Sculpture + Post-Studio Practice: Conversations with Artists

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Experiment Station

Photographs of Matthew Day Jackson's "Hauta" and Pedro Reyes's "Sanatorium"

(Left) Matthew Day Jackson, Hauta, 2012, Photo: David Bebber, Image courtesy of the artist (Right) Pedro Reyes, Sanatorium, dOCUMENTA(13), 2012, Kassel , Germany, Photo: Klaus Ottmann.

The 2012-13 Conversations with Artists season focuses on post-studio practice and explores how artists are redefining the formal language of conventional sculpture. Engage with artists who create participatory, object-based, ephemeral, public, and installation art, including Pedro Reyes’s temporary clinic Sanatorium, where visitors must check in as patients to be prescribed treatments for “urban illnesses,” and Wangechi Mutu’s exploration of perception and identity through the use of repurposed everyday objects.

Oct. 25, 2012: MATTHEW DAY JACKSON
In conversation with Alexander Dumbadze, Assistant Professor of Art History, George Washington University

Nov. 29, 2012: PEDRO REYES
In conversation with Vesela Sretenović, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Phillips Collection

Feb. 28, 2013: TEHCHING HSIEH
In conversation with Anne Goodyear, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

March 21, 2013: JESSICA STOCKHOLDER
In conversation with Klaus Ottmann, Director of the Center for the Study of Modern Art and Curator at Large, The Phillips Collection

April 11, 2013: DANIEL BOZHKOV
In conversation with James Sham, Assistant Professor of Sculpture, George Washington University

April 18, 2013: WANGECHI MUTU
In conversation with Klaus Ottmann, Director of the Center for the Study of Modern Art and Curator at Large, The Phillips Collection

We’ll live tweet from each event this season. Follow us on Twitter at @PhillipsMuseum, and join the conversation. #CWA

Conversations with Artists begin at 6 pm in the Center for the Study of Modern Art studio behind the main museum building. $10; $5 members; free for Phillips International Forum members and students. Reservations are required and can be made online. The conversations are cosponsored by the George Washington University.

Conversation “Crits” and Found Humor

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Meg Clark

Visiting artist Janine Antoni (right) with GW student and artist Rachel Schechtman. Photo: Meg Clark

Students of The George Washington University’s (GW) Fine Arts program have an exceptional opportunity to meet one-on-one with leading and emerging contemporary visual artists that participate in our Conversations with Artists series. The morning after their public program, artists lead critiques (“crits”) of students’ work. They spend about 30 minutes each with four to five students and then conclude the morning with a communal lunch with students and faculty. A mutually inspiring process, the crits are a welcome challenge that proves equal parts exhausting and exhilarating. This semester, I accompanied visiting artists Janine Antoni and William Pope.L to GW and listened in on the crits, fascinated to witness the exchange of ideas between veteran and student.

While I was there, I had the opportunity to observe the evolution of graduate student Wesley Clark’s master thesis work, Constructs (pictured below). Clark’s installation is on view through April 24 in Gallery Classroom 102 at GW’s Smith Hall of Art.

Visiting artist William Pope.L (left) with GW student and artist Wesley Clark. Photo: Dean Kessmann

I also found humor in the studios and work spaces in the department:

"Guide for Consumption and Placement" Photo: Meg Clark

"Flammable Objects" Photo: Meg Clark

Until we meet again, Riccardo

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Meg Clark

Postdoctoral Fellow, Riccardo Venturi, atop a post, at the Center. Photo: Sarah Osborne Bender

As soon as I met our spring Postdoctoral Fellow , Riccardo Venturi, I knew I would enjoy having him in our midst. He has such a wonderful sense of humor, both about himself and the world. One of my (many) favorite things about him is the set of adorably hilarious idiosyncrasies he exhibits on a daily basis. During presentations and class lectures Riccardo must place his materials – his pencil, moleskine notebook, wristwatch, and sometimes his glasses – perfectly parallel to each other and to his laptop from which he is working. If they’re not positioned “just so” he has to stop and fix the arrangement. Then there’s the glass vase he used as a water glass everyday (he admitted he knew it was a vase, but claimed it worked much better as a water glass). There he was, every day: materials perfectly placed, drinking water from a flower vase.

I recently sat down with Riccardo to learn more about how he came to the field of art history, how the fellowship helped further his research, and his experience teaching an art history course at the Center. Continue reading “Until we meet again, Riccardo” »