Visual Arts Briefs

Student Health and Counseling Services at SVA, in partnership with The Samaritans of New York, sponsored the 5th Annual HOPE Art Competition. Students from all departments were invited to submit artwork that embodied this year’s theme of suicide prevention. The competition reception was held on March 4 at the Monkey Bar Lounge where two winners were announced: Erin M. Hesser, a first-year animation student won the film/motion category for her piece Meant to be Shared and Rachel Pontious, a third-year illustration student, was the winner in the print category for her piece We Can Share the Load.

The Samaritans is a non-profit organization that operates New York City’s 24-hour suicide prevention hotline (212.673.3000), public education and awareness programs and support groups for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. The winning artists of the HOPE competition may have their work reproduced by Samaritans for use in both print and media advertisement throughout the New York City-Metropolitan area and beyond to raise awareness about the availability of suicide prevention services.

Student Health and Counseling Services awarded each winner a $300 gift card, made possible by The Alumni Society of School of Visual Arts and the Tim Sharkey Memorial Fund. Speakers at the reception included Rachel Dress, LMSW psychotherapist, Student Health and Counseling Services, Shannon Erwin, development manager, Development and Alumni Affairs; and Alan Ross, executive director, The Samaritans.

Image: (top) photo of Erin M. Hesser with her work Meant to be Shared; (bottom) photo of Rachel Pontious with her work We Can Share the Load

Last weekend New York City hosted more than a dozen art fairs, and SVA was well represented at several venues. At The Armory Show, faculty member Nancy Chunn’s Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear, a work that includes nearly 300 paintings, took over the Ronald Feldman Gallery booth. Off site, through a new partnership with SVA, Armory Show VIPs were able to enjoy private studio tours of alumni Alexis Rockman (BFA 1985 Fine Arts) and Billy Sullivan (1968 Fine Arts) who opened up their studios to guests for several hours on Saturday and Sunday. “It’s a chance for people who have long admired the work of these artists to meet them in an intimate setting and for the most part, to see work that hasn’t been shown anywhere else yet,” explains SVA staff member and alumnus Dan Halm (MFA 2001 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 1994 Illustration), who organized the program. Visitors were able to see some of the new pieces that Rockman is preparing in advance of his mid-career retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum later this year. Also present at the Armory Show was Dear Dave, magazine.

Several SVA alumni participated in the PULSE fair, including: George Boorujy (MFA 2002 Illustration as Visual Essay) at the P.P.O.W. Gallery booth; Lili Almog (BFA 1992 Photography) at the Andrea Meislin Gallery booth; Robert Lazzarini (BFA 1990 Fine Arts) at the Winkleman booth; and Thordis Adalsteinsdottir (MFA 2003 Fine Arts) at the Stux Gallery booth.

Over at VOLTA, alumnus Soyeon Cho (MFA 2004 Fine Arts) showed at the SKL Gallery Palma de Mallorca booth and alumni Gregg Louis (MFA 2009 Fine Arts) and Noa Charuvi (MFA 2009 Fine Arts) participated in the group performance The Holistic Healing Center and Emerging Artist Massage Parlor, which was part of the VOLTA NY Happenings program. PooL Art Fair showed the work of Cat Del Buono (MFA 2008 Photography, Video and Related Media) and the Verge Art Fair, new to New York this year, hosted a conversation with alumnus Katarina Jerinic (MFA 2002 Photography and Related Media), who discussed her multidisciplinary project The Work Office.

Image: Nancy Chunn, Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear Scene VI: The Road (detail), 2006-07, acrylic on canvas, 64 panels, 142 x 336 inches overall, courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York

Alumnus Michael Giacchino (BFA 1990 Film and Video) has won an Oscar in the category of Music (Original Score) for his score for the animated film Up. Giacchino, who had previously been nominated in 2007 for his score for the animated film Ratatouille, thanked his parents in his acceptance speech for always being supportive of his creative pursuits, beginning at age nine when he borrowed his dad’s movie camera to start making films. Giacchino continued, “I know there are kids out there that don’t have that support system, so if you’re out there and you’re listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It’s not a waste of time.”

