San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI)
800 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
San Francisco Art Institute announces the appointment of two new faculty members, effective July 1, 2016, as part of its global search to appoint at least ten tenure-track faculty members over five years: Mads Lynnerup, Assistant Professor of New Genres; Taravat Talepsand, Assistant Professor of Painting.
Interim Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jennifer Rissler remarked, “I’m thrilled that SFAI has the opportunity to appoint both Taravat and Mads to its tenure-track faculty base. Together, they bring a compelling range of artistic practices to SFAI—astutely conceptual, innovative, and indicative of the experimental ethos of the school.”
Mads Lynnerup earned an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute. Through performance, video, and installation, he explores the ways art can reach beyond the four walls of a gallery or museum. This exploration often takes his work outside of the studio, where it encourages both direct and indirect social engagement, most recently calling for audience interaction with exercise-focused objects that transform exhibitions into a gym. A Toby Devan Lewis Fellow, Eureka Fellow, and Artadia Award-winner, he has had work exhibited at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.
Taravat Talepsand earned an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been shown internationally, including ARCO Madrid, Art Brussels, Belgium, and Volta 11 in Basel. Solo exhibitions include Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Plane Space, New York, and Beta Pictoris Gallery, Alabama. Her work was featured in the 2010 California Biennial and will be included in the upcoming exhibition In the Fields of Empty Days: Kings, Heroes, Demons and Saints in Iranian Art, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
About San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), founded in 1871, 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, Catherine Opie, Peter Pau, Laura Poitras, and Kehinde Wiley.
