Un Punto d'Incontro: MFA Exhibition Catalog

UN PUNTO D’INCONTRO SACI 2019 MFA Exhibition Alina Akbar George Alexander Maria Manuela Bosch Julia Bowden Robin DeSantis Rachel Dziga Rebecca Jane MacLachlan Koyal Raheja Caline Touma

12-18 April 2019 Frittelli Arte Contemporanea Via Val di Marina 15, Florence, Italy www.frittelliarte.it

3

4

Forward Steven Brittan, SACI President

It is truly inspiring to see the transformation of the artists’ works, both individually and collectively, from the time they began two years ago. So much depends on the chemistry and compatibility of artists as they strive to build the quality and import of their work in a group setting. The 2019 MFA in Studio Art graduating class worked well together, constantly sharing their ideas and learning experiences to support each other, and at the same time developing their own skills, techniques and pursuits.

This may explain how they landed on the theme and title of their final exhibition: Un Punto d’Incontro.

When one considers the cultural and geographical diversity of this group of artists, it seems apropos that they would try to find some common ground in their

explorations and discussions through the artworks that they bring together in the Frittelli Contemporary Art Gallery. It is also particularly appropriate—in a time of global crises of identity politics and a heightened fear of the other created by politicians, that they would raise awareness through their own expression so expertly through different media.

So, while there is diversity in works produced by these artists, there is a “meeting point,” not just physically—but emotionally, socially and politically through their work.

I invite all of you to join us in celebrating this important milestone for our graduating artists and wish them all the success as they embark on the next stage of their lives as artists and activists.

5

Introductions Filipe Rocha da Silva, MFA in Studio Art Program Director

Un Punto d’Incontro is an excellent title for a final exhibition of a Master in Fine Arts program, including artists from different cities and continents.

But what is incontro? Is there something in common between the artists? Do they share more than the same space?

It is frequent today to affirm specific interests and identities, and multiculturalism seems far away, lost in the 21st century.

Why would such a diverse group meet in Florence and engage in the process that culminates in this exhibition?

Regardless of all difficulties, art and education today remains a fertile ground for communication and coexistence.

Maybe Florence, this center of European culture at its best, exists only because it was receptive to Eastern and Southern influences. It is the right place to start rebuilding necessary bridges, in today’s Babel, made of soundbites of antagonistic standpoints.

The inspired title represents a convergence of essentially different works into a minimal geometric element…a point: Alina Akbar shows her fleeting, emotional self-

6

representations; Caline Touma brings Neoclassical drawings, distorted by intense tension and movement; Koyal Raheja installs airy spacious surfaces, expressing the beauty, but also the tragedies of labor; George Alexander celebrates the daily resilience and victory of the spirit of his people against annihilation; Julia Bowden makes visible the persistence of the chaotic growth of nature within the geometric white cube; Rebecca Jane MacLachlan’s work is also concerned with nature, but on the contrary reveals a design concealed in the most disorderly appearances; Rachel Dziga, through her cartoons and graphic novel, uses her very unique sense of humor and a deep knowledge of science and politics, to critically comment on reality; Robin DeSantis proposes a very poetic interactive dialogue within the community and each individual.

As a group, a punto, they are a whole different new reality, a puzzle built during the last two years and crystalized in this surprising way.

This was an exercise in freedom of expression, coexistence, intercommunication and complementarity, which is destined to reproduce and multiply. The spirit of Un Punto d’Incontro will spread from the walls of this great gallery of art, Frittelli, and potentially permeate to the rest of the world.

Camilla Torna, MFA in Communication Design Program Director “The eye does not see things, but images of things that mean other things.”

- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972 There is nothing more exciting in the practice of Communication Design than the creation of a new identity.

Definitely a complex matter, the creation of identity is currently undergoing a the shift to a next level. Designers focus more and more on the intangible (services and processes) rather than on the tangible (such as products).

Understanding this shift triggers the reflection on the new role of communication designers in society.

Design of a logo and strict guidelines have been the rule for decades. At one point (1981), also thanks to a technology that was not printing on paper, MTV Music Television chose to go dynamic with a logo containing different graphics: identities have never been the same since. With dynamic projects such as the book covers of the publisher Zone Books or the several logo images of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (by Bruce Mau, 1985 and 1993), new languages are created, where variability is welcome and fixity is just out of the question.

Identities are unable to stand still (Brooklyn Museum by 2x4, 2004) and logos disappear in the texture of carefully designed visual systems (City of Porto by White

Design, 2014 or Jewish Museum by Sagmeister&Walsh, 2014).

Digital technologies take this dynamic identity to the next natural development, generative design: countless logos, generated by meteorological data such as in Visit Nordkyn (NeueDesign, 2010) or by Processing algorithm (MIT Media Lab, 2011) set the new standards.

