Classmates Rock

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Elizabeth Cook

The sun is out, my black coat is put away, and New York is perfect again.

At the SVA Flatiron Gallery is a two-woman show that you should see if you can. Lulu Zhang and Sarah Dineen are both first-year students in my MFA program, but are producing work of the maturity and complexity of established artists. Damn them!

Sarah Dineen
Certain Dark Things #28

Sarah’s abstract works are big and bold painted collages that are satisfying in size and create intriguing visual spaces.

Sarah Dineen
Certain Dark Things #22

Lulu’s works on paper are dense explorations of obsessive mark-making in ink and paint. Each piece contains hundreds of magical moments which contribute to the dense jungle feeling of the whole painting.

Lulu Zhang
Sunset

Lulu Zhang
Fallen Red

If I were an art adviser, I would recommend you buy these young artists before they’re discovered. But I’m not. I’d like to keep them all to myself, but that would be selfish.

The show runs through April 11th, and the reception is April 3rd from 5 – 7.

Meanwhile, I’ve been painting ogres in an effort to exorcize them. And in a funny way it worked. Now the ogres are my children, not my enemies.

Elizabeth Cook
Emperor Ogre

If you’re not already here, come to New York. Look at the art. Look at the people. Look at the little dogs in their funny coats.

Hibernation

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Elizabeth Cook

I don’t mean to hibernate in winter. I’m not a bear, or even a groundhog. But when it goes on and on with no hope of ending, I find myself staying pretty close to home, especially in the city which requires walking and walking and walking and not just running from one’s front door to the car.

Nonetheless, this being New York, even in hibernation mode I can’t avoid art. My own, of course, since I’m in the studio every day (it’s half a block from my apartment), but other people’s as well. So here’s what I’ve seen and liked lately.

Like Honey is the Sleep of the Just, by Julia Garcia

The BFA Visual and Critical Studies Department at SVA (which teaches multiple art disciplines grounded in art criticism and philosophy) recently hung a show called “Points of Experience”, curated by Isabel Taube. I walked past it several times before realizing that I was enjoying it and should pay more attention.

As in Childhood We Live Sweeping Close to the Sky, by Julia Garcia

Julia Garcia’s paintings attracted me because of their color palettes and paint application. I am a sucker for color. I think it’s my favorite aspect of art.

Then around the corner I ran into Kyle Lefkowitz’s work: a huge sculptural open book full of crazy pages hanging on the wall.

Unrequited: Love Me Like an Open Book, Slam Me Like a Door, by Kyle Lefkowitz

I have done some printmaking and bookmaking while at SVA, and this work reminded me of Esther K. Smith’s “Combo of Crazy Papers” from her excellent book, How to Make Books from Potter Craft.

Esther K. Smith’s example of a Crazy Papers Book

I can’t believe it’s my last semester at SVA, and I haven’t even tried to make a Crazy Papers book!

As for my own work, the urge to paint flowers has not left me, although I am also working on a 25 foot mural (too soon to show). These paintings are probably not finished, but they’re getting there. And then I’ll paint some more. It has been a joy to return to oil paint after a semester drawing and cutting paper. Not surprisingly, I still have all the same painting faults I used to: not enough value contrast, painting too fast, getting discouraged. But thanks to Gamblin Galkyd medium, at least I can paint on my flowers every day.

Flowers, painted left-handed, 12″ x 12″

Flowers, painted right-handed, 12″ x 12″

I hope the flowers make you feel just a hint of Spring coming.

Home Front

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Elizabeth Cook

Our MFA Second-Year group show “Home Front” opened yesterday amid snow flurries. It will remain up at SVA’s Chelsea Gallery until February 1st, and then we will take it down as frantically (one day) as we were casual about hanging it (five days!). Many of you are not in New York to visit the show, so here’s a peek.

