2006 Negotiating Traditionpafaase.pbworks.com/f/MFA Book - FINAL1.pdf · from antiquity, she...
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Negotiating Tradition 2006 mfa graduates
Transcript of 2006 Negotiating Traditionpafaase.pbworks.com/f/MFA Book - FINAL1.pdf · from antiquity, she...
Negotiating Tradition2006 mfa graduates
Fortuna was the Roman goddess of fortune and, as with so many deities from antiquity, she represented conflicting and contradictory ideas under theguise of a singular being. From good fortune to misfortune, Fortunagoverned daily life in Rome, embracing an idea of chance found in culturesboth before Roman civilization and after its inevitable collapse. Depictedblindfolded, Fortuna lingers on in our own society through institutional formssuch as the figure of Justice, as well as in popular manifestations such as Lady Luck.
Randomness, chance, and fortune mark the paths that have led the twenty-eight individuals who comprise the 2006 graduating MFA class of thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Coming from diverse backgroundsand experiences, these individuals have endured two years guided byFortuna, arriving at the moment of their thesis exhibition. It has been my good fortune to come across the paths of these promising artists, devel-oping relationships with them as individuals and as a collective body duringa time that, by chance, corresponds to my first two years as a graduateinstructor and critic. Having passed through similar institutional challengessome eleven years ago at Bryn Mawr College, I discover fortune shining herduplicitous gaze upon me, as I try to address some of the qualities thatdefine this class of graduates.
In the MFA class of 2006, I find kindred artistic spirits engaged in an arrayof challenging issues at the heart of aesthetic practice and theory. Over thepast two years, these twenty-eight artists have questioned, in conjunctionwith their studio critics and colleagues, the very premises underlying theircreative endeavors, transforming their work through this demanding process.They have arrived at the end of their graduate studies, but this is far fromthe end of their artistic explorations. Rather, they find themselves, as individ-uals and as a group, on a more firmly established foundation, initiating ananalysis of themes and forms that will follow them throughout their careers.
The diversity of approaches to making art displayed by this class reveals thecontested terrain of artistic tradition today. Some of these artists have charted personal narratives, at times heavily encoded, that shift and siftthrough fragments of memories to delineate families of relations, families ofideas, and families of artists. They question our visual experience across a range of media, from painting and sculpture to installation, video, and
virtual media. They have examined problems concerning how we make artin the contemporary world, a world impacted by the advent of pervasiveand invasive technologies that have transformed not only the nature of visual culture, but also the ways we relate to one another.
In the wake of these transformations, some of these artists have chosen tocome to terms with the past, working through their creative predecessors to understand more fully the relevance of art to the present day. Some haveexamined the relation between obsession and ritual, finding in materialartistic practice a means of spiritual release. They have explored the spaceof the body, as well as the spaces the body occupies, questioning the architecture of space and the spaces of architecture in order to make thefamiliar unfamiliar and the unfamiliar recognizable, finding in the home-likethe un-home-like and in the un-home-like a place like home. Some of thesestudents have monumentalized the everyday, as others find within the every-day momentous substantive experiences that speak of identity and alienation, beauty and the abject, mourning and rememberance.
While their time at the Academy may be represented through these creativeundertakings, the past two years have also been punctuated by natural disasters, from the 2004 tsunami to Katrina, and continuing global conflicts.At a time when many seek refuge from the complexities of globalizationthrough the isolation offered by a culture of techno-narcosis, the class of2006 uses the often solitary and futile activity of making art to address existence in the twenty-first century. Their work bears witness to the confrontations they face and the differences they aspire to bridge, provid-ing a realm where the interminable negotiations with tradition preserve andredefine the human condition.
If randomness, chance, and fortune brought these twenty-eight individualstogether, together they have found the familial within the Academy, forgingin the process relations that extend beyond the Academy to the larger traditions of art that they will continue to negotiate. While Fortuna in all hermultiple guises will still blindly gaze upon their lives, the strengths and skill-fulness that have allowed them to pass through the walls of this institutionwill follow them to a future, testifying to the qualities and quality of the theircollective character and individual characteristics.
Negotiating Tradition
– Dr. K. Malcolm Richardsgraduate critic
Published on the occasion of the 14th annual graduate thesis exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
dane borda“I think that every artist dreams ofrenewing the forms which came before,but I think very few can be considered tohave achieved that. We are all dwarvesstanding upon the shoulders of thegiants who preceded us, and I think wemust never forget that. After all, eveniconoclasts only exist with respect to thatwhich they destroy.”
