2023 MFA JANUARY COLLOQUIUM: ART, CRAFT + IDENTITY
The false dichotomy and hierarchy between art and craft can be dissolved by looking at the larger framing of identity. How have power structures been woven into the making of things and how have objects served power structures in the world? All art-making exists within contexts. Power and perception shape how art is thought of, categorized and understood, at times creating hierarchies between mediums and methods. Considering how identity intersects with material and meaning in a studio practice, how can we use this lens to reframe the false dichotomy between art and craft for 2023 and beyond?
2023 COLLOQUIUM PROGRAMMING
OPENING EVENT + ANJALI SRINIVASAN ARTIST TALK
WEDNESDAY 1/4/24 | 6:00pm | VIA ZOOM
*Open to the Public
Welcome + Colloquium Overview from Program Director AMY GIESE (6pm EST) followed by an Artist Talk with glass artist and MassArt faculty ANJALI SRINIVASAN (7pm EST). REGISTER
IMAGE: “Unda” by Anjali Srinivasan. Courtesy of the artist.
*Contact gradprogram@massart.edu for password info.
KEYNOTE LECTURE
Taking Imagination Seriously: Re-shaping Urban Airspace
THURSDAY 1/5/23 | 6.30pm | VIA ZOOM
*Open to the public
Janet Echelman sculpts at the scale of buildings and city blocks. Echelman’s work defies categorization, as it intersects Sculpture, Architecture, Urban Design, Material Science, Structural & Aeronautical Engineering, and Computer Science. Echelman’s art transforms with wind and light, and shifts from being “an object you look at, into an experience you can get lost in.”
Image courtesy Janet Echelman
*Contact gradprogram@massart.edu for password info.
PANEL DISCUSSION
IMBUING LIFE INTO MATTER: HOW MATERIALS HOLD MEANING
FRIDAY 1/6/23 | 2-4:30pm | VIA ZOOM
*Open to the Public
Panelists: Patricia Miranda, Gina Siepel, Jeffrey Nowlin
Moderated by Amy Giese
*Contact gradprogram@massart.edu for password info.
2023 COLLOQUIUM | ART,CRAFT + IDENTITY | VISITING ARTISTS + SPEAKERS
Amy Giese is an artist and educator living in Boston, MA. Giese’s practice is grounded in photography but often is out at the edges of the medium, critiquing the materials of production and consumption, as well as searching for points of intersection with other mediums. Her work is also an ongoing attempt to location the self within distinct places and spaces, whether physical, psychological or virtual. Her work has been exhibited in the US, China, New Zealand, Czechia, and Scotland. She received her BA in Fine Arts from Amherst College (Amherst, MA) and an MFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design (New York, NY). She is currently the Program Director of the MFA in Fine Arts, low-residency at MassArt in Boston.
Anjali Srinivasan‘s background in creative practice stems from collaborations with traditional glass artisans in India since 1998, on research and design initiatives aimed at socio-economic empowerment. She studied Accessories Design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi, holds a BFA from Alfred University, New York, and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Srinivasan lives and works between India and the United States. As an Associate Professor at MassArt and and Director at ChoChoMa Studios, Bangalore, she is invested in notions of “biological craftsmanship” and “crowd-created” entities.
Patricia Miranda is an artist, curator, educator, and founder of the artist-run orgs The Crit Lab and MAPSpace, where she developed residencies in Port Chester, Peekskill, and Italy. In 2021 she founded the Lace Archive, an historical community archive of thousands of donated lace works and family histories. She is a noted expert on the history and use of natural dyes and pigments, and teaches about environmentally sustainable art practices. As faculty at Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts (2005-19) she led the first study abroad program in Prato, Italy (2017). Her solo exhibition at Garrison Art Center (2021) was featured in the Brooklyn Rail. Read more about Patricia Miranda HERE.
Gina Siepel is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and woodworker. Their artistic practice reflects an engagement with place, history, queer experience, and ecology, and their work integrates conceptual concerns and craftsmanship with a focus on wood as a natural and a cultural material. Gina’s works have been shown in museums and galleries nationally, and she has been a fellow/artist-in-residence at arts organizations around the country, including Skowhegan, the Winterthur Museum, and Mildred’s Lane. Gina holds a BFA from the School of Art + Design at SUNY Purchase and an MFA from the Maine College of Art. They have taught at Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Mass Art, and the New Hampshire Institute of Art MFA program. Gina is a current Artist-in-Residence at the MacLeish Field Station at Smith College.
Jeffrey Nowlin is an artist, a maker and researcher. He earned his BFA in Sculpture from Boston University in 2010, which included painting, printmaking, ceramics and collage, and his MFA at MassArt in 3D Fine Arts in 2019. He currently resides in Boston, where he actively exhibits work. He has volunteered in the local arts community, serving as a steering member for the Cambridge Artists Alliance and volunteer at Olmsted Green in Boston. Nowlin’s studies in art began early when he was encouraged to paint, draw and read. He first used oil paint while still in high school. He began sewing in childhood, a skill that he has employed into the present. Nowlin investigates the form of the body, traumatic experience and personal narrative in his sculptures. He utilizes reclaimed clothing and conscripted objects in his work to ground the viewer in a sense of the body and subjective perception in the everyday.