First Friday One Night Stand Reception: Blurry and Scarcely Lit

like most of us after the show

ONE NIGHT STAND: Penn MFA class of 2008 Exhibition

ONE NIGHT STAND—a First Friday exhibition presented by Nouveau Condominiums, CREI Real Estate and Jenny Jaskey Gallery, featuring selected works by the PennDesign Graduate Fine Arts class of 2008. Curated by Jenny Jaskey of Jenny Jaskey Gallery (formerly Tower Gallery).

A soiree not to miss—join us for an evening to peruse new artworks from an exciting group of young artists in a sleek modern setting framed against the glittering Philadelphia skyline.
First Friday, October 5, 2007, 5–8 pm, free admission and refreshments.
122 New Street—two blocks north of Race Street, off Second Street.

For additional information, contact:
Deb Hoy: 267-269-1959, hoydj@design.upenn.edu
Jenny Jaskey Gallery: info@jennyjaskey.com

PennDesign Department of Graduate Fine Arts: 215-898-8374
Nouveau Condominiums: 122 New St, Philadelphia, PA, 19106
CREI Real Estate: 800-960-CREI, info@creirealestate.com

Kim Jones Lecture

Monday, October 1
Kim Jones, Visual Artist
lecture 5:00 p.m.
Meyerson Hall B-3

Jones’ work incorporates performance, sculpture, drawing, and painting. He became known early on for his performance persona, “Mudman,” and could be seen walking the streets of Los Angeles and Venice, CA, during the 1970s, and then during the ‘80s in New York City and New York’s subway system, covered in mud, and wearing a crudely constructed lattice-work structure of sticks, tape, and twine on his back, his face covered with a nylon stocking. Throughout this time he was consistently developing drawings and paintings on paper. Mudman and other figures that resemble the performance persona inhabit his elegant and simultaneously grotesque drawings and paintings. The elegant line of the ink drawings from the 1980s belies their intensity and subject matter. Curated by Robert Storr, Jones’ retrospective will open at The Henry in Seattle (WA) on November 20, 2007. Jones also notably participated in the 52nd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia.

Aaron Mette

Slought Foundation Presents: "German Video from the Collections of the Kunstmuseum Bonn: Joseph Beuys to Today"

"German Video from the Collections of the Kunstmuseum Bonn: Joseph Beuys to Today"
Featuring Volker Anding, Joseph Beuys, Klaus vom Bruch, Jochen Gerz, Jürgen Klauke, Imi Knoebel, Christof Kohlhöfer, Sigmar Polke, Marcel Odenbach, Carl Otto Paeffgen, Ulrike Rosenbach

A special feature of the collection and exhibition program of the Kunstmuseum Bonn is the permanent presentation of international film and video art of the 1960s and 70s. It is founded on the collection amassed by the gallerist Ingrid Oppenheim, who bequeathed to the museum close to 400 works by such video art pioneers as Klaus vom Bruch, Bill Viola and Allan Kaprow, as well as by early feminist video artists, e.g., Ulrike Rosenbach. The exhibition at Slought Foundation features in part a selection of works from this larger collection by curator and professor Dr. Dieter Ronte on behalf of the Kunstmuseum Bonn, with a specific focus on contemporary German artists working from the 1960s through to the present.

Slought Foundation Exhibition | September 23 - October 13, 2007

Reception: Friday, September 28, 2007 ; 6:30-8:30pm
Free admission (Reservation not required)

Curated by Prof. Dr. Dieter Ronte

www.slought.org.

Odili Donald Odita Lecture

Wednesday, September 26
Odili Donald Odita, Painter
lecture 5:00 p.m.
Meyerson Hall Room B1

http://www.odilidonaldodita.com

Sarfati@@@@

I liked the photographs, I thought they were well done, even though it was a lot of the same thing (even the same pose for many of them). I was depressed as a teenager but I sometimes laughed! I also liked some of the questions that were asked that didn't really receive an accurate answer. Was anyone left wondering if that was due to the language barrier or the fact that she doesn't really care about content (her words, not mine).

Lisa Sarfati Lecture Response

Anyone wanna talk about it?

Cecelia Post (MFA '09) to exhibit at Zoo Art Fair, London UK

Cecelia Post, a new MFA student at PennDesign, will show photographs in a group exhibition as a part of the Zoo Art Fair in London, England. She was selected from Saatchi's Online Gallery for this exhibition. The Zoo Art Fair runs from October 12-15, 2007, and it is a satellite fair to the larger Frieze Art Fair which is held in London's Regent's Park every October. This year the Zoo Art Fair will be housed at the Royal Academy of Arts.

