SFAI (im)material Blog

Through September 2 you can see Rhiannon Alper’s handbound books on view at the SF Public Library’s Skylight Gallery in Hand Bookbinders of California 47.

Clark Buckner — Faculty | Liberal Arts

Check out Clark Buckner’s curatorial work in Lost Holidays, on view June 22–August 10 at Telematic.

Charles Hobson — Professor Emeritus | Printmaking

See Charles Hobson’s work at the Legion of Honor in Small Inventions: The Artist’s Books of Charles Hobson, on view through July 14.

Kate Rhoades — Faculty | New Genres

Kate Rhoades’ work is currently on view at bust stops on Market Street between the Embarcadero and 8th St in San Francisco as part of the Art on Market Poster Series.

Lindsey White — Faculty + Department Chair | Photography

Photography Chair Lindsey White’s work in on view at SF City Hall’s North Light Court and Ground Floor through March 13, 2020 as part of Brian Belott’s RHODASCOPE: Scribbles, Smears, and the Universal Language of Children According to Rhoda Kellogg.

Wanxin Zhang — Faculty | Sculpture/Ceramics

See Wanxin Zhang’s work at the Museum of Craft and Design in Wanxin Zhang: The Long Journey through July 14.

WILMINGTON, DE:

CHICAGO, IL:

MIAMI, FL:

James Claussen — Faculty | Printmaking

James Claussen’s Headed for an Accumulated Comfort lithograph is on view in the group exhibition Observing Life: Intersections Among Art, medicine, and Healthat the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum.

CHINA:

Zeina Barakeh — Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs

See Zeina’s work in Silent Narratives, on view at MOCA Yinchuan through August 17.

Jeremy Morgan — Faculty | Painting

Jeremy Morgan and Ming Ren are showing work in East Wind from the West at the Fanyuan Art Gallery in Beijing through July 2.

IMAGE CREDITS:

(1) Caitlin Mitchell-Dayton, Stone Awards, 2013/14, Oil on linen, 72 x 96 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

(2) Poster from Kate Rhoades’ Art on Market Poster Series.

Alumni Spotlight: Don Ed Hardy

2019-06-17T18:48:00+00:00

Don Ed Hardy on The Evolution of Tattooing

SFAI’s Alumni Exhibition, In A Flash, is opening this month and the illustrious tattoo artist and SFAI Alum Don Ed Hardy (BFA 1967) has agreed to participate! Last week SFAI’s Exhibitions Manager, Kat Trataris, and Librarian, Jeff Gunderson, headed to Hardy’s North Beach studio to talk Flash and select works for the show. (Im)Material tagged along, and we were lucky enough to get a real education in the history of tattooing in the West from one of the original masters of custom tattoo art in the United States.

After exploring decades of highly organized early flash and custom designs, Hardy settled in among a tidy spread of artwork, books, and CDs to answer a few questions for (Im)Material. Read the interview below, and don’t forget to come see In A Flash at SFAI’s Diego Rivera Gallery, opening at 5pm on July 4!

SFAI: Thank you so much for agreeing to do this!

Don Ed Hardy: It’s no problem. How’s this?

SFAI: This is perfect. Alright, so my first question is, How would you say that tattooing has evolved since you first got started?

DEH: It’s… it’s reached the potential that I think it always had. I got into it because I believed in it and it was my destiny and I just… I was obsessed with it. When I was a little kid I was like ten years old and I started drawing tattoos and I was drawing on people. And when I was getting ready to finish my undergraduate degree and was set to go to graduate school in Printmaking and probably teach and I reconnected with tattooing. And I met a guy that was another, the first—my favorite term—“renegate intellectual” that had been in tattooing. He was a published author, really intelligent guy and good tattooer, and the first day in his shop he showed me a book of Japanese tattoos.

Actually Donald Richie, he was the one who brought Japanese cinema to the west in the late 1940s, he along with a lot of conscientious objectors/pacifist people worked on merchant marine ships so that they had joined the military. He got to Japan and he fell in love with it there. He was a closeted guy and in Japan you could—especially in those days you could function as a gay person I think easier than you could in America. There’s a great tradition of it there, you know a different outlook of gender. So anyway, Donald was one of the people who brought Japanese cinema to the west because he went over there in the occupation forces after Japan lost the war and fell in love with the country and then became obsessed with the cinema, became fluent in Japanese and then he really brought that whole culture to the awareness of Western people. And he was fascinated with the whole tattoo thing and he had written a book about tattooing in Japan with photos of contemporary tattoo artists in the 60s.

So this guy Phil Sparrow that I met who was working in Oakland showed me that book that first day in his shop and when I saw it—because I was teetering and I was supposed to go to Yale and I was going to teach printmaking and you know, do that—and when I saw that I just immediately thought, if you can make tattoos look like that, you can…I can make, you can make them into anything. And I just abruptly decided I was going to take up tattooing. I thought it had great potential as just human expression. And I knew it was way deeper and way beyond people’s perceptions, you know. When I was younger when you had a tattoo it was like, “well were you drunk or were you in the military?”—it was like those two things, otherwise, why would you ever have one of these things? And mark yourself? And I just thought it was better to see if we could develop this as a medium. So that’s what I did. Obviously, you know I had to meet a lot of influential people and a lot of great artists and get their confidence and, you know, just open it up in the West. Mind you I just hated the fact that you couldn’t have a tattoo without it having that reputation, it just didn’t seem right. It was sort of the last thing in the liberation of… being able to live your own life.

Don Ed Hardy answering our questions in his studio.

SFAI: Why do you think tattooing got that reputation? And how do you think it got away from it?

DEH: I think it got that reputation basically because of the suffocating judeo-christian power structure that ran everything in the world. You know, shame and this is wrong and you shouldn’t mark this body that God gave you and all this bullshit — I mean I was force-marched through, you know, Christianity as a kid. My mother meant well but I wasn’t meant for it — and I think it was just looked down on. They thought it was like this savage, barbaric thing. But it really flowered in the West, which we’re going to talk about tomorrow—are you coming to that thing at the Asian Museum?

Jeff Gunderson: I’m hoping to, yeah…

DEH: Because it’s gonna be really a really good panel. We’re gonna get there early enough to see the show. It’s a show of ukiyo-e wood block prints on loan from the Boston Museum which is a fantastic collection of asian art from all the cutters and they’ve loaned all these really pristine prints that feature people in the mid-19th century. I think Japan got opened up maybe early 1860s/late 1850s and then people started going in there and seeing it and some of the things they saw were, you know, tattoos on all of these people. And there was no kind of [western] tradition of it then it was just with whalers and just seafaring types and they just had these spot tattoos, but in Japan it was a really highly developed art form. So… that had a big impact and that followed through to the 20th century. Some of the tattooists, the few tattooists who were really interested in and capable of doing unique work and had inherent art talent wanted to expand it and were trying to offer people more than just, you know, the recipe of imagery and sentiments and stuff that existed in American Flash.

Among them was Sailor Jerry in Honolulu who was one of my primary mentors. He’d been tattooing a long time, since the, probably the 30s, but in the 60s he really got known for doing these large Japanese-inspired designs but with subject matter and more polychromatic treatment and… you know, he opened up the field as far as the kind of things you could do with the machines. But that’s when it started really was the 60s there were a few people that were pretty interested in that.

I was able to go to Japan and work with a tattoo master and when I came back here I opened up the first private studio and the whole deal was to get—I would only do absolutely unique tattoos. So people would come in with their concepts and I could draw, so I could draw the concept, and that’s what started it more. And I began to get tattooers from all over the world as clients and they saw what I was doing and thought “well maybe I have the interest and the drawing ability to do that myself,” so that just kind of put the ripples right out.

JG: I’m always interested in that History of Tattooing lecture you gave in Richard Shaw’s class at the Art Institute.

SFAI: On that note, how would you say your experience at SFAI impacted your art career and art practice?

Drawing on a pizza box spotted in Ed Hardy’s studio.

DEH: The experience was really good there because of the openness of it but the key thing really was the instructors I got to have which primarily were Joan Brown and Gordon Cook and… some other people I can’t remember some of their names but um… But the openness of it and of course just the setup of the school you know, because I was raised in this totally right-wing Orange County town in Southern California and the first time I came up with a buddy and we flew—I think it was the first time we’d flown as conscious adults—BANG we came up (it was like 11 bucks for a one way ticket) and we came up for the weekend because Richard Shaw and Martha Hall, who became his wife, and another guy had come up, Reggie Daniker. And they’d come up from Orange County. And I just couldn’t believe it, it was like… the city, the whole thing… I was very aware of beat culture and, you know, I was pretty well-steeped in alternative consciousnesses as had been exhibited earlier in the century. Anyway, I was here and I was like, “Oh I’ve found mecca!” And the school, even the setup of it was fantastic. But really, I think the people that affected me the most were really the people who didn’t teach here that long and they were able to just get away with their take on the whatever the current… I mean, maybe the primary intent of the school is to have different voices and so it was good for that. It was definitely good for that.

