Academy Awards - Best Curating

By Claire Cushman (MFA 2015)

The New York art world is a big place. This can be intimidating, but it also gives artists opportunities to play different roles, such as curator. While most artists are singularly focused on their own vision, Cara De Angelis (MFA 2011), Diana Corvelle (MFA 2011), Dina Brodsky (MFA 2006) and Michelle Doll (2006) have carved out the time and energy to identify, organize and contextualize the work of their peers by curating shows. 

While working on curatorial projects (often together), these women and other artists formed a group known as Paint Anyway, which is dedicated to reintroducing talent and sincerity into the New York art world. "Our mission is to create a platform in which great artwork is seen and discussed," says Michelle Doll. 

Curating requires research, idea development, project management, decisiveness, and even interior decorating skills. Like writing, curating forces artists to consider the wider context their works fit into, and to identify the conversations they’d like to be a part of. Below, these four NYAA alumni answer some questions about their curating experiences.

Kimberly Witham, "Still Life with Orange Glove," (Digital C-Print), from Wildlife in the Post-Natural Age, curated by Cara De Angelis

Why do you curate?

Cara: I have a desire to connect with more artists and galleries, and to create opportunity for my friends and other emerging artists, specifically women and others who may not be given as much opportunity. A majority of the opportunities I've had since being out of school have been through fellow artists, and I genuinely love participating in the community we've created and helping to expand it further. It's my fuel to keep me going.

Diana:  I can thank my lovely Paint Anyway friends for pushing me to curate. I deeply value sincerity and craft, so I want to give a platform to artists whose work is sincere and beautifully crafted. 

Linnea Paskow, "Dissolution", Magazine Fragments - from "Remnants" 

Tell me about the shows you’ve curated?

Michelle: In 2010, the incredibly talented artist and close friend of mine, Lisa Lebofsky, approached me about co-curating a show with her at Fuse Gallery, where she was the gallery director at the time. We decided on the title "Remnants", choosing artwork that focussed on serenity found in the wake of destruction, gradual disintegration, natural decay and residual experience. The show was an ambitious project that included approximately 50 artists. I learned so much from that experience, especially from Lisa's extraordinary professionalism in working with artists and various galleries.

For my next curatorial project in 2012, the wonderful gallery owner Island Weiss asked me to co-curate a Valentine's Day themed show titled "Love is in the Air", focussing on the celebration of love, passion, and desire. We collaborated with the Cell theatre group, which combined live performance art and painting.

The other two projects, "Behind the Curtain" and "Barely Imagined Beings," were inspired by my continual collaboration and friendship with the brilliant and ambitious artist, Dina Brodsky.

Dina:  My first curatorial experience was actually an accident- a friend of mine in Boston was launching a start-up tech company. He asked me if I had any artist friends who would be willing to exhibit their work at the launch party, where his potential investors might be interested in buying art. I asked for artwork from some of my Academy classmates, borrowed a friend's car, and drove it to Boston. I didn't think of that as curating, I was just putting together some paintings that looked good together. But the show looked beautiful, and my friend kept introducing me as a curator. That show later got extended to a gallery I knew in Boston, and I realized that, at least to me, that's all curating really is- finding work that looks beautiful and meaningful together. Since then, I've been curating about two shows a year - working with an expanding set of artists and galleries.

Cara: I curated my first show 3 years ago called "Wildlife in the Post Natural Age" and have done several since. The most recent show was "Hot Dry Men, Cold WetWomen," a somewhat satirical effort.

Diana: I co-curated my first show of female portrait artists, "Loved and Observed," with fellow alum Manu Saluja (MFA '13) at Hersh Fine Art, a gallery affiliated with the Long Island Academy of Art, where we both teach.  Cara and I co-curated "New Romantics" at Mark Miller Gallery, and worked with Tun Myaing (MFA '06) for a show of NYAA alumni work "Lucid Visions" at Panepinto Galleries, headed by Stefania Panepinto (MFA '15).  Most recently I curated an exhibition of locket miniatures, "Love It, Locket, Leave It" for Island Weiss Gallery.  Love It/Locket was a really special show for me because every piece was created especially for the exhibition.  It was thrilling to see the miniature scale pieces the artists created; unwrapping each locket as it was delivered felt like Christmas morning.

