Programming at the College this month includes talks and exhibitions on politics, the environment, and civic duty; plus the opening of a new space on campus.
Lang Chen, Untitled, 2024, inkjet print, 41 x 57 inches. On view at “Becoming 2024: We The Public.”
Lang Chen, Untitled, 2024, inkjet print, 41 x 57 inches. On view at “Becoming 2024: We The Public.”
A packed month of events and exhibitions fill SVA’s galleries and classrooms with alumni and student work, visiting artists, renowned curators, writers, and thought-leaders from around the world. Politics, racial justice, environmental sustainability, and civic duty are a few timely themes on the slate, plus a handful of open studios and a celebratory opening of a brand-new space on campus for graduate students.
EXHIBITIONS
An exhibition of works by 15 artists from Project Vortex, an artist collective innovating with plastic debris, curated by founding artist Aurora Robson. By combining artistic expression with scientific exploration, “Plasticulture” aspires to encourage individuals and communities to embrace more sustainable practices and play a part in fostering a healthier planet. Operating at the intersection of art and science, the 45 works in “Plasticulture” inspire a rethinking and reinvention of the possibilities of plastic debris.
BFA Visual & Critical Studies presents “Playline III (Devotional Swell),” an exhibition of recent work by visual artist Gabriella Moreno (BFA 2016 Visual and Critical Studies). Part of a continued response to research done at the Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago, the work probes themes of power, devotion, and performance as it translates forms found in vintage professional dominatrix magazines and references the informal divination practice of scrying or peeping. In the context of this installation, peeping also relates to the peepshow, an erotic performance where the viewer is voyeur. This work is meant to be a meditation on desire and its ability to imbue into what we crave.
Friday, November 1 – Monday, November 18 | “Becoming 2024: We the Public” | SVA Gramercy Gallery
An annual exhibition of visual conversations featuring the work of eight BFA Photography and Video students from the class of 2026 prompted by the work of eight distinguished program alumni, curated by artist and department chair Joseph Maida. This year’s works explore the civil and civic, with alumni and students considering both individual and collective hopes, needs, and responsibilities. How do people participate in community, caring for each other and shared resources? And how can one effect change on a local, state, national, and global level? For this iteration of “Becoming,” all invited alumni participated as students in past iterations of the show, underscoring the serial exhibition’s name and spirit of intergenerational exchange.
An exhibition of works by alumni and students from SVA’s more than a dozen graduate programs, curated by Daniela Marin Aristizábal (Independent curator and MA Curatorial Practice thesis student) and Lotte Marie Allen (MFA Computer Arts advisor and faculty), in conjunction with the opening of the College’s new Graduate Center. “Bold Outlines” highlights the interconnectedness of various fields, including visual art, design, social practice, illustration, moving images, and more, underscoring the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in today’s artistic landscape. It invites viewers to explore the threads and throughlines that bind these disciplines, reflecting on how different artistic practices can complement and enhance one another.
Curated by industrial designer Lucia Steele and faculty member Peter Hristoff (BFA 1981 Fine Arts), this body of work includes designs and linoleum block prints inspired by the flora, fauna, seascape, and vibrant immigrant community of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, created between 1938 and 1969 by a group of friends and neighbors under the direction of renowned children’s book illustrator Virginia Lee Burton. This body of work, almost all hand printed on textiles, reveals the idealism of the American dream without any cynicism—a capsule of our culture that may be viewed as nostalgic but more importantly, as a group effort that reveals the beauty and possibilities of collaboration.
Ciel Chen, Echo in Blue, 2024, still from the animation. On view at “Bold Outlines: Celebrating SVA's Graduate Programs.”
Ciel Chen, Echo in Blue, 2024, still from the animation. On view at “Bold Outlines: Celebrating SVA's Graduate Programs.”
EVENTS
Tuesday, November 5, 3:00 – 5:00pm | Chie Fueki | 133/141 W 21st St., room 101C & online
MFA Fine Arts presents a talk by the Beacon, NY-based painter Chie Fueki, whose paintings picture contemporary life in spectacular motion, part of the Talks lecture series. Created through a complex system of painting, drawing, cutting, and collaging onto wood panels, her practice is centered around the depiction of figures, symbols, and abstract spaces using multi-layered ornamental surfaces and fields of color. Drawing on her experience as a Japanese-born artist growing up in Brazil and later practicing in the United States, Fueki’s work embraces the visual language from these three distinct cultures.
Tuesday, November 5, 5:00 – 6:00pm ET | The Artists Roundtable: Angel Otero | Online
MA Curatorial Practice presents a talk with New York and Puerto Rico-based artist Angel Otero, whose practice spans painting, collage, and sculpture, through which he experiments with innovative techniques to create abstract works centered on memory, identity, and lived experiences. He is best known for his Oil Skin works, where oil paint is applied to glass and peeled off to create layers that are reassembled into new images. Probing the boundaries of figuration and abstraction, Otero’s recent works serve as psychological anchors for his explorations into the ambiguous and magical.
Tuesday, November 5, 7:00 – 8:30pm | i3 Photo Lecture: Daniel Handal | 136 W 21st St., room 418F
MPS Digital Photography presents a talk with Daniel Handal, a Honduran-born artist who lives and works in New York City, part of the i3: Images, Ideas, Inspiration lecture series. Handal’s work explores issues of gender, sexuality, identity, and representation and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Handal currently serves on the board of directors of Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York and is represented by CLAMP in New York.
MFA Computer Arts presents its fall open studios event, bringing together multidisciplinary projects from 11 students. The creative work encompasses a wide range of media including immersive installation, animation, design, and interactivity.
School of Visual Arts graduate departments present an in-person portfolio review and information session. Prospective graduate students can get feedback on their portfolio and speak with graduate department representatives about curriculum, SVA campus life and new interdisciplinary options.
