The Academy Blog

Postgraduate Fellows Exhibition 2010

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Don’t miss it! – “None Taken” Fellows Exhibition

The New York Academy of Art is pleased to present “None Taken” an exhibition of new work by the 2010 Fellows of the New York Academy of Art.

None Taken, an exhibition of new work by the 2010 Fellows, Sept 8 to October 10, 2010
The exhibition will remain on view through Sunday, October 3. This exhibition is free and open to the public 2 – 8 pm or by appointment. Closed Tuesdays and holidays.

“None Taken” reveals the extraordinary impact and infinite creative possibilities that emerge when you juxtapose time-honored techniques with a contemporary artist’s vision. A Fellowship at the New York Academy of Art provides an unparalleled opportunity for an artist to pursue an independent body of work while immersed in a creatively challenging and supportive environment. The only program of its kind, this exceptional residency – and the resulting exhibition – continues to present a powerful case for deeply informed, rigorously trained conceptual figurative art.

Will Kurtz’s smoking, drinking, sitting-on-the-front-porch people are not figures, not sculptures, but a nation we know from the check-out line and bus stop. By making his family and friends out of landfill he suggests that what we view as disposable is anything but.

Panni Malekzadeh’s work keeps the dreams of “Once upon a time…” and “… happily ever after,” provisionally alive with beautifully rendered, poetically conceived fantasies sprinkled with unicorns, fairy dust and sexual politics.

Peter Mühlhäußer‘s steely, pre-pubescent boys are acting out culturally specific global narratives. Vulnerable and aggressive, toy-like and precisely observed, these polymorphic seedlings are the past, present and the future simultaneously.

Previous Fellows of the Academy include Ali Banisadr (Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects), Amy Bennett (Richard Heller Gallery) and Helen Verhoeven (Wallspace). New York Academy of Art Fellows are now represented by galleries in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and abroad and have been featured in art fairs around the globe, including Art Basel, Art Basel Miami and Scope.

Expansion/Renovations: Connecting

Mike Smith, Operations Manager at the Academy, invites us to walk through the new opening which will connect the two buildings for the new New York Academy of Art.


Follow our blog and see regular updates on the project! See our Flickr page for more photos, and our YouTube page for more videos. Please click here to contribute to the project.

CE Offers Something for Everyone (Fall 2010)

A new year is starting (school year, that is) and Continuing Education at the Academy has many exciting new classes. Resolve to improve a technique, learn something new, and improve your studio skills. Click on a class below for scheduling details and enroll now.

Current MFA students and Alumni receive a 20% discount off tuition!

 To register, email John Cichowski – or call him at 212 966 0300 x968.

Sometimes You Have to Fight Fire with Water

by Jason Sho Green (MFA 2011)

My project for this residency began as an investigation of the evolution of memory.

Third Prettiest Girl by Jason Sho Green
“Third Prettiest Girl”

Initially my concept was to do a series of paintings in Giverny, then stash them away and attempt to re-create the paintings from memory, then to do so over and over again until I arrived at a series that began with something completely from observation and ended with images completely fabricated from my memory. From that idea, my project has evolved into a similar thing dealing with memory but with the subject being a portrait of a young woman I know in NY, whose face I knew I wouldn’t see for the four weeks during my residency in Giverny and travels in Barcelona and Madrid.

Hill Top View by Jason Sho Green
Hill Top View
Monet’s Gardens by Jason Sho Green
Monet’s Gardens
Musée d’Orsay by Jason Sho Green
Musée d’Orsay

But upon beginning work on this series, I found that the final paintings were too similar. I could draw her face too well from memory, however didn’t have the time during the residency (only 2 weeks) to fully explore and render the paintings.

Concurrently, I had been working in my sketchbook daily, drawing panoramic views of my surroundings, in the airplane (see here for the sketch), in the gardens, in front of museums, etc, and those turned out to be far more interesting than my original project. 

