Our BFA students won several major awards at the Connecticut Art Directors Club Awards Night. Recent graduate Mikey Karpiel earned the Judge’s Choice Award and a Gold Award for “Dog Days,” and a Silver Award for “New Appliance.” Juror Aaron Goodman said, “The combination of style and substance made it one of my favorites in the show.” Current students Fei Fei Luo and Haley Taylor also accepted scholarship awards for Illustration and Graphic design, respectively.

The Connecticut Art Directors Club is  the leading independent professional organization serving the Connecticut creative community.

Congratulations, UConn artists!

From the conceptual to the material to the technical, contemporary sculptural practices represent a rich, multifaceted area of investigation for art students.

Utilizing various techniques such as metal fabrication, constructed environments with sound and video projection and labor intensive installations, Ashley Frato, Antonio Campelli, Andrew Janevey and Katrina Orsini are four young artists and students who are consciously embracing the formal, historical, technical, political and personal features of this practice in ways that deserve our attention.

AS IS is an exhibition that reflects both the depth and span of some of the artwork being created in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Connecticut.

We hope you can join us the opening at ArtSpace Windham, on March 27 at 7:30 PM.

The Florence 2013 Study Abroad Exhibition will be on display in the Arena Gallery of the Art Building, from February 10-14, 2014.

An exhibition reception will be held on Wednesday, February 12, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., in the Arena Gallery.

For additional information, please contact Professor Deborah Dancy at deborah.dancy@uconn.edu or (860) 486-3371.

SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fund) Awards provide students with up to $4,000 to undertake summer research or creative projects under the supervision of UConn faculty members. The application deadline is February 3, 2014.  More information about SURF can be found at http://ugradresearch.uconn.edu/surf/. The Office of Undergraduate Research is holding an information session on Thursday, January 23 from 12:30-1:30 pm in Laurel Hall 305 and students are also welcome to email the Office of Undergraduate Research at our@uconn.edu.

If you are interested in studying abroad in Copenhagen during Summer 2014, applications (including references) are due on February 1.

ARTH 3993 Copenhagen Architecture and Cityscape is a 3-credit course that runs from May 25 to June 14. The course is open to all upper-level students with an interest in art, architecture, urban and open-space planning, and architecture –from the Middle Ages up to and including exciting, new projects currently underway to make Copenhagen a terrific place to live.

This is the fourth time Professor Givens has offered the class, and it attracts an interesting mix of students from different fields.  It’s an enjoyable way to meet a major requirement and to introduce yourself to travel abroad.

Copenhagen’s many museums are outstanding, and the local art scene in nearby Malmo Sweden has proved appealing for Art and Art History majors, too.

Please contact Professor Jean Givens (jean.givens@uconn.edu) with  questions. And  apply ASAP if you are interested in the course, since space is limited.

Communication Design students will spend the Spring Semester 2014 in London studying at Central St. Martins under the guidance of Art & Art History Professor Mark Zurolo.  The students are writing a blog, full of great stories and images, to document their experience: http://ucdesignuk.tumblr.com.

The Central Saint Martins BA (Honours) in Graphic Design is structured around small group tutorials, workshops and critiques and emphasizes solving visual communication problems through experimentation beyond the commercially driven constraints of contemporary design practice. UConn students will be distributed across tutorial groups and engage with project briefs and other required and extra-curricular activities as faciliated by CSM BAGD faculty alongside regular CSM degree students. UConn students will concurrently enroll in Communication Design 3 and Design Survey that will be taught on-site by UConn Associate Professor of Design, Mark Zurolo.

Students will live in the Central Saint Martins student housing where they will share kitchen and living facilities with a range of other UK students. By living in the center of London, students will have the opportunity to visit studios, museums, and historical sites, and attend a wide variety of cultural events. The goal of the program is to produce designers with a global perspective who are prepared to develop their interests cultivated upon this trip into their professional and academic lives. Each student will return with an understanding of the international design community, a network of designers whom they can contact in the future, and a skill set honed at the premier art school in the UK.

A group of Studio Art and Art History majors has spent the semester studying at the Palazzo Rucellai with Professor Deborah Dancy.  They have used photography, painting and drawing as media for exploring the city, its art, and its history.  They’ll be home soon – changed by the experience.  Some quotes from the students as they prepare to finish their studies:

“I walk through narrow streets, surrounded on all sides by buildings that have been standing for centuries. I use historical and artistic masterpieces as landmarks on my walks to unfamiliar places. I see, touch and have an entire experience with the art I have always studied and admired. It is like a dream.”

