Tribeca Ball

By Claire Cushman (MFA 2015)

Prince Charming and Blue Deer

“The school is a modern fairy tale where dreams are coming true,” said New York Academy of Art President David Kratz, at the 21^st annual Tribeca Ball. “And I’ve always wanted to say ‘Welcome to my castle.’”

Sarah Novio, MFA 2015, in her studio

On Monday April 13^th, the New York Academy of Art welcomed guests to 111 Franklin for a “Once Upon a Time” themed ball, sponsored for the fifth year in a row by Van Cleef and Arpels. The building was transformed into an enchanted forest, housing unicorns, deer, and royal blue fern cut-outs. Models showcased VC&A jewellery, performers paraded around the building on stilts, and musicians filled the air with song. Guests, including Mary Kate Olsen, Brooke Shields, and Parker Posey, (to name just a few) filled the building, sporting glamorous dresses, crisp suits, and some incredibly lofty heels.

Final touches before the ball

Tribeca Ball celebrates the Academy’s emerging artists, and proceeds from the evening go to the school’s scholarships and public programming. During the cocktail portion of the evening, guests are given maps with studio locations so that they can visit Academy artists in their studios. As students, we welcome the opportunity to finally showcase our work, after hibernating in our studios for the winter months. Academy alumni and faculty work is also displayed. 

Esteban Ocampo-Giraldo, MFA 2015, in his studio

This year, the Academy honored Peter M. Brant, the publishing magnate and art collector. During the dinner portion of the evening, held in Wilkinson Hall, Mr. Brant was introduced by Bob Colacello, who worked with Andy Warhol at Brant’s Interview Magazine. Brant expressed his passion for art and the art world, and recounted the impact Warhol had made upon him:

“Andy really taught me beauty was everywhere, and that stayed with me my whole life.” 

Alonsa Guevara Aliaga's (MFA 2014, Fellow 2015) studio

Academy Alumni in the Print Shop

Chargaux

Photo Credit Margarita Corporan.

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Crits: Describing the Method and Philosophy of My Work

By Daniel Lopez (MFA 2016) 

One of the most important parts of my journey as an artist and sculptor at NYAA has been critique, or “crit” as we call it.

Critique Signup Sheet

Critiques can take place with a visiting artist or critic, a full time faculty member, or a third year fellow. This week I had crit with Guggenheim fellow Ed Smith. Smith worked with one of my primary influences, William Tucker, a modernist British sculptor and modern art scholar. This was the best critique I have had in my life. Ed Smith gave me great pointers and finishing techniques for my thesis idea, as well as for my maquette and sketchbook method.

This year I have had crits with visiting artists Anneliis Beadnell, Deborah Soloman, Richard Dupont, Steven Assael, Beth Cavener, and Audrey Flack. I have also had crit with most of the faculty, and the third year fellows. All of the crits have helped me to gain valuable insight into my own work.

Lopez's studio

All NYAA students get excited to meet and receive feedback from experts in their fields. Wednesday is critique signup day, and every Wednesday at 12:30 a long line of students forms down the fourth floor hallway, as students gather and wait to put their names down for critique the following week.

On March 25^th and April 1^st, all first years students met with acclaimed visiting artist Eric Fischl for group critique. Group critiques allow us to voice our thoughts and critique one another in an academic approach.

Lopez with Richard Dupont

The greatest benefit I have gained from my experience with critiques is the ability to describe the method and philosophy of my work. Critiques are essential to an artist’s development, even if the artist may not fully agree with them. It is helpful to have a second set of eyes read our work, and is a treat to learn from esteemed artists and critics here at NYAA.

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See more of Lopez's work on April 13th at the Tribeca Ball, where 100 Academy artists open their studios for a night of art, enchantment and a bit of magic. And be sure to save the date for MFA open studios on April 24^th from 6-9pm. 

MONUMENTAL MARKS and EN LAS PERIFERIAS/IN THE PERIPHERIES: Student Curatorial Committee

by Daniela Izaguirre (MFA 2016) and Jessica Leo (MFA 2015)

This semester’s Student Curatorial show "Monumental Marks" and "En Las Periferias/In the Peripheries" were composed of two concepts united by the sensitive trace of artists and moments of quietude. It featured a large drawing exhibition and an exhibition based on human indifference and intimacy. 