And then I was on a career track and working in the library and it was going well and I figured I was going to go to grad school because I was accepted to Yale. In those days you either figured out the… the question we always posed ourselves was: Would it be better… if we want to keep making our personal art, would it be better to have a job that doesn’t involve art at all and then do your art, or is it okay if you’re connected, teaching or doing something, is that going to leach away your energy that you would otherwise put into your personal work. You know, it’s all a psycho-drama and anyone that’s cursed with like a, you know, an “intention to make art” you’re like, how will I do this and make it fit into your life. Not even as a financial thing, just as a thing that… so you can live with yourself. So… and for me it really worked out well that I chose the tattoo thing. I’m so glad I did… because right then too the primary flavors that were popular in the world not only were the economic thing about art as a big money commodity which was sick enough in the 1960s now it’s through the roof, but the fact that you could be made totally independent of the institution. That’s what I was after. My buddy Mike Malone, who was from here too—he became a tattooer, he was a fine artist—and he basically just summed it up, he said,

“We joined the pirates. We just decided we’re not going to be part of any kind of groups. We’re just… we’re gonna try this.”

… Which in those days… it was very transgressive.

But yeah, I’m glad to see that tattooing has gotten popular. I mean, I didn’t try to proselytize it but for people that try to get them now there are all these incredibly talented tattooers with great careers and they’re free agents and they just go around the world and tattoo and they have people… they’re appreciated. It’s really, it’s great to have—it’s beyond anything we could have dreamed of. It’s very cool. I’m stoked that the museum is—or the school gonna do a show there. It’s natural … it was a nice surprise to hear. There are probably way more people that I know that I didn’t realize existed that became tattoo artists that came out of there, so… it’s good! It’s a good career. It can be a positive career option. I’m glad I didn’t have to get into it today with the competition, I never would have been able to do it.

Don’t miss Don Ed Hardy’s work on view in In A Flash opening July 4 in SFAI’s Diego Rivera Gallery!

Alumni Spotlight: Hayley Samathan Jensen

2019-06-04T16:56:00+00:00

Hayley Samathan Jensen + Heinrich Events: Sticky Spots and Rising Seas

As last year’s winner of the Younhee Paik scholarship, new alumna Hayley Samantha Jensen (MFA 2019) will be exhibiting her work at the Younhee Paik Studio for Music and Art during East Bay Open Studios on June 8–9 and 15–16.

In the midst of graduating and installing, Hayley was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about the show, entitled Spectral Prisms and Hot Ice. We decided to focus on one piece, Heinrich Events: Sticky Spots and Rising Seas, to learn more about her process and work as a whole.

SFAI: How do you find inspiration for your work?

Hayley Samantha Jensen: I’m easily inspired, as much by the incredible everyday things like clouds that can’t go unnoticed just as by my frustration that comes with seeing continued destruction and abuse in the name of progress. Emotion and rapid thinking rattle my fingers until I’m lost in the paint. Once I’m in a painting, I become enthralled by the gesture of the paint marks themselves, the moment I’m living trying to express all that rages in my mind, enchanted and hopeful in spite of the daunting. The marks become spirits in themselves.

SFAI:What was your process for creating the work you’re featuring in this show?

HSJ: I’ll be showing quite a few pieces but the main one I’m highlighting is called Heinrich Events: Sticky Spots and Rising Seas. I actually collaborated with another Master’s student studying Geology at Boston College who is also a young woman from New Orleans. Her name is Danielle Leblanc, and she has been working with me to focus on Heinrich events which were massive discharge episodes of icebergs presumably from North American ice sheets during the last glacial period (or thousands of years ago when climates were similar to today). It was another way of looking at the interconnection and precarity of the world’s assemblage of systems.

And then actually making the piece, I got to experiment with collaging the surface with plastics I’d collected and experimented with, including adhering and sewing vinyls, cellophane, resin, and miscellaneous materials. Its suspension was an exciting jump for me as well, and highlighted that precarity I was suggesting.

SFAI: How did you select your materials?

HSJ: I’d been collecting them for a while, but most of them came from Urban Ore in Berkeley, recycling odd plastics. Plastic is an index of life and death; it’s made from the compressed past lives and deaths of other species. Through plastic’s past, I recognize its ghosts and memorialize their lives as kin through colorful play.

SFAI: How were you feeling when you made the work? What are you trying to convey?

HSJ: When I was making the work, I was very focused on trying to make the piece sturdy enough while still managing its fragility. I spent just as much time, if not more, working on the surface of the painting as the painting itself. I was in a whirlwind at the time of making it, filled with anxieties, but this painting was my meditation in which I could process my frustrations about my own future and the world’s future in a way that let my mind flow and express. In this work, I am trying to convey that even in the face of doom or catastrophe or big change, fostering creative hope and a sense of wonder for the world through play and color is a way of providing a platform to engage in conversations surrounding ecological anxieties.

SFAI: How does this piece relate to your other work?

HSJ: The piece relates to my practice in its entirety, just pushed to be more dimensional and suspended to allow the piece’s shadows to glow. My other work is dealing with similar subject matter, thinking about intricate biotic communities and giving them eyes. This piece has the most obvious eyes out of all of my work, where they usually live a bit more subtly. But this piece has a large eye in an oceanic peak, dripping tears. I use the eyes in all of my work, adding them to nonhumans or entities that would most often not seem like spirits or specters or subjects rather than objects. However, through challenging anthropocentric ideologies, I provide a platform to engage in solidarity with nonhuman entities, locking eyes and connecting the innately connected.

To see Heinrich Events: Sticky Spots and Rising Seas and other works by Hayley, come to her show, Spectral Prisms and Hot Ice, on view this weekend at Younhee Paik’s Studio for Art and Music. For more information click here.

Alumni Spotlight: Shauna Rosenblum

2019-05-20T22:56:00+00:00

Shauna Rosenblum was born and raised in Alameda, CA, which is a small island off the coast of Oakland.

She finished her BFA degree in Ceramics from CCAC in 2006. In 2008 she earned her MFA from SFAI in Sculpture. Now, she is a professional Winemaker, making 12,000 cases of wine annually in the Bay Area at Rock Wall Wine Company, located in Alameda, CA. She considers grapes to be her artistic medium and her wine is her art. Shauna was recently named one of the 10 Top Female Winemakers in California by Haute Living, so we decided to catch up with her and see what she’s up to. Here’s what Shauna had to say!

Hi I’m Shauna, (MFA Sculpture, 2008).

Conceptual art, performance art, ephemeral art, fermentation art, whatever you want to call it, making wine is an art. Making wine is the perfect synthesis of science and art.

Every move I make with the grapes requires a decision. That process of decision making is one of the most powerful parts of this art form. Just like working with clay, I can shape it this way, or I can shape it that way. My underlying philosophy in ceramics has always been that the “clay is going to be whatever it is meant to be. I am the catalyst to help manifest what it should be.” I apply that same philosophy to winemaking and really let the chemistry and the flavors of the fruit guide my decisions to make the best wine possible. And…Who doesn’t love a lil’ scientific data to inform ones art-making processes?!

My Master’s thesis at SFAI explored the concept of women bodies as containers. I made functional ceramic vessels that incorporated women bodies. One piece was titled, “You’re too fat, you’re too thin, cookie jar.” It was a very curvy woman’s body that had her mouth being sewn shut. The opening for the cookie jar was tiny, so one could only grab a cookie if their hands were very thin/small. I also created a two-foot tall functional vase that showed a woman turning from a mermaid to a woman as her tail disappeared, she gained the rest of her female body parts. Her facial expression showed jubilation, but she also donned a fully grown Pinocchio nose indicating that the metamorphosis she was supposed to be thrilled about undergoing was not her true feelings.

I brought the concept of the female as a container into my wine cellar, and I’ve named all of my tanks after women I admire: Oprah, Martha, Lena Dunham, Mindy Kaling and, of course, Beyoncé. I also have a row of tanks bearing the names of my fave fictional heroines; Arya and Sansa, Katniss and Primrose and of course, Gem. I know, “it’s truly, truly, truly outrageous.”

SFAI: What projects have you been working on recently? Is there anything you’re particularly excited about or inspired by at the moment?

