Homecoming Weekend featuring Arts & Culture at Penn: October 28 - 31, 2010

Homecoming Weekend featuring Arts & Culture at Penn: October 28 - 31, 2010

Register for this year’s Homecoming Weekend featuring Arts and Culture at Penn. A record 2,220 alumni, parents, and friends enjoyed last year’s expanded Homecoming programming, and we are building on that momentum. You will find a full menu of activities that highlight the University’s strengths in arts and culture, including a printmaking workshop with Penn Alumni Matt Neff (Penn MFA '05).

Also, check out the Penn Alumni Film Festival, co-curated by Penn alumni filmmakers and members of our Arts Host committee, David Novack, ENG'86 and Nancy Levy-Novack, C'87. Please note this year our feature film is a yet to be released Sony Pictures film, Just Go With It, starring Adam Sandler, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Aniston.

Register: click HERE

To see the full list of events: click HERE

For more information, contact Sheila Raman, Director of Arts and Culture at alumni [at] ben.dev.upenn.edu, or Arts & Culture Host Committee member Elizabeth Lim (Penn MFA'07) at lime [at] alumni.upenn.edu.

Pernot Hudson (MFA '06) in Two-Person Show at Fowler Arts Collective, opening Fri. Nov 5

Pernot Hudson (MFA '06) will exhibit work in a two-person show at the Fowler Arts Collective in Brooklyn. The show is titled soft bigotry for a mercy killing (in two preludes) and is comprised of work by Pernot and Johnny Woods.

The exhibition is a multi-media exploration of the possibilities and impossibilities of perceptual accountability, and includes paintings, sculptural installation, video, and sound. Conceived of as a factual recounting and reaction to past events, soft bigotry for a mercy killing demonstrates the difficulty in separating fact and one’s emotional attachment. In the artist’s written document of this character’s recounting, it is clear that a traumatic event has taken place, but the reader is unable to define what has actually occurred. This presentation defies a strictly linear documentation of events or understanding as it is still unclear as to the extent to which what is displayed is a personal documentation of current happenings as understood, hence an historical account, or means by which one attempts to reenact for the sake of understanding. The distancing language and academic vocabulary point to a striking vulnerability that is at the heart of these works. An excerpt of the writing is as follows:

Recounting recent events … Currently, this work presents the beginning stages of cognizance and various degrees of personal acceptance or rejections of these current states entirely beyond control. While the impetus is not solely for the purpose of fulfilling a reactionary or deliberate gesture for the sake of a specific situation or event, it is due to a disconnect between person and surrounding from an observer’s point of view. These are preludes of awareness and control (however disillusioned).

The artists have created an immersive exhibition that will transform the gallery space at Fowler. Pernot Hudson will also have a concurrent exhibition opening November 12th, 2010 at the UCAL in Philadelphia, PA. Visit UCAL’s website for more information on that show: www.ucartsleague.org

Opening Reception: Friday, November 5th, 6-10pm
Exhibition Dates: November 5 - December 5, 2010


Fowler Arts Collective
67 West Street 2nd Floor
Brooklyn, NY

www.fowlerartsbrooklyn.org/
http://fowlerartsbrooklyn.tumblr.com/

To see more of Pernot's work, visit www.pernothudson.com

Amy Archambault (MFA Candidate '11) in Solo Exhibition at The Taft School, Opening Fri, Nov 5

Amy Archambault (MFA Candidate '11) has a solo exhibition titled Constructive / Destructive at the Mark Potter Gallery at the Taft School. Archambault's work explores the human relationship to contemporary constructed urban spaces and the destructive forces of nature upon them. Archambault uses materials, the pictorial plane of painting and her physical engagement during the process of making to reveal such narratives.

Opening Reception: Friday, November 5, 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Exhibition Dates: November 5th - December 9th, 2010


Mark W. Potter Gallery: The Taft School
110 Woodbury Road
Watertown, CT
Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday, 8:00am - 5:00pm

For more information, contact Director Loueta Chickadaunce at 860-945-7809.

To see more of Archambault's work, visit http://www.amyarchambault.com/.

Demetrius Oliver (MFA '04) Featured on ArtReview.com for Chelsea Commission

Demetrius Oliver (MFA '04) has been featured on ArtReview.com for his first major public commission and latest in the High Line's series of artist projects, which opened last week. The High Line is an elevated railroad spur running through Chelsea and the West Village which in its recent makeover now has become a wildly successful tourist draw.