Tuesday, November 12, 5:00 – 6:00pm ET | The Artists Roundtable: Suchitra Mattai | Online
MA Curatorial Practice presents a talk with Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary American artist of Indo-Caribbean descent Suchitra Mattai, who creates mixed-media paintings, sculptures, and installations that shed light on untold histories. She frequently incorporates processes and materials once associated with the domestic sphere, such as embroidery, sewing, weaving, and found clothing, to honor the labor of women. This fall, Mattai will open an exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC.
Garbriella Moreno, Playline for Four (detail), 2024. On view at “Playline III (Devotional Swell).”
Garbriella Moreno, Playline for Four (detail), 2024. On view at “Playline III (Devotional Swell).”
MFA Products of Design presents “Design for Strategic Differentiation,” a talk with Todd Bracher, who works at the intersection of design, science, and business. In this talk, Bracher will draw upon his new book, Design in Context: A Framework for Strategic Differentiation, to explore how he has leveraged design for the companies he’s worked for. Design in Context serves as a comprehensive guide that explores the transformative power of strategic design and innovation.
Friday, November 15, 3:30 – 6:30pm | MPS Branding 2024 Thesis Premiere: Engendering | SVA Theatre
MPS Branding presents thesis projects from the class of 2024. This year, students were asked to look at typically gendered brands and arenas and investigate how brands are currently reflecting gender. The task of the 2024 thesis was to question existing legacy systems to unearth opportunities that can solve brand, societal, community, and personal challenges. Through robust critical analysis, students reposition gender for brands that have fallen out of pace with culture. The criteria included how to reposition these brands, develop strategies for greater relevance, and create new tactics in a rapidly changing cultural landscape.
Monday, November 18, 6:30 – 8:00pm | Samir Gandesha—Prophets of Deceit Today | 133/141 W 21st St., room 101C
BFA Visual & Critical Studies and Honors Program present political theorist and author Samir Gandesha, who will sketch the historical context, main arguments and contemporary relevance of Leo Lowenthal’s and Norbert Guterman’s landmark text of Critical Theory, Prophets of Deceit. He will focus on its typology of political responses to socio-economic crises, its treatment of susceptibility to fascist propaganda as symptomatic of real maladies to which agitators can only provide quack cures, and its influence on Theodor W. Adorno’s analysis of fascist propaganda. He will conclude by reflecting on the results of the 2024 US Presidential Election. Gandesha is the director of the Institute of Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. His most recent volume is Spectres of Fascism: Historical, Theoretical and International Perspectives.
Monday, November 18, 7:00 – 8:00pm | Visiting Artist Lecture: Simon Benjamin | 335 W 16th St.
BFA Fine Arts presents a visiting artist lecture with New York-based Jamaican multi-disciplinary artist and filmmaker Simon Benjamin, whose practice considers how the past ripples into the present in unexpected ways. Using the sea and coastal space as frameworks, his current body of work explores how lesser-known histories and colonial legacies impact on our present and contribute to an interconnected future.
Tuesday, November 19, 3:00 – 5:00pm | Jayson Musson | 133/141 W 21st St., room 101C & online
MFA Fine Arts presents a talk by the artist and SVA faculty member Jayson Musson, who has worked across performance, video, textiles, painting, and sculpture, utilizing art as a vehicle to probe historical legacy and cultural memory. Musson has exhibited internationally.
Tuesday, November 19, 5:00 – 6:00pm | The Artists Roundtable: Jesse Krimes | Online
MA Curatorial Practice presents a talk with Pennsylvania-based multimedia artist Jesse Krimes, whose work explores societal mechanisms of power and control, with a focus on criminal and racial justice. He is the founder and director of the Center for Art & Advocacy, the first national organization dedicated to supporting justice-impacted creatives. Krimes also led a successful class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for charging formerly incarcerated individuals predatory fees after their release from prison. This fall, Krimes has exhibitions opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Jack Shainman Gallery. He won an Emmy Award for his documentary Art and Krimes by Krimes.
Tuesday, November 19, 6:30 – 8:30pm | Race and Visual Literacy | 214 E 21st St.
MFA Photography, Video and Related Media presents a panel discussion about Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images by Maurice Berger and edited by Marvin Heiferman (Aperture, 2024). Joining Marvin Heiferman are Noelle Flores Théard, photo editor and photographer, and Zun Lee, physician, photographer, and educator. Flores and Lee are both featured in Race Stories and share Berger’s desire to use images—still and moving—to engage the world and reach new audiences.
Tuesday, November 19, 7:00 – 8:30pm | i3 Photo Lecture: Allen Furbeck | 136 W 21st St., room 418F
MPS Digital Photography presents a talk with faculty member Allen Furbeck (MPS 2008 Digital Photography), part of the i3: Images, Ideas, Inspiration lecture series. Furbeck has been a photographer and a painter for over 50 years, working in a number of styles both abstract and representational. He finds the intersections between these different media and styles to be a fertile ground for new ways to be creative. His current work begins with 360-degree spherical photographic captures, which he transforms digitally into panoramic photos using various geometric projections.
Leticia Bajuyo, Event Horizon, 2018, donated CD and DVD discs, monofilament, cable ties, ratchet tie-down straps, metal, wood, irrigation tubing, hardware, lights, and air-fresheners, approximately 20 x 25 x 60 feet. Photographed by Nick Sanford. On view at “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers.”
Leticia Bajuyo, Event Horizon, 2018, donated CD and DVD discs, monofilament, cable ties, ratchet tie-down straps, metal, wood, irrigation tubing, hardware, lights, and air-fresheners, approximately 20 x 25 x 60 feet. Photographed by Nick Sanford. On view at “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers.”