The Academy Blog

2016 Westminster Kennel Club Artwork Competition

Posted on February 15, 2016

 

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Hannah Stahl (MFA 2015), 2016 Westminster Kennel Club Artwork Contest winner

 

The Westminster Kennel Club Artwork Competition is a skills contest in which entrants submit artwork for use and inclusion in the promotional materials for the Westminster Kennel Club 140th Annual Dog Show. Coordinated by the New York Academy of Art and the Westminster Kennel Club the competition is open to Academy MFA students and alumni, and current continuing education students.

The 2016 Winner and Finalist works represented the Academy in our gallery booth at the 140th Annual Dog Show.

Congratulations to competition winner Hannah Stahl (MFA 2015), and finalists Dana Aldis (MFA 2000), Shiva Jlayer (CE), Katherine McGough (CE), and Jiannan Wu (MFA 2016).

Generous support and art shipping provided by Cadogan Tate Fine Art.

For further information please contact: 212.842.5971 / exhibitions@nyaa.edu

Forensic Sculpture Workshop 2016

Posted on February 15, 2016

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This exhibit displays 15 clay busts created by New York Academy of Art students during a unique partnership between the Academy and the New York City Office of the Medical Examiner. Each student received a replica of the skull from an actual cold case, and used their artistic training to accurately reconstruct the face of the victim in clay. The New York Academy of Art is the national leader in teaching contemporary figurative art and its students follow a rigorous technical course of anatomical drawing, écorché and drawing from life. This specific artistic training allows Academy students to actively interpret the landscape of a skull and skillfully portray features and flesh. These reconstructions were created in the hope of identifying unknown victims. For more information about the partnership and the cases, contact John Volk.

Special thanks to the Office of the City Medical Examiner Director of Forensic Anthropology Bradley J. Adams and forensic imaging specialist Joe Mullins.

Featured artists include:

 

George Barlett

Jenny Barnette

Richard Comstock

Judy Fox

Gail Freed

Allison Hill-Edgar

Susan Kloepfer

Michele Koenig

Joe Mar

Marco Palli

Amy Pekal

Rochelle Schaevitz

Anna Wakitsch

Sarah Wukoson

Etching as Language

Posted on February 10, 2016

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Now and Then

Posted on January 19, 2016

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Curated by Peter Drake and Heidi Elbers.
The exhibition is generously sponsored by Cadogan Tate Fine Art.

Inquiries: exhibitions@nyaa.edu

New York Academy of Art Residency in Istanbul 2016

Posted on January 13, 2016

During the summer of 2015 Tatiana Córdoba (MFA 2016), Jaclyn Dooner (MFA 2015), Daniel Austin López (MFA 2016) and Simón Ramirez Restrepo (MFA 2016) participated in a month-long Artist-in-Residence Program at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, Turkey.

This exhibition includes some of the work created during or attributed to their residency experience. The Academy’s Mimar Sinan University Residency has been made possible through the efforts of Mahmut Bozkurt, Erdal Kara, Ali Kerem Bilge, and Buket Atature (MFA 2012) as well as the New York Academy Travel Fund, the Villore Foundation.

China Residency 2015–2016

Posted on November 1, 2015

During the summer of 2015 Benjamin Craig (MFA 2016, Fellow 2017), Daniela Izaguirre (MFA 2016), Sophia Kayafas (MFA 2016, Fellow 2017), and Taylor Schultek (MFA 2016) participated in a six-week Artist-in-Residence Program on the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing campus. At the end of the residency all four artists participated in the group exhibition at 798. This exhibition includes some of the work created during or attributed to their residency experience.

 

The Academy’s China Residency is made possible by the New York Academy Travel Fund, the Villore Foundation and Academy Trustee Gordon Bethune.

Artist-in-Residence Leipzig 2015

Posted on October 29, 2015

During the summer of 2015 Marcelo Daldoce (MFA 2016), Valerie Gilbert (MFA 2016), Adam Lupton (MFA 2016), and Charlotte Segall (MFA 2016) participated in a two-month Artist-in-Residence Program hosted by Leipzig International Art Programme, in Leipzig, Germany.

The Academy’s Leipzig residency is made possible by the New York Academy Travel Fund, the Villore Foundation and Trustees Gordon Bethune and Eric Fischl.

Interview with Shangkai Kevin Yu

Posted on September 24, 2015

by Claire Cushman (MFA 2015)

“I usually paint the painting in my head first, to give myself time to decide whether it’s actually worth painting,” says Shangkai Kevin Yu, (who goes by Kevin), of his process. “If it is, then I take photos, either in the place where I initially encountered the objects, or by arranging the objects and people to mimic the narrative I saw. But even in this phase, the painting still runs the risk of being abandoned.”
Kevin uses multiple painting techniques to capture fleeting sensory experiences from his everyday life, and the narrative associations he sees between objects and people. Yu’s fully executed, non-abandoned paintings can currently be viewed at both Mark Miller Gallery, as part of the New York Academy of Art 2015 Chubb Fellows Exhibition, and Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen, as part of the New York Academy of Art Graduates show. Below, Yu discusses his work.

