Suffolk University Art Gallery Past Exhibits
2013
Fresh Ink! Graphic Design Class of 2013 Senior Show
Featuring the work of the Graphic Design Class of 2013. See what happens in the Graphic Design Program at NESADSU.
April 8 - April 18, 2013
Reception: Friday, April 12, 5:30-7:30pm
Student Exhibition: First-Year Foundation Studies
The Foundation Studies exhibition showcases work of students who've completed their first year of studies at the School of Art & Design.
March 25-April 4, 2013
Reception: Thursday, March 28, 5-7 pm
Stephen D. Paine Scholarship Exhibition
An exhibition featuring work by the winners of the 2012 Stephen D. Paine Scholarship.
Curated by Al Miner, MFA organized by James Hull
January 31 - March 16, 2013
Reception: Thursday, January 31, 6-8 pm
WallPower!
An exhibition of large scale wall based works by Cyrille Conan and John Axon.
December 13, 2012 - January 19, 2013
Reception: Thursday, December 13, 6-8 pm
2012
System Presence: New Sculpture by Jonathan Hils
September 15 - November 5, 2012
Reception: Friday, September 21, 6-8 PM
left "Through" (2012) welded and powder coated steel 46x38x26
right "Bridge" (2012) laser cut masonite and cast wax on wood 24x22
Suffolk University Art Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by Jonathan Hils in Boston. Hils has exhibited his sculpture widely and has won many public and private commissions. He is currently an Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of Oklahoma School of Art & Art History where he oversees the Sculpture Department. Hils was born in New Hampshire and received a BFA in Studio Art at Georgia State University and an MFA in Sculpture at Tulane University.
Working primarily with welded steel assemblages that investigate the impact of scale on systemization and chaos, Jonathan Hils constructs modular patterns that seamlessly combine to create a larger whole. The systematic approach to fabricating hundreds of small elements, bent and welded one by one to each other, to create a larger object is an inherently obsessive one. This requires a consideration of negative space, density and the systems used to create the pattern. To describe a shape, Jonathan expands a surface arrangement from a fine netting to a bigger, more open pattern by elongating the “module” of curved steel rod. Hils taps into the relationships that actually create organization and composition– especially relationships of presence and absence– using them to define both the interior and exterior simultaneously.
Hils refers to the regulated patterns that Frank Stella used to make “The Black Paintings” saying, “everything I do is closely associated with systemics, and bio-computational generating forms. Stella's systemic painting principles were a great influence on me. The way he approached "making" something just made perfect sense to me.” Hils explains, “I've always been interested in the synthesis of industrial and organic structural aesthetics. Sculpturally, this combination of computational organizations is evident in CAD 3D modeling and generally relies on formulated or logical numerical constructs. My objects and drawings rely on an analog process which delineates space and form exclusively through line– specifically focusing on intersections and densities as methods for organizing space. The sculptural forms also aim to open form and volume.”
Like the veins on a leaf, each hypnotic sculpture consists of a web of lines and the negative spaces between them resulting in a seeming paradox for a 3-D work of art. These expansive drawings in space direct our attention to their recurring internal symmetries rather than referencing an external or illusionistic space. A poetic elaboration on fractal and organic geometries, these steel sculptures and laser etched drawings are the harmonious intersection of science, art and nature.
– James Hull, Curator
Master of Arts in Graphic Design Student Exhibition: Spot Process
August 10 - 30, 2012
Reception: Friday, August 10 6:00 - 9:00 PM
Exhibition Website
Biennial Faculty Exhibition: 2012 - Fine Arts & Foundation Studies
May 25 - July 29, 2012
Closing Reception: Saturday, July 28 3:00 - 4:00 PM
Artists:
Sophia Ainslie
Ilona Anderson
Paul Andrade
Harry Bartnick
Bebe Beard
Linda Leslie Brown
Niels Burger
James Hull
Jeffrey Hull
Audrey Goldstein
Steven Novick
Matt Aaron Templeton
Peter Thibeault
Randal Thurston
Debra Weisburg
Interior Design Student Exhibition
May 10 - May 20, 2012
Reception: May 11, 2012, 5:30-7:30 PM
Fine Arts Student Exhibition
April 28 - May 9, 2012
Reception: May 4, 2012, 5-7 PM
Illustration
Illustrious Alumni Exhibition -- Equipped with degrees in Graphic Design and Fine Art, the ventured far into the field of Illustration ...