In Oliver's "Jupiter", five views of a bedroom were various stages of surrealist transformation – from a relatively straightforward shot of a lunar globe on a chair to images of a telescope and violin cases before darkened windows and furled umbrellas balanced at the edge of a bed – appeared to rotate across a billboard next to and slightly below the High Line in a parking lot at West 18th Street. Like those seen in telescopes, Oliver’s images are traces of the past, events constructed by the artist and reflected off the shiny surface of a convex teapot. Oliver’s installation was timed to run for a full lunar cycle – his five images were meant to suggest the moon in its various phases – and coincided with the fall equinox and the Jupiter opposition on 21 September. As supplemental programming, Friends of the High Line planned a public viewing of the opposition with the New York chapter of the Amateur Astronomers Association; and in response to the artist’s desire to add a musical component to the installation, students from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music performed John Coltrane’s Jupiter Variation (1967). Oliver's ability to create complex and evocative connections between images and performative media has yet to catch up with his fascination and search for meaning.

To see more of ArtReview's feature, visit http://www.artreview.com/forum/topics/demetrius-oliver-jupiter

To see more of Oliver's work, visit http://demetriusoliver.blogspot.com/

Jayson Musson (MFA Candidate '11) in Group Exhibition at Grimmuseum, Germany, Opening October 21st, 7pm

Jayson Musson will be part of the group exhibition titled "SYNCOPATION" at the Grimmuseum in Berlin, Germany. The Grimmuseum will host D12, a series of six alter ego shows. D12 is a rap collective of local Detroit MC's (Eminem, Bizzare, Proof a.o) formed in 1996 in the vein of the Wu Tang Clan. Unable to find twelve members, initiator Proof asked the six members of the group to each create an alter ego. Following the concept of the original D12 group in Detroit, the artist Despina Stokou invited six art professionals, among them a gallery director, an art critic, an art editor, a collector, a curator and an artist to present their creative alter ego. Francesca Gavin presents "SYNCOPATION" in featuring artists Cory Arcangel & Frankie Martin, Oliver Laric, Paolo Chiasera & DJ Shablo, Ajit Chauhan, Mark Titchner, Jayson Scott Musson, Jeremy Shaw, Samuel Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski, and Matt Stokes. "SYNCOPATION" brings together work that explores the intersection between art and music. The aim is to demonstrate how artists are inspired and interpret sound and music in sculpture, installation, video, photographic and performance works. The show touches on how the spiritual aspect of music – from Sufism and whirling dervishes to Hindu devotional Bhajans to the Jewish cantors – manifests in the very modern forms of raves, subcultures and other musical tribalism.

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 21st, 7:00pm
Exhibition Dates: Thursday, October 21st - Saturday, October 31st

Grimmuseum
Fitsche Strasse 2
10967, Berlin, Germany
www.grimmuseum.com
info@grimmuseum.com
Gallery Hours: Daily 2:00 - 7:00pm

To see more of Jayson's work, visit http://www.jaysonmusson.com/welcomemat.html

Terry Adkins (Graduate Faculty) and Blanche Bruce's "Riddle of the Sphinx" at Amistad Gallery, Opening October 22nd, 6pm

"Riddle of the Sphinx" is the latest incarnation of Blanche Bruce & Terry Adkins’ ongoing cycle of site-inspired recitals on the abolitionist John Brown. Commemorating the 151st anniversary of his Harper’s Ferry, Virginia campaign, the duration of this recital coincides with the inception of Brown’s October 16th, 1859 raid on a U.S. armory through to his capture execution on that December 2nd at Charlestown. Adkins and collaborator Blanche Bruce explore aspects of John Brown as shepherd, soldier, martyr, and prophet through a muscular communion of video, sculpture, drawings, artifacts and ceremony. "Riddle of the Sphinx" is so named after a chapter in W.E.B. DuBois’ 1909 biography on Brown and the artists Bruce and Adkins have responded specifically to the titanic views and research contained therein.

Terry Adkins and Blanche Bruce are a collaborative that has worked together since 1999, upholding the legacies of immortal figures of the past by reinserting them to their rightful place in the contemporary historical landscape. Under the auspices of the Lone Wolf Recital Corps, their recitals are multimedia events that rely on the potential disclosure of biography, reclaimed materials and recovered actions. He and Blanche Bruce have performed at the Romanian Academy in Rome, The New Museum, P.S.1 MOMA, Black Box Amsterdam, and Project Row Houses in Houston. Terry Adkins was Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Arts in 2009. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden among others.