Shauna Rosenblum: YES. My art has become far more about observing the world around me and engaging with that observation. This concept really informs the wines I decide to make, and the label copy I create for the back label of each one of my wines. My earlier art was far more about making objects, which came from my craft based undergraduate training.

I love making sparkling wine. Sparkling wine is Champagne, but we call it sparkling wine because it is made outside of Champagne, France. Only sparkling wine made in Champagne France can be called Champagne. I pick these grapes much earlier than the rest of my grapes, to keep the bright acidity intact. The acid in wine is what makes your mouth water when you taste it.

I have also started doing a deep dive into mastering Italian varietals such as Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Fiano, and Teroldego. I study the varietals, the vineyards, the soil, the weather, the growing cycle and the outcome of the fruit as I make it into wine.

Studying the vineyard sites at this level inspired me to write a paper about climate change and the effect on agriculture and the economy. I decided to focus on three different micro-climates: Castro Valley, (in the Bay Area) Lodi and Oakville (a small section of Napa that grows world-class Cabernet Sauvignon) and explore the temperatures and degree days each micro-climate experienced in 1990, 2000, and 2017. What I found is that the climate is definitely shifting. Shocker! Somebody alert the President.

The findings were slightly different than I anticipated, though. Thirty years ago, experts would have said that someone was nuts to grow grapes in the Bay Area, because our climate was too cold.

The ideal climate for Cabernet is hot days and then a diurnal swing to very cool temperatures at night. That creates the best flavors and acidity in wine.

In 2017, Oakville experienced temperatures similar to Lodi in 1990, as in hot days, and nights that didn’t cool off as much. In 2017, Lodi experienced weather patterns similar to Oakville in 1990, which was hot days and very cool nights.

The largest diurnal swing occurred in Castro Valley. In 1990, the weather did not get hot enough during the day for enough days in a row, to grow quality Cabernet Sauvignon. In 2017, Castro Valley had the most ideal climate of the three areas, bearing the most hot days that dropped to very cold nights. I plan to reexamine these criteria for a 2020 data set as well.

One thing I always loved about making ceramic sculptures was at the end, I had created an object. Something to hold, something tangible. When I create a wine, I feel the same sense of enthusiasm which is activated and furthered when I pour the wine for someone and they love it.

SFAI: Where do you find inspiration for your work?

SR: I find inspiration in everything around me. My 4-year old daughter and her observations about the world are definitely a source of inspiration for me. The way she sees the world is so refreshing. We will see an ant crawling on the ground and follow it for as long as we can, observing its movement and trajectory. Nature is a big source of inspiration for me as well. The way the sunlight spills through windows in the ethereal way it does. The way that cloud formations interact in fluidity.

I love being inspired by the mundane. The way my hair collects on the shower wall and reminds me of cubism. The art of fermentation is absolutely fascinating for me.

Being alive is an art. The way the living mourn the dead is an art. We are art. Art is everywhere and art is everything.

SFAI: What is your process for creating your work?

SR: When I am creating a wine, it all starts in the vineyard. I will usually pick the fruit in September, but the process for making that wine starts in March. In March the vines start to come out of dormancy from the winter months. The vines flower and bloom and we start obsessively monitoring the weather for wind and rain which can disrupt the grape vines process by knocking flowers off the vine. We monitor the growth of the grapevine all season long and by July I need to be in all 40+ of the vineyards I work with measuring sugar content. Once I taste the fruit, and run labs on it checking for pH, total acidity and Nitrogen content, I decide when to pick the fruit, if it is physiologically ripe. We pick the fruit at midnight and bring it to the winery in Alameda.

When I add yeast to the grapes or juice, that is the beginning of the transformation. The yeast is alive, and its only desire in life is to eat sugar. The yeast will eat the sugar in the grapes and produce alcohol and CO2. I punch the grapes down multiple times per day. The grapes will change within a single day. At 8 am, they are in a different phase of fermentation than at 8pm.

A complete alcoholic fermentation takes about 14 days.

Depending on the wine, I either put the grapes through the crusher, or I foot stomp them. On a Pinot noir, if I want to make sure the finished wine has spice notes, I will footstep the grapes with the stems still in the bins and begin the fermentation. I taste the fermentation every day and once I have the mouthfeel and flavor profile I want, I will press the wine off of the skins and the stems. Too much stem contact can create a vegetal flavor. Just the right amount of stem intact can create a lovely spice component that can only come from the aforementioned process.

If I am making a Chardonnay, I will put the grapes directly into the press and press the juice out of them. Then I rack the juice down to French and American oak barrels and I inoculate (add yeast) to each single barrel. I put those barrels in a cold space and ferment them “low and slow” at 48 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping the temperature low, slows down the yeast and on a white wine fermentation that pace keeps the fruit qualities and the acid intact. If I fermented them at room temperature, the yeast would get too excited and eat through the sugar like it was is last meal. The result would be a Chardonnay that lacks fruit depth and intricate flavors. It is all art.

SFAI: Are there any opportunities to come and see your space?

SR: I would love for you to come to the winery and come check out the space, the wine and our stunning view of SF.

On June 29^th, we are having an event called Urban Sip. We will be pouring 30+ wines from our portfolio paired with some of our fave Bay Area restaurants. Click the link to see deets: http://www.rockwallwines.com/events

Our Tasting Room is open 7 days a week and so is our restaurant partner Scolari’s. Click the link to check out the website: http://www.rockwallwines.com/Tasting

Faculty + Staff News: May 2019

2019-05-20T20:07:00+00:00

At SFAI, faculty and staff members are artists too! Faculty and staff shows are a great way for students to connect with the wider community of SFAI-affiliated artists across the globe. Here’s a glimpse of what SFAI faculty and staff are up to this month:

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA:

Johnna Arnold — Faculty | Photography

See Johnna Arnold’s work in her solo exhibition at Sarah Shepard Gallery in Larkspur, CA, entitled From Inside This Earth, on view through June 1.

Clark Buckner — Faculty | Liberal Arts

Check out Clark Buckner’s curatorial work at Telematic in If AI Were Cephalopod, featuring 0rphan Drift (Ranu Mukherjee and Maggie Roberts), on view through June 8.

Charles Hobson — Professor Emeritus | Printmaking

See Charles Hobson’s work at the Legion of Honor in Small Inventions: The Artist’s Books of Charles Hobson, on view through July 14.

Frances McCormack — Professor Emeritus | Painting

See Frances McCormack’s work in the group exhibition Sonoma Modern | Contemporary, on view through June 16 at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.

Kal Spelletich — Faculty | Sculpture/Ceramics

Book an appointment to see Kal Spelletich’s work in Molecular Vibrations of the Radiant Body, on view through May 31 at the Recology SF Transfer Station.

Taravat Talepasand — Faculty + Interim Painting Department Chair | Painting

See Taravat Talepasand’s work in the group exhibition EPOCH, on view through May 31 at Gallery 16.

Lindsey White — Faculty + Photography Department Chair | Photography

On view at Casemore Kirkeby through May 26, see Lindsey White’s work in the group exhibition Handless Operative.

Wanxin Zhang — Faculty | Sculpture/Ceramics

See Wanxin Zhang’s work at the Museum of Craft and Design in Wanxin Zhang: The Long Journey through July 14.

CHICAGO, IL:

OTHER FUN STUFF:

Miah Jeffra — Faculty | Liberal Arts

Get your copy of Foglifter—a magazine co-founded by Miah Jeffra and nominated for the Outstanding Literary LGBTQ Anthology at the 31st Annual Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony.

Danielle Lawrence — Faculty | Painting + Drawing

Congratulations to Danielle Lawrence, who was selected for the 2019 Golden Foundation Artists in Residence Program in New Berlin, NY.

IMAGE CREDITS:

(1) Taravat Talepasand, White Div I, II, III (installation view), 2019; featured in the exhibition EPOCH, Gallery 16, San Francisco.

(2) Lindsey White, Man Plow, 2019, Archival pigment; featured in the exhibition Handless Operative at Casemore Kirkeby, San Francisco.

(3) Danielle Lawrence, Crossdresser (Herstory), 2017, Oil, chalk, paint, and paper clay on canvas. © Danielle Lawrence.

MFA Exhibition 2019 Preview #2

2019-05-13T21:50:00+00:00

SFAI’s 2019 MFA Exhibition opens this Friday at SFAI—Fort Mason Campus. Fifty emerging artists will open their studios and transform the campus into a large-scale gallery, theater and performance space full of multi-media installations, sculptures, contemporary art films, paintings, prints, photography, performances, and more.

To give you a sense of what’s in store for visitors, let us introduce you to ten SFAI MFA students who will be exhibiting work May 17–27!

