School of Visual Arts 2009 Summer Arts Abroad Programs

School of Visual Arts 2009 Summer Arts Abroad Programs

BARCELONA • BERLIN • FLORENCE • GREECE • ROME • SOUTHERN FRANCE/PROVENCE • SHANGHAI
http://www.sva.edu/artsabroad/

When you invest in your talent, you can reinvigorate your passion for making art. This summer, replenish your creative energy. The journey to becoming a skilled and accomplished artist is lifelong. The work is intense. Skills need constant updating. But, an important part of the process is building into your schedule a time for renewal, for new experiences, and for a different perspective. Vacations for artists are not to get away from their work, but rather to find ways to inspire their work with new exuberance and energy. The School of Visual Arts knows what artists need to keep creating and inventing at their personal best: time to reflect and time to work seriously, just for the fun of it.

The journey to becoming a skilled and accomplished artist is lifelong. The work is intense. Skills need constant updating. But, an important part of the process is building into your schedule a time for renewal, for new experiences, and for a different perspective. Vacations for artists are not to get away from their work, but rather to find ways to inspire their work with new exuberance and energy. The School of Visual Arts knows what artists need to keep creating and inventing at their personal best: Time to reflect and time to work seriously, just for the fun of it.
That’s why we continue our Summer Arts Abroad Program every year and why we offer such a broad curriculum. The work is challenging, but we’ve discovered that new experiences empower artists to grow and develop. Different cultures, beautiful environments and living art history inspire your personal work and make it worth your while to travel with us. Student artists aren’t the only people to take advantage our Arts Abroad programs—many artists out of school join us to see the world and polish their skills. College credits, however, are available for all who qualify.

Choose a studio course, like the interdisciplinary workshop in Berlin, immersing oneself in the culture and history of Berlin with side trips to Leipzig and Dresden. Or choose to paint in Barcelona, studying in the studios of Escola d’Arts Plastique I Disseny. Also in Barcelona, we offer Lighting for Portrait and Fashion Photography, teaching the anatomy of a fashion shoot and how to put together a fashion portfolio, shooting in studio and on location.

Meeting with April Gornik - or serendipity…

April Gornik: ‘Sun, Storm, Cloud’ 2004

Meeting with April Gornik - or serendipity…

by Olaf Zalcman

It’s a few years ago that my friend and artist Dennis Tremalio told me about April Gornik, an American painter specializing in (mainly) large land- and seascapes. I was immediately impressed by her very special touch, the elegant composition of her paintings and an unique and somewhat mystical atmosphere emanating from her works. Moreover, I liked how even the most spectacular sceneries would always avoid clichés and the usual sentimentalism of classical landscapes, and instead inspire plenitude and majesty. For me she was definitely a very modern artist.

I regularily kept visiting April’s website, curious about what would be her next work, and never disappointed.
One day I looked again at one of her early works, and for once I read the title: ‘Dream Light’. A familiar image came right away to my mind: ‘el Sonador’ (‘the dreamer’, see picture below), which is what we use to call a mountain peak overlooking a valley near our property in Andalucia - as its outline evokes the silhouette of a sleeping man. The shape as well as the similar name were strong enough to let me share it with April in a message through her website.
I was surprised by her fast and friendly answer, when she told me that ‘her’ mountain was actually in the Caribbean… at least some Spanish connection was there!
However we kept on exchanging emails about her and her art, and she kindly proposed to meet whenever I would be in New York.

Which happened a few days ago. I visited April’s and her husband Eric Fischl’s studios in the Hamptons, at about 2.30 hours drive from Manhattan. I had the chance to meet both artists in their every day environment, a wonderful house built in the woods inside a protected reserve. I happened to learn about April’s sophisticated layering technique, one explanation for the depth of her surfaces and colours. She also elaborated on why she never displays humans nor human objects, which is to avoid providing any hint of scale.
At the question about if she felt like being part of any movement or trend, April expressed her desire to stay away from any classification or label. The conversation came finally to the “Luminists’ (1850-80), pioneers in large scale landscapes. Yet April distanced herself from their messianic vision of the American land. There was no moment April would seem annoyed by any question. She appeared to me as the person I had imagined: a strong minded artist, entirely committed to the task she had chosen of revealing the magic beauty of our world, at a giant scale.

© Olaf Zalcman is a French artist and contributor to kunstjaar2009

- April Gornik: March 12–April 5, 2009, American Academy of Arts & Letters Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts / May 2–July 5, 2009, "The Luminous Landscapes of April Gornik", The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY
- Eric Fischl has gallery shows opening in Paris at the end of April and in Berlin at the beginning of May

‘El Soñador’ in Andalucia

myartspace is launching a new juried art competion -- London Calling 2009.

LONDON CALLING 2009 -- JURIED COMPETITION

A CALL FOR ARTISTS!
myartspace is launching today a new juried art competion -- London Calling 2009.
Highlights about the competition include:

* Final deadline for registration and submission is May 15, 2009.
* Register before December 31, 2008 receive a free 3-month trial subscription to Premium Services.
* Registration fee is $50, but for early registration by March 31, 2009, the fee is $25.
* Fifty finalists and three winners selected by very qualified jury panel.
* Three winners will have their work represented at the Scream Gallery in London in June 2009.
* Winners to be announced by May 31, 2009.
* Competition is open to all myartspace and nyaxe members. Membership is free.

China modern art feels chill (Video)

Dec 11 - China's contemporary art market, which just six months ago seemed unstoppable, is feeling the effects of the financial crisis.
Auction houses, galleries and artists are facing a downturn in business as the disposable income of their clients shrinks.