“Monumental Marks,” located on the third floor, allowed its viewers to experience the various languages of mark and line within the drawing medium.  Hatched lines of graphite accompany the velvety texture of blended charcoal line the wall. The intention of "Monumental Marks" was to demonstrate the beauty of the mark, while presenting drawing as a viable art form in which to create finished works. Both traditional and contemporary this show celebrated the grandeur side of drawing. 

“En la Periferias/In the Peripheries” was deliberately located on the second and fourth floor of the New York Academy, framing the drawings, to suggest another kind of periphery, that of human indifference. The art in this exhibit took many unique forms ranging from a pensive foggy landscape to a tender broken portrait. For this exhibition we wanted to let the art works speak to the viewer.   The work served as theater plays, finding in them the “seed” of the script, and letting them tell us of the inner conflict of the character and the need of a softer gaze.  

The Student Curatorial Committee hoped this short exhibition delighted the Academy community and accompanied them on these last cold days before the warmth of Spring.

COPY/CUT/EDIT

By Daniela Izaguirre, Richard Buchanan and Marco Pali (MFA 2016)

There is a process in which the artist’s identity inhabits the work one way or another. The real presence of identity is often overlooked. The Student Curatorial Committee (SCC) opened "Copy, Cut and Edit," an exhibition that unveiled, through the practice of portraiture, the identity of artists with three different but complementary elements.

Evidently, there is plenty of literature that states that identity is inherent in every person, but the search of identity is a process that is often belittled. In the process of creation, artists navigate, construct, imitate and tear apart systems of information. Sometimes, artists are not conscious of their in-born quest that leads to the sense of self; however, their search of identity naturally manifest in their work.

Curator Daniela Izaguirre stated that during the first month of classes she observed that many peers were finding personal insights through the use of techniques and methods assigned in class. For example, activities like analyzing our own facial anatomy that opened up internal dialogues with matters beyond observation. Then, realized there was a deeper story in the physical actions of creating artwork, a natural human narrative in making sense of who we are.

“All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” -Shakespeare

Daniel explains “When I think of art, I think Shakespeare said it all: Human nature is predictable. I observed as well that there is a continuous thread that ties the millennial artist, managing a social media account, and Egyptian funeral painters, that of “editing” our own identity and how others perceive it.” 

The purpose of the SCC is to allow students to broaden their experience in the contemporary art world. They are encouraged to conceptualize curate, and install exhibitions. The following are some comments from some of its members:

“During the selection of the work I did my best to put my own identity on the side and tried to read the artist’s identity in each piece. Being able to step into the world of others was a very enriching personal experience,” says Daniela

Richard Buchanan, a member of the SCC stated: “The student curatorial committee provides a wonderful platform for graduate students to engage with the curating experience. Being a part of this group has been a fantastic learning experience. I found Heidi Elbers’ (NYAA Manager of Exhibitions) input and guidance invaluable throughout the process.”

Curator Marco Palli reflects: “The best part of the curatorial process was to mingle with the student body. It was inspiring to see my peers’ work and to hear the stories and processes behind each single piece. I was honored that they let us enter into their studios. Unequivocally, I felt proud of belonging to this great community of artists.”

This exhibition is currently on view until late January 2015 on the 2nd and 3rd Floors at the New York Academy of Art. We invite you to experience it!

Seduced by Paint

By Matthew Comeau (MFA 2015)
 
Arriving at a new place, with nothing but time; the first thing one does is seek out its most vital parts to assess which pieces of this new world can be absorbed and brought back to the soul. At the start of my stay here, I was in a funk. As much as I was ecstatic about my surroundings, ready and willing to work, I couldn’t get myself out of the sketchbook, as with everyone; it seemed to take a bit of time before we really sank into our practice.

As time and momentum built up, some very exciting things began to happen in the studio. My work has found itself in wild flux as well. I had been having some trouble escaping the confines of my sketchbook, but ended up stumbling upon the gutted remains of an industrial elevator being fixed within the Spinnerei. I took them back to my studio, and spent 3 weeks reorganizing and piecing back together the parts into freestanding and wall sculptures, incorporating bike parts, broken casts, antique cabinets, light fixtures, telephones, street signs, tubing, and even fly tape; still covered in flies. The project eventually turned into a (still ongoing) 12-foot installation, now in the main hall of our shared space, and while I don’t think I can bring much of it home; I found the temporality of the project broke down some psychological barriers in my art-making. Now into the second half of our stay, I’ve snapped back into two-dimensional work, experimenting with oil on canvas for the first time in a number of years. Oddly, I haven’t made a single drawing outside of my sketchbook in all of my time here. It must’ve rejuvenated something in me though, because I’ve become completely seduced by paint. While I don’t think I could ever bring myself to abandon my large drawings; I can’t wait see what kind of language will pull itself out, back in the Academy studios. 