Check out the first preview of student work, and don’t forget to join us to celebrate the opening of the exhibition on May 17th during the public opening, or May 16th at Vernissage for an exclusive VIP Preview!

Ben Barbour

“These pieces are inspired by a seemingly insignificant wooden cog formerly used for the production of steel machinery components utilized in the extraction of china clay. In casting the object using the very material the cog was designed to process (porcelain), and by combining contemporary technologies such as 3D digital printing with traditional slip-casting techniques, a feedback loop is created between product and tool, and between contemporary and historic industrial processes and materials.”

Arthur E. Gies

“My work explores representational figure painting as an act of deliberate seeing and observation, as well as politics in an era of constant photographic bombardment—of concentration and analysis, understanding and acknowledgment. The individuals I paint determine how they present themselves, initiating a collaborative process predicated on humanity and consent based on their conceptions of identity and body. This subverts the traditional artist/subject dichotomy.”

Kate Laster

“My work is about the people we carry with us. There is a cumulative intensity to my work as I explore tenderness and the space between people—the wordless distance and closeness defining relationships. The process of carving reveals the figure, keeping that specific intensity alive. Working either intimately or monumentally, I make work connected to the weight of the past, human migration, and the effervescent exhaustion of romantic love.”

Eliza Phelan-Harder

“I am interested in the intersection of environments. My work looks at the interaction of city, nature, and humans with the utilization of organic life, photography, and sound. As an artist, I feel the responsibility to address subject matter our society tends to neglect, including adverse environmental impacts. Creating an immersive environment, I try to provide a starting point for the viewer to begin contemplating their own landscape and what role they play within it.”

Kathryn Gardner Porter

“My work exists in the spaces between intuition and intellect, childhood hope and adult reality, the archival past and the ephemeral present. I am interested in exploiting and reclaiming historically recognizable and genericized symbols to explore emotions in a higher resolution. Through the investigation of these symbolic borders, boundaries, and metaphors, I hope to provoke internal reflection and intellectual curiosity, not didactic polarization.”

Gautama Ramesh

“I observe societal, cultural, and ecological violence deep within and far outside of commonly acknowledged spheres of consequence. By hybridizing misanthropic fiction, amoral nonlinear narratives, documentary works, and abstract handmade film, I disrupt and disfigure violence as seen within cinema. Set within fractured infrastructures of nonurban spaces, constructed with tools restricted by the socioeconomic status, time, and geography of those portrayed, these films are nonconformist artifacts, created with hardcore punk rebellion and Woody Guthrie anger.”

Sherwin Rio

“Perpetually foreign, fitting neither here nor there—I am hanging on a clothesline between two countries. Working at the intersection of cultural identities, I investigate the ways in which belonging becomes blurred. Domestic objects, items of clothing, and house-construction materials function as sculpture to reference the home space that became my Philippines in America. Using pieces of personal history as departure points, I ask: Can I ever come to know what’s foreign to me?”

Suzanne Russell

“By using clay to make objects that have no practical function and refuse conventional values of skill and beauty, my goal is to make work that negotiates the uncomfortable space of the abject body and gives ceramics a non-craft identity. I am interested in the ways in which clay can elicit and hold the emotional states and marks of the maker and how this energy can inform the meaning of the work.”

Amina Shah

“Translational Mediations. In my art practice, I situate the work within historical contexts—culling from personal history, then from wider social, political, and cultural contexts. Utilizing the history of subjects and mediums with which I work, appropriating images from mass media and from systems of knowledge production, I am questioning both what is included and excluded, what is archived and what remains ephemeral. Translation becomes a tool to dissect divisive rhetoric and a site for discursive intervention.”

Yiling Zeng

“Born and raised in the East, I’ve had a hard time fitting into a distinct culture since I moved to an unfamiliar city in the West. With film and video, I have found a way to inject my nostalgia, insecurity, perplexity, and anxiety into the characters. They act as eyes and feelers for me to investigate both acceptance and rejection between different cultures.”

Don’t forget to join us at SFAI’s Fort Mason Campus next week to see work by these and more brilliant contemporary artists!

MFA Exhibition 2019 Preview #1

2019-05-10T20:04:00+00:00

Next Friday is the 2019 MFA Exhibition at San Francisco Art Institute! Fifty emerging artists will open their studios and transform SFAI—Fort Mason Campus into a large-scale gallery, theater and performance space full of multi-media installations, sculptures, contemporary art films, paintings, prints, photography, performances, and more.

To give you a sense of what’s in store for visitors, let us introduce you to ten SFAI MFA students who will be exhibiting work May 17–27!

Tune in next week for another preview, and don’t forget to join us to celebrate the opening of the exhibition on May 17th during the public opening, or May 16th at Vernissage for an exclusive VIP Preview!

Ans Li

“My paintings and installations contain bright colors as well as materials from childhood. Under a cheerful surface, my work discusses issues that I am concerned about—such as gender inequality and cultural conflict—as a Chinese woman living in the United States. I highlight the importance of interaction and multiple senses, asking the viewer to become a participant in the work by allowing their senses (sight, taste, smell, and touch) to be engaged.”

Anthony Chao

“This work explores the relationship between the splendid beauty of the undeveloped, rural, ancient landscapes and stunning ancient architecture in 安徽 Anhui Province, China, and the brilliant artistic craft that has passed its prime in history.”

Ben Cornish

“My current body of work acts as unsure timelines of mistakes and anomalies. The tensioned narratives that governed my childhood were spoken with a certainty that could only be argued back in a kind storytelling steeped in repentance. I choose to speak in image. Bosch made paintings for the dungeons, I make images for houses that are filled with arguments and quiet anxiousness hidden for oneself from an environment built of allegory and alibi.“

Guiliana Funkhouser

“I’m interested in meeting the Wizard, how about you? My artwork interrogates contemporary mass-media entertainment and “content delivery” platforms that promise instant connection while fragmenting reality in unprecedented ways. By presenting the darkly Babylonian aspects of weaponized narrative and social media interactions through photo and sound art installations, I hope to celebrate the people and places continually pushed to the wayside in the name of technological acceleration, economic expansion, and the siren song of paradise.“

Haley Toyama

“I dedicate my energy to preserving memories of the city I love. I treat my practice as one of the remaining ways to criticize the neo-imperialism of the mainland Chinese government acting under the guise of British postcolonialism in Hong Kong.“

John James Hartford V

“Through a destructive process, exhumed works are constructed of both collected material and found objects that resonate with personal traumas, memories, or appeal to the aestheticized destroyed object. My work guides the viewer’s attention to the visual object’s (or icon’s) sediments of time and decay—in what I’ve come to describe as “post-opulence”—and aims to reveal the contemporary mimesis of twice-removed truths surrounding greater bloom and decay.“

Joshua Mintz

“Through the act of stitching fractured, yet interdependent, moments in time, my work explores themes of memory and the displacement of the human psyche experienced through the wonted events of ordinary life. Sculptural and illustrative, the miniature environment, combined with the imitative inclusion of banal objects, becomes a door to the uncanny. These cross sections, extracted from a complex story line, present the viewer with ignored moments of everyday life, frozen to invite stillness and contemplation.“

Katie Curry

“These works are subject to the liminal: a convergence of opposites where line becomes form, where the two-dimensional verges on the sculptural, where desire and conscious thought intersect. Forms give way to recognizable imagery in the guise of domestic goods and desert landscapes, often flirting with the figurative.“

Leigh Daniels

“Using non-archival and semi-photographic processes, time and human interaction encourage inevitable destruction. I create camera-less exposures, using both light-sensitive and natural materials such as cyanotype and turmeric or beets and sun. Welcoming the materials to flow freely, I remove myself and enable the moment I have created to live and decay naturally. I strive to bring visibility and beauty to what society and the art world deem easy to dismiss.“

Sami Cutrona

“Often revealing the subject through fragments, I am interested in the ability to maintain agency through abstraction. I utilize photo-based works as a means of reclaiming bodily autonomy and disrupting the ways in which power and meaning have been inscribed on my queer abject body. While considering the art historical canon, I seek to reject its traditions. I do not directly allude to my identity—allowing room for gender ambiguity and, ultimately, agency.“

Don’t forget to join us at SFAI’s Fort Mason Campus next week to see work by these and more brilliant contemporary artists!

Student Spotlight: Yan Shao

2019-04-24T20:44:00+00:00

“I believe poetry is a human instinct. I adopt a poetic susceptibility to the passage of time. Though time is eternal, we feel it unexpectedly. It comes towards us, sticks us in the whole or flickers like an illusion. I love the time that is subtle, elusive, fragile, ephemeral, and frequently romantic. Time is the connection between my life and life itself, leading me to wander between permanence and impermanence, existence and nihility.”