Working in this vein, I have combined all the small linen panels I’d prepared (including the ones with already painted portraits) into one large canvas. I have been doing a panoramic painting of our large studio, capturing the movements of my studio mates and the architecture and light of our workspace. Hope this will capture both the evolution of my project and the passing of time as the other artists move in and out of the studio in the coming week.

A while back, an ex-girlfriend/model was looking at my paintings and said, “You’re going to hate this, but why don’t you just paint like you draw?” She was spot on. I had gotten stuck in one of those things where I got wrapped up in painting as I had been taught to paint in class and forgot that there are other ways to solve visual problems. Now I’m trying attack this conceptual problem with a technical strength. Switching it up from “fighting fire with fire” to “fighting fire with water” is how I think of it.

Studio in Giverny
The studio… works in progress.

I think we’re all perversely looking forward to the critiques with Wade Schuman. Everybody seems to have gotten a good start on their works: Ian has a butchered pig head in his studio for a still life, I have a canvas resembling Frankenstein that’s quickly being filled, Amber is working on some exciting drawings with all these odd French materials. It’s been sweet to get on an early start for the second and final year of our MFA program.

Expansion/Renovations: Press, Sculpture Studios, Ventilation

Mike Smith continues the tour of the Academy’s summer renovations and expansion. He highlights the new Griffon lithography press and takes us through the new sculpture studios in the Garden Level. He also steps into the dedicated classroom on 2nd floor, pointing out the new fresh air ventilation system.

Follow our blog and see regular updates on the project! See our Flickr page for more photos.
Please click here to contribute to the project.

End Days of Summer

A Review by Maria Kozak (MFA 2011)
August is a slow month in the art world as almost everyone is on vacation, however there are a couple of see-worthy openings this week:

Artwork by Nicholas Kuszyk
R. Nicholas Kuszyk – click for a larger image

If you are near the Academy in TriBeCa on Friday night (Aug 20) then check out this pop gallery opening featuring Nick Kuszyk at 186 Duane St. between Greenwich and Hudson from 6-10 pm. Kuszyk makes intricate, sometimes Bosch-like paintings of his ever-evolving robot society.

Artwork by Francesco Longenecker
Francesco Longenecker

On Saturday night (Aug 21), check out the opening of New Paintings curated by Academy alumna Renee Bovenzi. A snapshot of what artists are painting right now, it features many other alumni including Francesco Longenecker and Ali Banisadr. The show is at 560 Broadway, 3rd floor, Suite 305 and the opening is from 6-8 pm.

Artwork by Aurel Schmidt
Aurel Schmidt

If you are out East on Saturday night, then stop by the Fireplace Project in the Springs for Aurel Schmidt‘s solo show, opening from 6-8 pm. Schmidt makes beautiful drawings composed of decay and rot. Her work is included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial.

Also, don’t miss Glenn Horowitz in East Hampton with Will Cotton‘s amazing cake sculpture.

Sculpture by Will Cotton
Will Cotton

Start the Presses!

The printmaking program at the Academy is getting a big addition – as in a 1300 lbs. lithography press and several hundred pounds of litho stones!

Chair of Faculty and Printmaking coordinator, John Jacobsmeyer stands next to the Griffin Series I lithography press

This new equipment will facilitate a more robust printmaking curriculum offering a Printmaking track which will include courses such as “The Figure in Lithography†and “Narrative Printmaking.â€

Chair of Faculty and Printmaking coordinator, John Jacobsmeyer stands next to the Griffin Series I lithography press prior to its final installation in the printshop at the Academy.

For more information about the press and the new Printmaking track, please email John Jacobsmeyer.

Snapshots in Giverny

Faculty guide Wade Schuman shares some snapshots of things he likes in Giverny.

A group photo of students in Giverny
The Giveny Group: Gary, Ian, Jessie, Emily, Cara, Amber, Jason and Steve.
A detail of Jonah and the Whale, by Louis Brandin
A detail of Louis Brandin’s Jonah and the Whale at the Louvre.

A photo of Emily Adams studio space at the Terra Foundation
With a vase of roses, Emily Adams’ studio space at the Terra Foundation.