April 16 - April 26, 2012
Reception: April 20, 2012, 5-7 PM
Lecture: April 20, 2012, 7-9 PM History of American Illustration, Murray Tinkelman, director of the Low-Residency Illustration MFA Program at University of Hartford
Exhibition Catalog (PDF)
Graphic Design Student Exhibition
April 2 - April 13, 2012
Reception: April 13, 2012, 5-7 PM
First Year Foundation Studies
March 19 - March 30, 2012
Reception: March 22, 2012, 5:15-6:30 PM
Stephen D. Paine Scholarship Exhibition 2012
February 23 - March 17, 2012
Christopher Goodale, Andy in field (detail), oil on canvas, 2011
Anthony Barron
Marguerite Cass
Katie Dodge
Cady Fontana
Christopher Goodale
Luke Rogers
Thomas Kane Stanton
Juror: Dina Deitsch, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Decordova Sculpture Park and Museun
Exhibition Organized by James Hull
Arthur Henderson: Wordly
January 14 - February 17, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 21, 2012 , 5-7 PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, January 21, 2012, 4:30 PM
Suffolk University Art Gallery at the School of Art & Design proudly presents a solo exhibition of Arthur Henderson's sculptures, drawings and installations. Showcasing an impressive range of media, craftsmanship and subject matter, these works combine the intellect and irreverence typical of Henderson's work.
Conceptually dense and materially loose, the energetic assemblages and scrawled narratives read like protest banners. Smart and complicated, the constructions rely on control of imaginative materials and carefully articulated surfaces to actively cross-pollinate painting and sculpture.
The works boast a heady range of sources from J. L. David's portrait of Napoleon to the legacy of Allen Ginsberg, to Zeno's paradoxes to a silly putty print of a Bruce Nauman text piece. Intuitive expression adds sophistication to narratives effectively restrained by everyday materials and revved up by a great color sense to create profound, cartoony and slightly ominous creations.
Part realism and part expressionism, Henderson illustrates his cultural references with painted details on objects made of plaster, carved and molded plastics and even cement. These stand-ins for consumer mascots are integrated into animated conglomerations that allow figurative work to leverage humor and still resonate with cynicism.
Tara Sellios: Lessons of Impermanence
November 10, 2011 - January 11, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 10, 2011, 5-7 PM
Artist Talk: Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 1 PM
In her first solo exhibition, Tara Sellios balances some of our most deeply felt emotions with our darkest fears. Sickness, repulsion, and death vie with gluttony, luxury and beauty within a surprisingly traditional format. Utilizing her drawing and painting training to sketch out these formal compositions, this gifted young artist continues the history of using still life painting as a metaphor for our mortality. Sellios cleverly offsets the overt, dripping juice of raw meats, slimy guts and slaughtered creatures with the subtle beauty, irresistible color and clarity captured in these gorgeous large format photographic compositions. The luxurious surfaces, shiny with carnality and luminously lit by window light, sit unwrapped and vulnerable, leaking into the soft textures of the tablecloths.
In these visceral tableaux the artist focuses our attention on the uncomfortable connection between our living bodies and the dead flesh, organs and animals we call food. The cover photograph uses the messy aftermath of a lobster dinner to silently attest to the violent force used to break open the shells and devour the succulent meat inside. Pictured like this the scene feels like a table top battlefield full of hollow carcasses. Other works from the “Lessons of Impermanence” series are more intense– requiring more color to balance out the range of emotions generated. Glass bowls filled with blood spilling on a tablecloth wield the chromatic power of red, glowing color without diluting references to pain and mortality.