Moments Series

“In Moments, I seek to record sparkling moments in daily life. I stage scenes to exaggerate a sense of intimacy and emotion and evoke the balance between ecstasy and calm: like when you were a child, asleep in the afternoon with the sun slanted through the window. I want instant beauty to introduce people to the immense possibilities both in the memory and in the future, and meditative tranquility from the awareness of being.”

Silence In Between Series

“Silence in Between is a body of work I made more intuitively. I arouse myself to a sensible mind and spend considerable time observing my everyday life in a floating condition. These works reflect my states of being when I am photographing, and the poetic murmurs the world contains. These mundane and sentimental perspectives privilege the audience to immerse themselves in the same state and perceive infinite time extension.”

About Yan Shao:

1. Program/Year: MFA, 2020

2. Hometown: Zhengjiang province, China

3. IG: @syan_pomelo

4. Website: shaoyan.art

Faculty + Staff News: April 2019

2019-04-19T21:05:00+00:00

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA:

Johnna Arnold — Faculty | Photography

Illustrious bookmaker Rhiannon Alpers will be showing work at Long Live the Book! Contemporary Bookbinding as Art and Craft through May 4 at the American Bookbinders Museum.

See Johnna Arnold’s work in her solo exhibition at Sarah Shepard Gallery in Larkspur, CA, entitled From Inside This Earth, on view through June 1.

Clark Buckner — Faculty | Sculpture + MFA Programs

Check out Clark’s curatorial work at Telematic in Thundercoat (Film/Exhibition by Bonanza LLC), on view through April 27.

Charles Hobson — Professor Emeritus | Printmaking

See SFAI Professor Emeritus Charles Hobson’s work on view at the Legion of Honor in Small Inventions: The Artist’s Books of Charles Hobson. The exhibition will run through July 14.

Frances McCormack — Faculty | Painting

See Introspections, the series of five short videos satirizing key moments in the history of American TV and social media curated by video and performance artist Mads Lynnerup, through May 4 at the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts.

See Frances McCormack’s work in the group exhibition Sonoma Modern | Contemporary, on view through June 16 at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.

You can see Taravat’s work on view at Gallery 16 in EPOCH, on view through May 31.

Lindsey White — Faculty | Photography

See Wanxin Zhang’s work at the Museum of Craft and Design in Wanxin Zhang: The Long Journey through July 14.

On view at Casemore Kirkeby through May 26, see Lindsey White’s work in the group exhibition Handless Operative.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ:

Maria Elena González — Faculty | Sculpture + New Genres

See Mads Lynnerup’s work in Now Playing: Video 1999–2019, on view at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art through May 12.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN:

John Roloff — Faculty | Sculpture

View John Roloff’s work in Two Sites with a Similar Problem: Neil Forrest and John Roloff, on view through May 6 at the Architecture Library at the University of Minnesota.

PORTLAND, ME:

If you’re in Portland, check out Maria Elena González’s work in Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, on view at the Portland Museum of Art through May 5.

OTHER FUN STUFF:

Miah Jeffra — Faculty | Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts faculty Miah Jeffra published a piece entitled “Babies” for the Spring 2019 Issue of The North American Review. Also, his magazine Foglifter was nominated for Outstanding Literary Anthology during the 31st Annual Lambda Literary Awards.

IMAGES:

(1) Dewey Crumpler, A Celebration of Black and Tan Fantasy mural, 1984; 762 Fulton Street (at Webster Street), San Francisco, CA. Photo by Jonathan Curiel.

(2) Johnna Arnold, 1996 Subaru Legacy #05, 2018, unique chromogenic print, 25 x 30 in.

SFAI News: 2019 Commencement Honorees

2019-04-16T16:15:00+00:00

SFAI is proud to announce its 2019 Commencement Honorees. Building on the remarkable exhibition Vanguard Revisited: Poetic Politics & Black Futures, the school will celebrate the unshakable human commitment of three extraordinary social activists:

Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts– Emory Douglas, artist and Black Panther Party Minister of Culture
Douglas G. MacAgy Distinguished Achievement Award– Ericka Huggins and Barbara Easley-Cox, Black Panther Party leaders, human rights activists, and educators

Each honoree will deliver remarks during the 2019 Commencement Ceremony on May 18.

Says President Gordon Knox: “It will be with a sense of profound honor that we celebrate our 2019 graduates with these exemplary leaders of social change and community empowerment. Emory Douglas, Ericka Huggins, and Barbara Easley-Cox are inspiring models for our brilliant graduating class!”

ABOUT THE HONOREES

Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts

The Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts is the highest honor bestowed at SFAI, given annually to a person who has made inspiring contributions to our society and demonstrated how an aesthetically astute, investigative mind can impact the world for the better.

Emory Douglas is a master of using art to communicate ideas, and created some of the most iconic social justice images of the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has been a resident of the Bay Area since 1951. Douglas served as the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the party disbanded in the early 1980s. During this time he was the art director overseeing the design and layout of the Black Panther, the Party’s weekly newspaper, where he was noted for his political drawings and cartoons. Douglas is currently featured in the landmark traveling exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which has been presented at Tate Modern, London; the Brooklyn Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; and The Broad, Los Angeles, and will be opening at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in Fall 2019. Other exhibitions include Black Panther Rank and File at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas at the MOCA Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles; Emory Douglas: Black Panther at the New Museum, New York; and Emory Douglas: Bold Visual Language at LACE in Los Angeles. He is the subject of the book Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas (Rizzoli, 2007). In 2015 he received the AIGA Medal, a prestigious award given to individuals in recognition of their exceptional achievements, services or other contributions to the field of design and visual communication. Douglas continues to dedicate his artwork to social justice.

Prior honorees include Kehinde Wiley, Enrique Chagoya, Linda Nochlin, Theaster Gates, Jack Whitten, Kathryn Bigelow, Roberta Smith, and David Goldblatt.

Douglas G. MacAgy Distinguished Achievement Award

Established at SFAI in 1996, the MacAgy Award is bestowed on a person or organization that has made a singularly compelling contribution to the Bay Area, especially concerning the public awareness of issues and ideas through the visual arts.

Ericka Huggins is a human rights activist, poet, educator, Black Panther Party leader and former political prisoner. Her life experiences have enabled her to speak personally and honestly on issues relating to the physical and emotional well-being of women, children and youth, whole being education, the incarceration of men, women, and youth of color, and the role of spiritual practice in sustaining activism and promoting social change. From 1973–1981, Ericka was the Director of the Oakland Community School, the groundbreaking community-run child development center and elementary school founded by the Black Panther Party. During those years, with community support, she became both the first woman and the first Black person to be appointed to the Alameda County Board of Education, which serves children with cognitive, emotional and physical disabilities, and incarcerated youth in all of the school districts of Alameda County. From 2003-2011 she was a professor of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University and California State University, East Bay. From 2008-2015 she was a professor of Sociology and African American Studies in the Peralta Community College District. Currently, Ericka is one of the facilitators with World Trust, an organization that uses films that document, through story, the impact of systems of racial inequity.

Barbara Easley-Cox is a civil rights activist, teacher, and advocate for literacy. She joined the Black Panthers Party in 1967, led the San Francisco branch with her husband and later worked in the New York and Philadelphia chapters. She participated in the Free Breakfast for Children Program, collected apparel for the Free Clothing Program, and aided in other survival programs hosted by the Party. Easley-Cox traveled around the world, spreading chapters and involvement of the Black Panther Party to Algeria and Germany alongside well known Panther Kathleen Cleaver. She continues working as an advocate for community development, poverty, and social justice.

Prior honorees are Mildred Howard, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, René Yañez, Rebecca Solnit, Paul Sack, Ruth Braunstein, David Robinson, Marion Greene, Paule Anglim, San Francisco Cinematheque, Kitty Carlisle Hart, The Names Project, the Guerrilla Girls, SFMOMA, and Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

Alumni Spotlight: Steven Vasquez Lopez

2019-04-15T20:55:00+00:00

Steven Vasquez Lopez (MFA Painting, 2007) is a Bay Area-based artist whose work explores the flaws and imperfections of human experience through meticulously hand-drawn ink on paper.

A recent Facebook Artist-in-Residence and winner of the USA Absolut Vodka Creative Competition, we decided to catch up with Steven and see what he’s been up to!

SFAI: What projects have you been working on recently? Anything you’re particularly excited about?