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times last month, Giacchino talked about the music and composers that have influenced his work, from The Dick Van Dyke Show to Star Wars. Click here to view his acceptance speech on the Academy Web site.

Other SVA alumni to be recognized recently for outstanding filmmaking include Lynn Shelton (MFA 1995 Photography and Related Media), who won the John Cassavetes Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards for her film Humpday, and Brenton Cottman (BFA 2003 Illustration), who won a Visual Effects Society (VES) Award for Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture for his work as leade matte painter on the film Avatar.

Image: Still from video from Oscar.com

With more winning students than any other college, SVA is making an impressive showing at the 2010 Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition. For over 25 years, the Society has recognized the best work from student illustrators. While over 6200 works were submitted, only 240–including 30 from SVA–were accepted to be part of an exhibition at the Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, which will run May 5 – 29. For the final phase of the competition, monetary scholarships will be awarded to 30 of the students in the exhibition on March 8. View images from the SVA students on the competition Web site.

The winning students are sophomores, juniors, seniors and recent graduates from the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department: Robert Blake, Hiten Damodar, Maelle Doliveux, Stephanie Georgopoulos, Alexander Gonska, Julia Grifin, Kievan Havens, Young Nam Heller, Sean Hudson, Ruth Kim, Christopher Krebs, Sam Krichmar, Na Kyung Lee, Cameron Lewis, Joyce Li, Kihyun Lim, Daniel Luckert, Ryan Mauskopf, Kurt McRobert, Hanh Nguyen, YoonJu Oh, Ricardo Lopez Ortiz, Rachel Pontious, Jung Yeon Roh, Jonny Ruzzo, Kim Sielbeck, Robert Stites, Seana Lee Whittaker, Eunjeong Yoo and Soo Jin Yun.

Image: Rachel Pontious, Antigone, acrylic and ink

• NYLON Guys profiled alumnus Dash Shaw (BFA 2005 Illustration) in its March issue. The magazine interviewed Shaw about the upcoming publication of his book BodyWorld, a collection of his online comics, as well as the comic book he is creating for the forthcoming film Rabbit Hole by director John Cameron Mitchell, starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart.
• Recent graduate and photographer Johanna Heldebro’s (MFA 2009 Photography, Video and Related Media) thesis project was featured in Vice. For To Come Within Reach of You (Gunnar Heldebro, Hässelby Strandväg 55, 165 65 Hässelby), Heldebro followed her father around Sweden, photographing him without his knowledge. View some of the images from the project on the Vice Web site.
• The February issue of Art in America included a 10-page spread about alumnus and Beijing-based photographer Xing Danwen (MFA 2001 Photography and Related Media). Known for her black-and-white photographs that reflect socio-political changes in China, Xing currently has a solo exhibition at Haines Gallery in San Francisco. View a slide show of Danwen’s images on the Art in America Web site or below.

Image: Photo of March 2010 issue of NYLON Guys

With the opening of the exhibition “Counterbalance” last Saturday, the MPS Art Therapy Department kicked off a series of thesis exhibitions and year-end events happening all across SVA. “Counterbalance” features work by student therapists and the clients with whom they work at their internship sites across New York City. The exhibition runs through Saturday, March 20 at the Westside Gallery, 133/141 West 21 Street. There is a reception on Wednesday, March 3, from 6 – 8pm, and the exhibition is curated by Liz DelliCarpini, internship coordinator, MPS Art Therapy Department.

As the spring semester progresses, there will be over 25 end-of-the-year events including “Classical Myths Transformed,” an exhibition of work by students in the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26 Street, 15th floor, from April 9 – 24, and the MFA Design Criticism Department Conference, a presentation of papers from the inaugural class in the department, at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street, on Friday, April 30.

View the complete list of thesis presentations, open studios, portfolio reviews, screenings, conferences and exhibitions featuring work by soon-to-be graduates at www.sva.edu/firstlook.

More of a conversation starter than little candy hearts are the limited-edition valentines made by David Sandlin, faculty member in the BFA Illustration & Cartooning and the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Departments. In anticipation of the upcoming holiday, Sandlin created silk-screened valentines in two designs: Love and Lust Valentine, and Seasons of Our Hearts. The  valentines are printed as signed and numbered editions of 50 on rag paper and feature glow-in-the-dark ink. Profits from sales will benefit Printed Matter, non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of publications made by artists.

