The Academy Blog

2020 MFA Thesis Exhibition

Posted on August 4, 2020

 

For health and safety reasons, the exhibition is open to visitors by appointment only. To view the exhibition is by appointment only. Please email reception@nyaa.edu to schedule a time Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm.

 

Click here to view the 2020 MFA Thesis Catalog

Click here to view the 2020 MFA Thesis Project Page

 

 

 

Courtesy of Eazel / @eazel.art / #Eazel

 

 

2020 Vision

Posted on July 7, 2020

Click here to view exhibition catalog

Click here to view a video tour of the show with the curators, artists. and writers.

Click here to view the panel discussion from August 13, 2020 featuring co-curators David Kratz and Stephanie Roach with artists Eric Fischl, Luján Pérez Hernández, Rachel Lee Hovnanian and Chris Wilson.

Click here to view the panel discussion from October 15, 2020 featuring co-curators David Kratz and Stephanie Roach with art patron Bernard Lumpkin and artists Tawny Chatmon, Taha Clayton, and Justin Wadlington.

Click here to view the panel discussion from November 12, 2020 featuring co-curators David Kratz and Stephanie Roach with Steve Mumford, Clifford Owens, Paine the Poet, and Pamela Sztybel.

 

The pain, loss and uncertainty of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The awakening cry for social justice following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery and many others.

The unnerving possibility of global recession.

2020 has already experienced seismic events that are shifting values and shaping our choices as citizens and as creators.

Artists and writers are always the antennae of our society, all the more so at a time as challenging as this one.  They have an opportunity—some might say, a duty—to interpret this moment and imagine the world not only as it is, but also as it could be.

This is the guiding challenge of the group exhibition, 2020 Vision.  We asked artists, writers, and creative thinkers to consider three questions of critical importance: Our lives will never be the same, but what will change look like?  What do we want to keep as we rebuild? And what must we guard against?

We invited these creators to express what they saw, what they felt, and what they experienced during this time of pause and reassessment, upheaval and risk, and anxiety and uncertainty.

It is our hope that 2020 Vision marks one of many beginnings in the necessary process of ‘post-traumatic growth’ and positive change for our society and our world.

 

Curators David Kratz and Stephanie Roach

Editor Emma Gilbey Keller

 

Participating Sponsor Douglas Elliman

Insurance generously sponsored by AXA XL

 

The New York Academy of Art will present “2020 Vision” at the Southampton Arts Center, co-curated by Academy President David Kratz and Stephanie Roach of the FLAG Art Foundation and edited by Emma Gilbey Keller.

“2020 Vision” takes as its subject the lived experience of our present, a time of social upheaval and unimaginable loss but also a moment of stirring change. The works in “2020 Vision” offer a glimpse of how creative minds are critically engaging with 2020, from Chris Wilson’s vibrantly colored painting of a Black funeral in Baltimore to Rachel Lee Hovnanian’s witty installation commenting on social distancing, with two computer monitors at opposite ends of a dinner table.

Notably, the exhibition encompasses not only visual artworks but a variety of texts, including poetry and essays from writers and thinkers reflecting on what 2020 means. Contributors include former US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, mass incarceration activist Paine the Poet and chef J. Kenji López-Alt. “2020 Vision” has over 60 participating artists and writers, and like many New York Academy of Art exhibitions, the show features work from current art students and young emerging artists hung alongside contemporary stars such as Eric Fischl and Rashid Johnson.

“2020 Vision” will be on view July 25 – December 27 at 25 Jobs Lane in Southampton and is supported by AXA XL, a division of AXA.

 

Tour the virtual exhibition via Eazel below.

 

Courtesy of Eazel / @eazel.art / #Eazel

 

 

 

Contributing Writers:

Curtis Bashaw, Hotelier, Curtis’s Index

Thomas Dyja, Historian, New York, a City and a Community

Various Writers, idreamofcovid.com

Keionna Jackson, Operations Intelligence Analyst United States Air Force, The War: COVID-19

Julia Jordan, Playwright, Opening Night

David Kamp, Author & Journalist, The Siren Song of… Covid?

