New York Academy of Art: NYAA Leipzig International Artist Residency (LIA) 2012: Final Week

On June 1, Four Academy students arrived in Liepzig, Germany to start an 8-week Artist in Residence Program. Brian Dang (MFA 2013), Robert Fundis (MFA 2013), Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA 2013) and Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013) will share their experiences here throughout the summer.

July 26, 2012 by Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA 2013)

It's the final week of our residency in Leipzig and its going to be really hard to leave. Our summer show opens this Friday and I think that I share everyone's sentiments here of excitement, eagerness and satisfaction.

Last week we had critiques with David Schnell, who I found to be extremely intelligent, thoughtful and intuitive. He spent a good portion of his afternoon with us discussing our works and answering our many questions about his experiences an artist in Germany. A few days before we had the chance to see some of his prints in Vlado and Maria's print studio. They work with select artists to create prints, mostly etchings, in their space in the Spinnerei. It's really an incredible initiative that has resulted in an extremely impressive number of collaborations with artists such as Neo Rauch, Matthias Weischer, Christian Ruckhaberle and many more. They also work with many young artists and have put on several shows with their prints.

Per Alex Barton's request, we finally visited the legendary antique store. It was definitely worth the visit and I will go back before I leave. I bought two stuffed rodents and a bird which I have incorporated into a piece that I will exhibit in the final show. On Sunday I went with Kristina to visit the diploma show in Halle. It was a beautiful town and the campus was pretty incredible. The school is known for their design program but there were also many impressive sculptures and paintings displayed.

Today I had the chance to visit the studio of Rosa Loy, an artist whose work I have admired for a while now and who happens to have a studio above us. She was incredibly gracious and I left feeling completely inspired and thankful to have established a connection with such an interesting, intelligent, thoughtful and talented person. I have experienced so many things in Leipzig that I never would have dreamed of experiencing and the many wonderful people that I have had the chance to talk with have made my time here completely transformative.

This experience has made a huge impact on my work so far and I am now one of the many people who come to Leipzig and return knowing that I will be back.

Now, back to painting!!