New York Academy of Art: 2011

Deck the Walls 2011

By Amanda Scuglia, MFA 2013

Deck the Walls is a holiday themed party thrown by The Academy every year. It's the perfect chance to purchase small artworks from students, staff, faculty and alumni for a great price! This is a chance to score some really unique holiday gifts, or to start/add to your art collection.

Buyers lined up at the door, anxiously awaiting access. When the doors opened, there was such an excitement and rush to see all the great work for sale. The walls were packed with nearly 350 pieces, but it didn't take long before they turned bare. All of this, while painters and sculptors worked live from models. AND, the event was sponsored Heineken, and featured an open bar!

As a first year student, it was my first time participating. I had so much fun, and I sold a piece! Here are some highlights from the evening.

An inside look: The Academy Open House Experience

Our first Open House for 2012 MFA applicants is this Saturday, November 19th from 12-2pm. See Amanda Scuglia's (Class of 2013) blog post Clicking Heels for her application experience last spring!

Originally posted - Friday, March 25, 2011

Accepted and Approved: New York Academy of Art

Once I was accepted to both the New York Academy of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, I started planning my visits to the schools. First up was NYAA. I contacted the Admissions office to find out when I could tour the school. They told me about an upcoming open house for prospective students that I could attend. It was only 2 weeks away! I had to buy a very last minute, VERY expensive ticket to New York. You see, there aren't that many flights coming out of ol' Wichita, Kansas. Luckily, I had a friend who let me crash at her place. I also kept weekly correspondence with the admissions director who's been very prompt (and kind) with answering my questions/concerns. The open house presentation was extremely informative and very honest. I got to walk around and see the entire school including all the studios and the students' work! The work was incredible. I felt like it was the kind of work I wanted to make. The first year studios are not huge, but since the first year will be a "boot camp", it should suffice. My tour guide was super friendly and answered all of my hundreds of questions. We began discussing how I found out about the school in the first place.

I lived in New York for 4 years and had never heard of it before this year. Or perhaps I wasn't looking for it, since I only started to research schools when I knew for sure when I wanted to enroll. I already had my top ranked schools picked out, based on reputation. But when I visited one of them, it wasn't what I had expected. So I began researching other avenues, like the CAA Directory, a guide to all visual arts grad programs, which I found out about through my undergrad academic advisor/art professor. Then I started going through my bookmarked favorites, some contemporary artists' work that I had saved over the years. When their work stood out to me, I looked up their bios on their websites. I noticed a trend: a lot of them had attended the New York Academy of Art. Alyssa Monks, Caitlin Hurd, Christian Johnson, just to name a few. Here's where I became a stalker :) I found out that a professor from my college graduated from NYAA. I contacted her via phone and asked about her experience with the school. She had all positive things to say and told me that she actually chose NYAA over Yale. She gave me the name of an alumna who's currently enrolled at the school. I contacted her via facebook and interviewed her as well. At this point, I was dumbfounded about how I couldn't have known about this marvelous little place. I read about the history, which gave them even more brownie points. Andy Warhol was a co-founder. Um, hellllo. This must be the art school society's best kept secret.

I guess I'll find out... because I'll be attending this fall! No need to visit any more schools. I found mine. :D

EXPERIENCE at Today Art Museum. Beijing, China

By Cori Beardsley, MFA 2011

We have experienced a mammoth amount of work here in China. It has been a struggle in trying to make sense of the art world here, to put it in concise terms, and define the trajectory of its fast growth and movements. Our conversation in the studio has circled around the core idea of art as Experience, and i have gathered that there is a real attention here on Experiencing Art. Through the design of the installation, space, timing of the narrative, and drama of the object, the gigantic warehouse spaces in Beijing are perfect for designing an experience for the audience.

Yesterday we visited the Today Art Museum. There were two solo shows by female sculptors Xian Jing and Li Wei. Xian Jing's show "Will things ever get better?" began with a huge 100 foot tall space presenting contorted knots of acrobats. They were composed on 30 foot tall welded pedestals, stacked on top of each other, or quietly poised and meditating before taking action. An ambitious feat of sculpture, these resin sculptures painted meticulously with acrylic were performing for us, smiling, waiting tensely for our applause.