Steven Vasquez Lopez: 2018 was a big year for me. I was chosen as a Facebook Artist-In-Resident. Facebook invited me to curate a 42 ft wall installation at the Menlo Park campus in Occulus Building 18. Since I hand draw individual threads one at a time, it was both exciting and daunting to work on a large-scale installation. In collaboration with the FB AIR curator, we created a colorful patterned vinyl wall print to cover the entire 42 ft wall area. Then, I spent over 300 studio hours to complete a 21 ft drawing that was then installed on top of that wall covering. This is the largest drawing I’ve completed to date, and I expect to challenge myself to go even bigger. The project was completed in December 2018.

Over 7500 artists submitted artwork for the competition. There are 19 countries represented and they plan to announce the global winner in May 2019. One of the jurors is Mickalene Thomas, who is a huge influence on me as an artist. The idea that she’s checked out my work is pretty wild for me. Also, the chance at having my original artwork reach a global audience in a massive campaign is major- that would be exciting!

SFAI: Where do you find inspiration for your work?

SVL: The first things that come to mind are architecture, men’s fashion, drag, nature, multiculturalism, family, and humor. I’m inspired by relationships we have with objects, each other and the relationship we have with ourselves.

But probably, my natural obsession to organize is the real constant place of inspiration for me in my work. I crave clearing cluttered physical and mental spaces to find clarity. I’m a natural minimalist and get overwhelmed by messy places. I work out of my small SF studio apartment, so there isn’t room to have lots of “stuff”. Everything I own has a clear function and placement. Also, aside from a few plants and a red Mexican serape, everything in my place is white (or off-white). The only color you will find is from my drawings. This keeps me focused and intentional about each line I draw.

SFAI: What is your process for creating your work?

SVL: My work is hand drawn with Micron pens on Bristol Illustration paper. Most people think these are digitally produced until they see them in person or actually read the descriptions. I use a straight edge but no computer or printers. Each “thread” is hand drawn in ink one at a time. It’s a very laborious and meditative process. I work on a drafting table and can sit for 4-8 hours in a session. I do lots of experimenting with ideas, techniques and formal compositions on small works (about 11" x 14") before I plan out larger works (36" x 42" or larger). The scrolls that are 42" wide and up to 21 feet long take more planning. I usually calendar out the studio time it will take me to complete these large works. I know exactly how many hours and days it will take me because I know how long it takes me to complete each square foot of drawing. However, the plaid color patterns in the work are more intuitive and not planned out.

SFAI: What are you working on now?

SVL: Since graduating from SFAI (MFA 2007), many of my colleagues have left San Francisco. It’s so challenging as an artist to financially support yourself, pay off student loans, balance a social life, motivate the studio hustle and remain inspired. I’m very thankful for every opportunity that has come my way. I’m very structured and disciplined when it comes to my studio practice. I do my best to stay organized, grounded and present- every day.

Currently, in the studio, I’m experimenting with more large wall installation ideas that combine original drawings with wall coverings. I’ve recently introduced the arch or curve into my compositions and shapes while maintaining my plaid patterns. There is something playful and emotional about roundness.

A few years ago, I did a series called “patches” that introduced amoeba-like shapes supporting one another. It was a playful departure from my more serious works. But the series was purchased by a New York collector before I ever had a chance to exhibit the drawings. So, I’ve decided this would be a good time to re-enter those ideas. There is lots of roundness in that imagery and I’m having a lot of fun.

I’m playing with “pears” and “pairs”. These pears/pairs are self-reflective, have the possibility of being partners and are genuine food for thought. I hope this work is fruitful, ha!

Keep up with Steven online! @stevenvasquezlopez // www.stevenvlopez.com

Student Spotlight: Eleanor Schnarr

2019-03-20T20:43:00+00:00

Eleanor’s visionary paintings take advantage of the unique properties of oil paint on paper to create a psychedelic dimensionality which blends together the image making traditions of oil and aqueous media with the aesthetic of stained glass.

Drawing inspiration from her own multimodal synesthesia, Swedenborgian philosophy and contemporary Neuroscience, Eleanor’s practice centers around the concept of 'Cerebral Proprioception’.

She is working to create new modalities to visualize the connectomics of the human brain from subjective observation.

About Eleanor Schnarr:

1. Program/Year: MFA Painting, 2019

2. From: Pennsylvania

3. Website: EleanorSchnarr.com

4. IG: @eleanorschnarrtist

Faculty + Staff News: March 2019

2019-03-15T17:09:00+00:00

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA:

Clark Buckner — Faculty | Sculpture + MFA Programs

Illustrious bookmaker Rhiannon Alpers will be showing work at Long Live the Book! Contemporary Bookbinding as Art and Craft through May 4 at the American Bookbinders Museum.

Check out Clark’s curatorial work at Telematic in Black Cherry Locusts with Sterile Fudge Swirl (Porpetine Charity Heartscape), on view through March 23.

Art Hazelwood — Faculty | Printmaking

See the work of San Francisco Poster Syndicate! Silkscreen political posters by more than 30 local artists-activists at the Immigration Emergency: In Defense and Defiance Exhibition through April 21 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

Charles Hobson — Professor Emeritus | Printmaking

See SFAI Professor Emeritus Charles Hobson’s work on view at the Legion of Honor in Small Inventions: The Artist’s Books of Charles Hobson. The exhibition will run through July 14.

Kerry Laitala — Faculty | Film

Experimental video artist Kerry Laitala will be showing her work at the Ambient Dew Point Group Exhibition, on view through April 5, at the Art Ark Gallery, San Jose. Performances on March 22, from 7pm to 9pm.

You can see Taravat’s work on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts alongside the work of SFAI alumni as part of Bay Area Now 8 (Survey Exhibition), on view through March 24.

Jordan Reznick — Faculty | Photography

See Wanxin Zhang’s work in Richard Shaw and Wanxin Zhang, on view at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art from January 19–April 7. You can also see Wanxin Zhang’s work at the Museum of Craft and Design in Wanxin Zhang: The Long Journey through July 14.

On view at the Hubbell Street Galleries, through March 22, see Transecologies, the collaborative exhibition that brings together the work of three transgender artists — Craig Calderwood, Nicki Green and Jordan Reznick — with trans scholar Mat Fournier, and traverses themes related to transecologies.

PALM DESERT, CA:

Cristóbal Martínez — Instructor | Art & Technology Department Chair

If you’re in Southern California, check out the Postcommodity: It Exists in Many Forms, on view through April 21, at Miles C. Bates House in Palm Desert.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ:

See Mads Lynnerup’s work in Now Playing: Video 1999–2019, on view at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art through May 12.

LEWISTON, ME:

Maria Elena González — Faculty | Sculpture + New Genres

View Timothy Berry’s work in Anthropocenic: Art about the Natural World in the Human Era (Group Exhibition), on view at Bates College Museum of Art through March 23.

PORTLAND, ME:

If you’re in Portland, check out Maria Elena González’s work in Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, on view at the Portland Museum of Art through May 5.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK:

Robin Balliger — Associate Professor | Liberal Arts Department Chair

If you find yourself in Denmark this month, see Mads Lynnerup’s work in the FOKUS 2019 festival, on view at Nikolaj Kunsthal and at various institutions throughout the Copenhagen Cultural District through March 31.

HALLE, GERMANY:

Robin Balliger will be holding a presentation on: “Painting Over Precarity: Community Public Art and the Optics of Dispossession, Gentrification, and Governance in West Oakland, CA” @ Urban Precarity Workshop. March 27 through 29, at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.

OTHER FUN STUFF:

Miah Jeffra — Faculty | Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts faculty Miah Jeffra published a piece entitled “Babies” for the Spring 2019 Issue of The North American Review.

IMAGES:

(1) Web Image for Postcommodity’s It Exists in Many Forms exhibition, Palm Desert, 2019.

(2) Nicki Green, Morel Figure with Prosthesis, 2017. Glazed earthenware and felt. 37" x 22" x 21". Web image for Transecologies exhibition, San Francisco, 2019.

(3) Timothy Berry, Black Rhinoceros, 2015, oil, aspahaltum, inkjet and acrylic pigment on Arches Heavyweight paper, 36 x 32 inches.

Alumni Spotlight: Michael Robert Polland

2019-03-15T16:42:00+00:00

Michael Robert Pollard was born in Queens, New York in 1970, raised in New York City, Tucson, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Pollard has resided in Chicago since 2004. Pollard attended the San Francisco Art Institute and graduated in 1997 with a BFA in Painting and Drawing. Chicago Magazine (March 2019) calls Pollard’s delirious imagery inspired by comic books, Americana and rock music a welcome deviation from the self-seriousness and pretentiousness of many contemporary exhibitions.

Michael Robert Pollard, Kettle of Issues, 2016. Mixed media on a found object.

