Beverly McIver Artist Talk

Come join us for a discussion with artist Beverly McIver about her work tonight, Feb. 15th in the Katzen Center Recital Hall at 6pm.

"Beverly McIver, born in 1962, grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Drawing at North Carolina Central University and her Master of Fine Arts at Pennsylvania State University.

Explorations of racial identity are inseparable from McIver’s consciousness as an artist. She experienced and absorbed issues of racial identity as a black child in the South at the height of the Civil Rights movement. These issues have become personified in her paintings so that a portrait of the artist is truly a complex comment on biases, prejudices and preconceptions associated with stereotypical notions of being African American.

As both artist and scholar, McIver explores America’s long history of negative portrayal of African Americans, from 19^th century minstrel shows to the hip-hop era. By reclaiming the imagery as her own, she infuses it with pride and a power to control the impact of racist imagery on the collective conscience. The resulting body of work conveys pride as well as making peace with preconceived notions. Via her subjects, McIver connects her own experience with the breadth of the human experience through an examination of how “otherness” in any of its manifestations affects identity and one’s place in the world.

She has accumulated numerous honors and awards for her work, including an Anonymous Was a Woman award, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a fellowship at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies, and a Tiffany Foundation award. In 2009, McIver was one of 30 artists invited to participate in the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts. Her work titled Coming Home Hurts was selected from the exhibition for the Academy’s purchase program and will be donated to an American museum. 2010 witnesses Face to Face, Boulder MoCA’s solo exhibition of the artist’s bold portraits.

Her work is now in the permanent collections of such institutions as Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Duke University; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Asheville Museum of Art; the North Carolina Museum of Art; the Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC; the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA.

McIver has held teaching positions at Pennsylvania State University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, Duke University, and Arizona State University-Tempe. In 2007, she returned to her alma mater, North Carolina Central University, as Suntrust Endowed Chair Professor of Art and was also awarded an honorary doctorate."-Bio from LewAllen Contemporary.

In Spite of the Snow...

Saturday's AU MFA Open Studios were are hit. Even in the midst of a snow storm, we had a great turn out and support from faculty, friends and other DC locals.

Representing a variety of different creative approaches, the MFA students are dedicated, engaging, and talented. With oil paintings, installation, fabrics, intricate drawings, and much more we provide a glimpse into the diversity that exists in the contemporary art world. We each work out of our studios on the second floor of the Katzen Art Center and for many of us it is a second home. Varying hours and different practices keeps the hallway busy and you can find someone working at all times of the day. Our crit room provides a space for meal time, socializing and many conversations about art, artists, and the world in which we produce our work. The MFA Open Studios is a night to welcome others into our creative space and invite you to experience first hand where we work and create.

For those of you who were not able to make it, here is a list of the artists:

• Claire Feng: www.clairefeng.com
• Matthew Shelley
• Brendan Loper: www.brendanloper.com
• Jerri Castillo: www.jerricastillo.com
• Yumi Hogan: www.yumihogan.com
• Annette Isham: www.annettewashburneisham.com
• Meggan Rees Eckert: www.megganrees.com
• Mindy Hirt: www.mindyhirt.com
• Amy Kreiger: www.amykreiger.com
• Carlie Leagjeld: www.carlieleagjeld.com
• Rachel Sitkin: www.rachelsitkin.com
• Kim Gillespie
• Kate Demong: katedemong@gmail.com
• Hedieh Ilchi: www.hediehart.com
• Emily Biondo: www.emilybiondo.com
• Sarah Miller
• Jillian Bonahoom: www.jillianbonahoom.com
• Bobby Coleman: studio267.blogspot.com
• Michael Sloan
• Michael Dotson: www.michael-dotson.com
• Victoria Greising: vrgreising.blogspot.com

AU Studio Art on Facebook!

Just wanted to let everyone know that now you can find AU Studio Art on Facebook. Its a great place to find information about events going on through the program. Check it out here.

Service Aesthetics: Is it really art?

By Kristin Bruch

One of my hopes for the new year is to spark conversations from this blog. Tori, my new fellow blog editor, and I are planning to share reviews of the exhibitions we see, comments on art in the making, and thoughts on articles we read. (Side note: if you have anything you would like to contribute, please let us know!)

We'd like to start the dialogue with the topic of aesthetics. While aesthetics is a fairly difficult word to spell, the word is even more difficult to define. To my understanding, relational aesthetics refers to the art of the 1990s that is more about human interaction and social context. Aesthetic art is not about personal contemplation, no longer about sitting reflectively in front of a Rothko. Fair enough, right?

One group of artists branched out of relational aesthetics to what is called service aesthetics. Service aesthetics is defined by a one-on-one connection between two people while the artist is performing a free service for the viewer, or "client."

Let me give you an example of service aesthetics that Steven Madoff discussed in the September 2008 issue of Artforum. "...at the Whitney Biennial in New York last March, artist Bert Rodriguez presented In the Beginning . . . , 2008. The piece consisted of a simulacrum of a generic psychologist’s office— complete with de rigueur stuffed leather chairs and potted plant—in which the artist (although he is not a trained therapist) held forty-five-minute personal consultations. By nature, these sessions were intensely personal for both the subject and the artist, moving toward a symbolic enactment of therapeutic release."

The question becomes, is this really art? Aren't these artists just performing regular tasks that we typically pay for all the time? Although my classmates may disagree with me, this is art. These artists are pushing the idea of aesthetics in a new way. They are taking the idea of the service economy we live in every day and putting a personal connection back into it, all for free, to demonstrate the lack of interpersonal connections in the transactions of our everyday lives. In my opinion, art serves as a mirror of the world, and this is one aspect of the world that needs to be addressed.

Service aesthetics is art. Granted, we get to decide whether it is good or bad. What do you think?

To leave you with some thoughts.. check out the video below from Bert Rodriguez, the nontraditional therapist, discussing his art:

Visiting Artist #1: Kurt Kauper

For the past two days, Kurt Kauper has been visiting American University. Being the first visiting artist for spring 2010, Kauper started our semester with inspiration and insight.

With back to back critiques and an artist talk on Tuesday night (January 19^th), a few cups of coffee were definitely needed. I believe, and if I may speak for my fellow MFA students, that his visit was a success. The crits have been well received and many of us are left with new ideas and a long list of artists to look up.

Not only were the critiques helpful, his artist talk was engaging and informing. Presenting and answering questions for a little over an hour, Kauper discussed influences, ideas, and process. He led us through his bodies of work starting with an Ingres study, done after high school, to his famous figures of present day. His works are impressively rendered and dialogue with the accuracy of modern day computer graphics. Attention is paid to every hair and birthmark seen on his subjects. The pieces invite the viewer to stand in awe of his technique and in question of the environments in which he places his figures and the choice of clothing or lack thereof. Kauper is famously known for his Diva Series, but has also painted the notorious faces of Carey Grant, Bobby Orr, and Barack and Michelle Obama.

Kauper’s works, bio, and contact can be viewed at www.kurtkauper.com

Check back for updates on our future visiting artists.

Spring Schedule: (all talks will be at the Katzen Art Center, AU)

• February 8^th: Julie Langsam: 6p in Crit Space
• February 16^th: Beverly McIver: 6p in Recital Hall
• March 4^th: Hilary Harkness: 6p in Crit Space
• April 1^st: Erik Thor Sandberg: 6p in Recital Hall