Island of the Dead
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Taiwan and mostly grew up there. I went to high school in Vancouver.
What do you draw inspiration from?
I’m inspired by the relationships between objects, and between people and objects.
Dessert Course
Name three of your favourite painters.
Holbein, Ingres, Morandi.
How do you begin a painting, and how does your practice go as you work?
I start by looking for a narrative in the relationship between objects and people from my day-to-day life. The idea and the image happen concurrently. When I finally begin painting from the photo reference, I focus on the drawing aspect. Color and value come later, and help me create or clarify the narrative.
How do you apply paint?
Paint application varies depending on the narrative of the painting, which usually requires more than one painting technique. I use both indirect and direct painting, in different places. Up until now, I have mostly painted in relatively thin layers, without impasto. If I have an image or idea that requires thick paint in parts, I’ll use it, but so far that has been rare.
What materials do you like to use?
I prime my canvas with wet-sanded acrylic gesso, transparent gesso, or a combination of the two. I use straight oil paint, and occasionally mix a dab of alkyd resin into the paint. This increases the strength of the paint film, and helps prevent surface tension. If I need a more aggressive indirect painting technique that involves a lot of wiping, then I sometimes use diluted alkyd resin as a barrier coat to protect the bottom layers from being wiped out.

                      Grandma at the Table
How do you know when a work is finished?
Usually I know the work is finished when the image has a complete idea. I have to be more lenient on the technical aspect towards the end, because it could always be improved. It will never be good enough, so it shouldn’t impede the completion of the painting – I’ve learned to accept technical flaws, and do it better next time.
If you could retake any class at the Academy, what would it be?
Long Pose. I really enjoy working on one drawing from a model for weeks on end.
What piece of advice would you give Academy students?
Have a position, a ground to stand upon. Listen, talk, argue, and grow from that ground.

Name two quirky things we can find in your studio.
A violin that is regularly played to produce horrendous sound, and a dartboard.
What are you reading these days?
I have the habit of starting a new book without finishing the previous one, so I am reading several books at once – Barthes’ Camera Lucida and Mythologies, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars, Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, etc. The one book I managed to finish recently was Ross King’s Leonardo and the Last Supper.
Science Fiction

What do you listen to while you’re painting?
I like TV shows that I’ve already seen, so I can just listen to them. Music affects my mood too much – it’s not a good work companion for me. For example, I don’t want to find myself painting faster because the music has a faster tempo.
How did your work change over the course of your time at the Academy – especially during your post-graduate year?
The Academy armed me with enough knowledge on the why, when, and how of different painting techniques. I’ve been able to experiment with paint application in a narrative sense. During my fellowship year, I wanted to create a narrative context that spanned over five paintings, which was something I had wanted to do for a while.
What was the relationship among those five paintings?
The pattern of the wallpaper in these five paintings ties them together, and suggests a domestic environment, without explicitly describing the particular function of the room, (i.e. bathroom, bedroom, living room). The Island of the Dead is the most important piece in setting up the environment that spans the four other paintings. This painting shows pork chops stacked together on a table. They reminded me of Arnold Böcklin’s Island of the Dead V at the Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig. 

Arnold Böcklin’s Island of the Dead V

The light fixture in Science Fiction looks like an extra-terrestrial structure, a sentinel of another planet. For the electrical socket in “Dessert Course,” I smoothed the sharp edges so that the object would appear organic, dessert-like. I depicted my grandparents in poses and compositions reminiscent of German Renaissance portraiture. The knives imply that the figures are facing the pork chop on the table.
Pick a piece by another artist and tell me about it.
I want to talk about Morandi, but it’s hard to pick a single piece. Most of his paintings have simple compositions and drawings. The objective is the vibrations of values and colors… Or maybe I’m wrong, because I can’t take my eyes off the trembling lines that defined the objects. 

Morandi

What’s your favourite paint color?
I don’t have one. Colors are worth something in painting because they’re never alone. Different contexts bring out different aspects of a color, so I gravitate towards certain color relationships – turquoise with burnt umber, yellow with purple, orange with turquoise, etc. 

Grandpa at the Table

If you weren’t an artist what would you be?
I have no clue.
Finally, what are your plans for this year?
I’m working towards a group show with Art Bastion, my gallery in Miami. Starting and finishing paintings, as usual.






