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CRITICAL MASS highlights the faculty of The Southwest School of Art and features all new work, never before exhibited in San Antonio. Viewers will be treated to an extensive survey of artistic styles and disciplines, while receiving a glimpse into each faculty member’s current ideas and practice.
Director of Exhibitions, Mary Mikel Stump, is excited for this opportunity to showcase the high caliber of these accomplished artists who, as educators, also help to advance the visual arts by teaching art as a form of inquiry and discovery.
“While working on this exhibition, I have been impressed, yet again, by the breadth of interests and talents of our faculty. Comprised of highly formal and technically challenging practices, each of these works does a wonderful job of reflecting the creative practice of the working faculty who made them, as well as giving us an insight into that creative practice.”
I Ain’t Gonna Study Hate No More (A Raft for All mix) was created for the exhibition by Justin Boyd, Sculpture & Integrated Media Department chair and BFA faculty member. Boyd used common objects, recorded sound, and wood to deliver a visual and auditory commentary on the importance of inclusion. As a complement to its visual imagery, the synthesized sculpture incorporates audio recordings of deconstructed elements of language to explore the ability of sounds to offer new purpose to “objects” that have lived a prior life.
CRITICAL MASS includes works of faculty members Margaret Craig, Casey Galloway, Joe Harjo, Greg Johnson, Blake Kennedy, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Victor Pagona, Jillian Palone, Daniel Rios Rodriguez, Sarah Roberts, Chris Sauter, Ryan Takaba, and Justin Boyd.
The exhibition opens on Jan. 26 at The Southwest School of Art, Santikos Building, 1201 Navarro St. An opening reception will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Russell Hill Rogers Galleries. All exhibitions at the school are free and open to the public.
In addition to being a nationally recognized artist, each full-time faculty member at The Southwest School of Art is also an accomplished professor, teaching in the school’s Bachelor of Fine Arts and community programs. Ebony Coleman, a third-year BFA student at the SSA, especially appreciates the opportunity to be instructed by someone who is highly regarded as both an artist and as an educator:
“The small class sizes and the facilities are just amazing … the feedback I’ve gotten from faculty members has helped me so much in improving my concepts and my designs; helping me to grow and develop my ideas as an artist. We have teachers that are working artists that really understand what it takes to actually be a professional in this career field.”
Making and exhibiting new work is a common passion among the faculty members at The Southwest School of Art, which often places them on an international stage. Printmaking Chair and BFA faculty member Margaret Craig will spend the early months of 2017 in Berlin, Germany as artist in residence through Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum. Craig, a pioneer in her field, is credited with inventing a non-toxic form of etching and has demonstrated this and other techniques at national conferences. With a background in biology as well as art, she has a strong interest in ecology and ecosystems, which helps explain a key theme that can be found in her work – transformation of ocean reef trash from around the world into sculptures and installations.
BFA faculty member Jennifer Ling Datchuk will serve as artist in residence with the European Ceramic Work Center in Oisterwijk, Netherlands from June through August of 2017. In addition to being an artist and educator, Datchuk is also a business owner, having recently opened the Porcelain Power Factory. She explains how her art and social conscience came together in starting the business:
“The role of the artist is more important today than ever and I believe in the power of objects and the responsibility of the maker to fight for what they believe. With that in mind, I started the Porcelain Power Factory, which is an extension of my current practice and provides me with the opportunity to produce objects that bring awareness to underrepresented peoples and marginalized ideas.”
BFA NEWS?A Portfolio Prep Day for prospective BFA students will be hosted by The Southwest School of Art on Saturday, Jan. 28. Prospective students will have the opportunity to meet with an admissions representative or senior faculty member for a one-on-one portfolio review. It will also be a great opportunity for the event participants to explore CRITICAL MASS, an exhibition of work by SSA faculty. Portfolio Prep Day will take place from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Ellison Lecture Hall at the Santikos Building. RSVP by emailing admission@swschool.org, or by calling (210) 200-8208.