"Since it started in 2004, Zoo Art Fair has been supported by The Saatchi Gallery as an Honorary Zoo Keeper. This year the Saatchi Gallery will build on this support through Saatchi Online's sponsorship of Zoo Art Fair and a special on-site exhibition showcasing the work of artists registered on Saatchi Online. The artists in the exhibition will be chosen from Saatchi Online's weekly Critic's Choice, which appears every Monday in the magazine. People visiting the fair will be able to buy the artists' work free of any commission and with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the artists."

You can see Cecelia's Saatchi Online profile at:
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Cecelia+Post/23913.html

Alum Demetrius Oliver featured in Village Voice Review

"Midnight's Daydream" is the Studio Museum in Harlem's fabulous new exhibit showcasing work by its three 2006–2007 artists-in-residence: Wardell Milan II, Titus Kaphar, and Demetrius Oliver. All freshly minted Ivy League MFAs (Milan and Kaphar were trained at Yale, Oliver hails from UPenn), the three represent the Studio's latest black-superstars-in-the-making discovery....
read the full article HERE


Midnight's Daydream: Titus Kaphar, Wardell Milan II, Demetrius Oliver is at the The Studio Museum in Harlem 114 W. 125th Street, Through October 28th 2007

Alum Jody Sweitzer Exhibition @ NEXUS Crowd: Stumbling through displaced intimacy

Member artist JodySweitzer’s new exhibition "Crowd: stumbling through displaced intimacy" is an investigation of the human reaction to the invasion of personal space. This
will be Jody's second solo exhibition at NEXUS.

Jody Sweitzer's work delves deeply into voyeuristic acts upon the self while attempting to shift the relationship of the stagnant viewer to an active, self-reflecting participant. Her new installation "Crowd" represents the human figure using giant inflatables, which are then combined with ambient sounds collected from various "crowded" events. Through this piece the artist is expressing the seductive dichotomy that is created by desiring yet
rejecting the invasion of ones own space.

Jody Sweitzer's works in animation, video, installation, and performance have been shown in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and primarily in the Philadelphia area including shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Painted Bride Arts Center, Gallery Joe's Bird Park, Vox Populi, NEXUS, Bridge Street Theater, Gallery Siano, Off the Wall Gallery, and various sites during several years of The Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Her work has received substantial support from the Independence Foundation and the Leeway Foundation and favorable press from many area publications.

Friday September 7 - Friday October 5, 2007
Opening Reception - Thursday September 13, 6 to 10 PM
Closing Reception - Friday October 5, 6 to 9 PM

Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Sunday 12 to 6 PM
Admission is FREE

http://www.nexusphiladelphia.org/

Daniel Gerwin Selected for Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities

Congratulations to Daniel Gerwin (MFA '08) !

His essay; Cultural Laboratories: Rick Lowe’s Project Row Houses and Thomas Hirschhorn’s Musee Precaire Albinet has won him an invite to participate in The 6th annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities.

http://www.hichumanities.org/index.htm

The main goal of the 2008 conference is to provide an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various arts and humanities related fields from all over the world to come together and learn from each other. An additional goal of the conference is to provide a place for academicians and professionals with cross-disciplinary interests related to arts and humanities to meet and interact with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines.

Magical Realism Susana Jacobson and Deirdre Murphy at the Abington Art Center

Magical Realism at The Abington Art Center

September 8th - November 24th
Otherworldly paintings mixing fantasy and reality

Group exhibition featuring our own Graduate painting professor Susana Jacobson and Painting professor/ Alumni Deirdre Murphy

abingtonartcenter.org

Tadashi Moriyama (Penn MFA '06) at Onishi Gallery, New York, NY and Iona College, New Rochelle, NY

Land(e)scape
Curated by Eric Shiner
Opening 9/13/2007 (Th) 6pm-8pm
Show runs thru 9/13/2007 -10/3/2007
at Onishi Gallery 521 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
http://www.onishigallery.com/

'Breaking New Ground: The Power and Variety of Landscapes'
Curated by Ellyn Murphy
September 10- October 11, 2007
September 16: Opening Reception 1-3pm
Oct 11: Closing Reception 12-3pm
at Iona College 715 North Avenue New Rochelle NY 10801
http://www.iona.edu/academic/artscouncil/events_all.cfm

The Slow Draw: Graduate Drawing Seminar Exhibition

Join us for the opening reception:Friday, September 7, 5-7pm.
Show runs: Thursday, August, 30th-
Wednesday, September 12th Upper Gallery, Meyerson Hall