David Kamp, Author & Journalist, with Steve Porcaro, Singer & Songwriter, The Covid Kid

Emma Gilbey Keller, Author & Journalist, Shaved Heads in Lockdown

J. Kenji López-Alt, Chef & Food Writer, Deviled Egg Salad Sandwiches

Bernard Lumpkin, Art Patron, Inside Out

Vivek Murthy, 19th Surgeon General of the United States, Excerpt from Together

Wendy Olsoff, Gallerist, The Future of the Art Gallery

Paine the Poet, Poet, Crisis Journal 

Sarah Paley, Poet, Bringing Back the Dead and Eastertide 2020

Brynne Rebele-Henry, Poet & Author, Looking Forward

Stephen Roach, Economist, The Quality Imperative

Brooke Shields, Actress, A Life in a Day

Douglas Unis, Surgeon, Stay Home…if you don’t want an orthopaedic surgeon treating you for pneumonia!

 

 

David Kratz is a painter and the President of the New York Academy of Art. In 2008, he received an MFA from the Academy, where he focused on figurative art and won the Vasari Prize for best-in-show painting at the MFA Thesis exhibition. Kratz has shown in group exhibitions at the New York Academy of Art, Lodge Gallery, Sotheby’s, and Eden Rock Gallery in St. Barth. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Boston University School of Law, Kratz has served on the boards of Citymeals-on-Wheels, the Lifelines Center, and the New Group, as well as helping to found One Day’s Pay. He became president of the Academy in 2009, and since then developed a new strategic plan, spearheaded a facilities renovation and expansion, and oversaw the Academy’s accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

 

Stephanie Roach has been the director of The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, since the institution’s founding in 2008, where she has developed and overseen more than sixty exhibitions with a range of guest curators, including those by Lisa Dennison, Jim Hodges, and Shaquille O’Neal, as well as in-house exhibitions featuring over six hundred established and emerging international artists. At FLAG, Roach curated One, Another (2011) and Space Between (2015), a co-curated exhibition with Louis Grachos. She is currently an Institutional Advisor for the Suzanne Deal Booth/FLAG Art Foundation Prize and was on the jury panel for the New York Academy of Art Seventh Annual Summer Exhibition in 2013. She has been a member of the Leadership Circle at The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania since 2009 and a member of the Contemporary Circle at The Jewish Museum, New York, since 2016. Roach graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005.

 

Emma Gilbey Keller is an author and a journalist. She has written two books, The Comeback: Seven Stories of Women Who Went From Career to Family and Back Again (2008) and The Lady: The Life and Times of Winnie Mandela (1994). She has been a contributing writer and a columnist for The Guardian, and her work has appeared in Slate, Vanity Fair and The New York Times among other publications. She lives in Southampton with her husband, Bill Keller.

Summer Exhibition 2020

Posted on June 5, 2020

 

2020 Summer Exhibition Jurors 

Joeonna Bellardo-Samuels, Director, Jack Shainman Gallery

Andrea Scott, Art reviewer, The New Yorker

Alia Williams, Director, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery

 

 

 

 

Coronavirus

Posted on April 16, 2020

Dear Academy Community,

The health and safety of our faculty, staff and students are of the utmost importance. There are currently no identified cases of COVID-19 in the Academy community.

Please review the information and  notifications listed below outlining the Academy’s efforts to maintain as healthy and safe a learning environment as possible during this global health crisis. Please note that all information is subject to change pending further evaluation as more information from the CDC, World Health Organization and other state and local health organizations is released.

– The Academy Team

Health & Travel Advisories | Letters from Academy Leadership | Academy Updates and Resources

 

Announcements

  • New Yorkers should text COVID to 692-692 to get regular updates on the latest developments regarding COVID-19
  • Beginning Monday, March 23, 2020, the Academy will close for at least three weeks. All classes will move to online instruction and all public events through April are cancelled. We will update the community as we receive more information.

 

 

Health & Travel Advisories

 

 

Letters from Academy Leadership

 

Academy Updates and Resources

 

 

Tribeca Ball 2020 Student Work

Posted on April 6, 2020

As most of you know, Tribeca Ball is a truly spectacular night. It gives our friends and patrons the chance to preview work of Academy rising stars and visit the artists in their studios.  Not only does it generate crucial support for the school, it also helps these emerging artists get “discovered” in the best possible way, by giving our supporters access to their work before anyone else. This year, there’s an additional incentive: the purchase of any work gives much needed financial assistance to these artists during this time of global pandemic.
Although today’s circumstances prevent you from beelining it to these talent-filled studios in person, we’ve come up with a way to bring them to you: “Tribeca Ball online”, a digital extravaganza of new artists to follow and new work to collect.
Check back often.  We will be updating this page every week with new work and new features highlighting the artists.
As always, we thank our loyal partner and Tribeca Ball underwriter, Van Cleef & Arpels.  Under the visionary leadership of Nicolas Bos and Helen King, the company provided the same level of support to the school this year as they would have spent staging Tribeca Ball.  Because of their incredible generosity, the spirit of the Tribeca Ball continues.  Enjoy!

