Congratulations to Nichole Schiller who has been named one of the 10 recipients of the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance 2020 Dianne Komminsk Scholarship!
The 2020 Dianne Komminsk Scholarship is made possible by a generous donation from Ohio Art patron and philanthropist, Dianne Komminsk. MSA is honored to continue her legacy of giving though this scholarship award. This year’s competition received applications from twenty-nine institutions nationwide. The work submitted was strong, diverse, and compelling. MSA is excited to announce this year’s winners! We look forward to sharing more about these talented sculptors in the coming months.
This is a national competition and students currently enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs are eligible. The award includes a $1,500 scholarship and during the next MSA Conference which is in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2021, the 10 scholarship recipients will participate in a group exhibition and present about their work in a formal panel session.
BFA Thesis Exhibition – online May 4 – May 17, 2020 Celebrate the culmination of these graduating seniors! Victoria Morales, Nichole Schiller, Elizabeth Smith, and Caroline Wilson
This exhibition was scheduled to be on display at the TAMU-CC Islander Art Gallery. Unfortunately, the BFA Exhibitions will not be opened to the public as Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi is complying with the Stay at Home Emergency Declaration issued by the City of Corpus Christi.
Continuing to work remotely, the seniors adjusted their exhibitions and have made their exhibitions available to audiences digitally.
To visit the online shows, check out in the links below:
TAMUCC Assistant Professor Richard W. James traveled to University of Tennessee Knoxville during Spring term 2020 to teach a workshop on figure sculpture in clay and present a public lecture Thursday, February 20, 2020, at the School of Art. While on the UTK campus, he met with undergraduate and graduate students for studio visits to discuss their work in ceramics.
Exhibition Dates: March 30-July 1, 2020 Due to COVID-19 protocols and university guidelines, this exhibition was installed in the Weil Gallery but was not open to the public. It is available online below.
Special Thanks to all the faculty and academic institutions who TAPPED recent students and these specific artworks to be included in this exhibition.
Austin Community College – Jill Bedgood Baba Yaga, Kaylixan McAuley Sodom, Paul Schuster Interconnected, Sienna Stolte
Houston Community College – Jessica F. Kreutter Los Diablos de Teloloapan, Bryan Lagunas An Empty Seat and Lost Traditions, Mellany Medina I’m Not Allowed To, Yolanda Osagie You Want Some Drugs?, Janell Pesquera
Del Mar College – Amorette V. Garza Sweet Tooth, Rianna Kirkham Succulent, Rianna Kirkham Masterstudy of Cellini’s Head of Medusa, Kyana Gallaher Mastersudy of Chinard’s Jeanne de L’Orrne de L’Isle, Victoria Gibbons
Texas A&M University – Commerce – Josephine Durkin Lib, Jane Cornish Smith Hive, Jareth Arcane Modified, Katie H. Ritche TBA, David Namaksy
Texas State University – Jennifer Ling Datchuk Serpent, God of Wind (Serpiente, Dios Del Viento), Joel Nieto Everyday Joys, Theresa Sawczyn Lucy, Karly Schlievert I am Broken Down Again , Hentan Stevenson
University of North Texas – Liss Lafluer Sirens of Memory, Sean Lopez Ni la Vida, Ni la Muerte, Diana Rojas-Ponce Broken and Bruised #2, Stephanie Gerhart
University of Texas at San Antonio – Buster Graybill Lineage, Omar Gonzales Santa Sebastiana, Gabi Magaly Nocturnal Observation #1, Chris Moncivias 22 ways to wear a belt, Eric Ryberg
Nocturnal Observation #1, Chris Moncivias
Victoria College – Debra Chronister Holy Nature, Erica Estrada Windows of Perception, Renee Raven Crocheted Fossils, Renee Raven Pent, Ben Sartor POP Art, Ben Sartor, Natalie Brown, and Design II students
Exhibition Dates: February 6-28, 2020 Opening Reception and Gallery Talk: Thursday, February 6, 5-7pm
Titled Exurb, this exhibition focuses on the subject of landscape in which Bajuyo and Brown extend their investigations beyond formal aesthetic elements to include questions of historical context, politics of ownership, and environmental impact.
Leticia Bajuyo transforms suburban stereotypes into symbols and visual markers that delight and at the same time spur a critical stance as she crafts an irony inflected dystopian vision of the suburban fantasy.
Jason Brown creates artwork that engages viewers in a conversation about the environmental cost of energy extraction from the earth as it relates to wants and needs in a consumer culture.
In addition to exhibiting their individual artworks, in response to the Jacksonville area, Bajuyo and Brown created collaborative, site-sensitive installations to facilitate a conversation about landscape in suburban/exurban developments.
Work in Progress is an exhibition of work by current graduate students enrolled in the TAMUCC MFA Studio Art program. The exhibition will display work in progress across a range of disciplines spanning painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, printmaking, and installation by MFA candidates Maclovio Cantu IV, Clarissa Gonzalez, Payton Koranek, Laura Monahan, Robert Neal, Jacqueline Negreros, Emmanuel Sanchez, Jamie Speck, and Carlos Israel Villarreal.
Exhibition Dates: February 6 – February 21 Opening Reception: Thursday, February 6, 6:00 – 8:00pm
On Friday, October 18, Steve Prince welcomed us to his exhibition ‘Kitchen Talk’ at the Islander Art Gallery. Before his lecture, I had the opportunity to sit down and interview him. He opened up about his personal life, religion, culture, politics, and most importantly, his work. Prince is a Virginia-based artist whose work exemplifies his interests in art, music, and religion, addressing issues of social injustice through a metaphorical language of faith, hope, and creativity
A lot of your works deal with love,
social injustice, and faith. Were any of these paintings based on personal
experience? As far as love and faith, I do not see those things broken
apart. Personal experience is what I create with. This is my faith, my love for
humanity, and my love of self. My work is dealing with historical facts and
truths through a spiritual lens. I have created my symbology for my work to
communicate this and challenge our ideas. I want people to challenge themselves
and others on how they look at the world and how we look at each other.
What is your creative process for
starting a new drawing or print? A playground for the creative process I go through is my
sketchbook. This is where I practice my drawing daily. I draw anything I see:
people, places, nature, etc. Most of my days, I interact with people, so a lot
of my drawings consist of people I meet, my girlfriend, my friends, world
events. My work has a lot of information compacted into a space that tells a
narrative. This forces the viewer to have to sit through and analyze my
drawing. My drawings tell stories that each viewer may see differently.
When starting your career in art was
there an event, a person, or idea that inspired you to pursue this dream?Yes, several people helped inspire
me. The very first person to inspire me to become an artist was my brother. He
is an artist as well. When I was young, I would constantly watch him draw. Then
fast forward to high school, I had an art teacher. She saw that I had talent,
so she would pull me aside and work with me. Then in college, I had a mentor
named John Scott. He was the key person to pull it all together for me. I saw
him as a family man, a professor, and a person who was involved with the
community. I quickly saw the impact he had on others, which inspired me even
more.
Has the current political, cultural,
or religious climate influenced your artwork? I see the past, present, and future
as an ongoing continuum. I see the past five years just the same as I see the
past 10 years or 30 years. Let me know which decade you think is good. Each
decade you go back had its own challenges. You can’t go back to America’s
infancy and think those are the good days. They were all warped with a lot of
challenges, and some deep philosophical social issues that this nation was
built upon. So, if I say what has happened in the past two years as far as
social and political issues, they are no different than what has already been
going on. What is important is being conscious and aware of things. I think too
often in the President Obama years everyone thought we had moved to a
post-racial era. Then with this past presidency, it seemed that we went back in
time. This idea of the post-racial era never existed. This was a time of smoke
and mirrors, and people fell asleep on what really was going on around us. My
work aims to bring awareness. I am going back in time and forward in time to
show people connections. I do this to show the work that we must do to overcome
these obstacles.
In your designs, I have noticed a
frequent amount of symbolism. Does this come naturally or is it a conscious
effort? It
is a conscious effort. So much of what I do to develop in terms of symbolism
comes from reading, studying, looking at other artist’s work, hearing stories,
and spirituality. I take all this information and create my own symbolism.
What advice would you give to an
aspiring artist trying to make it in the industry? When I talk to a lot of students,
they often express to me a level of fear of the unknown, what comes next.
Students often ask themselves what the purpose is of being an artist and what
should I say as an artist. These are all great questions you should be asking
yourself. These questions allow the opportunity for you to be open and honest
with yourself. You will be able to realize who you are and what questions you
will want to answer as an artist. As a college student, I continue to work and
study. You are very fortunate to be able to take time and study this stuff. How
many other people who want to be artists have the time to study this stuff?
Many aspiring artists do not have this luxury of being in college. With this
privilege of being an artist comes a lot of responsibility. What are you going
to say through your work? What are you going to speak to? The first person you
should speak to is yourself. You are the first recipient of the work.
For the second year in a row, in collaboration with Jim Moore, director of PAC, Leticia Bajuyo’s sculpture students have created freestanding artworks for the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Annual Furgason Bravo Series.
Thank you to TAMU-CC Communications Specialist Richard Guerrero for creating this video and web photo story about the student artworks.
Displayed in the PAC lobby for patrons to enjoy before the shows, each piece was influenced and inspired by the unique music of Las Cafateras, this year’s first BRAVO performance, with the architecture of the PAC, and/or the idea of performance. Bajuyo is a strong supporter of interdisciplinary opportunities and encouraged the students to use their work in steel to be complimented by additional materials as they planned, designed, and created these unique sculptures.
These sculptures will be on display October 2019-January 2020.
View
full gallery of the 2019 Top 50 Photographers HERE
Photolucida is an arts nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon whose mission is to provide platforms that expand, inspire, educate and connect the regional, national, and international photography community.
CRITICAL MASS
Critical Mass is an annual online program that makes connections within the photography community. Photographers at any level, from anywhere in the world, submit a portfolio of 10 images.
Through a pre-screening process, the field is narrowed to a group of 200 finalists who go on to have their work viewed and voted on by over 200 esteemed international photography professionals.
From the finalist group, the Top 50 are named and a series of awards are given. In the past, awards have included a monograph award, residency awards, solo show awards, and group show inclusion. Critical Mass 2020 will open in May, and remain open for submissions for about four weeks.