Pollard’s work has been shown across the United States, partnering with Gallery Side Car, Ignition Projects, Free Range, Center for Contemporary Arts Sacramento, Third Coast Comics, Roman Susan, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vuseuvios, South Side Suburban College, Mess Hall, Community College of Rhode Island, Sierra College, and many others. For more information, please visit michaelrobertpollard.net.

Michael Robert Pollard, News of the days, 2019. Acrylic on Panel.

What’s new for Michael Robert Pollard?

Through March 30, Michael has a solo exhibition up in Chicago at Roman Susan Art Foundation entitled A Dreamer of Pictures. If you’re in the area, he’ll be speaking at an artist talk on March 24, 2019 at 5pm. He’ll also be showing work in Michael Robert Pollard: Whose on First? at Ignition Project Space in Chicago from June 1 - 29, 2019. The show will hold an opening reception on Saturday, June 1, 6-9pm.

Michael Robert Pollard, Assorted Milk Containers, Exhibition shot from A Dreamer of Pictures, 2019. Acrylic, marker, mixed media on found objects.

Michael Robert Pollard, Back in Black, 2018. Acrylic on Canvas

Learn more + Follow Michael:

Online: michaelrobertpollard.net/home.html

On Instagram: @mallardrocks2112

Student Spotlight: Colleen Donovan

2019-03-13T20:27:00+00:00

“Overall, my work is concerned with the tensions between existing as a free agent while also being contained by the gaze. I’m specifically interested in how we assign meaning through a spectacle that is inherently skewed due to its mode of production.”

Colleen Donovan, Their Bits series, 120 MM BW Film // Digital Composites // Silk Screened on Plexi Glass // 17" x 24" // 2018

“The choice of photography and video stems from a conflicting relationship, but also serves as an apparent material when interrogating visual perception and how that both limits and informs understanding the impermanent world.”

Colleen Donovan, Still from Some Form of Spring Awakening, 16MM and Super 8; Silent // 04:38 // 2018

“Ultimately, my focus is directed towards the implications that coincide with being confined by a limited perspective and how that is mirrored through human interaction with lens-based tools.”

Colleen Donovan, Tethered Synchrony installation, 2018.

“Although each individual project carries specific intentions, an important thread is to emphasize (through formal decisions) the stark differences between what was being perceived and how it is then projected. My subject matter consists of the commonplace spaces I move through, my own body, and those whom I share intimate relationships with through mutual collaboration.”

Poloroid of Colleen’s studio.

About Colleen Donovan:

1. Program/Year: MFA, 2020

2. Hometown: Auburn, ME

3. IG: @c_leener

4. Website: colleenmariedonovan.com

Featured Image: Colleen Donovan, An Attempted Sketch installation, Super 8, GoPro, Sony Panasonic, Iphone // 4 CRTs // My Body // 4:19 Synchronized Loop // 2018

Student Spotlight: Yvette Jessica Marthell

2019-02-27T19:28:00+00:00

“Through the medium of photography and video installation, my work seeks to explore the remnants of the visual dialogue our human self. My work is intimate, personal, and deeply connected with my subjects.”

“Through cryptic narration, I touch on critical and universal conversations on the battles of love, obsession, grief, feminism, and queer identity.”

About Yvette Jessica Marthell:

1. Program/Year:Low Residency MFA, 2019

2. Hometown: Long Beach, CA

3. IG: @yvettejessica_

4. Website: yvettejessica.com

Student Spotlight: David S Boo

2019-02-20T21:27:00+00:00

David S. Boo (MFA Studio Art with a concentration in Film, 2019) is the creator of a series of short films that belong to a genre mashup of Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Black Comedy.

Recent films (created at SFAI) include:

Sleep and Death

Stills from Sleep and Death, Color, Digital & Mini DV, 18m 51s, 2018

The Market Between Us (Official Selection for Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)

Stills from The Market Between Us, Digital, 19m 01s, 2018

Zalichuthna, Not Mr. Zalichuthna (In Progress)

Stills from Zalichuthna, Not Mr.Zalichuthna, Digital, work in progress, 2019

About David S. Boo:

1. Program/Year: MFA Studio Art, Film, 2019

2. Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia / Seoul, South Korea

3. Website: facebook.com/TMBU2018

*Header image/behind-the-scenes photography by Leigh Daniels (MFA Studio Art, Photography)

Alumni Spotlight: Marco David Castaneda

2019-02-19T18:58:00+00:00

Marco David Castaneda (BFA 2018) graduated from SFAI in December and hit the ground running. Soon after graduating, he gave a talk at the Apple Store in Union Square as part of the “Today At Apple” series, which aims to create a town-square style lecture series where emerging artists and musicians can connect, share ideas, and collaborate.

After hearing about his presentation, titled “Photo Lab: Distorted Perspective,” we caught up with Marco to see what else he’s been up to:

“I landed a couple of pretty fun jobs when I graduated. Sort of just real-world things I was doing while I was at SFAI. I am working in the arts and its really opening up a lot of opportunities for me to wear multiple hats. I am able to get experience and training in some pretty valuable skills, like writing proposals for grants and building 3-D models.”

For example, Marco recently created a Window Activation for Adidas, and showed work in Way Bay Now, 2018 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive:

Adidas Originals Window Activation 2018

Way Bay Now display featuring Marco’s work, New Home (With You) outside BAMPFA, 2018.

“My work explores the validation of the placeholder, consumer culture/it’s affect, and the production of secrets and their epicenters.”

Marco Castaneda, Delivered in Two Days or Less

Marco Castaneda, It Begins With A Whisper, 2018.

Marco Castaneda, How The Hell Are Ya, Guy?

You can see more of Marco’s work on his website: https://www.marcodavidcastaneda.com/

Faculty + Staff News: February 2019

2019-02-18T23:22:00+00:00

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA:

Clark Buckner — Faculty | Sculpture + MFA Programs

Illustrious bookmaker Rhiannon Alpers will be showing work at Long Live the Book! Contemporary Bookbinding as Art and Craft through May 4 at the American Bookbinders Museum.

Check out Clark’s curatorial work at Telematic in Black Cherry Locusts with Sterile Fudge Swirl (Porpetine Charity Heartscape), on view through March 16.

Maria Elena González — Faculty | Sculpture + New Genres

On view at Mills College Art Museum in Oakland January 23–March 17, see the culmination of ten year’s of Maria Elena González’s work in the solo exhibition Tree Talk.

Charles Hobson — Professor Emeritus | Printmaking

See SFAI Professor Emeritus Charles Hobson’s work on view at the Legion of Honor in Small Inventions: The Artist’s Books of Charles Hobson. The exhibition will run through June 30.

Cait Petersen (MFA 2016)—Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions +Kat Trataris (MFA 2016)—Manager of Exhibitions, Public Programs & Partnerships

Come see the work of SFAI alumni-turned-staff in Incline Gallery’s group exhibition, The UnMonumental, on view January 25th–March 1st.

You can see Taravat’s work on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts alongside the work of SFAI alumni as part of Bay Area Now 8 (Survey Exhibition), on view through March.

See Wanxin Zhang’s work in Richard Shaw and Wanxin Zhang, on view at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art from January 19–April 7.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ:

See Mads Lynnerup’s work in Now Playing: Video 1999–2019, on view at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary art through May 19.

SAN DIEGO, CA:

Whitney Lynn — Faculty | New Genres

If you find yourself in the San Diego International Airport, be sure to look for Whitney Lynn’s Not Seeing Is A Flower, on view through March, 2019.

LEWISTON, ME:

Maria Elena González — Faculty | Sculpture + New Genres

View Timothy Berry’s work in Anthropocenic: Art about the Natural World in the Human Era (Group Exhibition), on view at Bates College Museum of Art through March 23.

PORTLAND, OR:

If you’re in Portland, check out Maria Elena González’s work in Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, on view at the Portland Museum of Art through May 5.

FORT COLLINS, CO:

J. John Priola — Director | Low-Residency MFA Program

From January 31 to February 23, you can catch J. John Priola’s work on view at The Center for Fine Art Photography in the group exhibition, Contemporary Portraiture.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK:

Mads Lynnerup — Faculty | New Genres

If you find yourself in Denmark this winter, see Mads Lynnerup’s work in the FOKUS 2019 festival, on view at Nikolaj Kunsthal and at various institutions throughout the Copenhagen Cultural District through March 31.

IMAGES:

1. Whitney Lynn, Not Seeing is a Flower, 2019. Installation at the San Diego International Airport.

2. Cait Peterson, work on view in The UnMonumental exhibition at Incline Gallery, 2019.

Student Spotlight: T Shell

2019-02-13T17:46:00+00:00

“Utilizing sculpture, sound, video and performance I am creating ‘visual manifestations of emotional pain and trauma.’”

