Join us for the Opening Reception of “Stampede”
Solo Exhibition by Cate Solari, OUR Idea Grant Awardee
Thursday, March 2, 2017
6:00pm – 8:00p
VAIS Gallery, Art Building Room 109
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Join us for the opening reception of Raccogliere – A study of gatherings and public spaces in Florence, Italy” artwork by Louise Astorino.

Reception time is 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Vais Gallery, Art Building Room 109

Louise Astorino is one of the recipients for the UCONN IDEA GRANT.

More Event Details

Wednesday, February 8, 2017, 3:30pm
Artist Presentation – Storrs Campus, Art Building, Room 109

Patrick Earl Hammie is an American visual artist best known for his large-scale portrait and
figurative paintings that draw from art history and visual culture to examine cultural identity, social
equity, and critical aspects of gender and race today. Hammie’s body of work is defined by his
ongoing engagement with the history of painting, and his use of scale, expression, and emotive
subject matter recalls the painterly gestures of the Baroque and Romantic periods. In part his
interest is historical: he studies the pictorial, technical, and narrative conventions of Western art to
explore the ways in which primarily male artists have imagined the body. Considering such
conventions in a contemporary context, he delivers fresh ideals of bodies of color and women that
both disturb the existing cannon and normalize their presence in public art space and
discourse. Hammie is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
His work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad, and he has received
awards and grants from Alliance of Artists Communities with the Joyce Foundation, Indianapolis
Art Center, Tanne Foundation, University of Illinois, Wellesley College, and Zhou B Art Center.
His work is a part of several prominent collections including the Kohler Company Collection,
JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, John Michael Kohler Art Center, and William Benton Museum of
Art. He has been an artist-in-residence at the John Michael Kohler Art Center and was named an
“Artist to Watch” by the International Review of African American Art. Hammie is represented by
Yeelen Gallery in Miami and Kruger Gallery in Chicago.

http://www.instagram.com/patrickearlhammie
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The 2016 Masters of Fine Arts Exhibition: Are We All Here? opened on April 9th featuring work from our current Graduate students in The Department of Art and Art History. UConn Today wrote a piece about the show highlighting Sculptor Amanda Bulger and Painter Kamar Thomas, and exploring the differing inspiration behind their work. The article also mentions video work by Don Burton, installation pieces from Neil Daigle-Orians, and drawings by Kacie Davis.

To see the article in its’ entirety go to UConn Today.

The day is almost here! The 2016 BFA Exhibition begins tomorrow with an opening reception from 6pm-8pm in Artspace Windham Gallery at 480 Main St, Willimantic, Connecticut 06226. 

There will be work on display from our graduating seniors in Sculpture/Ceramics, Photography/Video, Painting/Drawing, Illustration/Animation, Graphic Design, and Printmaking, as well as food donated by local restaurants, and great music. Come out and support our Seniors, and enjoy projects that they have been working on all year.

See the Facebook Page for all of the details!

Here’s a look at our seniors setting up their work.

This year’s Master of Fine Arts Exhibition is here! The exhibition will be in the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut from April 9th – May 8th.

There is an opening reception on Wednesday April 20th from 5pm-7pm.

The exhibition features Amanda Bulger, Don Burton, Kacie Davis Kamar Thomas, and Neil Orians.

Meet our grads here!

UConn MFA Alum, Matthew Jensen, has just received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work in multiple disciplines, which include photography and sculpture. Here is what the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation had to say about his work:

Artist Matthew Jensen’s multi-disciplinary practice combines walking, collecting and rigorous site-specific explorations of landscapes. His projects strive to connect people to places by expanding the traditions of landscape photography to include a range of mediums and actions. Each body of work develops from time spent in publicly accessible landscapes or by examining the way different technologies transform this experience. 

Jensen received his MFA from UConn in 2008. Since then he has become a MacDowell Fellow, participated in residencies at the Queens Museum, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Wave Hill, and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. He has had exhibitions in The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has been featured in The New Yorker.

Click here for more information on his Guggenheim Fellowship. To see more of his work, visit his website at jensen-projects.com

2015 Graduate of the School of Fine Arts, with a concentration in Illustration, Nicole Horsman has been featured in the 40th Anniversary Atlanta Film Festival. She screened her stop-motion animation “Klaus” on April 6th. “Klaus” began as her Senior Project work, completed for the April 2015 BFA Exhibition. “Klaus” was featured in a showcase entitled “Touch of the Puppet Head” which featured live puppetry performances alongside several films.

To see “Klaus” and more of her work go to nicolehorsman.com

Congratulations Nicole!

Our very own Brendan Smalec was one of ten UConn students and alumni to receive a fellowship from the National Science Foundation. UConn Today writes this about the award,

Regarded as one of the premier awards in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines, the NSF awarded 2,000 fellowships this year to support students in the early stages of their research-based master’s or doctoral careers. The fellows will receive an annual stipend of $34,000 for three years and $12,000 support for tuition and fees. The awardees also qualify for international research and professional development opportunities. The total value of the fellowship exceeds $138,000.
For this highly competitive award, applicants must submit research proposals, which are reviewed by expert scientists in their field. NSF fellowship recipients, as well as honorable mentions, represent the most promising young scientists in the nation, and the awards are seen as “investments that will help propel this country’s future innovations and economic growth,” according to a statement released by the agency.

Brendan’s research consists of examining cancer susceptibility and progression in a non-traditional mammalian model, specifically, the Peromyscus leucopus, or white-footed mouse. Working with an inbred line of P. leucopus found to be highly susceptible to developing an adenocarcinoma (cancer from a glandular origin) of the Harderian gland, the project seeks to determine what genetic signatures are present in the inbred mice line that predispose them to developing this cancer, and also what makes it so highly metastatic, since metastasis is usually the cause of death in most cancer-related fatalities.

Along with a BA and MA in Biology, Brendan is also receiving a second degree in Art History from the UConn School of Fine Arts.

See the full story in UConn Today

Join us for the MFA Art Auction in the Art Building Arena Gallery from 5pm-7pm on Thursday, March 31st

There will be a Silent Auction at 6pm and a Live Auction at 7pm with an Art Preview on March 29th

Take a look at some of the work that will be at the auction on MFA Auction Flickr