Opening Reception: Friday, October 22nd, 6:00 - 9:00pm
Exhibition Dates: October 16th - December 2nd
Vigil Ceremony by the Lone Wolf Recital Corps: Thursday, December 2nd, 6:00 - 9:00pm

Amistad Gallery
W.E.B. Dubois College House
3900 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Amistad Gallery Hours: 10:00am - 8:00pm Daily
Terry Adkins, Gallery Director
tadkins@design.upenn.edu

Pernot Hudson (MFA '06) in Group Exhibition at SINErgy Project Space, Receptions October 14th and November 11th, 5pm

Pernot Hudson will be featured in a group exhibition titled "SYNESTHESIA.2: The Blending of the Senses in Art" at the SINErgy Project Space, Philadelphia. In an ongoing curatorial exploration of perceptual phenomena and the brain’s construction of reality, SYNESTHESIA.2 brings together new and recent work by artists who tantalize our senses through their strategic use of images, lines, scents, colors, sounds, and motion. Curated by Anabelle Rodriguez-Lawton, this second iteration of the SYNESTHESIA exhibition series includes an autobiographical textile-based project by Julie Hoxie representing her synesthetic abilities, new drawings by Chris Kline (Space 1026), recent encaustic paintings and digital transfers by Michelle Marcuse, mixed media by Pernot Hudson, a reprise of the Alter-Integration Altar interactive printmaking installation by Shelley Thorstensen, a new site-specific mural and recent mixed media by Paul Santoleri and “Le Josh” Smith, works on paper by Henry Bermudez, “Macrorganic” photography by Lu Szumskyj, a site-specific installation Bonnie Brenda Scott (Space 1026), a genealogical installation by Jayasihnji Jhala et al, experimental photography by John Schenk aka Tantrum Tonic and Jacqueline Reis, and videos and animations by Rhett Grumbkow, Jason Hsu (Space 1026), Thomas Ross Miller, Paul Osorio, Rafael Rosario, and James Short. SINErgy Project Space and Gallery are multipurpose experimental venues managed by Justin Gibbon + Dan Trevitt Buerk, visionary multimedia producers and INCITING’s founding partners.

Opening Receptions: Thursday, October 14th and Thursday, November 11th, 5:00 - 10:00pm

SINErgy Project Space and Gallery
2310 North American Street (@ DAUPHIN)
Philadelphia, PA 19133
SINERGYSPACE@GMAIL.COM

To view more of Pernot's work, visit http://www.pernothudson.com/

Jewyo Rhii (MFA '97) awarded the 2010 Yanghyun Prize

The Yanghyun Prize was created in 2008 following the wishes of the late Chairman Sooho Cho whose passion in art led to active promotion of various cultural activities with the ultimate goal of bringing Korean art to the world stage. While visiting major international galleries and museums, he expressed a disappointment for Korean exhibition rooms and their limited spaces or underrepresented displays. By bringing spotlight on the Korean art and its artists abroad, we hope to increase international recognition and nurture Korean artists in the future. The Yanghyun Foundation and the Yanghyun Prize promote globalization in arts by awarding artists not limited to Korean artists but including all talented international artists and their commendable works.

Jewyo Rhii introduced her works of art, which she produced for about 5 years from 1998, mainly in the form of books in which an environment of the birth of works and the gradual flow of time were revealed. She published three art books in which urgent efforts that a man makes to improve the physical and mental environment of the everyday life are revealed humorously in the form of photos, drawings and unique makings. Afterward, being interested in herself as an artist in non-retrospective nowness, coincidences that vary depending on the places, spontaneous events, and unfamiliar space and in the dynamics of each exhibition factor, Rhii engages in many exhibition activities. Her interest of other’s matter through the experience of her living abroad in many different cultures shows in the ephemeral objects with temporary materials and fast drawings that deal with the insecurity, resentment, deficiency and vulnerability in individual existence. Rhii uses none-finite installation method, expressing the manner of hesitation and the pendency in the exhibition. Her recent works are distinctly characterized as undisclosed stories arising from a unique relationship that the other person’s drifting life toward a particular fate has with the artist’s continuing life. Rhii was born in Seoul, Korea and studied at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Chelsea College of Art and Design in London and Rijks Akademie in Amsterdam. She currently lives and works in Seoul.

To see more of Jewyo's work and view the exhibitions that she has been featured in, visit http://oneartworld.com/artists/J/Jewyo+Rhii.html

To learn more about the Yanghyun Prize, visit http://www.yanghyunprize.org/YHP/en/about/prize.jsp

Julia Barbosa Landois (MFA '07) in Group Exhibition at the Detroit Museum of New Art, October 2nd - 30th

A video by Julia Barbosa Landois (MFA '07) will be featured in New Media, Sex, and Culture in the 21st Century at the Detroit Museum of New Art. Her featured piece, also showing later this fall at the Museo de Arte in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, is part of a new body of work exploring sex tourism on the Texas/Mexico border. Landois explores the physical body as the fundamental site for public manifestation of meaning. Her performance/video work explores the cultural trappings of belief, specifically in rituals occurring at the convergence of Catholicism, Mexican folk practice, and Latin identity.

