SVA SUMMER RESIDENCY 2006

Ling, George, David, Leigh Ann in Chelsea, July 2006

This summer it has been my great pleasure to fulfill the role of instructor in The School of Visual Art’s Summer Residency Program 2006. I am humbled by the opportunity to work with students, to aid them in generating art work, communication skills, and provide an example of how to live in the art world. There are many amazing artists in this program, which counts 34 in all. A large number of them are still in their twenties and are considering the possibility of attending graduate school. Many came here from other countries, such as Lithuania and Portugal, and are coming to New York for the first time. The chance to work in a school can be refreshing, and the attention of daily alternating instructors on each student’s chosen body of work for the allotted period can be quite stimulating. Besides myself, other instructors include Jill Weinstock, Danica Phelps, Steve DeFrank, and Peter Hristoff.

I first met with students in this program during the summer of 2005, when I was invited by Keren Moscovitch, Assistant Diractor in SVA’s Division of Continuing Education, to lecture about my experiences and accomplishments in the art world. Though less famous than many other figures appearing here, it was perhaps my connection to the art world, via family connection and lifetime experience, that made me an interesting candidate. Now, as an instructor, I have gotten to share more than a passing concern with the many participants in this ongoing program, to provide the benefits of a New York art education, in the studio and outside, in the galleries and streets, which is the accepted purview of regularly attending students.

Trang Bui, Tania Castellano, Ling Chang, Annika Connor, Karina Contreras, Dana Cooper, Cathleen Cueto, Leigh Ann Davis, Marc Freeman, Tracey Goodman, Samantha Hahn, Sara Hernandez-Pons, Emily Henretta, Tamar Hirschl, Jennifer Kincaid, Rufus Lusk, Brian Maller, Cindy Mason, Kelley McCarthy, Jeremy Olson, Candida Pestana, Gabriel Shuldiner, Fumiko Toda, George Towne , Marlene Vinha