Warren Corlett, Making Health, 96"x115", charcoal on paper, 2007

Excerpts from Professor and Chair John Moore's Graduate Drawing Seminar:

Anastasia Wong
Daniel Gerwin
Jeffery Fichera
Damon Reaves
Megan Rogers
Molly Winston
Gianna Delluomo
Shanjana Mahmud
Warren Corlett
Sarah Chetson

Brent Wahl (Penn MFA ’06) at the new Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia

The Most Fearful and Merciful Thing in the World, aluminum foil, 2007

“IT WAS EASY. IT WAS ALL NEW. “

Philadelphia Weekly says: Vox Populi’s new members show romps in a playground where the scary, the existential and the humorous are separated by a heartbeat…

The exhibition runs from August 3 through August 29, 2007.
There will be a gallery talk on Thursday, August 23 at 7pm with Alex Baker, Curator of Contemporary Art, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Brent Wahl's photography, installation, and time-based media work focuses on conjuring the undercurrent of our reality; he is interested in connecting various cultural phenomenon, abstraction, magic, time, illusion, and the spectacle. Brent will have a solo show in March of 2008 at Vox.

www.voxpopuligallery.org

Professor Eileen Neff at the Institute of Contemporary Art

Opening Reception:
Thursday, September 6, 6-8pm

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is pleased to present "Eileen Neff: Between Us." This exhibition of over thirty photographs by the Philadelphia artist Eileen Neff will be on view in the second floor gallery from September 7-December 16, 2007. Focusing on the past ten years, the exhibition traces a fascinating and critical shift from the camera to the computer. Five early works establish the foundations of Neff's photo-based practice in sculpture and painting. A video debuts a new foray into the moving image.

Donald Kuspit on Eileen Neff
"Neff structures her photographs like abstract paintings, blocking them into geometric sections that go against the grain of the blur. Each part becomes a kind of figure that can stand out against the others; focusing on one changes the figure-ground relationship. In some works the blur becomes the atmospheric background for the landscape, in others the reverse occurs.... If the blur represents unconscious feeling and the landscape self-conscious reflection, then Neff is struggling to overcome the split between reason and feeling, which T.S. Eliot called the curse of modernity."

http://www.icaphila.org/exhibitions/neff.php

MFA Forum is on break for the summer.
Please contact Jamie Diamond or Gianna Delluomo for 2007-08 AY info.
For the latest exhibitions in Philadelphia, please visit:
http://fallonandrosof.blogspot.com/

University of Pennsylvania Arts & Culture Survey

Penn is home to many arts and culture venues. In order to ensure that students are aware of the various arts and culture opportunities on Penn’s campus, a survey was developed to gauge their familiarity with different venues, as well as to find ways to improve the visibility and quality of arts and culture offerings. To gather this input, we conducted a survey of both undergraduate and graduate students. The objective of this survey was to determine the level of awareness of arts and culture venues on Penn’s campus, as well as gauge the interest in various arts and culture programs to determine if more opportunities for students should be developed.
--Robert L. Baer

The survey was conducted by an ad hoc committee comprised of members from the graduate and undergraduate student governments (GAPSA & UA), Alumni Relations, and the Provost's Office: Janice Bellace, Chair (Deputy Provost), Robert L. Baer (Director of Market Research & Analysis/Alumni Relations), Jane Anderson (Researcher/Alumni Relations), Scott Brodsky (GAPSA Policy Chair), Ryan Burg (GAPSA Pluralism Policy Council Chair), Paul Falzone (GAPSA Pluralism Policy Council), Elisabeth Lim (GAPSA Pluralism Policy Council), and Jason Karsh (UA Chair). View Results from the 2007 Arts & Culture Survey here

Professor Joshua Mosley at the 2007 Venice Biennale

Professor Mosley's new work will premiere at the 52nd International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale / Biennale di Venezia.

Joshua Mosley's “dread” is an animation that combines a forest landscape of stop motion photography and 3-D computer-animated puppets.  The puppets originally were sculpted in clay, then 3-D scanned, and animated using 3-D computer animation software. The animation is set to an original score composed by Mosley.

Animation description:
"During a nature walk, Pascal meets J.J. Rousseau in the forest. In their encounter they are not able to resolve their perspectives on the nature of things. They continue into darker territories where they meet a difficult reality that sets them apart." www.joshuamosley.com

The Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, presided over by Davide Croff, is setting up the 52nd International Art Exhibition, entitled "Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense" and curated by Robert Storr (former University of Pennsylvania MFA Senior Critic), the first director from the United States in the history of the most famous art review in the world, opening to the public from 10th June to 21st November, 2007.

