Studio Art (ART-GE)

Survey a broad spectrum of visual art resources through guided lecture-tour visits to current exhibitions at leading museums, galleries and alternative art spaces located throughout New York City. Onsite meetings with art administrators affiliated with various organizations shed light on a wide range of career and management issues pertaining to the field and add to an understanding of the development and continued growth of New York's exciting art world.

Individual positions with major artists, notable museums, distinguished galleries, art publishers, & art organizations.

This course explores different ways artists have interacted with money, in choosing a subject, dealing with the marketplace, and formulating life choices. The course combines theory and studio practice with lecture and discussion and includes art critiques with an active critical engagement. For each of the seven topic units, students may do art projects as well as present or write responses. Open to studio artists in any discipline, those interested in critical theory or art history, and those engaged in arts administration.

Artistic activism is a practice grounded in envisioning new ways of acting and thinking in our communities in order to create social change. It challenges the notion that art practice, research, and social activism are discrete entities. As a form of “militant” or radical research, this praxis based class focuses on a range of different forms of artistic activism as casestudies to understand how artists use creative research strategies to engage with communities, social movements, and cities. A major part of the class focuses on collaborative fieldwork in the public realm or in communities.

Focuses on particular subjects or techniques to allow students to broaden skills & expression. Projects are chosen as a result of both faculty & student interest.

Focuses on particular subjects or techniques to allow students to broaden skills & expression. Projects are chosen as a result of both faculty & student interest.

Projects selected by students to reflect their artistic preoccupation or to provide research in particular skills, subjects, or trends in painting.

Projects selected by students to reflect their artistic preoccupation's or to provide research in particular skills, subjects, or trends in contemporary printmaking.

Emphasis is on the creation of a body of prints dealing with one subject or theme. Aesthetic decisions made by the individual in choice of subject matter & technique are considered. Lectures, technical demonstrations, & individual critiques are included. Readings on individual photographers, aesthetics, & darkroom techniques are assigned. Critiques by visiting photographers/artists are held.

Projects selected by students to reflect their artistic preoccupation or to provide research in particular skills, subjects, or trends in art & media. Students develop major art projects that Are fully realized & represent an evolution from sketches to a finished book. Students may work in photography, video art, or digital art

This survey class is intended for students to experience a fuller range of techniques over two semesters. Each semester can be taken independently from the other. The first semester focuses on blowing, hot casting, stained glass, mosaic, and kiln casting (fusing and slumping). The second semester concentrates on coldworking, sandblasting, lampworking, and beadmaking.

Focus on particular subjects or techniques allows students to broaden the range of their skills & expression. Projects are chosen as a result of both faculty & student interest.

Focus on particular subjects or techniques allows students to broaden the range of their skills & expression. Projects are chosen as a result of both faculty & student interest. Aesthetic & technical experiences that will enable the student to advance their understanding of the limitless possibilities inherent in the ceramic medium. Emphasis will be placed upon a sculptural/nontraditional approach to making objects in clay & will encourage invention, creative risk, & a personal interoperation of subject matter.

Basic materials & methods of drawing. It combines perceptual learning with initial conceptual basics for drawing. This includes line usage, shape inventing, size differentiating, brightness contrast, location & overlap. Students will develop the skill to discuss their drawings as well as the drawings of others, & learn to observe & empathize with the genres of landscape, still-life, & figure. Individual & group critiques, slide lectures, & museum & gallery visits support studio activities

Assignments, critiques & demonstrations for the more advanced drawing student. Combines perceptual learning with initial conceptual basics for drawing. This includes line usage, shape inventing, size differentiating, brightness contrast, location, & overlap. Students develop the skill to discuss their drawing as well as the drawing of others & learn to observe & empathize with the genres of landscape, still life, & figure. Individual & group critiques, slide lectures, & museum & gallery visits support studio activities.

Basic technical & conceptual principles of painting through in-the-studio practice. The relationship between form & content (technique & concept) is informed by art history & theory. Such processes as palette orientation, paint manipulation, & canvas preparation are discussed as well as contemporary painting practices. Individual & group critiques, slide lectures, & museum & gallery visits support studio activities.

Assignments, critiques & demonstrations through in-the-studio-practices for the more advanced painting student. The relationship between form & content (technique & concept) is informed by art history & theory. Such processes as palette orientation, paint manipulation, & canvas preparation are discussed as well as contemporary painting practices. Individual & group critiques support studio activities.

Introduction to the rendering of the three-dimensional world in sculpture. The class moves through a variety of different materials using simple techniques such as woodcutting, plastering, welding, & sewing.