The Intriguingly detailed and emotionally charged compositions draw a viewer closer to the surfaces while the butcher shop intensity of the skinned animals we see remains repulsive. But like children probing a dead bird with a stick, our curiosity makes us peer into the compositions to discover what everything is and examine the corporeal. In a recent interview, Tara told George Slade, “My photographs, especially at full scale, force the viewer to see the explicit detail prevalent in the image, no matter how generally grotesque the subject matter may be. However, by using the aesthetic sensibility of painting, the viewer is often seduced by the imageʼs beauty and can not help but want to look at these fearful, vile arrangements. It is my way of pursuing the age-old sensibility of the vanitas still life, using beautiful, seductive images to successfully introduce unappealing, frightening motifs.”
2011
BLUE DESERT ~ Towards Antartica
November 4 - December 4, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, November 4, 5:30 - 8 PM (at Laconia Gallery)
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 5, 12:00 PM (at Laconia Gallery)
Laconia Gallery and Suffolk University Art Gallery at the School of Art & Design are pleased to co-present the world premiere of BLUE DESERT ~ Towards Antartica, a multi-channel video installation, at Laconia Galler.
The work, by filmmakers Geoff Pingree and Rian Brown, features an original soundtrack by composer Peter Swendsen that draws on audio recorded in the Antartic. The installation's projections and soundtrack fill the gallery space and surround the viewers to convey some sense of the vastness and dramatic beauty of one of the earth's most remote locations.
Laconia Gallery
433 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA
Line Bruntse: Organs, Orphaned
September 16 - November 5, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, September 16, 2011, 5-7 PM
Artist Talk: Thursday, November 3, 2011, 1 PM
Suffolk University Art Gallery at NESAD is pleased to present a new work by Danish
sculptor and installation artist Line Bruntse. Organs, Orphaned is a site-specific,
encompassing environment that measures, defines and inhabits the entire gallery space.
Glowing lines stretch overhead, across the the gallery, up to the ceiling, and over a wall to
connect all the sculptural elements. The linkage, tension and tenuous attachments build a
network of physical and metaphorical relationships that the artist wants us to both see and
feel.
Sculpture and installation often generate a more physical interaction with viewers than two-dimensional
works because we can move around them and experience them from a variety
of viewpoints. Bruntse uses this variable perspective feature to get at "the idea of [how]
ʻtouchʼ, as an element of communication, has been significantly altered..." by bridging great
distances. Line has written that "the distance that separates us as individuals is almost
palpable to me." While admitting that "opportunities and connections may be gained
through the possible speed of global electronic communication", Bruntse asks us to also
value what is lost in the process: The directness and touch of traditional face-to-face
communication.
The linear patterns echo the swooping choreography of telephone poles gathering and
releasing wires held in an orderly fashion. Bruntse uses order and systematic structure to
contrast anthropomorphic and mechanical forms delineating the movement of our eyes from
one object to another. Tension holds the textile surfaces taut and smooth except where
these evenly spaced "lines" are anchored and pulled into sharp peaks by the
counterweights. From these delicate points the lines converge together as they pass
through loops on the wall or ceiling and then spread again to continue through space to
terminate into weightier cast bronze forms sitting on the floor.
Bruntse is interested in creating a visceral response in these areas of pinching and pulling
stress. The dozens of attachments that pull the textile skin are stand-ins for our
interconnected lives. She emphasizes specific "real" connections by stressing the physical
properties ( ie: the stretching or pulling) of her work to activate tactile junctures of form. The
sophisticated arrangement and interdependency of her installation is a metaphor for the
"mediated interactions and changing patterns of communication" of our more and more
"virtual" way of life.
Line Bruntse is a assistant professor of sculpture, heads the sculpture department and is the
Ganser Gallery Director at Millersville University in Lancaster Pennsylvania.
The body of work exhibited at Suffolk University Art Gallery at NESAD extends her series
of architecturally framed installations previously created in Milan and Venice, Italy.
Paris Visone: A Culture of Looking
July 15 - September 12, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, July 22, 5-7 PM
Paris Visone combines portraiture and documentary work to create a compelling investigation of american popular culture through the example of her own life. She has committed her time and energy to a long term view of people and places she knows as well as anything in her life: the homes and members of her own family. But the editorial choices and almost decade long investigation of them is revelatory. The dedication to photographing almost every aspect and activity of her extended family has forced them to quit posing for her pictures and just do whatever they were doing. What is revealed in the the shifts between public and private and between those with subjects aware of the camera to many completely unaware give her work both unquestionable authenticity and a resonance with our country as a whole.
