San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) is pleased to announce artist Terry Powers as the recipient of the 2017 Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship. Established in 1998 by the family of renowned painter Richard Diebenkorn, who studied and taught at SFAI beginning in the 1940s, this fellowship makes it possible for a contemporary artist to both teach at SFAI and pursue independent studio work.
Powers will teach two courses during the fall 2017 semester, give a public lecture in the Visiting Artists and Scholars lecture series, and engage with the SFAI community through individual student critiques and other academic activities.
Powers comments: “What an honor to be the next Diebenkorn Fellow! The house I grew up in had a big Diebenkorn poster in the living room, one of the Ocean Park paintings, and I remember spending hours as a young painter trying to figure out how he got paint to look the way it did. Diebenkorn taught me that the Bay Area could be a great and meaningful place to be an artist, and I look forward to teaching in his name.”
Terry Powers is a painter who lives and works in San Francisco. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and his MFA from Stanford University in 2013. He teaches at numerous locations around the Bay Area, including San Francisco Art Institute, Stanford, and California College of Art.
Brett Reichman, Department Head and Associate Professor of Painting, states, “Richard Diebenkorn once said that, ‘It is not a matter of painting life. It’s a matter of giving life to a painting.’ Terry Power’s absolute and freewheeling approach to painting represents that philosophy. His paintings live within a variety of representational modes that ‘… operate as if in a kind of turpentine-fueled art historical drag performance—shifting identities, styles, and paint handling at will.’ Terry’s embrace of painting’s expansive potential is convincing and persuasive. We couldn’t be more pleased to have Terry as our 2017 Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellow.”
Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship
The Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship is dedicated to the memory of distinguished painter Richard Diebenkorn. In January 1946, Diebenkorn enrolled at SFAI as a student, and in September was awarded the school’s Albert Bender Grant, which allowed him to travel and work independently for a year. Diebenkorn went to New York and, when he returned the following year, was offered his first teaching appointment at SFAI. He taught through 1949, and again from 1959 to 1966. The Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship was established in 1998 to honor his contributions as a teacher and to provide a similar opportunity to contemporary artists.
This prestigious award has been given to eighteen artists since 1998, including Brad Brown, Shaun O’Dell, Iona Rozeal Brown, Josephine Taylor, Monica Majoli, Polly Apfelbaum, and Liam Everett. See a complete list of recipients here.
The Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship is funded by the generosity of the family of Richard Diebenkorn.
About SFAI
Founded in 1871, SFAI is one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious institutions in the practice and study of contemporary art. As a diverse community of working artists and scholars, SFAI provides students with a rigorous education in the arts and preparation for a life in the arts through an immersive studio environment, an integrated liberal arts and art history curriculum, and critical engagement with the world. Committed to educating artists who will shape the future of art, culture, and society, SFAI fosters creativity and original thinking in an open, experimental, and interdisciplinary context.
SFAI offers BFA, BA, MFA, and MA degrees, a dual MA/MFA degree, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, and a range of exhibitions, public programs, and public education courses. Notable past faculty and alumni include Lance Acord, Ansel Adams, Kathryn Bigelow, Enrique Chagoya, Angela Davis, Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Kos, George Kuchar, Annie Leibovitz, Barry McGee, Manuel Neri, Catherine Opie, Peter Pau, Laura Poitras, Clifford Still, and Kehinde Wiley.