 
Esteban's new painting is easily one of my favorites.  It depicts an outlandishly colorful and impasto driven kind of “80’s party” aesthetic with a twist.   The figures seem to be inspired by an image of some Spinnerei workers from its days under the GDR, as a Cotton Mill. It became a full-fledged dive into painterly buildup, chunks of saturation climbing off the canvas’ surface, colors swimming in and out of one another in the faces of the figures. Having shared a studio for nearly two months now, I’ve steadily observed a conscience abandonment of the finesse of his hand, for the sake of a kind of absurd theatricality.
Hannah has chosen to use our travels as a conduit to push her work in an alternative direction. It seems she’s embracing a new process as well; one that pulls away for the cultural weight and pointed deliberation of her Holocaust images. Instead she’s chosen to derive references from her personal history, with a comparatively organic addition-and-removal of content, pushing towards narrative that is more intimate in subject and visceral in content; while allowing the viewer’s projections to complete her stories. Her new paintings seem to carry a sentimentality that was evident in her previous work, but is instead geared towards the intimacies and precious moments of her own life.
Camila has been exploring figures of authority, versus those of alienation and victimhood as its bi-product and polarity; and how relationships between representation and gestural abstraction can serve to support her conversations. She has been playing with the extent to which extensive rendering is necessary to convey a narrative; as well as how that kind of restraint, for the sake of leaving the open gesture, can leave space for the viewer’s imagination. On top of that, she seems to have stumbled into a kind of re-contextualized use of abstraction, as a potential narrative tool when placed appropriately in relation to the representational parts of her images. I’m excited to see how its use begins to evolve.

On the 13th of July, We had our exhibition at a castle called the Schloss in a small town just outside of Leipzig, known as Machern. The portion of the castle designated for the show was covered in bright pink and blue pastel interiors, chandeliers and Victorian style trim and furniture. The space was sliced into varying, sometimes oddly shaped rooms, emulating a strangely elegant ‘Alice in Wonderland’ feel. After a solid day of installation, all of our work (in its seemingly disjointed variety relative to one another) ended up as a great fit for the space. At the opening itself, we were shocked by how above and beyond the castle’s employment had gone to entertain its guests. There was champagne being brought around throughout the opening, a live classical pianist, a separate reception room, in which our fantastic coordinator, Kristina, gave a speech welcoming the guests, introducing us and our work. On top of a surprisingly high turnout, given its location outside of Leipzig, the exhibition was even written about in two newspapers! 




Thus far, the experience has been a wild one, with each of our practice’s driven in some unexpected directions. While it is exhilarating to observe one another in such significant transition; one cannot help their own excitement for what is to come next year.

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Matthew Comeau (MFA 2015) is joined by Hannah Stahl (MFA 2015), Camila Rocha (MFA 2015), and Esteban Ocampo (MFA 2015) in Leipzig, Germany for a two-month Residency.  The students will share their adventures in Germany throughout the summer on the Academy's blog.  Stay tuned!

Free From Self Doubt

By Sarah Schlesinger (MFA 2015)

MERHABA FROM ISTANBUL 
To prepare properly for this residency, I spent hours asking google questions like "What's the weather like in Istanbul?" and "Where is Istanbul?" to "Can women wear shorts?*"  The wealth of information that experienced tourist bloggers gave made me nervous and overwhelmed. I hope this blog post reaches all timid Turkish travelers and eases their worry.

ISTANBUL IS AMAZING
After landing in Istanbul, all of my concerns melted away instantly. To answer my first question, the weather is perfect. It is hot, sunny, and breezy during the day and turns cool in the evening. Even during the hot parts of the day, a breeze coming off of the Bosphorus cools the city down.  The Bosphorus is a glorious waterway that connects the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara.  It divides Europe from Asia. It is full of leisure, commercial, and commuter boats. Russian cargo ships can be seen speeding past fishing boats and day trippers, all dwarfed by the massive cruise ships that dock in Istanbul for the day.