– Peter Greenaway
Sludge of Grief, 2005, pastel on paper, 30” x 44”
victoria barnesBy attending a two-hundred-year-old academy for the fine arts one finds that the past is a large part of what drives a successful future. In my studio I have covered one wall with reproductions of paintings that have influenced me in some way.I find that the efforts of artists such as Piero della Francesca,Chardin, and Balthus have helped me become a better, moreeager painter.
“Invention, strictly speaking, is nothing more than a new combi-nation of those images which have been previously gatheredand deposited in memory; nothing can come from nothing.”
– Sir Joshua Reynolds
Dried Persimmons, 2006, oil on board, 16.5” x 12.5"
nora carey“One thing is needful, to give style to one's character.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“The sacred cannot exist without the profane.” – Domenico Dolce (of Dolce & Gabbana)
“We are living in a material world and I am a material girl.” – Madonna
theresa rose cantoto catch something unable to be caughtto hold on for just one secondeternity is longer than we knowand I can’t think of anything more frighteningthan lose the butterflyin between the tall trees and thick weedssummer then falls then snows and diesto see something unable to be seena moment is longer than realizedwhen memorizedto uncover a secretI am together with you in on itopen uncover revealto search for searching
Wished, 2005, (still from 1-minute video) Eyegag, 2005, collage with paper and oil, 12” x 8"
Rooftop View, Ridge and 12th, 2005, oil on panel, 24” x 40"
mike east“Be guided by feeling alone. We areonly simple mortals, subject to error; so listen to the advice of others, but follow only what you understand andcan unite in your own feeling. Be firm, be meek, but follow your ownconvictions. It is better to be nothingthan an echo of other painters. Thewise man has said: When one followsanother, one is always behind.”
– Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, from his notebook, 1856
Abandoned Life Studio, North, 2005, oil on linen, mounted on panel, 24”x 24"
tim conteThe relationship between light and distance definesmy work. I am ever-conscious of the revealing light ofmorning, day, evening and night. The story of an undivided color of light is told through relationships.These relationships are seen, processed, sought, andelusive. They flicker and evolve incessantly, as is the nature of our world. The color of the light is anether, which interpenetrates our bodies and their surroundings. It appears modern, silent and still, yet isnarrated by primal voices and motions. It becomes a metaphor for our suspension in the passage of time.We act in the present, learn from the past, and inventthe future.
The Dream Is Over III, 2005, charcoal and acrylic on paper, 18”x 24"
donovan entrekin“It is quite clear to me that I have always been of aninferior race. I cannot understand revolt. My race neverrose except to pillage: like wolves that worry the beastthey have not yet killed.”
– Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell, 1873
richard gabriele“What moves men of genius, or rather, what inspires theirwork, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea thatwhat has already been said is still not enough.”
– Eugene Delacroix
Crucifixion, 2005, graphite on paper, 30” x 22"
tony girolo"To me there is no past or future in art. If a work of art cannot livealways in the present it must not be considered at all. The art ofthe Greeks, of the Egyptians, of the great painters who lived inother times, is not an art of the past; perhaps it is more alive todaythan it ever was."
– Pablo Picasso
"In space there is no center, we're always off to the side."
– David Berman
Ataxia, 2005, graphite on paper, 12” x 8.5" 2:47pm, 2005, oil on canvas, 68” x 48"
kathleen geigerWe can either take a classical approach to a contemporary subject, a contemporary approach to a classical subject, or we can do both.
martha knoxThere was a young person of Smyrna,Whose grandmother threatened to burn her;But she seized on the catAnd said, 'Granny, burn that!You incongruous old woman of Smyrna!'
– Edward Lear, A Book of Nonsense
Lap Cat, 2005, wood block print, 15” x 11.5"
nicholas jacquesOne afternoon while riding the scree, I looked down from the sky to see thatmy friend had just acquired a mass oftwo hundred couches. Upon landing inthe garden for a closer look, I foundmyself deep in the motherlode, beingapproached on all angles by a gianthogweed. I scaled the garden wall,careful not to risk my honeypatch, andheaded for the safety of the couches; allthe while feeling like a fly, waiting forthe windshield on the freeway.
Look, 2006, oil on museum board, 14.75” x 17”
micah lewisAs artists we find ourselves in a culturalvacuum and if we are to fill it we willhave to be persistent. There are no stylesor grand traditions of our time. We haveto scratch our art out of a jumble ofancient traditions that have no realimportance to our generation. We mustcreate our own tradition.
Stairway, 2006, acrylic on birch, 24” x 24"
michele leclaireInfluence and enrichCarry on what went beforeInterchange and blendOne occurrence flows into anotherDistinct within unity
This-Is within That-Has-Been, 2006, oil and graphite on mylar, 4” x 6"
max maddoxAs far as I can tell, the Greek word for“tradition” is “παραδοση.” So you mightsay, it’s all παραδοση to me.
