School of Visual Arts celebrates the opening of the new Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea with “Beginning Here: 101 Ways,” an exhibition of works by 101 artists whose careers began at School of Visual Arts.

The exhibition features the work of emerging and established artists active in the New York and international art communities, including: Renée Cox, Inka Essenhigh, Toland Grinnell, Keith Haring, Joseph Kosuth, Justine Kurland, Robert Lazzarini, Sol LeWitt, Vera Lutter, Elizabeth Peyton, Alexis Rockman, Tim Rollins, Kenny Scharf, Lorna Simpson, Annie Sprinkle and Sarah Sze. (Please see the complete list of artists below).

Among the highlights of the exhibition are: Inka Essenhigh’s new oil on paper piece entitled Wrestler from her series “People that do weird things to their bodies.” Joseph Kosuth has contributed a piece from his recent Essays series combining black and white photographs with experiments in text and words. Sol LeWitt has created a new wall drawing that continues his project of establishing systems of logic in the form of written instructions, to be executed by current SVA students. Lorna Simpson is exhibiting two digital color photographs taken from her video installation Corridor depicting African-American women dressed in period clothing appropriate to the historic buildings in which they are filmed.

“Beginning Here” is curated by art critic Jerry Saltz, in collaboration with Rachel Gugelberger, Associate Director of SVA Galleries. Jerry Saltz is a senior art critic at the Village Voice and a faculty member in SVA’s MFA Fine Arts Department. He has contributed to numerous publications including Art in America, Flash Art and Parkett, and has served as an advisor for the 1995 Whitney Biennial.

Saltz notes that “SVA lets artists grow, stew, and stay rough all at the same time. It is an inexplicable, I think miraculous, combination of institution of higher learning, secret society, survival school, boot camp, think tank, hang out, hell, dearly loved, sometimes begrudged hot house. Whatever it is, SVA is one of the best of its kind anywhere in the world.”

All of the 101 artists whose work is in the show are alumni of School of Visual Arts.

Exhibition

Beginning Here: 101 Ways

SVA Chelsea Gallery

Reception