam, all Class of 2009, who are working on their current collections.

These young, upcoming designers are using this opportunity to also share, display and even sell garments and accessories from their most recent collections at this special public event. A part of the proceeds from the evening’s event will go towards scholarships for future fashion design students.

The task of organizing and planning this event is being undertaken by nine students of the Fashion Promotion class along with their professor, Melanie McClintock. The class is a required course for the Fashion Design Degree at VCUQatar and students can take it anytime within their years at university. This year the class is made up of Senior and Junior level students who include Ahmed El-Sayed, Assil Diab, Carla Mallari, Dana Elhaj Ahmad, Esra Sharab, Hissa Al-Muhannadi, Hissa Zainal, Modawi Al-Ansari and Selina Farooqui. Everything from the decorations, the interior planning, layout and invitations for “Boudoir Boutique” have been designed and created by the students themselves.

A Trunk Show is a special sale in which vendors present merchandise directly to select customers at a retail location or another unique venue. It allows the customer to preview and/or purchase merchandise before it is made available to the public, in the presence of the actual designers.

Fashion Promotion is about what goes on behind the scenes of fashion houses and retailers. “We learn everything from advertising techniques to retail space layouts to creating window displays to putting on special events. Everything you see when you go to a mall or boutique is planned promotion to attract customers. This includes magazines, billboards, signage, window displays, special sales, shopping events and fashion shows. Creating a demand and selling a product is what Fashion Promotion is all about, and this is what the industry survives on,” said Fashion Design student Selina Farooqui.

“Boudoir Boutique” takes place on 25 November, 2009 at the atrium in VCUQatar. Doors open at 6:00 PM; the event is open to the public.

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.

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

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 Sculpture + Extended Media is proud to present Amy Hauft, chair of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, and her recent project, Counter Re-formation.

Exhibition:
Anderson Gallery
November 20 - February 21, 2010

Lecture:
Anderson Gallery
Wednesday, December 2, 6pm

New Works by John Henry Blatter is currently on display at 1708 Gallery through Saturday, November 28. Blatter’s work combines the use of sound, video and environment to sculpt an experience in the space he is working in, which is exactly what he has done at 1708 Gallery. New Works features site-specific installation pieces.

Stephen Vitiello is currently an associate professor in the Department of Kinetic Imaging. As an electronic musician and sound artist, Stephen Vitiello transforms the incidental atmospheric noises around us into more mesmerizing soundscapes that alter our perception of the surrounding environment.

Date & Time: Wednesday, 18 November, 11am
Location: VCU-Q Atrium, Education City, Doha

Cameron Sinclair is the co-founder and ‘eternal optimist’ at Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings professional design services to communities in need. Over the past ten years the organization has worked in twenty-six countries on projects ranging from school, health clinics, affordable housing and long term sustainable reconstruction.

Sinclair is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2006 TED prize and the 2005 RISD/Target Emerging Designer of the Year. Recently he was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

The evening started with a welcome reception amid the strains of the oudh and drums wafting through the halls and atrium at VCUQatar. Sana Al-Buainain, Director of Alumni Affairs at VCUQatar, opened the event with her address welcoming Vice-Chairman of Qatar Foundation Dr. Saif Al-Hajari, Chairman of Barwa Real Estate Co. Ghanim bin Saad Al-Sa’ad and Mohamed Al-Sada, Group Director of Communication & CEO of Barwa Media, other distinguished guests from Barwa, faculty, staff and alumni.

In the last eight years, VCUQatar has graduated over 200 alumni in the design field. With the rising privatization in Qatar, more than 75% of these employed alumni work in the private and semi-private sectors experiencing the challenges and being a part of the rapid development in Qatar. Alumni Injaz Night recognized the contributions of VCUQatar’s alumni at Barwa Media who have been instrumental in getting Qatari advertising and design global exposure.

“We chose Injaz Night to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of these ambitious alumni,” said Ms. Al-Buainain. “These young designers are out there making a difference in their communities in the field of design. They are an inspiration to our students who aspire to lead, and make an impact in the world around them.”

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.

.pdf Blast
featuring work by multiple alumni and current students in various departments.

423 W. Broad St.
Richmond, VA

Opening
Saturday, November 21
7-10pm

The Department of Craft/Material Studies presents

“Uncommon Denominator”
November 22 - December 4
Closing Reception: December 3rd @ 7pm
VCU Commons Gallery
907 Floyd Ave Richmond, VA 23284

Gallery Hours:
Mon-Thurs: 7 am-12 am
Friday: 7 am-1 am
Sat: 10 am- 1 am
Sun: 12 pm-11 pm

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.