Mimar Sinan University, where our studios are located, is under the constant slapping of waves made from the passing boats. Having such a gorgeous view of the Bosphorus just outside the building creates a calming and inspiring setting to create work. The school and our lodging are located on the European side of Istanbul. Erinn and I are staying in a girls dormitory located by the Bosphorus Bridge about a 15 minute bus ride from school. Getting around has been incredibly easy. They have functional, efficient, and inexpensive public transportation, as well as an abundance of taxis.

FREE FROM SELF DOUBT 
While most people do not speak English, and my attempts at speaking Turkish have left me with blank stares, everyone I have met has been incredibly friendly and helpful. As a foreigner I do not feel out of place at all, as I have often felt in other places I have traveled.  Through jet lag, supply shopping, cultural mysteries, and limited open studio hours, we have managed to get ourselves situated and have all delved into our various projects. The limited building hours are allowing us to explore the city and experience the Turkish culture to a greater extent than if we were working around the clock. I have found the change of scenery freeing especially from the usual set of creative self-doubt. I have enjoyed making decisions with less hesitance, knowing that I have the whole month to have failures and fix them before anyone in North America finds out about them. Sharing studio space with the others has been motivating and inspiring, and I can already tell I will miss being here.

PROOF OF GENEROSITY
We have all set up and begun to work in our nooks, not unlike the pigeon and her babies who have found a home in the stairwell. Also found in every nook and cranny of the city are kittens. The treatment of stray animals are further proof of the generosity and hospitality of Turkish people  

The Saturday after arriving, the four of us had the delight of seeing Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in the old city. To our surprise, visiting these popular monuments did not feel touristy. Between the two buildings lies a gardened park, filled with picnickers and napping Turks. To my dismay, there was a real lack of knick-knacks and postcards being sold (there is a post card shortage in this entire city - finding some is my unending quest).



PRINCES ISLANDS
We then had the pleasure of traveling with Gökhan, a fellow New York Academy student who is from Istanbul, to one of the Princes Islands. Gökhan painted a beautiful water scene while the rest of us swam in said water scene. The islands are automobile free, and the only way to get around is by bike or horse drawn carriage, the horses having a special desire to run over Erinn.
All in all, the city is beautiful, the people are lovely, and I might never leave. And if I do, I'm taking a kitten.

*Yes, they can and do. This is a stupid question.

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Erinn Heilman (MFA 2015), Nick Lepard (MFA 2015), Sarah Schlesinger (MFA 2015) and Jacob Hayes (MFA 2014) are currently spending their summer on an Academy sponsored residency in Istanbul.  To learn more about their experiences and progress check back in on the Academy's blog for new entries each week.

The Occasional Dance Party

By James Raczkowski (MFA 2015)

Having just arrived back from Moscow from a short but incredibly memorable trip to Saint Petersburg I am full of spirit and inspiration.  Both Moscow and St. Petersburg are vibrant and alive. The streets are full and never empty. The sun shines for 20 hours a day and the locals savor every moment of that warmth. This innate energy coupled with an immense amount of artistic culture imbedded into Russian society breads creativity and verve.

The people we met here were generous and kind. We had tea and cognac with friends' grandparents, taken out to dinner by strangers and have been guided  through Saint Petersburg to visit secret landmarks well off the beaten path by a stranger and now new friend Nikita.

Altogether this residency has been magical  and memorable. Each day was filled with history, art, and friends. This  very foreign land with different culture, customs, language, and even alphabet is at the same time oddly familiar .  This familiarity is created by a common human spirit, love for one's country and an eager willingness to share.

  

AN AVERAGE DAY IN MOSCOW

At four in the morning just as sun was creeping over the horizon many locals were just closing their eyes. We too have adopted this interesting and sometimes confusing sleep pattern. Our afternoons were filled with sight seeing, going to cafés, museums and our sun drenched evenings were spent at the studio working late through one breathtaking sunset and equally beautiful sunrise after another.

I spent most of my mornings running through Moscow taking a new route each time to discover something unique and inspiring along the way.

In the afternoon our friends and guides Sonia and Nikolay lead us with authority through the city. Sometimes we took the subway or taxi, however we always end up waking and walking from one monument to another.

The subway was always such a treat as each station is unique and grand and often equipped with wifi.  All the stations are designed by a different artists or architect which created an elaborate underground museum.