Confirming the international vocation of the Biennale di Venezia, the Foreign countries are taking part in the 52nd Exhibition in the record number of 76 Participations: 34 in the exhibition venues with their own Pavilions (31 in the Giardini and 3 in the Arsenale) and 42 Countries in the historic center of Venice .

The national participations in this edition include a number of debuts – such as Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Mexico, the Republic of Moldova, Tadjikistan – and several returns – such as Bulgaria and Arab Syrian Republic. The Countries come from the five continents and in particular from 35 European nations, 20 Latin American countries, 17 Asian, 2 North American, 1 from Oceania, and 1 from Africa, Egypt. The National Participations have always represented a distinctive essential component, an extraordinary wealth for the Art Biennale, and create the opportunity for a better understanding of the artistic production of each Country, representing a veritable global “snapshot” of the contemporary in the world.

La Biennale di Venezia
Castello 2126, Campo della Tana
30122 Venice, Italy

Penn Arts Leadership Conference: The Future of Arts at Penn

The Penn Arts Leadership Conference invited Penn arts and culture board members to learn about trends in the field of arts and culture.

Podcast: http://www.upenn.edu/secretary/overseers/ArtLeader0509.html
Introduction: President Amy Gutmann, Deputy Provost Janice Bellace; Keynote: Neil Rudenstine (Chairman of ARTstor.org); Panelists: Anne d'Harnoncourt (Philadelphia Museum of Art), Peggy Amsterdam (Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance), and many others.

Excerpt From President Amy Gutmann:
As many of you know, arts funding for public schools, including, I'm sorry to say, those in Philadelphia, has been severely reduced. I think that's a tragedy. The result is that for many of our neighborhood children Penn programs provide their only exposure to arts and culture. So it's important that some 80,000 school-aged children benefit annually from special programs delivered just for them by the Penn Museum, the Annenberg Center, the Morris Arboretum, and Kelly Writers House, among other very eminent programs here at Penn.

The question of where we want to lead the arts is an essential component of the question of how we want to lead our lives. That, to me, is first and foremost what teaching the arts is about -- what is the role of the arts in a good life both as individuals and in the good life of an institution?

Excerpt From Neil Rudenstine:
We are seriously mistaken if we draw too sharp a line between the academic intelligence and the creative intelligence; between the rational and the expressive; the logical and the imaginative; the power to prove something through the use of empirical evidence and the power to use insight and similar forms of evidence drawn from the observation and experience of life. In other words, all academic subjects and the arts deal with aspects of human existence. They’re all engaged in a search for clarification, for understanding and for knowledge. They all require a wide range of intellectual and imaginative powers. They are, in effect, jointly part of the university's pursuit of truths in their different manifestations.

Because art's materials are, for instance, sounds, tempi, shapes, colors, gestures, movements, and actions, our ability to make an even partial sense of a painting or a sonata depends on an enormous amount of studying, of looking, listening, searching, and trying to be in tune with that particular work and that particular mode. Trying to interpret or read and understand patterns and forms that seem so lucid at moments but also turn out fiendishly to be very resistant to explication. Even when we've done our best, we will find, finally, that we have to be satisfied with provisional interpretations. We ourselves discover them to be imperfect and that leads us to attempt reinterpretations while always knowing that the very nature and richness of this process is, in fact, its open-ended quality.

Hitoshi Nakazato at the Arthur Ross Gallery

May 12 through July 1: http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v53/n33/arg.html

Almanac excerpt:
“I have always stated my lack of interest in focusing on the end result,” Hitoshi, as he is universally known, said. “For me, the process itself results in some kind of imagery, always allowing an element of chance to decide the final outcome.”

Coming Soon: MFA Thesis Exhibition

MFA Awards 2007

Graduating Student Awards (MFA'07):
Faculty Award: Nathan Clark
Maurice Lowe Award: Su Yen Chae
Audrey Blumenfeld Award: Julia Landois
Angelo Savelli Award: Sarah Chetson
Lawrence Shprintz MFA Award: Catherine Betz
Charles Addams Prizes: Caroline Santa and Ivette Vallejo
Toby Devin Lewis Foundation Prize: Lissa Corona

Continuing Student Awards (MFA'08):
Piero Dorazio Award: Simon Slater
Stuart Egnal Award: Gianna Delluomo
Robert Engman Award: Leejin Kim
Lawrence Shprintz MFA Award: Travis Heck
Neil Welliver Award: Ivanco Talevski
Dedalus Foundation Nominees: Jamal Cyrus & Shanjana Mahmud