6-10pm
Friday, November 13, 2009
307 N. 26th St.

Francis Cape

lecture: Wednesday, November 18 at 12:15 pm
VCU Student Commons Theater
907 Floyd Ave.

exhibition: Home Front
public opening: Friday, November 20, 6-8 pm
Anderson Gallery, 907½ W Franklin St

The sculptures and images making up Francis Cape’s exhibition stem in part from his experiences as a disaster-relief worker in New Orleans. Waterline, the earliest of three installations in the show, features photographs Cape took in the flooded middle-class neighborhoods of Gentilly and St. Roch soon after Hurricane Katrina hit. These pictures of domestic devastation are hung above a meticulously constructed wainscot of painted paneling. “This gesture—based on care, craft, attention to detail, and time—in such close proximity to things torn away in an instant has a soothing psychic effect and is a way of saying a sort of material prayer for all the loss,” wrote critic Jerry Saltz in the Village Voice. “Cape is foregrounding something that has probably always been in his work. But never so movingly as now.”

Cape will also exhibit two recent installations that expand on London Avenue, a project developed for last year’s biennial, Prospect.1 New Orleans, that relates the destruction and rebuilding of New Orleans to Britian’s mid-twentieth-century Utility Furniture Scheme. Formed during World War II after the Blitz damaged millions of homes across Britain, the Utility Furniture Committee was charged with drafting and authorizing standard furniture designs to ensure a supply of quality furniture during a time of very scarce resources. On the one hand, the Utility Furniture Scheme was one of the last clear links between furniture design and social idealism, continuing a tradition that ran from William Morris to de Stijl to Bauhaus. On the other, it was a chance for designers such as Gordon Russell to break the British public’s taste for ornamental reproduction furniture by introducing a more modern, unadorned style.

London Avenue joins the studs of an 8-by-13-foot wall—a standard size in many houses in the Gentilly and St. Roche neighborhoods—with portions of a desk, chair, chest, and wardrobe constructed according to Utility Furniture designs. In another gallery, Cape pairs similarly inspired, impeccably built sculptures with photographs of wreckage taken in New Orleans, upstate New York, and Maine. He uses the spaces of these installations to consider a host of difficult issues relating not just to New Orleans but to a general cycle of American production and consumption, and to the legacy of modernist debates surrounding utility and ornamentation, social idealism and mass consumerism. With this body of work, Cape poses the question: how can we re-imagine forms and models of production in response both to historical precedent and current disaster?

Francis Cape was trained as a woodcarver before receiving his MFA from Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has exhibited his work extensively in the US, including shows at the St. Louis Art Museum; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, NY; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; Eli Marsh Gallery, Amherst College, Amherst, MA; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH; and in galleries in Germany and the United Kingdom. Cape is represented by Murray Guy in New York City. He lives and works in Narrowsburg, NY.

FELC Gallery
1603 Monument Ave.
Richmond, VA

Opening Reception
Sunday 11:30 - 1pm
November 22, 2009

Artist: Adam Hyatt Title: Panthalassa woodblock print 13x19" 2009

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Painting and Printmaking presents INTERACTION 35, a biannual exhibition of works on paper from the department’s graduating seniors. The exhibition will be on display from November 23rd to December 1st in the Fishbowl Gallery located on the third floor of the Fine Arts Building at 1000 West Broad Street. A reception will be held Tuesday, November 24th from 5:00-6:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

The works, juried by Professors Reni Gower and Barbara Tisserat, showcase a variety of drawing, painting, and printmaking methods and media.

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.

The Department of Dance and Choreography will present CALM, the Fall 2009 Senior Project Dance Concert on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, November 19, 20, and 21 at 8:00 pm at the Grace Street Theater, 934 West Grace Street. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $5 for students with a valid VCU I.D. and can be reserved by calling the Grace Street Theater box office at (804)-828-2020.

Four senior dance majors explore the many meanings of “calm” in four diverse works. In each piece the choreographers find through spatial, tactile, internal, musical, social, or forced relationships the meaning of calm within their work. Some create an environment that displays their definition of calm: by either using a stressful and restricted space in which the characters must find a sense of calm; or by illustrating the calming interaction that occurs between the Tuscan landscape and classic Italian architecture. While others find calm in the familiar: whether that be familiarity of touch and sensation; or of memory and nostalgia, and the reminiscence of an idealistic era. Through this process of kinesthetic exploration these four women have constantly been growing and evolving through their works. By finding acceptance of their quickly changing lives and relishing in the comfort of the unknown, the presentation of these works serves as a stepping stone into these artists long careers to come.