How do you choose works – primarily from a conceptual standpoint, or an aesthetic one, or both?

Cara: I take both concept and beauty into account when choosing works. Another important factor is a given work's context within the show, and the other pieces in it. Putting a show together with many different artists is sometimes like a puzzle and you have no idea what it will look like at the end. Sometimes works have to be left out if they don't "fit" in the larger picture.

Installation shot from "Hot Dry Men, Cold Wet Women"

Diana: For me personally, aesthetic comes before concept.  My first concerns are always that the work be beautifully crafted and fit beautifully together. It sounds silly, but oftentimes curating feels like compiling a shopping wish list of things I would love to hang in my own apartment!  In fact, I do own a good number of works from the artists who have participated in shows I curated. 

Installation shot from Love it, Lock it, Leave it

Michelle: I typically begin with a concept for a show that I feel is compelling and relevant. I'm constantly researching artists and collecting images. Over time, certain works reveal relationships and themes that spark ideas for shows. 

Dina: Ideally, both, but for me personally aesthetic tends to trump concept. I start with a loose concept, and then find artists whose work I admire and find aesthetically exciting and try to see if they have any work that fits into the theme of the show. I feel like most of the shows I have curated have been talked into existence organically through conversations with close artist friends, a lot of whom curate as well.  Someone will say "wouldn't these 3-4 artist's work fit well together thematically", or "wouldn't this be a great idea for a show". Some of these conversations remain in my mind, and I start looking for other artists whose work would fit with the first few that were discussed.  Usually I work with other curators, and we each bring in our own ideas/artists, until we feel like the show needs to happen, and we start looking for a space.

Installation shot from "Hot Dry Men, Cold Wet Women"

What have you learned through curating shows?

Diana: Honestly it has made me a more conscientious artist!  I've learned how it feels to be on the other side of putting together a show, so now I try much harder to be on time with submissions, meet guidelines as closely as possible and not let correspondences lapse.  I joke that curating is like herding cats ... Except in this case the cats are actually wildly talented, sporadically responsible adults.  

Cara: You can never, ever be too organized. Also, persistence is a virtue. A couple of my shows took over a year of me trying to contact and work with spaces before they found a home. You just have to keep trying. Another thing I've learned is to be chill and not freak out when things go wrong, because it's inevitable that they will.

Dina: I found, learned about, and met a lot of incredibly amazing artists through curating shows. I learned that there is no magic to it, - if you really want a show to happen, you can bring it into existence, but it takes discipline and work. Also, I learned that very few things happen entirely organically. I learned how to approach galleries with ideas for shows, how to do the PR for my shows, and how to pack and handle artwork. The one thing that does seem to occur organically is the artwork- I have been incredibly lucky to work with a group of talented, hard-working artists, and there is never a lack of incredible work to display.

Michelle: The experience of curating has been so valuable.. I've become more fearless when connecting with artists, galleries, critics and writers. I'm more comfortable with writing proposals, interviews and essays. The entire experience has pushed me outside of my comfort zone. There's so much work and collaboration that goes into curating a show... above all, I've learned how to be a better professional artist. 

How do you pick spaces?

Diana: It depends on the show.  For "Love It, Locket, Leave It", my first choice was Island Weiss Gallery.  That space feels like a jewel box to me, and it worked out that Island was really open to the idea of a show of lockets.  

Dina: I try to get the core group of artists for the show together first, ask them to send me work that fits a certain theme, and write a curatorial statement. Once I have that I start approaching galleries with a show that is basically ready to go. Eventually, I find a space that is available- once a gallery agrees to host a show, depending on the size of the space, and their exhibition aesthetic, I will ask a few more artists if they are willing to participate.