The seemingly contradictory identifiers of income, taste or class are underscored by the locations that frame them: Boca Raton, Florida, Peabody, Massachusetts and Nantucket, Massachusetts. The trendy look of Florida’s glittering, tan and sexy styles abruptly transition to the mix of styes layered into a savvy, city, street look in New England. The images that represent these locations are as much caricatures as they are documentary truths. Using familiar repeated characters which effortlessly slip from one lifestyle to the other Visone’s photographs force us to realize the assumptions we are making about “types” of people are as shallow as the postcards stacked in the storefronts.
A cultural overview, a fashion conscious snapshot of America, an insider’s portrait of two different sides of a typical family, or an edgy take on environmental self portraiture, these images are rooted in documentary. And that may be the most interesting thing about them. How do you recognize while you are inside a family that it is emblematic of something larger? Can you really be objective? Do you even need to be objective about such subjective topics to record them for others?
Like people watching, there is something irresistible about looking at photos of regular people. We see ourselves, we see fashions we laugh at, wish we could still wear or would never touch. We see natural beauty and we see garish artificiality. Paris uses her family and friends to record cute looks and tacky ones in the same light– and we catch ourselves making all the judgments and playful jabs that as kids we would make at the mall or as adults in traffic or on the subway. She takes us along as she gathers evidence of how “hard wired” we are to visually compete with one another for attention. By using such empathetic subjects Paris Visone reveals how looking at these photographs perpetuates the cycle of this “culture of looking”, indicting and rewarding us in equal parts for our participation.
Also on view: A series of photographs taken for Debbie Harry during the “Blondie Endangered Species Tour”. Using her unobtrusive style of camera work Visone captures backstage shots which describe the duality of aging punk rockers, groupies and the realities of life on tour.
Graphic Design Graduate Student Exhibition
June 16 - July 5
Opening Reception: Friday, June 17, 6-9 PM|
Interior Design Student Exhibition
May 8 - May 23
Fine Arts Student Exhibition
April 24 - May 6, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, April 29, 5-7
Graphic Design Student Exhibition
April 9 - April 22, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, April 15, 5 - 7 PM
Foundation Student Exhibition
March 27 - April 7, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 31, 5 - 7 PM
Stephen Paine Scholarship Exhibition
February 18 - March 19
Opening Reception: Friday, February 18, 5-7 PM
Graphic Design Graduate Student Exhibition
January 21 - February 2
Opening Reception: Friday, January 2, 5-7 PM
Chido Johnson:
Domestified Angst: Third Recording
November 12, 2010 - January 15, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, November 19,5 - 7 PM
2010
Danielle Krcmar: Forbidden Understanding
September 8 - October 31, 2010
Public Reception: Friday, September 17, 5 - 7 PM
Artist Talk: Tuesday, October 19, 1 - 2:30 PM
Curated by James Hull
Danielle Krcmar exhibits two related groups of figurative sculptures in her first solo exhibition at Suffolk University Art Gallery. In each, Krcmar investigates the depiction of romantic desire by reconstructing and altering single viewpoint images (paintings, photographs) as multifaceted sculptures. In doing so the artist uncovers how they illustrate the changes in cultural ideals of beauty and temptation over the centuries.
Krcmar bases a isolated standing figures on the John Singer Sargent portrait of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau). Krcmar edits the referenced historical painting to exaggerate the symbolism it contains. The artist removed the controversial clothing from Sargent’s Madame X completely (her loose shoulder strap caused a scandal at the Paris Salon in 1884) and exposes a fictional sexy “X” tattoo on her back. The pictorial space of the image is expanded into three dimensions and the resulting depth allows us to enter the composition from a variety of perspectives including a view from the rear of the subject revealing the tatoo.