Julia Buntaine

Donna Cleary

Elizabeth Cook

George Davis

Nadia Haji Omar

Katrin Hjordisardottir

Rachel Jantzi

Jee Hee Kang

Shinyoung Kim

Yeonji Kim

Andrea McGinty

Jon Sedor

Art Vidrine

Drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, assemblage, video, photography, performance, and some work that defies description. Do yourselves (and us) a favor and come visit! The opening reception is on Thursday, January 23rd from 6 – 8 p.m. at 601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor.

Horror Vacui

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Graduate school rewards exploration. That is, until it doesn’t.

Snakes and Ladders

Last week I handed in my thesis proposal, and during the process of writing, rewriting, rethinking, rewriting, self-doubt, and more rewriting, I realized that it is called a thesis project because it is meant to be a connected body of work.

What’s For Dinner?

Which rules out the explorations I’ve been making: gouache paintings, suicidal paper dolls, murdered rag dolls, self-portraits, drawings of pill bottles, board games with snakes, and woodcuts. In the past year I’ve been all over the place, and it’s been fun, in a wholly stressful way, but now I need to focus.

Murder Crib

Step One: clean my studio. This was either a desperately needed activity or an excellent form of procrastination. I gave away rolls and rolls of colored paper (the raw material for future failed giant origami), several excellent pieces of studio furniture, including my favorite pink chair, primed panels, boxes of still-life props, and a gorgeous ten-foot slab of half-inch glass. The Barbies I kept.

Step Two: hang cream-colored drawing paper, 42″ wide and 30 feet long, around three bare walls of my now empty-ish studio.

Terrifyingly Blank Paper

I’m going back to drawing. Not on pads of paper, but all over my walls. In public. I’m terrified about the mistakes that I’ll make, but I know it’s time that I face my art, my skill, and my talent and see if it’s enough.

And it just keeps going

I have one and a half semesters to go. In no time, SVA is going to throw me out into a brutal art world (some people call this graduation) and I’d better be ready. I have to replace my teachers’ evaluations with my own. I have to stand up for my art.

And I have to start now. It’s that simple, and that difficult.

Ten Days and Counting

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Ten days from today is my last (actually my only) final exam and the first day of this term’s Open Studios. (invitation: http://public.sva.edu/evite/openstudios/) Then my first year as an MFA candidate will be over. One more year to go. And will I have mastered the issues I’m struggling with in my art? Will I have gotten any teaching or writing job offers? Will I have managed to get rid of the growing pile of old art that sits in the middle of my small living room like a post-modern tepee? I’m tempted to burn it, but I’d have to move my sofa and disable the sprinkler system and prepare for the fire department to arrest me… well, you see why the pile is growing.

Jiwon Choi, BFA Fine Arts
Infinity as Dots, Black
Infinity as Dots, White

My first year has been frustrating, exasperating, exhilarating, and did I mention frustrating? I have not taken up drinking or smoking, but my language is admittedly saltier than when I first got here. And sometimes I write it on the walls of my studio. In big black letters. My teachers push me hard to change what I’m doing. It’s their job, and I appreciate the creative ways they torture me. (More salty language.) It’s time to take what I’ve learned this year and begin to plan the work I’ll make for my MFA exhibition and my written thesis. Time is fleeting. (Does that make you think of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, or is that just me? Is there a thesis topic hidden in there somewhere? No. No. Stop it.)

Boyoun Kim, BFA Fine Arts, Printmaking
Secret Pleasure

Boyoun Kim,
BFA Fine Arts, Printmaking
Summer

So the long explanation of why my blog posts have gotten a teensy bit scarce is that I’m busy biting my fingernails and getting ready for the term end. In addition to my exam, I have two group critiques, term review by two strangers, and three days of sitting in my studio trying not to scare off the art-lookers who wander by. They would really rather look in my studio when I’m not there, but what if one of them wants a conversation? What if one of them is a curator? Conundrum. Maybe I’ll just loiter in the hallway as if I am a civilian and then pounce if they look interested. That wouldn’t be creepy at all.

Michael Lee, BFA Fine Arts
Castillo

But in the middle of anguish, there is always art. Especially in New York. Yesterday as I was headed into my studio building I noticed two new exhibitions on the ground floor. Both were by undergraduates. One was posters of movies made by the students in the digital art department. And the other was a beautifully curated small show of BFA students from several different departments.