TANIA CASTELLANO



TANIA CASTELLANO




Sculpture by LING CHANG


Drawings by LING CHANG



Sculptural installation by LING CHANG


Watercolor painting by ANNIKA CONNOR



Watercolor painting by ANNIKA CONNOR


Painting by KARINA CONTRERAS


Drawing installation by KARINA CONTRERAS



Installation by DANA COOPER



Installation by DANA COOPER



Installation by DANA COOPER



Detail of artwork by DANA COOPER



CATHLEEN CUETO and her work



Work by CATHLEEN CUETO with guest



Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS



Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS



Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS



Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS



Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS



Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS



Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS



Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS


Mixed media & painting by LEIGH ANN DAVIS


Painting by MARC FREEMAN




Painting by MARC FREEMAN



Artwork by MARC FREEMAN



Artwork by MARC FREEMAN




Paintings by SAMANTHA HAHN



Sculptural installation by EMILY HENRETTA




Mixed media & painting by TAMAR HIRSCHL



Method-based painting by JENNIFER KINCAID
Painting by RUFUS LUSK




Painting by RUFUS LUSK




Painting by RUFUS LUSK



Painting by CINDY MASON



Drawings by JEREMY OLSON



Painting by CANDIDA PESTANA



Painting by CANDIDA PESTANA



Painting by GABRIEL SHULDINER




Painting by FUMIKO TODA


Painting by GEORGE TOWNE



Paintings by SONIA GONZALEZ VARELA



Painting by MARLENE VINHA







Painting by JEREMY OLSON



Painting by JEREMY OLSON



Frieze by KELLEY MCCARTHY






Sculpture by GABRIEL SHULDINER



Sculpture by KELLEY MCCARTHY




Deatail of sculpture by KELLEY MCCARTHY




Drawing installation by KARINA CONTRERAS



Drawing installation by KARINA CONTRERAS



Painting by FUMIKO TODA







Painting by FUMIKO TODA


Painting by FUMIKO TODA



Sculpture by GABRIEL SHULDINER



Installed painting by SARA HERNANDEZ-PONS




Painting by MARLENE VINHA



MARLENE VINHA (on right) with Elizabeth Hendler



Painting by MARLENE VINHA



Painting by MARLENE VINHA








BRIAN MALLER



Installation by SABRINA TORRES



MARLENE VINHA with her Artwork



MARLENE VINHA






Artwork by SILVIA FLORES



Artwork by SILVIA FLORES





Open Studios: Fumiko Toda



Artwork by SILVIA FLORES



Artist Portrait: TRANG BUI


Artist Portrait: Tania Castellano


ANNIKA CONNOR


CATHLEEN CUETO



SILVIA FLORES



SAMANTHA HAHN



EMILY HENRETTA


SARA HERNANDEZ-PONS


CINDY MASON


CANDIDA PESTANA

JENNY CARPENTER

Lately, most of my studio visits are being made in preparation for upcoming group exhibitions, and there are few exceptions. Yet one recent visit was done out of the blue, and it proved quite a surprise. The artist is Jenny Carpenter, originally from Omaha, Nebraska, but who has traveled and lived in various locations around the U.S., and also Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and South Africa. These trips are made possible by her work as a freelance art director at various advertising agencies in cities where she has lived. As a New Yorker myself, and thoroughly ensconced in the New York art world, I was very surprised to hear how much the artist traveled. She was able to also take long periods of seclusion in her painting between bouts of travel and work, and New York remained for her a place to dream, not merely one to struggle.

I walked up the six flights of steps in a typical West Village red brick apartment building to be met by her at the threshold of her front door, a charming and somewhat stoical young woman, nervous since, as she said, there had not been many studio visits for her yet. Her small but well appointed home was preceded by a long narrow hallway, and one entered both the living room and the light of day. A wide green couch faced the windows, with a mostly northern exposure, though we know that nothing in the West Village faces exactly in one direction. The work was arranged all on one wall to my left, the artist sitting at my right ahead of me, just under those great village views.

In her emailed statement, she said that she painted oil on stained wood to allow the grain to influence the lines of a woman's face, with the scale of each image being a 1 to 1 ration on 12” x 12” birch board. I looked at these images and began to talk with her, and had a positive feeling. Here was some good work. A nice tight idea, a concept in the making garnered from her influences in the working world and how they merged with a particular notion of beauty, as well as all of the visual conceits that enter into the moment of aesthetic fascination when a beautiful woman appears on the printed page--a simulacra made palpable and commercial at the same time. Carpenter focuses mainly upon close-ups, and the images among these that I preferred were limited to a frame of the eyes, mouth, and cheekbones, with the eyes gazing deeply back at the spectator.

My main concern in learning to appreciate Carpenter’s work was my opinion on her sources. Since she does work in advertising, it is both natural and somewhat presumptuous that she would choose a type of imagery culled from the pages of fashion magazines. Yet the need to portray women’s faces--and she paints only women--has found perfect repository in the commercially viable and yet ultimately short lived use of such magazines. Here is where women are most notably typified, and if one wants a pictorial jumping-off point, there is no context more widespread than this, whether the point is to offer an alternative pictorial treatment or to freely sample the traditional modes of emotional expression which fashion models are forced to espouse. The specifically successful aspect of her portraits is that they portray all women in depicting the nameless ciphers used to exemplify the sort of passion that sells couture. Carpenter’s paintings zoom past the trappings of the industry and reveal the fuel that runs it: emotional intimacy. She qualifies the essential humanness which makes models more than visceral clotheshorses.

WELCOME TO STUDIO JOURNAL!

Here I am in the studio of Marcy Brafman

This is an idea for a publication which I have been pondering for quite some time: an online magazine devoted to reporting on the various studio visits which I complete in my guise as independent curator, critic, or random art lover. Since I moved back to New York after college many of my friends have been artists, and since 2000, when I opened my first curated exhibition, I have completed some 100+ studio visits per year. This magazine was given the name "journal" because it is meant to function as one, a record rather than an art form. I look forward to sharing many of my future visits with you, my memories of past ones, and my musings on the event that takes place when I step into an artist's most intimate room. All best, David Gibson