The other standing figure references Dürer's painted version of the quintessential romantic temptation: Adam and Eve. Here Krcmar recontextualizes Eve and the serpent by omitting Adam. A quantity of additional apples surrounding Eve’s feet contradicts the original symbolism of the single apple so we reexamine exactly what is happening in the scene. Temptation, knowledge, original sin, what do those apples represent?
Krcmar also adroitly sets up the differences between the symbolic body shapes of Eve and Madame X as the contrast between two archetypal female roles: object of desire and fertility goddess. For the artist, how the female figure is pictured and where becomes “a lens to see how opinions concerning the depiction of desire, pleasure and beauty change over time.” A woman posing proudly with chin raised, hair up and whitened skin (except for the ears) speaks both to social pressures of her class and the luxury of entitlement. Eve plays another familiar role for the female body in art as the “Fertile Madonna” of the renaissance with a rounded tummy, ample breasts and long flowing hair.
Updating her survey of desire, Krcmar created a large series of shoulder-length busts from the text and photos of personal ads found on craigslist.com. Based on postings by both men and women these portraits describe the continuing quest for human companionship as it functions today. Funny, pathetic or egotistical, these quotes sample intimate personal desires shared online with a vast audience. Whether we look at these figures as ourselves or as represetations of our culture or our history, the emotional insight and symbolic strength that Danielle Krcmar creates with gesture, expression and context is as insightful as it is irresistible.– James Hull, Curator
On The Road
a group exhibition of journals, writings and a range of artwork created during travel
Hannah Cole
Chris Faust
Gretjen Helene
Doug Weathersby
June 24 - August 27, 2010
Opening Reception: June 24, 5-7 pm
Press:
View photographs and listen to audio from On the Road on WBUR, Boston's NPR news station.
The Boston Globe, July 22 2010
This exhibits provides evidence that even with Wi Fi, tweets and GPS,
time spent “On the Road” can still be an exciting, artistically
inspiring escape. Humbly borrowing the title of the Jack Keruoac novel
that made roadtrips into a right of passage for a generation and
indelibly etched the highway into the mythology of the American West,
the adventures of each artist connect with our collective wanderlust
and take us along for the ride.
Combining notes, to do lists and narratives with images taken on the
road, these artists achieve an elusive balance between word and image.
The humble observations and diaristic notes push the imagery in the
photos into a supporting role. Rather than simple captions explaining
the photographs the carefully phrased text or voice recordings give a
glimpse of the artists’ stream of consciousness, slowing us down in
order to share observations grounded in the experience of these
environments. Descriptions of smells, extremes in temperature,
distance and physical exhaustion connect with the audience through a
combination of empathy and memory.
Hannah Cole
In addition to making paintings that are often based on photographs,
Hannah works directly on photographs - using pinpricks to transfer
enlarged handwritten text onto the surface of photographs taken in
transit. Cole describes the “daydream quality of the photos, and the
often distracted feeling of driving...” which inspired her to pair
these images with notes from her “to-do” lists to “reflect the way
that one’s thoughts can interrupt and distort the experience of a
place.” A few works feature passages from poems and the photos
locations range from Boston to a recent residency in Wyoming to Italy
and even Southeast Asia.
Christopher Faust
Chris is the one artist in the exhibit that forgoes text and uses
sheer scale to recreate an experience of the open road. Faust turns a
10 by 18 foot wall of the gallery into a painted stretch of
disappearing blacktop running away toward a distant row of mountains.
He immerses us in an enormous panorama based on a photograph he took
during a cross country bike trip with his brother. Like the highly
personal works by all the artists in this exhibition, the space Faust
describes manages to create a surprisingly evocative range of
emotions: the unease of vulnerability, the humbling beauty of nature,
the pure delight of the experience.
Gretjen Helene
10,000 miles, two motorcycles and only $ 2,000 is how Gretjen
summarizes the facts of her cross continent odyssey with a friend from
Boston to Alaska and on to California. The poetic prose that she
narrates in the single channel sound tracks animate the interior of
two helmets surrounded by Polaroids from the trip. In her massive
“Epic Journey” installation, carefully printed narrative paragraphs
are exhibited along side Holga snapshots taken from her motorcycle.