Sex has a long history of being subjected to technologies of observation, regulation, enhancement, and representation. Certainly many of the discourses and technologies of the Internet have been preoccupied with it, even though the U.S. government and other groups have tried to make it harder for people to find sex online. Scholars and artists who explore many such aspects of online pornography, sexual identities in today's society, femininity, masculinity, desire, pleasure, family politics, liberation and repression, prostitution, sexual violence, and other topics are featured in the exhibition.

Exhibition Dates: Saturday October 2nd - Saturday October 30th

Detroit Museum of New Art
7 North Saginaw Street
Pontiac, Michigan
detroitmona@aol.com
Gallery Hours: Thursday - Saturday 1:00 - 6:00pm

http://www.detroitmona.com

To see more of Julia's work, visit http://www.julialandois.com/

Fine Arts Lecture Series: Kamrooz Aram, Thursday October 14th, 6pm

Kamrooz Aram's paintings and drawings bring together traditional and contemporary cultural references to create scenes reflecting “the carnivalesque, absurd, magical and scary present day.” Aram also investigates warfare and mysticism among violence and the sublime. He explores the idea of nationalism and the way that icons and mythologies are used to romanticize politics and culture. Aram was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1978 and received his MFA from Columbia University in 2003. He has had solo exhibitions at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASSMoCA), North Adams, Massachusetts; Wilkinson Gallery, London; and Oliver Kamm/5BE Gallery, New York. His work has been included in various group exhibitions internationally including the Busan Biennale (2006), P.S.1/MoMA’s Greater New York 2005, and the Prague Biennale I (2003).

To see more of Kamrooz's work, visit http://www.kamroozaram.com/

Event Date and Time: Thursday October 14th, 6:00pm

The Institute of Contemporary Art
118 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

To discover more about the MFA Fine Arts Lecture Series, visit http://www.design.upenn.edu/fine-arts/visiting-artists

Fine Arts Lecture Series: Nancy Davenport (Graduate Faculty & Lecturer), Thursday October 7th, 6pm

Nancy Davenport explores photography via a series of computer-manipulated photographs that challenge the illusion of the real embedded within the photographic document. Her work deftly utilizes digital technology in order to question photographic medium while connecting discourse regarding the document within the manipulated image. Davenport examines the politics of representation by tracing the continuities of historical photographic practices within contemporary digital culture.

Nancy Davenport's work is represented by Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery. Her photography, animations and digital work have been exhibited at a variety of venues including the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Locle (Suisse), the Liverpool Biennial, DHC/Art Fondation pour l'art Contemporain (Montréal), the Istanbul Biennial, the Bienal de Sao Paulo, the First Triennial of Photography & Video at the International Center of Photography (NY) and the MIT List Arts Center. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Artforum, October, Frieze, the New York Times, Art in America and Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography (Phaidon Press). In 2009, she was the Henry Wolf Chair at Cooper Union NY and also teaches in the MFA programs at Bard, NY, the School of Visual Arts, NY and Yale University.

To see more of Nancy's work, visit www.nancydavenport.com.

Event Date and Time: Thursday October 7th, 6:00pm

The Institute of Contemporary Art
118 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

To discover more about the MFA Fine Arts Lecture Series, visit http://www.design.upenn.edu/fine-arts/visiting-artists

Mary Valverde (MFA Candidate '12) featured in solo exhibition at Abrons Arts Center, Opening September 30th, 6pm

Mary Valverde (MFA '12) will be featured in a solo exhibition titled, "Variations on Notes" at the Abrons Arts Center, NY. Including drawings and room-sized installations, Valverde's work grows out of patterns created on the floors or walls that are inspired by ancient spaces, mandalas, and formulas of measure in music and architecture. In this exhibition, Valverde references such form generating patterns as Metatron's Cube, The Flower of Life, and the Vesica Piscis. Rendered and altered through a lively collage of materials such as chalk, string, aluminum tape, washers, pennies, and colored fabric, these patterns are transformed into mysterious constructions which point to a cosmic search for beauty in the unknown.


Opening Reception: Thursday, September 30th, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Exhibition Dates: Thursday, September 30th - Friday, November 5th

To see more of Mary's work, visit http://mary-a-valverde.com/

Abrons Arts Center: Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street
New York, NY, 10002
215.598.0400
www.abronsartscenter.org