Michelle: The space is important when deciding on a show, particularly when choosing the amount of artists and sizes of work. Ideally, I prefer working with a gallery who's supports the curator's decisions and who will actively promote the show.

Michelle Doll in her stu

What are some of your favorite shows you’ve seen lately?

Cara: An exhibit of Baroque paintings and still lifes from the Hohenbuchau collection that was on display at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich CT. The works were lush, ornate, dripping with color, detail, and velvety backgrounds. It was an almost guilty experience. Also, I was really enamored with the Balthus show at the Met, "Cats and Girls," a little over a year ago. It was one of the best shows I'd seen in a while. Another show that makes you feel almost guilty – I hope that's not a pattern forming!

Dina: By far my favorite group show this year was "Beautiful Beast", curated by Peter Drake -every piece in it was exquisite on it's own, while working together to make a coherent whole. It inspired me, both as an artist and a curator.

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.

An Unforgotten Past: The Work of Nicolas V. Sanchez

Nicholas V. Sanchez (MFA 2013, Fellow 2014) is driven by a prolific compulsion to bear witness to everything he holds dear. In paintings that depict blind horses, decaying walls and scabrous surfaces, Sanchez suggests a world that is not only falling apart but one that is also slipping through his fingers.  By painting memories that could easily fade into oblivion, Sanchez creates an illusion, first for himself and then for the viewer, of their continuity which satisfies his quest to preserve his family's heritage.

In Nicolas' newest body of work created specifically for the "2014 Fellows" exhibition opening at the Academy on September 3rd from 6-8pm, Nicolas reveals some of his most intimate paintings yet.  On the eve of the show's opening, we caught up with him to discuss his Fellowship year, learn about his inspirations and what's next for this artist-on-the-rise. 

Q: What are the major themes you pursue in your work and can you tell me about your work from the "2014 Fellows" show?

A: Family, heritage, tradition, preservation, identity, space, and preservation are themes I tend to explore in my work.  For the 2014 Fellows show, my work continues to center around the idea of inheritance through family, specifically through my family's history. Linking different worlds by means of family photos, rural animals, and painting methods, a new identity is simultaneously created and lost through the preservation of traditions, myths, and legacies of past generations. 

Q: Would you tell us about your childhood and its influence on your work? 

A: I was born and raised in Michigan where I had equal access to urban neighborhoods and the dirt roads and open farmland. It's that quaint Midwest kind of area. I first started seeing influences of home in my work during my time in New York. I would say my bi cultural experience growing up is what influences my work the most. I would also say my connection to nature influences my work as well. As a child I went outside and ventured into the woods beyond our backyard collecting bugs and teaching myself about nature. I always had an affinity for animals and nature. I recall those times when finding links and overlaps to my past and inherited legacies.

Q: How did you start painting? Do you start with a picture, an idea, or a story in mind?  

A: I have been drawing all my life. Since I could hold a pencil. I started painting in undergrad. I can't say I start in any one way. Sometimes the work starts with an image in mind, other times its a feeling, or a technical execution that motivates me. Sometimes I'll see something and think, 'oh...yea, that should be painted like this...' So sometimes it starts with clarity and other times it starts with moments of curiosity and I have to paint or draw something to find out why I was so attracted to it. A sense of elasticity in my studio practice is important to me. When simultaneously working on a large oil painting and a small ink drawing, each medium is revisited with fresh eyes, hands, and mind. Contrary to the non-erasable and 'restrictive' idea about drawing in ink, my colored ballpoint pen drawings offer a sense of freedom. My first mark is also my last mark. There's no taking it back, so why worry about it? I just keep drawing. It pushed me to become more disciplined and develop a sense of agility.

Q: How has the Academy shaped your practice? 

A: I came to the Academy to develop my technical skills and it has done that. Because the Academy has given me a stronger foundation, I feel less restrictive and encouraged to try new things. I've acquired skills that allow me to express my ideas and explore unknown territory.