End of the Beginning, 2006, oil on canvas, 60” x 48”
david longAs artists, we can all be looking everywhere for new things tosteal, not just from art history but from the whole world. Enoughdisparate parts might come together to make something peoplethink they’ve never seen before.
Hotel Waiting Room, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 54” x 32”
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alison nastasi“We are not concerned with long-winded creations, with long-term beings. Our creatures will not be heroes of romances inmany volumes. Their roles will be short, concise; their characters –without a background. Sometimes for one gesture, for one wordalone, we shall make the effort to bring them to life.”
– Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles, 1933
Baby, 2005, wire, human hair, and ribbon, 15” x 9”
chris e. meltonThere is a need I embrace from within tocry out in grunts and gestures some painand anguish, some pleasure and ecstasy,some expulsion of the mystery and mean-ing surrounding us all. The outwardexpression may take any form, with anymaterial, anywhere at any time. Theancient dead voices of those who bit offtheir fingers and spit pigment around theremaining digits pressed firmly to thecave wall knew what I know. Whatexplanation, what rhetoric did they needto do what they did? Eyes on the gods, I find my meaning through my making.
After-Image By-Product, 2005, sand blasted duct tape, Plexiglas, and paper, 18”x 20”
alan b. peoples jr.One learns and one grows followingthose of the past. We all make creationswith our hands in hope they will last.However it's what dwells in our heartsthat will never be surpassed.
Untitled #1, 2004, oil on canvas, 48” x 60”
miranda olsonI emerge from an underground metro surrounded by towering sky-scrapers and cars rushing past. My skin prickles and I am remindedof being in the presence of mountains, surrounded by tree canopiesnear persistent roaring waterfalls. Are they not the same, only in adifferent form? We use nature’s materials to build the city. They areinterconnected, not separate. The discarded wood I use breatheswith weather and time and is alive like mountains that eventuallyerode into sand, glass and back to sedimentary states.
Metropolis (detail), 2006, painted wood, 48”h x 48”w x 96”l
cameron schmitz“my mind isa big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch andtaste and smell and hearing and sight keep hitting andchipping with sharp fatal toolsin an agony of sensual chisels I perform squirms ofchrome and execute strides of cobaltnevertheless i feel that I cleverly am being altered that I slightly ambecoming something a little different, in factmyselfHereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks and scarletbellowings.”
– E. E. Cummings, Portraits, VII
Compulsory Descent, 2006, oil on linen, 48” x 36”
therese l. provenzano
“Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.”
– Emily Dickinson
The past combined with the present is our greatestteacher. My Acadian heritage is the world I have beengiven. Art and the life I live are impossible to unravel.
The homestead is an emblem of my ancestry. It is a placefrom which I can see into myself. Anything that referencesthe farm and that way of life I desire to have in my possession. Dwelling, wilderness, outside and inside arewhere my vulnerabilities reside. Making my work bringsacceptance to denial.
Without and Within, 2005, wood, paint, found object, lights, 4’ 6” h x 54’4”w x 10’1” l
alice thompsonI came to the Academy to become a printmaker, butthis did not happen. I defy one tradition only to participate in another. If traditions cannot changeand accept new ideas, they become a burden.
The President calls for a more competitive America.Competition requires sacrifice and that which doesnot serve is eliminated. Seductive beauty remains untilthere is no one left to hold up a mask. The will of theartist fades when we compete only for the sake ofwinning. The artist makes art, not the tradition.
blaine siegelCome one, come many with all of your junk
I'll put it in the great Gobdiddillymunk
What comes out nobody knows
but it's guaranteed to keep your mind on its toes
The New Babel (detail), 2005, refuse found within four square blocks, 102” h x 42”w x 42”l
Hallway, 2005, paper installation in window, 9’ x 30’
jay walker“We all want progress, but if you're on the wrongroad, progress means doing an about-turn andwalking back to the right road; in that case, the manwho turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
– C.S. Lewis
Humility allows us to see where others have erredand succeeded. Knowing we could make the samemistakes, we should continue the journey, not discard it.
Frank, 2004, charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 22”
lauren tilden“From where will renewal come to us, to us whohave spoiled and devastated the whole earthlyglobe? Only from the past, if we love it.”
– Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
For Simone Weil, hope is found in the clarity ofthe past. Removed from the mirror of self, the past is laid out, every brushstroke andguiding line visible. As in a painting by Titianor Rembrandt, we see the follies of man, thebeauties of God, and the places we mustspend our limited days.