The new role of designers creating tools rather than designs, finally steers this process to collaborative platforms, such as the Bologna City Branding ebologna.it website where everybody can insert a different word expressing the meaning of city creating therefore a different logo every time.

A city is definitely a “punto d’incontro.” It is made of layers, buildings, networks, traffic, but it is also a crossroads of many lives, hopes, projects, cultures. Even if a city is a very tangible entity, its essence is hard to grasp. Focusing on her hometown Montevideo, Maria Manuela Bosch has managed to find a balance between the communication needs of a city towards tourists and the feelings of identity of the Montevideanos, with the design of a visual system that definitely gives birth to a new identity and could develop as a collaborative platform.

7

8

Alina Akbar MFA in Studio Art

Alina Akbar uses an agile, amorphous style to create work based on the unknown aspect of “Self,” or a “Dialogue with the inward (Batin) and outward (Zaahir) self.” This self-observation allows Akbar to uncover the psychological dimensions of the human mind, such as trauma, curiosity, abandonment, and loss. With dense layering, she creates a transparency that also represents the illegibility of her mind, intersecting and coinciding with memories of being rejected and accepted, constructed and deconstructed, admired and attacked – all depicted on paper.

These drawings are autonomous pieces that are statements on their own – personal speeches that have traveled from the inner to the outer space of being; monumental statements that have caused trauma and pleasure, incubation of chaos, and refinery of order; challenging statements that have shaken the symmetry of her thoughts. With each stroke she asks: Who owes you an approval?

Alina Akbar (b. 1992, Islamabad) received her BFA with honors from the National College of Arts in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in 2014. She has participated in residencies based in Morocco and Pakistan, and has widely exhibited locally and internationally. Her work has been published in Imago Mundi’s Venice Biennale project along with several other publications. Akbar is receiving her MFA in Studio Art from Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy. www.behance.net/AlinaAkbar

Left: Baatin Kay Khuwaab. / Baatin’s Dreams, mixed media, 100 x 70 cm, 2018 Above: Detail of Baatin Ka Zameer / Baatin’s Conscience, mixed media, 70 x 100 cm, 2018

9

Alina Akbar Top: Baatin Ka Zameer / Baatin’s Conscience, mixed media, 70 x 100 cm, 2018 Bottom: Zahir Se Jung - II. / A War With Zahir - II., mixed media, 70 x 100 cm, 2018 Right: Zahir Se Jung - I. / A War With Zahir - I, mixed media, 100 x 70 cm, 2018

10

11

George Alexander MFA in Studio Art

George Alexander’s work represents a moment in thought.

In these paintings, part of an ongoing series, he depicts an astronaut whose mission is to help humanity realize that we are on the same journey together as we search for purpose and meaning in life. The work suggests both waiting and thinking, as if the astronaut is trying to figure out how to help us, but cannot think of how.

George began developing a unique style using the principles and methods he learned at the Institute of American Indian Arts, watching Sci-Fi movies, and looking at graffiti and street art for inspiration. He found the bright colors of graffiti to be brilliant and the hurriedness energetic.

Watching Sci-Fi gave him an idea of what the future could be like if we fail to change our ways of living on this planet. This gave him a vision of coming together as one without labels used to separate one another, which brought him to the dilemma of looking for true meaning in life. Thus, the astronaut figure was created.

George Alexander graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2015. Because of his dedication to his practice, George was honored as a SITE Santa Fe Scholar and received multiple awards from the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. Navajo artist Tony Abeyta recognized George’s passion for painting and began to mentor him.

George now continues his education in Florence, Italy, and is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at Studio Arts College International, where he continues his painting practice and has developed a new passion for sculpting. After he graduates, he will continue painting and sculpting wherever life takes him.

Left: Heavy Thoughts, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 75 cm, 2018 Right: Waking Up From a Dream, acrylic on canvas, 152 x 190 cm, 2018

13

George Alexander Above: Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 190 x 190 cm, 2019 Right: Waiting, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2018

14

15

Maria Manuela Bosch MFA in Communication Design

monTEVIdeo amigo: a new identity for the capital of Uruguay Designing a visual system for such a complex entity like a nation or a city brings designers away from the concept of “brand” and to the concept of a more intangible “identity.” New technologies support this new approach of liquid identities and their evolution into a collaborative platform.

The current identity of Montevideo, created in 2016 by I + D studio, is based on the concept of “diversity,” represented by abstract shapes in different colors. Manuela Bosch’s research starts with the question of whether Montevideanos fully identify with this (rather ordinary and “cliche”) concept of “diversity.”

Maria Manuela was born and raised in Uruguay, a third world country where lack of discipline and education affects various fields of knowledge including graphic design.

Her aim is to evolve as a designer and interpret the communication needs of her country. By creating a strong identity for the city of Montevideo designed for both tourists and citizens, she hopes to help lead Uruguay into a “new era” of design and recognition.