Ting Yu Tsai
Interior Design
Model

Deep breath. Look at the art. Admire the creativity. Remember why I’m here. And don’t lose my day job.

Split Ends

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

If it were a horse race, the SVA MFA Fine Arts candidates would win going away.

Sara Mejia Kreindler

Rob Campbell

Brian Whiteley

For reasons only slightly known, apparently having to do with booking the gallery, the thesis shows (the class is divided into two shows) are held in January and February before graduation.

Nick Fyhrie

David Jacobs

Naormi Wang

Emily Langmade

I’ve just had my first look at the second thesis show, Split Ends, and was really impressed by the quality of work, the ambition and scale of the installation projects, and how different it is from the first thesis show, We Object.

Feng-Tsung Chan

Dongsuk Lee

This exhibition is primarily installation, sculpture, and video, while the first show was dominated by painting, drawing, and other flat media.

Keith Hoffman

Anna Costa e Silva

I’ve seen most of the Split Ends work develop over the year in the studio, and it is remarkably different when presented in a gallery – transformed by the space, and transforming the space in turn – in a way that doesn’t happen with paintings.

Kwantaeck Park

Part of that comes simply from having to unmake, move, and then remake found-object sculptures and assemblages. Part of it is that in a new space the artist makes new decisions, again in a way that is unlike paintings.

Jamie Sneider

Denise Treizman

This show has dramatic lighting, lots of recorded voices and soundtracks, and impingement of art pieces on one another. Or is that infringement? Or collaboration? In any case, it creates energy and a show that is worth experiencing.

The Visual Arts Gallery is at 601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor, and the exhibition remains up until March 9th.

: Ates Ucul

: Matthew Eck

: Marc Bradley Johnson

SVA MFA Thesis Show: We Object

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Minseop Yoon

The way I figure it, our first semester in SVA’s MFA Fine Arts program is for getting our feet wet, finding the art supply stores, and convincing ourselves that we haven’t made the biggest mistake of our life.

Patrick Shoemaker

Billy Ogawa

Zaza Acevedo

Mark deWilde

Semester number two is when we start to make art that matters. But we’re still all over the map. We’re juggling subject matter, media, color, meaning, fabrication, and

Jessica Bowman

installation issues. At least. Because making art is the hardest thing we’ve ever done, and now we’re trying to be good at it, while people watch and criticize. And we’re still not sure it isn’t a mistake to spend oh-my-god how much money? in order to leave ourselves less employable than before we started.

Autumn-Grace Dougherty

Which gives the fine arts students only the first semester of their second year to make everything that goes into their MFA thesis

Yae Ly

Denise Hwa-In Yoon

show. Make it. Make it coherent and meaningful. Make it visually and intellectually arresting. And, by the way, how’s that written thesis coming?

Tina Han

The show We Object (curated by Wallace Whitney) which is open at SVA’s Visual Arts Gallery (601 West 26th Street, suite 1502) displays work from half of the class of 2013. The other half will be shown next month. I only give you the timeline so that you will understand the pressure under

Sohee Koo (S. Art K.)

Eric Graham

which this art was created – pressure that doesn’t show in the art itself, which is, by turns, playful, skilled, vibrant, unusual, unsettling, disciplined, undisciplined, unexpected, and arresting.

Bo Kim

Chi Zhang

A thesis show by its nature has no common theme. It is a group of works not created to stand together but forced to share visual and actual space. Sometimes that’s a weakness, but not in We Object.

Pantelis Klonaris

This is art that would work alone, but also works wonderfully in a group show. It argues, creates contrasts, creates synergies, and surprises the viewer. After seeing

So Na Lee

all of the galleries that combine to make up the show, I found myself starting over in the first room to see it all again. It is a feast; not moveable like Paris, but still ephemeral. These artists may never show together again, and this exhibit closes on January 26th.

Cassandra Levine

the least untrue / elizabeth cook

"Of all lies, art is the least untrue." -Gustave Flaubert

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