Q: If you could retake any class at the academy what would it be?
A: Wade's drawing class 

Q: What did you learn most about yourself and practice during your post graduate year?
A: I learned more about what drawing and painting mean to me. 
 

 

Q: Can you share any rituals you may have in the studio?
A: The only thing I do consistently in the studio is clean up before I leave. I need a clean and somewhat organized space so I can focus when I return. I love being able to arrive at my studio and within minutes begin working. 

  

Q: What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

A: A wise artist named Guno Park (MFA 2011) told me to "Just draw!"

Q: If you weren't an artist what would you be? 

A: I also like teaching dance (pop-n-lock, isolation, footwork, and body waves) so maybe that's what I would be doing. 
 

Q: Pick a piece and would you tell us about it?

A: Heir, 2014 (oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in). This is Ethan. He is the youngest first cousin in my family. He battles me every time I come home. He keeps my dancing skills on point. 

Q: Finally, what's next? 

A: Immediately after the opening reception for the "2014 Fellows" show, I am assisting international artist Liu Bolin on a project in Chelsea. Then, my work will be featured in a two- person show in November.  I will also be working on a few projects with Accesso Galleria in Italy. Besides that, I will be painting and drawing every day, living and working in the city. 

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Currently, Nicolas V. Sanchez's work is featured in the "2014 Fellows" exhibition on view at the Academy's Wilkinson Gallery through September 28th.  This three-person show also features the work of 2014 Fellows Elizabeth Glaessner and Yunsung Jang.

Annually, the Academy awards Post-graduate fellowships to three exemplary graduating students chosen through a highly competitive selection process. During their Fellowship year, the Fellows receive studio accommodations, a stipend, exhibition opportunities and teaching assistantships to expand the depth and breadth of their artistic practice. The "2014 Fellows" show represents the culmination of their Fellowship year and the beginning of their promising careers beyond the Academy. 

To see more work from Nicolas V. Sanchez please visit his website.  Stay tuned for more interviews from Elizabeth Glaessner and Yunsung Jang during the exhibition's three week run.

"The Big Picture" According to Casey Read (MFA 2014)

In New York City, I have discovered an overwhelming wealth of information regarding sensory overload. Touching, smelling, tasting, hearing, and seeing everything, like a trip to the grocery store. Touching subway poles, smelling the car exhaust, tasting the worldly cuisines, and watching the masses pass and shove their way through to the next event of the day. But I have not experienced, in my short time here, anything like the opening of The Big Picture.

Mark Tansey, Coastline Measure 1987

Mark Tansey, Duet, 2004

On the night of the opening, I hardly looked at the art. The floor was filled with people stretching to look at the works and chat amongst themselves. A slight social anxiety crept over a few of the current students at the New York Academy of Art, me included. There are only seven pieces in The Big Picture, which made the gallery appear smaller than usual and with all the people inside the hallway, there was no way to fully experience each piece. This isn’t to say that the night was made worse, the crowd filled the air with an excitement I had never seen at the school and I felt pleased to know that each time someone passed through our doors, another face lit up with a sense of awe. After painting class yesterday, I ventured downstairs to realize the privilege of viewing the artwork one-on-one. Once I experienced the show on my own, there was no comparison to seeing it with human heads blocking the view. It sounds silly, but I felt a near spiritual involvement with the work, as though I had meditated and had a conversation with each at the same time. I had been painting from life the entire day, moving at a range of distances from my 36 inches x 42 inches canvas to gain a better understanding of how it looked from up close and far away. I especially noticed this with the work by Mark Tansey. I approached his work until I was sitting an arm’s length away and realized that the entire illusion of space and depth in his painting, Coastline Measure, were created by nothing more than scribbles. My interest increased as I got up and walked backwards from the scribbles. I felt like a child again - a smile grew on my face, “It’s like magic”!  Not only did I feel childlike as a result of Tansey’s "magic trick" with mark-making, but also due to the fact that I was physically about a third of the size of his 87 inches x 122 inches piece. 