• Alumni You Byun (MFA 2009 Illustration as Visual Essay) and Anna Raff (MFA 2009 Illustration as Visual Essay) were portfolio winners at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Conference last month. Byun also won the Tomie DePaola Illustrator Award, and alumnus David Ercolini (MFA 2008 Illustration as Visual Essay), who was a SCBWI winner in 2009, created the illustrations for all the promotional materials for the conference.
• Peter Kuper, a faculty member in the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department, recently won an award from the Society of Illustrators. His work The Four Horsemen was the Gold winner in the sequential art category and was featured in “Annual Exhibition: Illustrators 52,” an exhibition that showcased recent illustration work at the Society of Illustrators. Alumnus and current student in the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department Jungyeon Roh (BFA 2009 Illustration) won a silver award in the same competition for her silk-screen book Today is Sushi Day.
• Alumnus Yoko Furusho (BFA 2008 Illustration) was named first runner up for the Static Art Prize 2009 from the creative agency Societas and  Medium Magazine. Every year, the organizations give out Creative Graduate Prizes to highlight emerging artists across many genres of fine art, including painting, illustration, photography, sculpture, installation and short film. Furusho’s illustrations were acknowledged in the Static Art category.

Image: SCBWI Conference blog

The awards ceremony for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival brought good news for faculty member Bob Richman, who was a cinematographer for the film Waiting for Superman, which won the Audience Award: Documentary. Richman shot the New York portion of the film, which follows low-income families trying to get their children into charter schools to avoid the perils often associated with inner-city public schools. “The film explores how we can improve the education system,” Richman told the Briefs. “It’s definitely an advocacy film.” Richman teaches Cinematography and Sound II in the MFA Social Documentary Film Department.

Another winner at Sundance was alumnus James Blagden (BFA 2004 Illustration), whose film Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No earned an honorable mention in short filmmaking. Richman and Blagden were two of several members of the SVA community whose films were screened at the festival.

While the Sundance festivities are a wrap for 2010, Oscar season is just gearing up. The Academy Award nominees were announced this week, and alumnus Michael Giacchino (BFA 1990 Film and Video) picked up a nomination in the category of Music (Original Score) for his work on the Pixar animated film Up. The movie Avatar–for which alumnus Brenton Cottman (BFA 2003 Illustration) was lead matte painter–is up for 9 statues including Best Picture and Visual Effects. The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 7.

Image: still from Waiting for Superman, 2010

When the students at Acorn Preschool on East 26th Street returned to class this semester, they were greeted by a series of colorful murals, courtesy of more than 20 SVA student volunteers. Last November, Zach Brunner, a current student in the BFA Film, Video and Animation Department and a student assistant in the Office of Student Activities, along with Tina Crayton, associate director of student activities, made contact with the principal at Acorn to set up the community service project. Together they brainstormed ideas for the murals and came up with a series that represented the four seasons and various iconic images of New York City, including the American Museum of Natural History and the city skyline. The murals were completed over two weekends and cover the concrete walls surrounding the school’s playground.

Brunner said of the project, “It was great to see the preschoolers actually playing with the drawings and pretending they were real. I think we all had a lot of fun being creative and making things simple and enjoyable to 2 – 6 year olds.”

The participating students were Alex Thiel from the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department; Zach Brunner, Yanise Cabrera, Pat Hughes, Thomas Minerva and Melody Shaiken from the BFA Film, Video and Animation Department; Adam DePalma,  Jesse Keating, Maria Petrovskaya, Andrea Solow and Ximena Velazquez-Arenas from the BFA Fine Arts Department; Hyang  Mi An, Yura Kim, Melissa Matos and Louis Spano from the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department; Suh Hwang, Shashank Mittal and Kristen Vincent from the BFA Interior Design Department;  Luke Nilsson and Samantha Yudin from the BFA Photography Department; and Yvonne Andrea Castellanos from the MFA Fine Arts Department.

Image: Photo by Melissa Matos.