MFA FINALS

TODAY, TOMORROW AND SUNDAY

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/arts/design/30fink.html?pagewanted=print

Collage/Montage Seminar with Professor Susana Jacobson

"Location-Locution: Projects from Collage/Montage"
Fox Gallery, Logan Hall
Work below (descending): J. Makary (MFA'08); a collaborative installation by Simon Slater (MFA'08), Cuyler Remick (MFA'08) and Travis Heck (MFA'08):

Alumni Update: Class of 2006

Hunter Stabler - Artist-in-Residence/Fellow at the Bemas Center for Contemporary Art
Nathan Wasserbauer - Working for Jeff Koons
Brent Wahl - Lecturer at Penn
Sinae Lee and John Woods - Professors at the Art Institute
Zackary Yorke - Fulbright Scholarship (his second)

More Seven: Sculpture Seminar with Professor Terry Adkins

Lower Gallery, Meyerson Hall
Work below (descending): Jamie Diamond (MFA'08), Monica Bodar (MFA'08) and Caroline Santa (MFA'07):

Fine Arts Integration: 2008 PennDesign Interdisciplinary Exhibition

In response to the university’s new mission of "Integrating Knowledge," the PennDesign Student Council has approved a new position for an "Interdisciplinary Coordinator" who will chair a committee of PennDesign students responsible for curating an exhibition featuring work from every PennDesign discipline. The proposal was initiated by MFA students and approved by the 2006-07 PDSC.

The Unspoken Borders Conference

As part of the two-day conference discussing minorities in the design profession, Kristen Gayle (MFA'07) invited and introduced performance artist Sherman Flemming for the Saturday afternoon Fine Arts Workshop.


Documentation for the conference was also provided by MFA photographers (keynote: Walter J. Hood, Jr.):

Seven with Professor Terry Adkins

Lower Gallery, Meyerson Hall
A collaborative installation by Travis Heck (MFA'08) and Simon Slater (MFA'08); and installation by Deb Hoy (MFA '08):

Professor Terry Adkins at Pageant Soloveev Gallery

http://www.inliquid.com/gallery/pageant/pageant.html
http://www.pageantsoloveev.com/homeframeset.html

Pageant : Soloveev is proud to announce the return of Terry Adkins to our space for his second solo exhibition. Opening April 27th at 8 pm with a performance by the artist, "Belted Bronze - Recital in Eight Dominions - Terry Adkins after Bessie Smith" will continue through June 18, 2007.

Pfister's Montage

MFA candidate Francesca Pfister (MFA '07)
Duhring Wing: Studio Seven
Thursday, April 12, 2007

Final Reviews Countdown: Eight Days

Support Our First Year MFAs Open Studio Sale

Open Studios April 27th 5-8pm University of Pennsylvania, Morgan Building 205 S. 34th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104

Work below by Warren Corlett:

MFA Thesis Location: Ice Box

http://www.cranearts.com/

Breaking News: Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture: Shanjana Mahmud

The nation's most coveted and prestigious artists' residency program has selected one of our first year MFA students for their intensive nine-week summer residency program. Congratulations Shan!

Torchia to Curate MFA Thesis Exhibition

Richard Torchia has exhibited internationally in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Norwich School of Art and Design in the UK and locally at the Eastern State Penitentiary, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art. He received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant in 1999 and was awarded a Pew Fellowship for photography in 1994. He is director of Arcadia University Art Gallery. His work investigates the state of suspension between seeing and knowing and moves the viewer through progressive stages, as Aristotle suggested, "from perplexities close at hand to perplexities about the origins of all that is."

American Photo Oncampus features Penn MFA Photographers

The March 2007 issue of American Photo Oncampus features work by a number of MFAs including Francesca Pfister, Su Yen Chae, Shayna McConville, and many others.

Greetings from the Netherlands

A letter from two of our MFAs (Amsterdam scholarship recipients):

March 8, 2007

Hello everyone! Damon and I have fallen in love...with Holland!! This country has been incredible so far. We are visiting the museums in Amsterdam this weekend and heading back to Groningen to participate in the preparations and celebration of the program during their Open House next week. FMI is fantastic!
Shayna + Damon

7th Biennal featuring Braslavsky & Granwell

Connie Butler, Chief Curator of Drawing at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), has selected two of our second year MFAs for the 7th Biennial at the A.I.R. Gallery in Chelsea (511 West 25th Street). Congratulations Milana Braslavsky and Alexis Granwell.