Eve, 2005, oil on panel, 30” x 40”
in kyoung yangComposing patterns, drawing, and process withbanal objects, my installations reflect the subject– existence and non-existence. The universe iscomposed of all elements. Each element hasgreat value in itself. Thousands of configurationsof existence in the universe become the openspace of my idea. From the self to the universe,from consciousness to unconsciousness, from thefinite to infinity, all elements beyond us giveshape to my art.
Untitled, 2005, oriental ink on walls, 8’h x 10’w x 19’l
amy leigh walsh“What is certain is that pictures, poetry and music arenot only marks in time but marks through time, of theirown time and ours, not antique or historical, but living asthey ever did, exuberantly, untired.”
– Jeanette Winterson, Art Objects
“Each Epoch not only dreams of the next, but also, in dreaming, strives toward the moment of waking. It bears its end in itself and unfolds it … In the convulsionsof the commodity economy we begin to recognize themonuments of the bourgeoisie as ruins even before they have crumbled.”
– Walter Benjamin
Untitled (Clouds), 2005, video, cardboard, lights, wood, found objects, 15”h x 15”w x 24”l
contact informationVictoria Barnes [email protected]
Dane Bordahomepage.mac.com/[email protected]
Theresa Rose Canto [email protected]
Nora [email protected]
Michael East [email protected]
Donovan Entrekin www.donovanentrekin.com [email protected]
Richard Gabriele [email protected]
Kathleen Geiger [email protected]
Tony [email protected]
Nicholas [email protected]
Martha Knox [email protected]
Michele Leclairewww.micheleleclaire.com [email protected]
Micah Lewis [email protected]
David [email protected]
Max Maddox [email protected]
Chris E. [email protected]
Alison Nastasi [email protected]
Miranda Olsonwww.mirandaolson.com [email protected]
Alan B. Peoples Jr. [email protected]
Therese L. Provenzano www.artistatworkstudio.com [email protected]
Cameron Schmitz [email protected]
Blaine Siegel [email protected]
Alice [email protected]
Lauren [email protected]
Amy Leigh [email protected]
In Kyoung Yang [email protected]
Women’s Board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine ArtsCongratulates the Graduating Certificate and MFA Students of 2006
NEGOTIATING TRADITION HAS BEEN ORGANIZED BY: Dane Borda, Nicholas Jacques, and Donovan EntrekinTITLE AND THEME SUGGESTED BY: Amy WalshEDITED BY: Donovan Entrekin DESIGNED BY: Shelby Kirchner I [email protected]
ARTWORK PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Jonathon Laidacker [email protected] I www.jonathonlaidacker.com
EXCEPT THE WORKS OF THE FOLLOWING:Therese L. Provenzano by K. Mauch;Blaine Siegel, Alice Thompson, Amy Walsh, In Kyoung Yang, Max Maddox, Martha Knox, Lauren Tilden, Miranda Olsen, Theresa Rose Canto, and Nicholas Jacques courtesy of the artists
STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Donovan Entrekin EXCEPT THE FOLLOWING: Therese L. Provenzano by H. Romero;Alan Peoples, Alice Thompson, Amy Walsh, Blaine Siegel, Chris E. Melton, Lauren Tilden, Micah Lewis,Michael East, Miranda Olson, Nicholas Jacques, and Richard Gabriele courtesy of the artists
THANKS: K. Malcolm Richards, Jeffrey Carr, Eileen Neff, and Richard Torchia
We wish to acknowledge the Women's Board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for making this publication possible.
The Women’s Board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is pleased to be a major underwriter of “Negotiating Tradition.”We are also proud to be the sole underwriter of the 105th Annual Student Exhibition. The ASE is an important part of the group’stradition of Academy support, including $90,000 given toward scholarships last year. In addition to general scholarship funding, thisyear marks the inauguration of the Women’s Board’s $15,000 Travel Scholarship.
The first of the Women’s Board’s two significant fundraising events, the Annual Student Exhibition Preview Party specifically supportsstudent scholarships. It is a gala evening, with guests invited to talk with exhibiting students, and to have first opportunity to view andpurchase over 1,000 student works while enjoying fine wines and hors d’oeuvres.
USArtists: American Fine Art Show is the Women’s Board’s second annual fundraiser and is widely considered the premier show andsale of American fine art. Some 56 galleries from across the nation are selected to display and offer American works of art fromthe 19th to the 21st century. In this, its15th year, USArtists runs October 20 – 22, 2006 at the 33rd Street Armory, with an openingPreview Gala night on Thursday, October 19th.
For more information about Women’s Board activities:
Women’s Board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts1301 Cherry Street, 8th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19107-2095
215-972-0550women’[email protected]/womensBoard.jsp
special thanks