“In making past and current memories live within three-dimensional and immersive spaces I am making what typically is invisible within Western society visible. These installations confront the viewer with their very existence and raw realities.”

“The layering of traditionally gendered and unconventional uses of recognizable materials becomes the catalyst for creating abject works that cause both intrigue and repulsion.”

About T. Shell:

1. Program/Year: MA History + Theory of Contemporary Art / MFA Studio Art Dual Degree, 2020

2. Hometown: Michigan

3. Website: tshellart.com

4. IG: @t_shellarts

Student Spotlight: Christopher Williams

2019-02-06T20:35:00+00:00

“I love painting people…”

Lift every voice and sing, oil on canvas, 24x20

“No matter where they’re from—gender, nationality or background, we are all beautiful!”

Send in the Clown, Oil on canvas, 20x20

A.t.L.a.S, Giant Steps. 65x72, Oil on Canvas.

African Gothic Oil Painting 60x36

About Christopher Williams:

1. Program/Year:MFA Studio Art, 2020

2. Hometown: Sacramento, California

3. Website: theblackdavinci.com

4. IG: @theblackdavinci

Faculty + Staff News: January 2019

2019-01-04T19:19:00+00:00

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA:

Clark Buckner — Faculty | Sculpture + MFA Programs

Check out Clark’s curatorial work at Telematic in “Eternal Boy Playground.” The experimental media art by the Anxious to Make art collective will be on view through February 2.

Maria Elena González — Faculty | Sculpture + New Genres

On view at Mills College Art Museum in Oakland January 23–March 17, see the culmination of ten year’s of Maria Elena González’s work in the solo exhibition Tree Talk.

Cait Petersen (MFA 2016)—Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions + Kat Trataris (MFA 2016)—Manager of Exhibitions, Public Programs & Partnerships

Come see the work of SFAI alumni-turned-staff in Incline Gallery’s group exhibition, The UnMonumental, on view January 25th–March 1st.

You can see Taravat’s work in the 2019 Untitled Art Fair the weekend of January 18–20, or on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts alongside the work of SFAI alumni as part of Bay Area Now 8 (Survey Exhibition), on view through March.

See Wanxin Zhang’s work in Richard Shaw and Wanxin Zhang, on view at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art from January 19–April 7. If you’re in the south bay, look for Wanxin Zhang’s work on view at Santa Clara University through January 11 in Richard Shaw and Wanxin Zhang: Cultural Conversations in Bay Area Clay.

SAN DIEGO, CA:

Whitney Lynn — Faculty | New Genres

If you find yourself in the San Diego International Airport, be sure to look for Whitney Lynn’s Not Seeing Is A Flower, on view through March, 2019.

LEWISTON, ME:

Maria Elena González — Faculty | Sculpture + New Genres

View Timothy Berry’s work in Anthropocenic: Art about the Natural World in the Human Era (Group Exhibition), on view at Bates College Museum of Art through March 23.

MIAMI, FL:

If you’re in Miami, check out Maria Elena González’s work in Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, on view at Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum through January 13.

FORT COLLINS, CO:

J. John Priola — Director | Low-Residency MFA Program

From January 31 to February 23, you can catch J. John Priola’s work on view at The Center for Fine Art Photography in the group exhibition, Contemporary Portraiture.

BERLIN, GERMANY:

Tony Labat — Director | MFA Program

Through January 15, stop by Studio im Hochhaus in Berlin, Germany to see Tony Labat’s work in Radikal Amerika.

HAVANA, CUBA:

Tony Labat — Director | MFA Program

If you can’t make it to Germany but find yourself in Cuba between December 15 and January 19, swing by Figueroa-Vives Estudio in the Embassy of Norway to see Tony Labat’s work in Hialeah Still Life.

IMAGES:

1. Wanxin Zhang, Unbelievable Promise, 2014.

2. GIF: (1) Wanxin Zhang, Unbelievable Promise, 2014; (2) Maria Elena Gonzålez, Bark Framed #5, 2012; (3) © J. John Priola, Bruce Conner Hands #4, 2016. 2. FOG Design + Art Fair, 2019. 3. Irene Pijoan, Cutting From A Gradual (detail).

Alumni Spotlight: Alicia McCarthy + 7th Street Mural Project

2018-11-20T19:09:00+00:00

“It’s definitely the biggest thing any of us has ever painted.”

Caleb Hughes leaned back and stared up at the 8 story wall overlooking Civic Center BART station on Market and 7th street. He’d taken a short break back on the ground between sets of painting on a team of four, high above the ground. The mural, a nearly hundred foot by hundred foot color weave, was planned and conceived by the renowned mission school artist and SFAI alum, Alicia McCarthy.

The project was made possible by The Luggage Store Gallery co-founder/director/curator Darryl Smith, who found the wall and helped the artists secure funding from the Sara & Evan Williams Foundation and the San Francisco Mayor’s Office. The Luggage Store has been instrumental in many of the major murals around the central Market Street area, facilitating projects by securing funding, finding walls and getting permission from the city since 1991. “It’s really about building a sense of community around art,” says Smith, a San Francisco native and long-time champion of Bay Area artists.

Like Alicia, Darryl Smith also spent time at SFAI in his early career. He enrolled in 1983 and left in 1985 to found The Luggage Store. “It’s a family affair,” McCarthy laughed, on the phone with Smith, “in the most platonic way possible."

In fact, three of the four artists working on the mural when I dropped by on Tuesday were in some way affiliated with SFAI. When I arrived, Oliver Hawk Holden answered my phone call from almost 100 feet off the ground, where he was finishing a section of the color weave with fellow artist Kieran Swan. A multi-disciplinary artist who has shown work in galleries across San Francisco and Oakland and developed murals in cities across America, Oliver Hawk Holden graduated from SFAI in 2016.

"Actually, I met Caleb through a friend at the Institute,” Alicia McCarthy explained. “He lived on her floor or something. He was maybe twelve or thirteen.”

Now that the team is all together, they have a huge task. The mural on 7th street is a tremendous undertaking, requiring two giant lifts, gallons of paint, and lots of logistical considerations. Fortunately, Alicia and her team were able to find the center of the giant wall almost exactly just by looking at it, and they’ve worked out a system to sync up their lines and painting times to get the project done quickly. From the street, the mural looks like a perfectly clean, woven tapestry of color, but up close you can still see the grit and effort that went into creating the image at such a scale.

In the end, the weave will be visible from around the city, representing a visual testament to the community and teamwork of San Francisco artists.

If you’re an artist interested in getting involved with The Luggage Store Gallery projects, reach out to Darryl Smith at darryl@luggagestoregallery.org.

Faculty + Staff News: November 2018

2018-11-19T20:26:00+00:00

Exhibitions

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA:

Zeina Barakeh — Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs

See Zeina’s 2018 short film, Slam Bang Blue, at the New People Cinema December 2. This screening is part of the 2018 Another Hole In the Head Film Festival, which will feature several SFAI students, faculty and alumni.

Chris Bell — Faculty | Sculpture + MFA Programs

Check out Chris Bell’s work in Light Geometries: New Works, on view through December 22 at 871 Fine Arts.

Clark Buckner — Faculty | Liberal Arts + MA Program

Check out Clark Buckner’s curatorial skills in Kate Rhodes: Calfskin (Curated by Clark Buckner), on view at Telematic through December 1.

Christopher Coppola — Chair | Film

Join Christopher Coppola in person at the screening of the 1993 crime drama he directed, DEADFALL, during the “Eddie King Double Feature Night” at New People Cinema. The screening is part of the 2018 Another Hole In the Head Film Festival, which will feature several SFAI students, faculty and alumni.

Kate Rhoades — Faculty | New Genres

See Kate’s work in her solo exhibition, Kate Rhodes: Calfskin (Curated by Clark Buckner), on view at Telematic through December 1.

You can see Taravat’s work on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts alongside the work of SFAI alumni as part of Bay Area Now 8 (Survey Exhibition), on view through March.

See Wanxin Zhang’s work in the 40x40 exhibition through December 9 at the Sonoma State University Art Gallery in Rohnert Park, CA. If you’re in the south bay, look for Wanxin Zhang’s work on view at Santa Clara University through January 11 in Richard Shaw and Wanxin Zhang: Cultural Conversations in Bay Area Clay.

SAN DIEGO, CA:

Whitney Lynn — Faculty | New Genres

If you find yourself in the San Diego International Airport, be sure to look for Whitney Lynn’s Not Seeing Is A Flower, on view through March, 2019.

LEWISTON, ME: