February 28–March 2, 2023
The celebrated event features new exhibitions and programming with international contemporary artists, including SCAD deFINE ART honoree Jorge Pardo.
The Savannah College of Art and Design presents the 14th edition of SCAD deFINE ART, the university’s annual program of talks, tours, and exhibitions featuring work by contemporary art’s most vital voices. This year’s dynamic programming, presented February 28–March 2, includes a keynote conversation with renowned Cuban-American artist, sculptor, and 2023 SCAD deFINE ART honoree Jorge Pardo; a screening of Argentine-Israeli video artist Mika Rottenberg’s feature film REMOTE; and a keynote lecture by New York-based multidisciplinary artist Rachel Feinstein, among other illuminating gallery talks, panels, and conversations.
The programming complements new exhibitions on view at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, featuring work by Pardo, Rottenberg, Feinstein, and other globally renowned artists including Ann Craven, Hassan Hajjaj, Chase Hall, Gyun Hur, Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong, Josh Sperling, and Ana Bel Lee Washington—an international roster of artists representing countries and regions including Argentina, Cuba, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, South Korea, the UK, and the US.
“SCAD deFINE ART 2023 challenges students, collectors, and lovers of beauty to query the quotidian and question the quixotic,” said SCAD president and Founder Paula Wallace. “Renowned artist Jorge Pardo’s glowing glass installations, fantasy-inspired painted panoramas, and three-dimensional dioramas, immerse viewers in ethereal elegance. In addition to Pardo’s magnificent work, deFINE ART guests will marvel at the myriad other mediums and masterworks on display throughout SCAD MOA. Join us as we celebrate creators, inspire tomorrow’s innovators, and capture the complexities of contemporary life. SCAD defines art.”
Questioning our collective past and present with introspection and whimsy, the exhibitions capture the complexities of contemporary life and include an expansive site-related installation by Jorge Pardo (b. 1963, Cuba); a panoramic presentation of recent paintings by Ann Craven (b. 1967, Boston, MA); an installation and sculpture-centered survey of work by Rachel Feinstein (b. 1971, Fort Defiance, AZ); photographic work by Hassan Hajjaj (b. 1961, Larache, Morocco) and the artist duo Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong (b. 1968, Hong Kong; b. 1968, Hong Kong); the first solo museum exhibition for Chase Hall (b. 1993, Saint Paul, Minn.), presented by SCAD MOA’s Evans Center for African American Studies; a collection of connected bodies of work by SCAD alum Gyun Hur (b. Daegu, South Korea; MFA, sculpture, 2009); a video installation by Mika Rottenberg (b. 1976, Buenos Aires); a two-part solo exhibition showcasing new work by Josh Sperling (b. 1984, Oneonta, NY); and an ode to the artistic vision of Ana Bel Lee Washington (b. 1924, Detroit, Michigan; d. 2000, St. Simons Island, GA). Exhibitions programming also includes the group show Protégé, which celebrates the creative and professional relationships that grow and evolve between students and professors at SCAD and beyond, presented at the university’s Gutstein Gallery.
“We are so honored to showcase these incredible artists here at the SCAD Museum of Art,” says Daniel S. Palmer, Chief Curator of SCAD Museum of Art. “They have created a diverse group of important exhibitions of the highest caliber that I am certain will inspire audiences of all types. As always, the artists we work with bring such ambition, thoughtfulness, and creativity to their projects here. We are so excited to share their brilliance with our students and visitors.”
Many of the university’s top-ranked degree programs—including sculpture, painting, fibers, photography, film, architecture, production design, and furniture design—are represented in this year’s exhibitions and programming. SCAD students and community members can engage with the artists during the three-day event through gallery talks, conversations, master classes, collaborations, and public art.
An opening reception takes place in Savannah at SCAD MOA, Tuesday, February 28, at 6:30pm.
For more information, visit scad.edu/defineart.