The taxis were also different, mostly because there are no taxis. Your ride through out the city is determined by anyone who decides to pull over on a whim. We have ridden in everything's from BMW's to green fur covered soviet sedans reeking of gasoline. This always unique experience was the norm and it costs $8 dollars or 300 rubles to go anywhere in the city, even down the street.

After a day of walking and visual overload we found ourselves inside our beautiful light filled studio equipped with same cast sculptures you could find at the Academy with an incredible view of downtown Moscow.

The studio was always buzzing with music conversation, painting, and the occasional dance party. Creating work inside such a beautiful space and working next to other talented artists has been nothing but a pleasure and growing experience. 

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James Raczkowski (MFA 2015) was joined by Sarah Issakharian (MFA 2015), Gabriel Zea (MFA 2015) and Amanda Pulham (MFA 2014) in Moscow.  These four students spent the summer taking in the sights and creating work on an Academy-sponsored Artist in Residence Program.  Throughout the summer, their adventures will be documented on the Academy's blog. Stay tuned for more.

Relearning How to Exist

By Ryan Schroeder (MFA 2015)

Participating in a residency in Shanghai is unlike anything we have experienced. China is unique because of our lack of familiarity with contemporary Chinese culture, customs, and language barriers. The process of trying to make sense of this new world is a phenomenological undertaking.  Our thoughts and needs are communicated via hand gestures, pictures, electronic devices or a third party--who may selectively translate what we are saying.

Our ability to function through known means has been removed, and the result is a sort of ontological shock.  Even the simplest elements of life become a phenomenon, and we are essentially relearning how to exist. 

In the text, Being and Time by Martin Heidegger, dealing with the nature of existence is explored; "Being cannot be grasped except by taking time into consideration, the answer to the question of being cannot lie in any proposition that is blind and isolated". As we experience life in China we can only open ourselves to the supreme novelty of the residency. Our experiences do not need to be made sense of in the moment, but rather, this is an opportunity to gather information. To truly understand something one must surrender preconceived notions about what could or should happen. One must simply Be and experience life as it is in the moment, and only in hindsight, we can reflect upon what we learned.

 
Being here is a wonderful opportunity to learn. One of the most curious aspects that I have found deals with the arrangement of space. Architecture in Shanghai is bold and imposing. Each grouping of buildings appears to be based on one Architectonic model, which is repeated a number of times. The lumping of structures divides the city into a series of rhyming blocks of buildings, which is followed by a vast expanse of flat land that extends forever.

 
The traditional city of Hangzhou is what one might imagine of China in the early 20th Century to be.  We hiked through a bamboo forest to the top of a mountain. We looked down through the clouds to see an impression of the city, and a tea farming town in the distance. While walking the countless steps to the Pagoda atop the mountain, I kept thinking about the overall composition of traditional Chinese ink drawings. In them the viewer experiences space not in terms of linear perspective, but as a holistic impression of how space feels.
One day Wang Yi took us to the opening of "Return to Simplicity", a retrospective of Wu Shanming's work,  I realized that climbing the mountain actually felt like the works we saw at the Zhejiang Art Museum. Shanming's oeuvre was comprised of variations of wash drawing techniques. He answered questions regarding the use of color as a compositional device, where to crop an image, where to simplify, and where to allow the abstract nature of the medium to flow, for the sake of creating an image that is captivating and sensitive. 

China is a land of many joys, such as the pleasure of truly getting to know fellow residents, as people and as Artists.  Our weekly critiques have been challenging at times, and yet because of the respect we have developed for each other, and because of the fact that we are all mutually invested in the success of the other's work, positive changes are happening in the studio.  This residency has benefited us not only in studio time, and cultural learning, but also in the freedom to sit and read. I find myself reflecting on  a quote by Nietzsche, in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, "You teach that there is a great year of becoming, a prodigy of a great year; it must, like a sand-glass, ever turn up anew..." The challenge understanding a place so detached from Western Culture is that we are forced to rethink ourselves, not just as the character we know ourselves to be, but as artists, whose work is eternally evolving, influenced by our surroundings and stimuli.

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On May 26, four Academy ventured to Shanghai, China to participate in a six-week residency. Tamalin Baumgarten, Dana Kotler, Arcmanoro Niles, and Ryan Schroeder (all members of the MFA class of 2015) will share their experiences here throughout the summer.