This gallery was divided by a deep red velvet curtain which behind it held more fantastical works. Dramatically lit, life size painted animals like the "immortal one", a dopey elephant, big eyed horse, sheep, and a group of seals. Installed in a smaller space, you were at level with these animals, intimate and up close to the pathetic and hopelessness of their pose. There was a distance in their hollow gaze, unaffected by your presence. It simulated the detachment and exhaustion of animals at the zoo.

In another warehouse space at Today Art Museum was Li Wei's Solo show "Hero". Unaware about any of this artist's ovure, I walked into a long hall that led into a large open space. All I could see ahead of me were two kissing fire extinguishers and I thought to myself, "Please don't let that be the work of art." As I turned the corner there were 20 sculptures of Chinese girls and boys in dancing costumes, big glass eyes staring eagerly, nervously at me. A huge theater spotlight beamed on their stage frightened bodies. I felt bad for these little ones, knock-kneed, pleading internally not to be judged and awkward in their costumes that can't hide the anxiety of their budding adolescence. A gaggle of young persons walked in, giggled and pointed at the sculptures. Perfect.

Walking out, I was led into the spaces upstairs. First there was a flock of flared peacocks flirting with each other on astro-turf. But to my right was room with a beeping noise that persuaded my attention. I entered the glass door to find four beds with near death figures in a tangle of medical tubes and sensors on their bodies. It smells sick, stale, and sterile like a hospital. Blaring, insensitive florescent light floods the 15'x10' small space, leaving me to confront the bodies before me. Fluids are bubbling through tubes and regulators while I try to distinguish the life left in these forms. Flesh in complete repose, their naked bodies sprawled open in a tangle of bed linen don't reveal their sex until you follow the lines of their tubes and find penetrating catheters. I am repulsed and drawn in simultaneously. As I aim to photograph I stall; feeling at my core wrong about documenting these barely alive figures. Standing bedside between two of the figures my head darts back and forth between their glazed eye contact. Tubes billow out of their mouth and dismembered bodies; I am stunned between their utterly silent stare. A man comes in and begins pulling cords out of the machines, and the beeping of their life force goes quiet, their bubbling fluids cease. I look at him in shock, "What are you doing! Why are you pulling the plug!?" He smiles back at me; responding, "Hel-lo!" I notice another gallery attendant ready to lead me out because it is closing time.

Adrenaline pumping, I exit the gallery, beaming from the empathy I felt for the figures and the complete submersion I experienced. The powerful simulation in both rooms; an endearing anxiety with the costumed adolescences, and the transfixion on the bodies with their wavering mortality preserved by pumps and tubes.

Two theatrical sculptural experiences. Xian Jing's sculptures performing perfectly for her audience; and the hollow emotion in her beautiful animals bearing the same contradiction that one experiences at the zoo of looking at trapped majestic creatures. The simulation in the installations of Li Wei's life-cast figures conjured emotions from those scenes in our own lives and flooded the viewer with empathy.

See more pictures from the show below:

Introduction to Shanghai/Beijing Residency

By Cori Beardsley, MFA 2011

Left to right: Wang Yi, MFA 2010, Mitchell Martinez, Class of 2012, Samuel Evensen, MFA 2008, Cori Beardsley, MFA 2011, Kiley Ames Klein, MFA 2011 Friend, Cao Yi, MFA 2011

NiHao Academy community! I wanted to introduce the CAFA, Shanghai University Residency program that Kiley Ames Klein, Samuel Evensen, Mitchell Martinez, and myself; Cori Beardsley have been on since August 20th. Wang Yi (alum Shanghai University-2008,NYAA 2010) and Cao Yi (Alumni of CAFA-2009, NYAA-2011) have been our generous, energetic tour guides, translators, and dear friends-welcoming us so warmly into China and explaining the culture, art and history along the way.

