Queens International 4 Closing Party!

Bring your bike and meet me at the Queens Museum of Art this Sunday from 12-6pm. Come celebrate, enjoy the gorgeous weather and get a last look at this amazing biennial of Queens artists!

Spotlight: Lars Fisk, Queens International 4

Its easy to miss Lars Fisk's The Triumph of Styrofoam, a marble sculpture made to look like a discarded coffee cup ( Look for it on the floor to the left of my work, Guayabera Series). This "finely carved marble sculpture asks us to take a second look at the garbage we usually ignore. As facsimiles of real objects, these decoys emit an effortless sense of life, asking us to confront our relationship to consumption and waste. 

Fisk employs traditional sculptural materials in unexpected ways."

Queens International 4 is on view at the Queens Museum of  Art until April 26th, 2009.

SUrreal

Crashed Laura Heyman's Grad Critique Seminar, work by Colin Todd

                                                          Studio visit with Chris Gianunzio
Went up to Syracuse University last week to give a lecture and do studio visits. It was my first time back since i graduated in 2000.  I kept having so many weird flashbacks of my undergrad days. It was a surreal experience to be lecturing there and remembering all of the visiting artist's that I heard speak as a young art student and the profound effect it had on my development. I was really honored to be able to come back to campus in this capacity and meet with the students and talk about their work. I met so many talented and intelligent individuals whose work and process is a reflection of the quality of the photography department and program at Syracuse. It was great to catch up with my old professor Doug Dubois and spend some time getting to know Yasser Aggour, both of whom are an inspiration both artistically and for their dedicated teaching style.  Also got a chance to spend some time with my old friend Eirik Johnson, who was by chance, also doing studio visits and crits with Laura Heyman's class.

 

"To teach is to learn again" - H.J. Brown

Big thanks to Doug, Yasser and Syracuse University for giving me this opportunity!

Individual Artist Initiative

Jung In Kim "being special", 23x30 inch, acrylic & pencil drawing on watercolor paper,Feb.09

The Individual Artist Initiative is intended to invigorate the professional careers of artists. The IAI is awarded annually by the Queens Council on the Arts to ten emerging Queens artists in any discipline (performing arts, media arts, literary arts or visual arts) as a fully-financed consultancy with an established professional development specialist. Recipients complete a specific professional development goal with the guidance of the consultant. Participants also receive mentoring through the community of previous IAI recipients, as well as access to intimate professional development workshops coordinated by Queens Council on the Arts.

This year i was one of the lucky recipients of this unique opportunity. I feel honored to be included in such a talented group of artists: Jung In Kim, Michelle Provenzano, ST Woolf, Monica Velez, Janell O'Rourke, Norma Greenwood and Vivian Fung.