 

Chubb Fellows 2020

 

 

MFA 2020

 

 

MFA 2021

 

 

CFA 2020

 

 

To view the full image and artwork detail, click the thumbnail to expand the image.

Doron Langberg in conversation with Dexter Wimberly

Posted on April 4, 2020

Doron Langberg in conversation with Dexter Wimberly from New York Academy of Art on Vimeo.

 

Doron Langberg (b. 1985, Yokneam, Israel) lives and works in New York. He received his MFA from Yale University and holds a BFA from UPenn and a Certificate from PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts). Langberg has attended the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program, Yaddo artist residency, and the Queer Art Mentorship Program and is currently at the EFA Studio Program . His work was shown at the LSU museum, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Leslei Lohman Museum, The PAFA Museum, Perrotin Gallery, Yossi Milo Gallery, Marianne Boesky Gallery, and several university art galleries. Langberg’s work was reviewed in Art in America, Frieze Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, Artsy, ArtCritical, and GAYLETTER, and it is in the collection of the PAFA and RISD Museum.

 

Dexter Wimberly is an entrepreneur and independent curator who has organized exhibitions and developed programs with galleries and institutions throughout the world including The Third Line, Dubai; Koki Arts, Tokyo; Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh; and the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, and Hyperallergic; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Wimberly has served on the board of the New York-based arts nonprofit, The Laundromat Project and actively supports other arts organizations. Prior to developing his curatorial practice, Wimberly was the founder and CEO of the pioneering marketing and public relations agency, August Bishop. Wimberly has also served as Director of Communications for The Museum for African Art, NY; Director of Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International, NY; and Executive Director of Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ. In 2018, he founded the professional development company, ART WORLD CONFERENCE, and serves as its CEO.

David Antonio Cruz in conversation with Dexter Wimberly

Posted on April 2, 2020

David Antonio Cruz is a multidisciplinary artist. Cruz fuses painting, video, and performance to explore the visibility and intersectionality of brown, black, and queer bodies. Cruz received a BFA in painting from Pratt Institute and an MFA from Yale University. He attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and completed the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum. Recent residencies include the LMCC Workspace Residency, Project for Empty Space’s Social Impact Residency, and BRICworkspace. Cruz’s work has been included in notable group exhibitions at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Brooklyn Museum, El Museo del Barrio, Performa 13, and the McNay Art Museum. Most recently, at Monique Meloche Gallery. His fellowships and awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Award, the Franklin Furnace Fund Award, the Urban Artist Initiative Award, the Queer Mentorship Fellowship, and the Neubauer Faculty Fellowship at Tufts University. Recent press includes The New York Times, Art In America, ARTnews, Document Journal, Wall Street Journal, WhiteHot Magazine, Vogue Magazine, and El Centro Journal.

Dexter Wimberly is an entrepreneur and independent curator who has organized exhibitions and developed programs with galleries and institutions throughout the world including The Third Line, Dubai; Koki Arts, Tokyo; Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh; and the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, and Hyperallergic; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Wimberly has served on the board of the New York-based arts nonprofit, The Laundromat Project and actively supports other arts organizations. Prior to developing his curatorial practice, Wimberly was the founder and CEO of the pioneering marketing and public relations agency, August Bishop. Wimberly has also served as Director of Communications for The Museum for African Art, NY; Director of Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International, NY; and Executive Director of Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ. In 2018, he founded the professional development company, ART WORLD CONFERENCE, and serves as its CEO.

Nathaniel Mary Quinn in conversation with Dexter Wimberly

Posted on April 1, 2020

Nathaniel Mary Quinn in conversation with Dexter Wimberly from New York Academy of Art on Vimeo.

 


Photo: Kyle Dorosz. Courtesy the artist.