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Interview with Stephen Vollo, NYAA 2015 Fellow

Posted on September 18, 2015


“I chose to paint a bed because of its inherent content,” says Stephen Vollo, of his painting of a rather ordinary looking bed. “It’s a place where people have sex, dream, and possibly die. But it’s also a part of our everyday routine. So it has many, often contradictory associations. I wanted to make a painting that allowed this content to come forth, rather than construct a specific narrative around this potent, universal symbol.”
Bed
If you find yourself in Copenhagen between now and Halloween, you can see the bed painting up close at Gallery Poulsen, where Stephen’s work hangs alongside paintings by Shangkai Kevin Yu and Abigail Schmidt, as part of the New York Academy of Art Graduates show. If, like most of us, you’re not in Denmark, don’t worry – you can see more of Vollo’s sparsely composed paintings on the Lower East Side, at Mark Miller Gallery, for the 2015 Fellows Show. The show also features the works of Alonsa Guevara Aliaga and Shangkai Kevin Yu, and marks the beginning of these three artists’ exciting careers. The show runs until September 30th.
Below, Stephen discusses his work.
DogWhat major themes do you pursue in your work?
What major themes do you pursue in your work?
The subject matter is mundane. I paint the objects, spaces, people and materials that I am most familiar with. The themes vary from painting to painting and are meant to be open ended.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up upstate in the town of Webster. It’s a suburb of Rochester.
What inspires you?
Mostly, it’s reflecting on my own experiences in a broader context. Other artists inspire me as well. Not only visual artists, but musicians and writers whose work I admire.
Name three of your favourite painters.
Manet, Rembrandt, Chardin… 

Untitled
Tell us about your practice – how do you start? With an image, an idea, a story?
It depends. There is not a set order, but I might start by thinking very loosely about a subject.  This eventually becomes sketches and even sometimes writing. Then I’ll take photographs or use 3D modelling if I need to. I’ll use any references that can help.  But I do a lot of the work by looking at the painting, and not much else.

Talk about your process – how do you apply paint?
I try to apply paint so it has a physicality. That doesn’t always mean thick. I like the look of semi-opaque to opaque paint.  If I glaze, I usually rub in a transparent pigment with little to no medium.
What materials do you like to use and how do you know when your work is finished?
I use oil paints, sometimes with a little bit of alkyd medium.  I paint on canvas stretched over panel, so the thick paint has less of a chance of cracking off.  Ideally, I know a painting is finished because it seems like it will continue to be interesting once I walk away. Longevity for me has a lot to do with a feeling that the painting continually opens up new meanings, rather than a feeling of closing down. Paintings should also feel relevant and meaningful to my own life.  If they don’t, it can be arbitrary. Sometimes I might have a deadline, and be exhausted from trying to make a painting work. In this case, hopefully nothing in the painting embarrasses me too much, and I just let it go. Reluctantly.
If you could retake any class at the Academy what would it be and why?
I don’t think I could retake any. Twenty years of school is more than enough.
How did your work change over the course of your time at the Academy – especially during your post-graduate year?
When I first came to New York, I was using humor, irony, and contradiction within images. Although I don’t think those things have left my work entirely, at a certain point I really stripped things down. I tried to see what kind of narrative was possible if I let the painting be just the viewer’s presence in dialogue with the subject’s presence. I began to find the dynamic of the mobile viewer and the immobile fiction of the painting really compelling. The Fellowship year was tough, because I stripped things back even further, and tried to see how far I could push aspects of the paintings technically. I found some limits for myself.

Amanda
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given as an artist?
I don’t know if it’s the best, but I remember it.  “This looks like you know to draw, but you don’t know how to do anything else.”

What piece of advice would you give incoming Academy students?
You’re paying a lot of money to improve your work, not to prove how good you are.
Name two quirky things we can find in your studio.
Carpet samples. I used to have a studio rabbit that loved classical music and would lie on his back by my feet as I painted.
Tell us about your NYAA thesis paper.
I wrote about the role of touch in the experience of a painting.  In art history and art theory it’s referred to as haptics. 
What are you reading these days?
I just finished Art and Illusion by Gombrich, and David to Delacroix by Walter Friedlander. Right now, I’m reading a couple of art history books and a collection of essays called Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam.
Do you paint to music, or in silence? If music (or other audio), what?
I sometimes listen to music. Audio books and lectures are great, too.  Silence is probably what I’d prefer most, but it’s not always possible for one reason or another. It’s necessary for parts of the process, though.

Saint Acisclus

Discuss one of your own pieces.
The bed started off as a comical, absurd painting. When I took the obvious humor out, I saw something very subtle, that was more interesting. I must have repainted every part of that painting a dozen times, some more.
Discuss a piece by another artist.
I love polychrome sculptures. There’s one at the Hispanic Society of a Saint Acisclus, a martyr with his throat slit – it’s so strange and present. I especially like walking around it, getting a look at the back of his head from the hallway, and then moving around to see his face.  I circle around it almost like a minimalist sculpture.
If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?
If I didn’t paint, I’d probably want to work in some other art form. Sometimes I’m curious how my paintings would translate into short stories, poems or novels.
Do you have a favorite paint color?
I don’t have a favorite, but I do like subtle temperature shifts and muted color combinations.
Finally, what are your plans for this year?
I have a job working for an artist in Dumbo.  I’ll do that for money, and at night and my days off I’ll continue to work on my paintings.  I have some compositions I’m excited to start. I’ve also been wanting to do some ink drawings lately.

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2015 Chubb Fellows Exhibition

Posted on September 8, 2015

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