Through the serendipitous encounter, Between Floors, Corrine Bates investigates one of humanity’s immense fears: getting stuck in an elevator. Through her percussive and gestural movement, five strangers are forced to endure emotions they never dreamed of experiencing. Lasting relationships are molded; sometimes the most unexpected situations yield the most remarkable outcomes.

Alyssa Crump’s Technicolor Romance blends movement from Modern Dance, Ballet, and Jazz to bring the era of 1950’s Hollywood to the stage. This colorful escapade takes her 12 dancers back in time with the energetic rises and falls of big band swing. Taking inspiration from legends such as Gene Kelly, Anne Miller, and Frank Sinatra, Crump explores through loose and lively movement the unquestionable connection between music and movement, and the relationships that people experience while dancing.

In scutura degli spazi, Lauren Stafford investigates different ways of utilizing space through the inspiration of classic Italian architecture. Stafford’s eleven dancers construct and reconstruct kinetic shapes that form throughout the space, while light creates shadows and pathways highlighting and accenting the three dimensional space.

In A Day Apart, Melodie Fais pulls from the primitive and intellectual sides of the psyche to reveal the inner workings of the familiar sensation of being touched.  Through circular spatial relationships and dynamics nine individual souls hold, brush, caress, tap, and manipulate each other through space eliciting a broad spectrum of emotions.

CALM is the fourth event of the VCU Dance 2009-2010 Season, a thrilling year of concerts, film screenings, master classes and more. The VCU Dance 2009-2010 Season is made possible in part by funding graciously provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; the Virginia Commission for the Arts; the New England Foundation for the Arts, and VCUarts.

The presenting program of VCU Dance is committed to building and engaging dance audiences in the University and Richmond community while providing opportunities for artists to present and create work.  Recognized by professional dancers and choreographers as “a place where things are happening,” Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Dance and Choreography offers a vibrant and stimulating atmosphere where students prepare for careers in dance.

Opening Reception
7-8pm
Thursday, November 5
Locker 50b

James Siena

2pm
Tuesday, November 10
Student Commons Theater, 907 Floyd Ave.

James Siena is a New York based artist whose complex, rule-based linear abstractions have situated him firmly within the trajectory of modern American art.  Compared to art world luminaries such as Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, and Alfred Jensen, his artwork is driven by self-imposed predetermined sets of rules, or “visual algorithms,” which find their end-result in intensely concentrated, vibrantly-colored, freehand geometric patterns.  Mr. Siena works across a diverse range of media, including lithography, etching, woodcut, engraving, drawing, and painting.
Mr. Siena’s work is held in numerous important public and private collections across the United States, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Mr. Siena’s work has been featured in nearly 120 solo and group exhibitions since 1981, including the 2004 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  He has received many distinctions and awards throughout his career, including the Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (2000); the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Competition Award (1999); and The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting (1994).  Mr. Siena was also the recipient of the Edward Durrell Stone Award (1977) and the Charles Goodwin Sands Medal (1979) from Cornell University.  Most recently, he was awarded the 2009-2010 Cornell University Eissner Artist of the Year Award.
In addition to his practice as an artist, Mr. Siena has lectured and taught at institutions throughout the United States, including the Cleveland Institute of Art; Cooper Union School of Art, New York; Cornell University; Massachusetts College of Art; New School University, New York; New York Studio School, New York; Rutgers University, New Jersey; San Francisco Art Institute; School of Visual Arts, New York; University of Iowa, Iowa City; Virginia Commonwealth University; and Yale University.  In 2010, he will be lecturing at Pratt Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, New York.

A premier high school-level design contest, the VCUQatar Design Competition invites senior secondary school students from all over the world including Qatar to present their ideas to reduce waste and design alternatives to simply throwing things away.

14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into oceans annually around the world and this waste represents a huge economic burden on all the countries and the environment. This year’s competition is an exciting opportunity for students to better understand and think of ways to reduce waste and re-purpose some of what we throw away while making beautiful and useful objects.

Based on this year’s theme ‘Everything is Useful’, students the world over will get a chance to express their creative solutions to re-use more of what we throw away thereby helping create a smarter, safer and more sustainable environment. Along with the prospect for 40 students to win cash prizes, two qualified students can apply for and earn the full four-year Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned Scholarship for Creativity to study design or art at VCUQatar.

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