San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
SFAI is pleased to announce artist Liam Everett as the recipient of the 2013 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, the fellowship makes it possible for a contemporary artist to both teach at SFAI and pursue independent studio work.
Everett will teach two courses during the Fall 2013 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.
Committed to an artistic practice of intention and discipline, Everett will encourage SFAI students to approach their work with the same urgency, intensity, and care that have become hallmarks of his career. He explains, “My goal is for all my students to be able to manipulate materials and approach their work and ideas with confidence, gaining new insight into themselves as cultural contributors, and to understand contemporary art practice in ways that will enhance their further studies.”
Everett’s work is a testament to the processes of its making. He views painting as a flexible topography, one that discloses the subtleties of high transparency. Avoiding totality or conclusion, his approach is focused on the static present—a sequence of “nows” that demands constant attention to the variable systems at its foundation. While these support structures can be as basic as the wall and the floor, their silent collaboration in Everett’s art play with the viewer in the most complex ways.
Everett has exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including solo exhibitions at Altman Siegel in San Francisco, Paul Kasmin Gallery and White Columns in New York, and Liste 17 in Basel, Switzerland. Last year, Everett was recognized by SFMOMA as a finalist for the coveted SECA Art Award. Everett has completed artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center in Vermont, the Kuhnstlerhaus Bremen in Bremen, Germany, and Asterides in Marseille, France, and is currently a Graduate Fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
The 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 the San Francisco Art Institute 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.
Awarded in alternate years to Bay Area-only artists and then to U.S. artists outside of the Bay Area, this prestigious fellowship has been given to 14 artists, including Brad Brown, Shaun O’Dell, iona rozeal brown, Josephine Taylor, Taravat Talepasand, and most recently, Judie Bamber. Through the semester-long structure of the Fellowship, the residency not only offers each participating artist invaluable time to further their own studio work; it also leaves a deep, lasting impression on SFAI’s students.
The Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship is funded by the generosity of the family of Richard Diebenkorn.
About the San Francisco Art Institute
Founded in 1871, the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), a nonprofit art institution, is a vital convening place for arts communities and an international leader in fine arts education. A small school with global impact—notable faculty and alumni include Richard Diebenkorn, Ansel Adams, Annie Leibovitz, Enrique Chagoya, Kathryn Bigelow, Peter Pau, Paul Kos, George Kuchar, Catherine Opie, Lance Acord, Barry McGee, and Kehinde Wiley—SFAI enrolls approximately 650 students in undergraduate and graduate programs, and offers a wide range of continuing education courses and public programs.