Sounds, smells and experiences with strangers fill in the memories of
the road trip with details that quickly tap into our collective
consciousness. Unapologetically romantic and honest, the words create
pictures that compete with the images on the wall to tell an amazing
story of adventure.
Douglas Weathersby
Doug’s Environmental Services company encapsulates all of his artistic
endeavors. He creates photographs, temporary sculptures, log entries,
and videos in which he is sole performer of artistic activities that
comprise his (anywhere but the) “studio” practice. The “Log” entries
exhibited here from repairing a museum in Louisiana and producing a
collaborative installation in Medellin, Columbia are a series of color
photographic prints employing a combination of lists and personal
narratives superimposed as text on a contemporaneous photographic
image. The text ranges from diary notes to self deprecating
confessions and enviously entertaining anecdotes within each work. The
specific dates on all of these photographs reveal the documentary lineage
of Weathersby’s work.
Master of Arts in Graphic Design Thesis Exhibition
January 20 - February 7, 2010
Stephen D. Paine Scholarship Exhibition
A juried show of;undergraduate scholarship winners from Boston area schools.
February 13 - March 7, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 13, 4 - 6 PM
Foundation Student Exhibition
March 10 - April 2, 2010
Graphic Design Undergraduate Student Exhibition
April 3 - April 16, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, April 9 5:30-7:30PM
Fine Arts Undergraduate Student Exhibition
April 17 - May 5th, 2010
Interior Design Undergraduate & Graduate Exhibition
May 7th - May 23, 2010
Resa Blatman
Curated by James Hull
December 4 - January 17, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 12, 4 - 6 pm
Artist Talk: Tuesday, December 8, 2:30 pm
Suffolk University Art Gallery presents a solo exhibition of Resa Blatman’s recent paintings. Blatman navigates the territory between representation and experience by superimposing realism and dynamic, graphic fantasy. The exuberance of the overall pattern is given a surreal believability through the detailed rendering of the fur, feathers, and skin of a host of creatures. The splashy explosions and clinging droplets animate the orgy of corporeally suggestive forms tucked into a stylized habitat spilling across the wall.
Resa has built upon the intricate cutout framework of her heroically scaled “Beauty and the Beasties” and incorporated it throughout the composition in works like “Flux” or “Lemon Spray”. Using the wall as a background and the cut areas as monochrome silhouettes of intricate scrolls, branches and wildlife activates the compositions - even from across the gallery. Tendrils from separate panels reach across negative spaces and flirt with touching an adjacent edge.
Avoiding a specific narrative, Blatman creates an overall feeling and then reinforces it at every opportunity by her selection of decorative shapes, animals, insects, fungi and fruits that exude a disneyesque sexualized beauty. Blatman uses flat graphic design strategies to tease us screening but not hiding the graphic content. The overt references to pendulous anatomy are disguised by an equally valid reading as a luscious, dimensional fruit, avoiding any pornographic directness. Resa Blatman’s technical skill coupled with her decisions on how to depict the juicy, physicality of desire, the dramatic gestures of romance and the thriving abundance of life is the unexpected power of these works. The result is an over-the-top cornucopia combining the emotive dynamism of Baroque decoration, contemporary patterning like that of Philip Taaffe and the curvaceous sexuality of Georgia O’Keefe in a single painting.
2009
Construction
a group exhibition of new sculpture made in Boston
Curated by James Hull
October 15 - November 21, 2009
Opening Reception:Friday, October 16, 6-8:30 PM
Artist Talk: Tuesday, November 10, 1:30 PM
Isabel Riley, Construction in Yellow (2009), wood, fabric, paint
Exhibiting Artists:Laura Evans
Peter Evonuk
Arthur Henderson
Ellen Rich Isabel Riley
Jeff Smith
In this exhibition of six Boston area artists the studio process is on display. Because of the
way these sculptures are created we can witness the key choices made by each artist in the
final product. Not all art works this way. The transparency of the construction techniques
underpins the connection between an otherwise visually divergent group. In the same way
that the ad-hoc repairs and homemade contraptions reflect the personality and
inventiveness of a previous resident of a home, the artworks on view reflect the creative
ingenuity of the artists. Choices of how to put things together, what media to use or where
to get materials reveal much about the artistic strategies at play. The raw materials chosen
might just as easily come from a hardware store as an art supply store. What does that tell
us about the artistic intentions? Using materials to test and explore the boundary between
art and craft or the overlap between painting and sculpture closes the gap between
everyday experience and contemporary art. The confident generosity of all these artists
allows us to see more of the creative process in the exhibited artwork enriching our
experience as viewers.