“I have seen some of the most beautiful things, [eaten] some of the most fantastic food, and met some of the most amazing people during my time in Florence.  All I want is more. I want to see more, to do more… I wish there was a way I could wander forever; to get lost in the world but be okay with it.  I just want to travel the world and draw what I see.  I feel as if there is not enough time to see all there is to see and experience all there is to experience… Everything seems too short and there is never enough time in a day. I just know this adventure will pass in the blink of an eye.”

“… I still hope to meet the rest of this semester with an open mind because I know for a fact that there are still experiences to be had, even though part of me is already looking forward to [coming back] to a heavy work-load, multiple deadlines, and late nights. The reason for my excitement to go back is not as much homesick as it is an anxiousness to use what I’ve discovered here towards getting my career started. I do believe that this experience has had an incredible influence on me and I’m excited that it’s both almost over, and that there is still a good deal of time left to spend here.”

To hear more from the students, visit their blog at http://uconnflorence.blogspot.com

February 3 through April 14

Contemporary Art Galleries  University Of Connecticut

Artist Reception & DISPLAY AS MARKETING Symposium April 14 4pm – 7pm

Martin Basher + Gabriele Beveridge + Dike Blair + Josephine Meckseper + Mika Tajima

DISPLAY: MARKETING AS ART features works that illustrate, engage, and challenge the visual language of commercialism. It is both about the seductive nature of effective product display and a critique concerning last year’s record-breaking auction prices. A $142 million price tag for a work of art blatantly marginalizes the significance of the artist’s original intent. DISPLAY challenges the viewer to inspect the blurring of lines that separate art and commodity. This initial idea was developed from the overwhelming sensory experiences one has upon entering high-end stores such as Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, or Madison Avenue’s elite boutiques. 

 The work of the five artists presented here echoes and appropriates the visual language and materials associated with fashionable product display to different ends. The artists fabricate their creative commentaries utilizing chrome fixtures and shelving, reflective materials and mirrors, various types of display panels, and colorfully packaged objects. Their works follow the rich tradition of removing an object or material from its normal context and putting it into an art specific context. The recontextualisation of everyday objects became a hallmark of the 20th century beginning with Picasso’s and Braque’s Synthetic Cubism, followed by Duchamp’s experimentations with “ready-mades.” Since then, the trend to employ found objects and embed them with new meaning has gone through numerous cycles. The seven installations presented here are part of that continuum, referencing art history while adding new perspectives. 

Each of these sculptures employs images never meant to stand on their own, but rather to expand the iconography created by the artists to be incorporated into their more encompassing art content. Where Herman Miller’s iconic cubicles are transformed into un-enterable minimalist cubes, every work likewise includes and incorporates materialistic objects such as Noguchi lamps and modernist furniture. 

This exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of Walbridge Capital and Kristi Ann Matus.

For more information: 860. 486. 1511

CROSSTALK @ CAG

University of Connecticut, Storrs Campus

Week one – Jesper Just – Nov. 4 to Nov. 10

Week two – Clinton Watkins – Nov. 11 to Nov.17

Week three – The Complaint Choir: Tokyo Nov. 18 to Nov. 24

Week four – Janet Biggs Nov. 25 to Dec. 13

Art and Art History students participating in  SAIL (Student Artist Initiative for Leadership) with Professor Ray DiCapua are engaged in projects to transform the Department.  They’ve installed a chalkboard mural space in one hallway to host student work, are building an alumni network to enhance professional development, and have begun a series of video conversations, “Art ReStart,” to explore what it means to be an art student: http://vimeo.com/channels/607421

The SAIL group has approached its mission with energy and creativity.  “In my 30 years of teaching here, I have not witnessed anything quite like this,” notes Professor DiCapua, the group’s faculty mentor.

Faculty and professional staff are visiting with the group and offering advice and support for the different projects.  Stay tuned as the work progresses!

Prospective students and their families are invited to visit the Department on Monday, October 14th, 2014. It’s an ideal day for a visit because high schools typically have a vacation day but UConn doesn’t, so prospective students can see us in action.

The day begins with a 10 am joint session for all prospective students and their families. This one-hour session will feature presentations by the Dean and Assistant Dean as well as professional staff from Admissions and Financial Aid.

At 11 am, prospective students for Art & Art History will have the chance to visit classes, including Drawing I, Basic Studio: Painting, and Aqua Media. Prospective students will then have a casual lunch with current students and faculty in the Arena Gallery, 12-1 pm. At 1 pm, we’ll have special demonstrations in our digital photography and sculpture labs and printmaking studios. Students will have the option of joining a campus tour at 2 pm.

There is no cost for this day – attendees are asked to RSVP to
SFAOffice@uconn.edu with their contact information and area of interest.