We started out in Shanghai, visiting cultural sights like Old and New City, museums, and important galleries. Staying at the University Hotel at Shanghai University, We met 15 students from Shanghai University and other Universities in China (graduate and undergraduate). We worked from the model, and on our own projects in the studio with them for 10 days. We also traveled and worked Plen air for two days to Xi Tang, a beautiful ancient water city. Back at the studio, Samuel Evenson led a great anatomy class one morning and we exchanged in discussions about our contemporary art worlds, working representationally, and what we strove for as artists. Wong Yi's took us to his studio and we were thrilled about his new work. He also took us to local markets and antique shops- insight about the history of China that gets submerged in the sea of modernization.The generosity and hospitality we received in our introduction to China was overwhelming, our big wide eyes were busy taking in all the new sights, people and culture.

And off we were on a FAST 5 hour train ride to Beijing. We are staying in an apartment that Cao Yi found for us that is a half a mile from school, and we have a terrific 1,000 sq. ft studio with a skylight in the Graduate Oil Painting Building. After we stopped jumping up and down in the studio we quickly got to work. Art supplies are very cheap and accessible, the spaces are BIG and the art is BIG. So our ambitions went soaring. Ren Rui and Janet Fong from the Public Education and Development Program at the Museum of CAFA are arranging a show for us of the work completed on this Residency in the Museum while the Biennial: Super Organism at the Museum is up. To be continued...

A Teachable Moment

The painting “Inglorious Nocturne” by Holly Ann Sailors has provoked a strong reaction from many members of the Academy’s staff, faculty and student community.

To address the serious nature of these concerns, the Academy feels that it has a responsibility to its community to create a platform where all sides of this issue may be aired in a reasonable and respectful manner.

We have created this blog to encourage an open and honest dialog about freedom of expression and speech, the open exchange of ideas and the role that censorship plays in addressing provocative and controversial works in the arts.

- Peter Drake, Dean of Academic Affairs

________________________________________________________________________

While the faculty is not in total agreement about the success of “Inglorious Nocturne,” and hence of how offensive (if at all) it may be, we all applaud Holly’s ambition and courage in addressing such difficult subject matter. History painting, once the pinnacle of painting’s function, is now largely the territory of film and photography; contemporary art generally shies away from historical issues. Certainly racism is one of our history’s major quandaries: much of America’s early economic success is owed to unpaid labor, and some of the founders who gave such beautiful expression to notions of American independence were slave-owners.

The faculty also sees replacing the painting with one less inflammatory as counterproductive, partly because that would invoke censorship—even if the most salient examples in recent art history have involved public (government) monetary support, and The New York Academy is a private institution whose main function is to educate students. Most of all, avoiding these thorny issues would be missing the opportunity of a “teachable moment”. As a school that promotes excellence in formal execution in figurative art, we hope that the discussion that follows of how and why this image provokes thought and emotion, will encourages students to challenge themselves in terms of content. We invite your comments.

- Margaret McCann, Interim Faculty Chair
________________________________________________________________________

"Inglorious Nocturne "

oil on canvas  47"x 62"  2011

I understand that this artwork is creating controversy and discussion within the school community. I am very aware of the taboo nature of this imagery and realize the potential for it to be perceived as offensive. This is not my intention.

In no way am I trying to perpetuate the ideas of this hateful community. Instead, I want to unveil a never-ending trend of hate, prejudice and disillusion that is present in our culture. In all of my work at this time I am interested in fully capturing the viewer's attention through beauty and seductive coloring that then forces them to witness horrific subject matter. Overall, I wish to bring awareness to current social issues dealing with racism, hate, and injustice.

This painting is fueled by an encounter with the Ku Klux Klan that I had as a child. As a 7 year old, seeing this event was life-changing and revealed to me the simultaneous connection of beauty (in this case the fire, the costumes, the ritual) with abject horror (the brutal treatment and murder of minorities). The controversial figures depicted in my painting are ghostly cowards disintegrating into the darkness presented through a palette of attraction. I am continuing a southern Gothic tradition that uses art to explore social issues and sheds light on the cultural failures of the American South.

- Holly Ann Sailors , MFA 2012
_________________________________________________________________________
Examples of artwork dealing with controversial themes (some w/links):