Laura Evans short-circuits any expected outcomes by cutting, gluing and redirecting tubular
material literally turning them into drawings. More like the lines in Brice Mardenʼs looping
paintings than a Joel Shapiro sculpture these segmented, articulating cylinders are like
improvisational vectors that donʼt seem to get anywhere or describe anything specifibcu t
through thoughtful choreography express the elegant successes and fitful frustrations of
making art.
Peter Evonuk uses his sense of humor and technical training to try to locate the dividing
line between art and craft (if there truly is one). He uses stone carving and cutting, one of the
oldest, most revered processes, to raise a basic construction object to the status of high art.
He carves white marble into a perfect cinder block, which he playfully positions
contrapposto to make the classical sculptural references clear. Evonuk labors using
traditional methods in direct contradiction to Marcel Duchampʼs “found object”. The
irreverence of the subject matter paradoxically underscores the time-consuming processes.
Arthur Henderson uses traditional and nontraditional materials to create anything but
classical sculptures. His cast and fabricated objects are often painted to look exactly like a
cigarette butt or a truncated cartoon character in his own updated version of Pop Art.
Henderson carves text and uses humor to poke fun at the artworldʼs seriousness. The use
of contemporary materials like pink insulation foam and contact paper in addition to acrylic
paint or plaster gives his work a broad zone of reference to both mimic and critique trends in
contemporary art.
Ellen Rich combines found materials with painted finishes but her compositions are more
minimal and less culturally specific than Hendersonʼs. This is surprising considering that she
collects most of the parts for her wall sculptures from a dump. The collage process and
formal restraint of these low relief works is modulated by Richʼs use of found and applied
color. The humble aged surfaces relate them more to Modernist artworks or to Alexander
Calder or Louise Nevelson than to artists known for using cast-off materials like Thorton Dial
or Howard Finster.
Isabel Riley selects hardware store materials with a painterʼs eye for color and texture. Her
materials are new and her colors vary from out of the can to exacting faux finishes. This
variety is both coherent and playful as it engages the viewer all the way around these
objects. Connections between one form and another reveal the logic and cagey solutions
Riley uses to move us between elements of each sculpture. Riley has a keen sense of
materials using anything from faux fur to plywood to vinyl flooring to create surprisingly
elegant structures. Balance, tension and color work interdependently to create complex
visual relationships.
Jeff Smith takes the term “playful” literally. He often makes sculptures that function as adult
sized rideʼem toys or building blocks. Almost everything is on wheels. He may paint
something or sand or round off the edges but he tries to keep the history of the surfaces
intact. The sturdy construction of these works make them feel attractively interactive (in the
analog sense of the term). They movement sets the stage for a “happening” or a
“performance” in the art world terms but Smith reminds us that when we were kids we just
called it play.
