VCUarts Department of Painting + Printmaking brings inspiring artists together with students through public lectures, one-on-one studio visits and group seminars. The Visiting Artists’ lectures are reflective of unique artistic practices and perspectives on culture that consider the urgent issues of art today. VCUarts Department of Painting + Printmaking is a national leader in studio research and practice, with a commitment to broadening the understanding of two-dimensional media in all of its forms.
Invited by Department Chair, Arnold Joseph Kemp, the 2013-2014 VCUarts Department of Painting + Printmaking Visiting Artists include Matt Connors, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Sean Joseph Patrick Carney, Mary Weatherford, Ralph Pugay, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Jeffery Gibson, D-L Alvarez, Kristin Lucas, Chris Johanson, and B. Wurtz.
Drawn from the history of painting, avant-garde music, and design, Matt Connor’s installations embody at times theatrical instances of formal and political thought. Connors was included in the Walker Art Center’s 2013 exhibition Painter Painter. He is a 2012 Guggenheim Foundation fellow.
Daniel Joseph Martinez strategically deploys a keen intelligence, a wicked sense of humor and the full range of available media in his practice to construct his uniquely tough-minded brand of aesthetic inquiry. Martinez represented the United States in the International Biennale of Cairo, Museum of Modern Art, Cairo, 2006.
Sean Joseph Patrick Carney’s practice uses multiple forms of digital and live media. He is the founding director of Social Malpractice Publishing, a label specializing in publishing artist books existing at the intersection of visual art and concrete comedy.
Mary Weatherford’s latest paintings, each streaked with custom strips of neon light, proceed from the understanding of a particular site. California Water Wars, The Grapes of Wrath, the Bakersfield Sound, Tule Fog, Killer Kern, and big oil inspire Weatherford’s Bakersfield Paintings.
Ralph Pugay’s conflation of philosophical inquiry, popular media, and word play results in paintings that perform an allegorical social critique. Pugay, a 2013 Joan Mitchell Foundation fellow, will have a solo show at VCU’s Fine Arts Building Gallery in 2013.
Sara Greenberger Rafferty’s printed work is inspired by television, photographs of iconic performers, and alternative color theories. She has exhibited at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, PDX, OR and the Jewish Museum, New York.
Jeffery Gibson intermingles elements of traditional Native American art with contemporary artistic references. Gibson’s paintings, prints and sculptures are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Museum of the American Indian.
D-L Alvarez’s latest drawings and and narrative videos examine pedagogy and cinema: in particular the relationship of the two in Blackboard Jungle (1955) and To Sir With Love (1967), both starring Sidney Potier. Alvarez collaborates with writer Kevin Killian and the San Francisco Poet’s Theater.
Kristin Lucas’ work responds to uncanny overlaps of virtual and lived realities, and to the fast-changing mediascape that reconfigures our perception and identity. Her videos and prints resonate with a sense of social isolation and alienation from the computer/television/electronic media that she posits as a surrogate for personal interaction.
Chris Johanson paintings and installation include a melange of Californian shamans and charlatans, working stiffs and aimless drifters. Johanson has had solo exhibitions at MOCA Pacific Design Center; the Malmo Konsthall; SFMOMA; and the UCLA Hammer Museum.
B. Wurtz’s transforms commonplace objects through juxtaposition into colorful images that transcend mediums of painting, sculpture and print. Wurtz has exhibited at MoMA P.S.1, MCA Chicago, and Moderna Museet. He will exhibit at VCU’s Fine Arts Building Gallery in 2014.
Lectures are held at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.
VCUarts is the #1 ranked public arts & design program in the country, according to US News & World Report.