Jenny Saville, Bleach, 2008

Though I had not been particularly interested in the work of Jenny Saville, I certainly am now. The digital images of her work flatten and simplify the massive brushstrokes that add a voluminous appearance to the paint itself.  Each layer added to the face in the painting made me recall my interest in anatomy; Saville allows the viewer to see through skin, bruises, blood, all the way down to the deepest parts of the person depicted. For the first time, I saw and understood that the eyes were smooth and glassy and are windows inside rather than meshing with the rest of the flesh.

Eric Fischl, Krefeld Project: Living Room, Scene 1, 2002

Eric Fishl, Corrida In Ronda # 4, 2008

Eric Fischl is actually one of the reasons I came to study at the Academy- I had never heard of the school until I e-mailed him for a project interview in undergraduate school and he replied.  He even told me about the Academy after he asked me to send him pictures of my work.  Eric changed the way I think about painting. As a drawing concentration in undergrad, painting meant I had dabbled in abstract acrylic painting since high school and then took two classes in college. It was intimidating- it meant color and wet stuff and, basically, making a lot of terrible art. I did and still do make terrible paintings, but the difference is that researching artists, their work, and how they make it helped me make some good ones too. Fischl was one of the first painters I really looked into and I was surprised to discover that his process involved photography and even mismatching figures from separate photos and shoving them in together. Not only that, but he also based much of his early work on unnerving suburban unrest which I completely related to growing up in Southern California. Seeing his work for the first time in the flesh is something personal and special to me.

Now we get to Vincent Desiderio: Father, husband, and considered (by me) to be one of the most prolific painters in these contemporary times. Of all the paintings in The Big Picture, his is the largest, entitled Quixote. Comprised of three parts (that I initially did not come close to understanding), it tortures the viewer with a heart-shaped object (perhaps a piano) falling amongst the clouds, a silhouette of a bicycle, and a slaughtered animal (a pig, I believe). To me, it almost seems like he is trying to play a game with me like "hey, make a word out of these three images" or "what do these things have in common" or even "I have seen these images on a daily basis, have you?"  I find myself struggling to make an answer for these metaphoric images, but maybe that is the point. There are obscurities in life that we, as people, were never meant to find an answer to.  The novel A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind in which the smartest computer in the universe is asked "the ultimate question to life, the universe, and everything" and comes up with the answer "42". Either that, or I need to do more research on this brilliant guy.

Vincent Desiderio, Quixote, 2008

Neo Rauch Hausmeister, 2002

Neo Rauch is a weirdo. I mean this in the most loving way. Hausmeister appears like an old billboard from the 1950’s on homeschooling. His voyeuristic approach to the home setting offers the viewer a strange look at a family in an unbalanced situation. Plates are stacked off to the right of the scene, held together by colorful goo that is repeated in the geology poster that the woman in the painting gestures towards, her gaze down at the boy (who has his back turned to the viewer). It seems as though everything in the scene is failing; the woman appears to be teaching, but the boy is busy taking a bottle of something out of a mini fridge. Only, it might not be a refrigerator at all and an odd, deformed statue of a unicorn type creature stands atop the "refrigerator." The man in the room looks grim, yet indifferent to the situation. Neo Rauch composes places that, at first glance, seem ordinary or even dull. But looking further, the scene can create a realm for the viewer in which there is no sense and only a dark humor to drown in. In order to enter into the world of this piece, you will have to see it for yourself.

I encourage anyone who has   To me, the collection is a surprising commentary on the digital age, the negatives and positives of the iconic power of the photograph handed to human kind on a massive scale, like fire given to man. The exploration of paint expressed in The Big Picture creates a face of hope, dismay, and unpredictability for the traditional artists in this age of the powerful pictures.

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The Big Picture is currently on view at the Wilkinson Gallery at the New York Academy of Art located at 111 Franklin Street between West Broadway & Church through March 2nd.  Be sure to visit the exhibition during the gallery hours of 2:00-8:00pm daily except Wednesdays and holidays.  Admission is free.  For more information on The Big Picture please visit its exhibitions page on the Academy's website.