Cara Phillips: Singular Beauty
Cara Phillips, White Consultation Chair, Upper East Side (2006), C-Print
Faculty Drawing Exhibition June 15 - August 1, 2009
a group exhibition featuring outstanding faculty work in a wide range of media
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 18, 6 - 9 PM
Ilona Anderson, "All that I see or seem is but a dream within a dream" by Edgar Allan Poe (2009), ink and goauche on cut paper
Exhibiting Faculty Artists:
Sophia Ainslie
Ilona Anderson
Paul Andrade
Gabrielle Barzaghi
Mark Brus
Neils Burger
Audrey Goldstein
Nancy Hackett
James Hull
Jeff Hull
Lydia Martin
Susan Nichter
Steve Novick
Matt Templeton
Peter Thibeault
Rex Wynn
Tamotsu Yamamoto
Graphic Design Undergraduate Exhibition
April 6 - 17, 2009
Opening Reception:Thursday, April 16, 5:30-7:30 PM
Fine Arts Senior Thesis Exhibition
April 20 - May 1, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, April 24, 7:00-8:30 PM
Interior Design Undergraduate & Master's Exhibtion
May 7 - 22, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 7, 5:30-8 PM
Stephen Paine Scholarship Exhibition
Feb. 12 - March 14, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 12, 6-8 PM
Behind the Image
Curated by James Hull
November 6, 2008 - January 3, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 6th, 5:30 - 8 PM
Exhibiting Artists:
Hannah Barrett
Dana Clancy
Lisa Costanzo
Heather Hobler
John Guthrie
Cristi Rinklin
Joe Wardwell
2008
String Theories
Paul Andrade, Lou Cohen, Keith Francis and William Frese
Curated by James Manning
September 18th - October 24th 2008
Reception: Thursday, September 18, 5-8pm
Events in conjunction with the “String Theories” Exhibit
All events are free and open to the public.
Lecture and Concert: Tuesday, September 23rd, 1PM to 2:30PM.
At Suffolk University, C. Walsh Theatre, 55 Temple Street, Boston MA.
Lecture by guest speaker Washington Taylor, Professor of Physics at MIT. Concert performance by Lou Cohen and James Coleman, accompanied by a short film by William Frese.
Concert: Friday, October 3, 7pm at NESADSU gallery.
Performance by Boston-based electro-acoustic musicians including Lou Bunk (electro-acoustic flim-flammery) Lou Cohen (laptop powered by Csound), and special guests.
Gallery talk with the artists: Tuesday, October 7th at 1PM, at the NESADSU Gallery.
Guest speaker Hong Liu, Associate Professor of Physics at MIT.
Exhibition Catalogue with essays by Washington Taylor, Professor of Physics in the Center for
Theoretical Physics at MIT, James Manning, Curator NESADSU Gallery, and exhibiting artists Paul Andrade, Lou Cohen, Keith Francis and William Frese.
Prints & Related Drawings, Fine Arts Faculty Print Folio
Organized by Randal Thurston
May 27 - July 12
Reception: Friday, June 27, 6-8pm
Nascent
Cathleen Faubert, Mike Farley, Georgie Friedman, Pete Froslie, Lizzy Martinez
July 25 - August 23
Reception: Friday, July 25, 6-8pm
2008 Master of Arts in Graphic Design Thesis Exhibition
September 2 - 13
Reception: Friday, September 5, 6-8pm
Fine Arts Undergraduate Exhibition
April 22 - May 2
Reception: Friday, April 25, 5-7pm
Interior Design Undergraduate and Master's Exhibition
May 5 - May 16
Reception: Friday, May 9, 5-7pm
Foundation Student Exhibition
March 26 - April 4
Reception: Thursday, March 27, 5-7pm
Graphic Design Undergraduate Exhibition
April 7 - 18
Reception: Friday, April 11, 5-7pm
Interventions and Objects: New Work by Bebe Beard and Liz Nofziger
February 14th - March 15th 2008
Reception: Thursday February 14th 2008 6-8 pm
The 2007 Stephen D Paine Scholarship
Award Winners and Honorable Mentions Exhibition.
Organized in conjunction with the Boston Art Dealers Association
January 14th - February 9th 2008
Reception: Friday January 18th 2008
http://www.suffolk.edu/25023.html
The 2007 Stephen D Paine Scholarship Award Winners
2007
Ozspirations
Art inspired by the Wizard of OZ
Organized by Jennifer Fuchel
November 15th - December 22nd
Reception: Friday November 16th 2007 6-8 pm
http://www.suffolk.edu/24550.html
Susan Nichter: Never Been Seen
October 11th - November 10th
Reception: Friday October 12th 2007 6-8pm
Gallery Talk: Tuesday October 23rd 1pm
John Powell: New Work
September 5th - October 6th
Reception: Thursday September 6th 6-8pm
http://www.suffolk.edu/21020.html