A hands-on introduction to the technical & creative uses of digital photography. The class will explore the use of digital technologies to compose, shoot, scan, alter, & print images, as well as considering the ways in which photographic meaning has been changed by the use of the computer. Student provides their own camera & paper.

Introduction to the use of photography as a medium of documentation & expression. Assignments & critiques enhance the development of individual work while developing photographic skills & techniques. Students provide their own camera & paper. Enlargers & photographic chemicals are provided in class.

This course serves to familiarize the student with the fundamentals of typography. Typography forms the basis of our contemporary communication. Students will gain design abilities based on analogue techniques as well as digital software. The class explores letterform design & moves subsequently to typesetting exercises performed using the letterpress printer & computer. Compositions exploring typography as color, form, & image will be examined for visual impact as well as meaning. The history of typography is incorporated beginning with Guttenberg in the 1400’s through the classic designers of the 17th & 18th centuries, type-design through Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus, & Modernism to contemporary digital type design.

Beginning & traditional techniques for jewelry & metalsmithing. Through demonstrations & practice, students create individual projects in a variety of materials. Discussions & assignments consider preconceived notions about jewelry as well as structural design problems.

An introduction to the technical problems of making, decorating, glazing, & firing ceramic forms, while providing opportunities for understanding & developing sensitivities to clay as an art for

Picasso famously said: “Art is the lie that tells the truth.” Students will read & discuss texts exploring such topics as personal myth/legend & fictionalized confession. Questions of authenticity & personal revelation will be discussed as they relate to contemporary art practice. Students will complete three studio projects that reflect these & related issues. Because this is an interdisciplinary studio course, any medium, e.g., painting, photo, performance, installation, video, sculpture, drawing, digital, is acceptable as a means to explore class content. Regular visits to galleries are not only encouraged, they are expected.

This course examines the processes that inform how one makes the object and its connection to the visual. The goal of the course is to help the student sharpen his/her point-of-view and to develop constructive motivational tools. To aid in the process we will address the conflict between such binaries as: art and craft, art and ideas and the social and physical space of art. Our method will include individual studio meetings, group critiques, presentations and exhibitions of art. Readings and exhibitions will be assigned according to students’ particular research needs. They may include; Philip Fisher, "Making and Effacing Art"; Craig Owens, "Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power and Culture” and James Hillman, "The Dream and the Underworld", as well as student suggested readings

This course explores art making using a variety of media and materials in relation to thematic and inquiry-driven methods.The conceptual focus for this interdisciplinary studio course is that all art is created in dialogue, referencing art history and process, and in response to specific societal, environmental or political issues. Students are involved in independent and collective artistic inquiry and participate in studio critique formats and discussions focused on relevant contemporary artists and select readings.

Contemporary environmentalism is an issue dominated by scientific, technical & policy discourse. The terms of this political environmental discussion begs the questions; what role does & can art practice play in the contemporary environmental movement? What have artists contributed to contemporary urban environmentalism? To explore these questions we will use the local urban street as our site of ecological analysis, intervention & exhibition. Building on a history of ephemeral political actions of the “Reclaim the Streets” & other political movements the focus will be on durable or sustainable interventions in urban ecosystems involving both human institutions & infrastructure, & the work of other non human organisms. Students will work on projects that re-imagine our relationship to natural systems.

Articulating Visual Arts is designed to help students express & sharpen their thinking & writing about visual art. Topics will include how to write an artist’s statement, exhibit reviews as well as catalog essays. Additionally students will explore how artists apply creativity, in thinking & writing, as part of their practice in visual arts & other media. Readings include texts by contemporary & past visual arts masters such as Frieda Kahlo, Richard Prince, Robert Smithson, Andy Warhol, Barbara Kruger, among others.

This course is constructed around the belief that artists are highly adaptable & flexible, & that their role in an arts community (& the community at large) is fundamental to their practice. To that end, this intensive MFA-only course will serve as a communal laboratory investigating the meaning of “contemporary practice.” The course will pose the question: how does a young artist find community in the art world? As a result, the course is cursory experiment in community building.

This course meets weekly & is intensely focused forum for critical dialogue & group discussion about each student’s work & ideas. Historical precedents & research into conceptual practices & working methods contextualize discussions.

Individual studio visits with full-time & visiting faculty, visiting artists, curators, & writers are arranged by advance appointment for an in-depth discussion about the student’s work

This elective course assists MFA candidates in the development of a substantial body of work in preparation for exhibitions. Issues addressed include the production, installation and display of work, artist statements, catalog essays, and other materials that might accompany an exhibition.

This course focuses on further developing a body of work for exhibition & a correlating written thesis. Students work closely with a leading artist, writer, or critic to develop a narrative context for their thesis & final exhibition.