Each of us is a cacophony of experience. Not just a seamless self.
—Nathaniel Mary Quinn

In his collage-like composite portraits derived from sources both personal and found, Nathaniel Mary Quinn probes the relationship between visual memory and perception. Fragments of images taken from online sources, fashion magazines, and family photographs come together to form hybrid faces and figures that are at once neo-Dada and adamantly realist, evoking the intimacy and intensity of a face-to-face encounter.

Quinn’s passion for drawing began at a young age, while he was growing up on the South Side of Chicago. In ninth grade, he received a scholarship to attend Culver Academies boarding school in Indiana—but a month after arriving at the school, Quinn received news from his father that his mother had suddenly passed away. He returned to Chicago for Thanksgiving the following month, only to find that the rest of his family—his father and brothers—had abandoned his childhood home without a trace. This jarring experience further propelled Quinn’s art, and he decided to commit himself to his education, adding his mother’s name, Mary, to his name so that she would appear on all of his degrees. He received a BA in art and psychology from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 2000, and an MFA from New York University in 2002.

After completing his MFA, Quinn moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he continued to paint while working as a teacher for at-risk youth. In 2013 he had a breakthrough, developing a new technique that would draw wide attention to his work. The mother of one of his students invited Quinn to show five works in an art salon that she was hosting in her home. On the day of the opening, however, he only had four works finished. Improvising, he began to paint a blurred memory of his past, piecing together fragments of images from his subconscious. When he stepped back, he recognized the mouth of his brother Charles.

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Miss Chairs, 2014.
Charcoal, gouache, oil-pastel, and oil-paint on Coventry Vellum paper, 50 x 43 ½ inches (127 x 110.5 cm)
© Nathaniel Mary Quinn

 

Dexter Wimberly is an entrepreneur and independent curator who has organized exhibitions and developed programs with galleries and institutions throughout the world including The Third Line, Dubai; Koki Arts, Tokyo; Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh; and the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, and Hyperallergic; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Wimberly has served on the board of the New York-based arts nonprofit, The Laundromat Project and actively supports other arts organizations. Prior to developing his curatorial practice, Wimberly was the founder and CEO of the pioneering marketing and public relations agency, August Bishop. Wimberly has also served as Director of Communications for The Museum for African Art, NY; Director of Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International, NY; and Executive Director of Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ. In 2018, he founded the professional development company, ART WORLD CONFERENCE, and serves as its CEO.

Jennie Lamensdorf in conversation with Dexter Wimberly

Posted on April 1, 2020

Jennie Lamensdorf is an arts worker based in San Francisco, CA. Her work focuses on expanding audiences for the art of our time by bringing challenging and engaging work to non-traditional exhibition spaces because art has the power to encourage thoughtfulness, empathy, and creative problem solving.

Lamensdorf is the Bay Area Lead of the global Facebook Art Department. The program includes the Artist in Residence (FB AIR), Analog Research Lab (ARL), and Creative Engagement programs, which have a collective mission to encourage creativity, innovation, openness, and connectivity through art and design. Facebook’s Art Department also presents public-facing programs and supports projects that bring together diverse communities in real life and encourage the exploration of creative and critical thinking.

From 2012 – 2019, Lamensdorf was Director and Curator of Time Equities Inc. Art-in-Buildings. She is also an independent curator and writer; her most recent project, Hot Spots: Radioactivity and the Landscape, opened at the University of Buffalo Art Galleries in 2018 and traveled to the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois.

In 2016, Lamensdorf co-founded Forward Union, a coalition-building initiative connecting social justice organizations with artists and creative communities.

Lamensdorf is a Trustee of the San José Museum of Art and a Board Member of Art Omi in Ghent, NY. She received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a MA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dexter Wimberly is an entrepreneur and independent curator who has organized exhibitions and developed programs with galleries and institutions throughout the world including The Third Line, Dubai; Koki Arts, Tokyo; Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh; and the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, and Hyperallergic; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Wimberly has served on the board of the New York-based arts nonprofit, The Laundromat Project and actively supports other arts organizations. Prior to developing his curatorial practice, Wimberly was the founder and CEO of the pioneering marketing and public relations agency, August Bishop. Wimberly has also served as Director of Communications for The Museum for African Art, NY; Director of Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International, NY; and Executive Director of Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ. In 2018, he founded the professional development company, ART WORLD CONFERENCE, and serves as its CEO.