“Montevideo Amigo” is a new identity proposal arising from the visual qualities of local elements, such as tiles and Art Déco lettering characteristic of the the city’s golden age.

Left: Campaign Poster, Montevideo Amigo, A1 size (59.4 x 84.1 cm each), 2019 Above: Montevideo Amigo logo on merchandise option, 2019

17

Maria Manuela Bosch Above: #TEVI, A3 size (29.7 x 42 cm), 2019 Right: Campaign Poster, Montevideo Amigo, A1 size (59.4 x 84.1 cm), 2019

18

19

Julia Bowden MFA in Studio Art

Julia Bowden studies the philosophies of nature through explorations of rhizomatic and binary growth within the gallery white cube.

Iterations of a seed are exposed through transparent layered drawings, allowing the viewer to see how a seed would grow rhizomatically, or without a common thread. Seeds spreading out and growing in a seemingly chaotic, yet systematic, order take over each drawing. Sealed together with resin, the drawings will eventually deconstruct and crumble over time. The illustration of growth is tied to its ultimate decomposition.

Julia Bowden was born in North Carolina, surrounded by nature.

She studied painting and art history at MICA, graduating with a double major in 2013. After three years of plein air painting competitions, Julia Bowden moved to Florence, Italy, in 2016.

Her interest in depicting nature became a permanent obsession while she was completing a Post-Baccalaureate in Studio Art Certificate at SACI and continuing on to a Masters of Fine Arts in Studio Art.

Diversely, the binary growth in both the bronze and natural branches of each piece refers to the life the artwork had before, an homage to its past, decomposing state.

In an experimental process, the artist casts the bronze by burning away the natural branch, making the sculpture the only remnant of the decaying branch. The quiet solitude of the white cube, the international definition of a gallery space, shows nature reclaiming the man-made structure.

The cycle of life and death, growth and decay, precious and worthless, and rhizomatic and binary are all conversations in Julia Bowden’s current work.

Left: Seeds III, pencil and resin on tissue paper, 62 x 51 cm, 2019 Above: Remain I, bronze and wood, March 2019

21

Julia Bowden Above: Installation view, bronze and wood, March 2019 Right: Seeds II, pencil and resin on tissue paper, 76 x 52 cm, 2019

22

23

24

Robin DeSantis MFA in Studio Art

“We live more and more in a posthuman, virtual world, where the idea of a moral standard of good and evil, of a path leading to a perfect world, no longer exists.

Happily, we do still have what I call the utopias of proximity. We cannot ‘change the world,’ but we can talk to our neighbor, ask him a question…We can try to act on what we find around us, in the place where we are.”

– Christian Boltanski Since the fall of 2017, Robin DeSantis has facilitated weekly activities with the artists of Fili e Colori art and therapy center in Florence. Projects have included an exchange of recipes, tours of local museums, and a series of spoken word performances, surveying themes of memory, home, and daydreaming.

Formerly a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic and Artful Healing Coordinator at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Robin DeSantis is an interdisciplinary artist and art educator. Community outreach and social exchange form the crux of her artistic practice. Using mixed media ranging from photo and video to installation and performance, Robin’s primary motive is to challenge social constructs and hidden biases. She is interested in the nuances of our daily routines and gestures.

Left: Alessandro, digital color print, 42 x 59.4 cm, 2019 Above: All’ora di pranzo, still image from video, 2018

25

Robin DeSantis Above: Altrove (Elsewhere), detail of solo exhibition, SACI’s Maidoff Gallery, February 2019 Right: Ilda, digital color print, 42 x 59.4 cm, 2019

26

27

Rachel Dziga MFA in Studio Art

Art is a universal language that must be violated, manipulated, and continually changed in order to serve any purpose to man and society.

Rachel Dziga’s work evolved through several mediums of the art language before taking root in comics. She chose comics for their timelessness and flexibility.

The medium has been employed throughout time, from early cave paintings that depicted the story of the hunt and elaborate biblical frescoes of Renaissance churches to pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and the evergrowing cultural phenomena of the Marvel and DC universes.

Rachel believes that, as artists, we are entrusted to communicate knowledge in order to promote curiosity and foster a community of rebellious citizens who engage in discourse over the progression of society. This humanistic concept hearkens back to the SciArtists who created and sustained the allure of Florence.

Rachel Dziga received her BS in Biochemistry at the University of Little Rock, AR. She is an international artist focused on tapping into the intersection of reality and magic. Infinity is where she finds her spark, where she is able to weave myths of the ancient into the fabrics of the future. Rachel has exhibited works in a variety of mediums, including video, performance, installation, and graphic design.

She is currently working on her first graphic novel, Texmexica.

“Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.�

- Leonardo da Vinci

Left: How to Become an Artist, serigraphy print, A4 (29.7 x 21 cm), 2018 Above: Listen to Nature (detail), serigraphy print, A4 (29.7 x 21 cm), 2018

29

Rachel Dziga Above and right: pages from Texmexica, ink and digital on paper, A4 (29.7 x 21 cm), 2019

30

31

32

Rebecca Jane MacLachlan MFA in Studio Art

“Indeed, if gardens were not dug over at the proper time, they would soon be good for nothing.

Do we not first have to clear, and then cultivate the ground at each season of the year?” -Excerpt from a letter by Henri Matisse to Mr. Henry Clifford It was this clearing, digging, and turning over of the metaphorical “ground,” as well as working from observation in the garden at Palazzo dei Cartelloni, that allowed Rebecca MacLachlan to uncover her unique visual language. Over the course of a year, she worked on a series of eight etchings on large zinc plates. This medium allowed her to physically dig into something substantial so that she could express her multilayered approach. Each resulting image is unique in that it expresses an individual perception of space and allows the viewer to be pulled into each “garden” for his or her own experience of interpretation.

Rebecca Jane MacLachlan (b.

1978) is an American artist who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking and Drawing from Colorado State University in 2001.

She also studied printmaking in 2000 at the Santa Chiara Study Center in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy. From 2001 to 2017, she pursued a career in administration and event planning. 2017 marked her return to fine art, with printmaking as her primary medium, as well as her return to Italy.

Instagram: @rwinkler46

From the series Giardini Incolti Left and above: Untitled, intaglio prints, 70 x 50 cm and 50 x 70 cm (detail above), 2019

33

Rebecca Jane MacLachlan From the series Giardini Incolti Above and right: Untitled, intaglio prints, 70x50cm and 50x70cm, 2019

34

35

Koyal Raheja MFA in Studio Art

Assembly Line is a reconciliation with the termination of several industrial factory lands. Upon close observation, the minute details reveal light invocations with which one can engage, questioning the durational vitality and aesthetics of abandonment and regeneration of a fertile landscape.

The work itself is an anthology of suspended elements that cite the artist’s memory of the factory spaces, to which she refers as a place of protection and play. These elements come together to create a passage within the gallery space with its own laws.

Koyal Raheja (b. 1992, India) studied at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India. She has exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and public spaces. Her work in a group show titled Ghosts of image(In) Nation was presented at the Ă–recomm Festival 2013- Memory on Trial: Media, Citizenship and Social Justice at MalmĂś University, Sweden. https://cargocollective.com/ koyalraheja

While passing through from either side, an action is staged, one that contributes to disorienting us. What we see is a crisis of perception: we become and contribute to becoming both us and those around us, others, the ghosts, or, in any case, suspect figures with revealed, vulnerable traits.

Left and above from Assembly Line, 14 Panel Textile Corridor, mixed media on cotton-silk fiber, various sizes, 2019

37

Koyal Raheja Above: Panel 11, slip, sand, and pigments on cotton-silk fiber, 110 x 135 cm, 2019 Right: Assembly Line, 14 panel textile corridor, pigment, lead, and sand on cotton-silk fiber, each panel 110 x 135 cm, 2019

38

39

Caline Touma MFA in Studio Art

As a multifaceted artist, Caline tries to challenge the internal world of her subjects by using various mediums and research.

She hopes to convey more than the human body and to integrate a deeper, transparent, spiritual, and supernatural quality into the work. This investigation of the human figure helps her to better understand the functionality and energy of an individual. Health and fitness are also important themes in her work. “The power and fragility of the body through mind and muscle connection is the vital message I would like my audience to experience and understand. An idea that is beyond basic human form and a material world, but, rather, focused on rediscovering one’s inner peace through patience, discipline, and virtue.” - Caline Touma

Caline Touma is a Canadian Lebanese artist born in Dubai, U.A.E in 1991. She has always used art as an aid for expressing her emotions, ideas, and visions, whether in the form of a painting, drawing, song, sculpture, or animation. Her artwork is informed by her various points of view on social, political, and cultural issues. Caline received her BFA degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD University). www.behance.net/caline12115a63

Left: A New Path, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2019 Above: Portrait of One, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2018

41

Caline Touma Above: Spiritual Flame, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2019 Right: Seized Conscious, graphite on paper, 210 x 150 cm, 2018

42

43

Studio Arts College International Master of Fine Art Programs

SACI’s community of MFA students works in a creative environment of rigorous critical and technical inquiry utilizing the unique artistic and cultural resources of Florence, Italy to prepare students for careers as artists and college instructors. For a duration of two years, students live and work in the city that, during the Renaissance, revolutionized art and has since served as an inspiration and catalyst for generations of artists.

By exploiting fully the advantages available to emerging artists through advanced study in Florence, SACI MFA students can become highly competitive when seeking an artistic professional career and university level teaching positions. Throughout their lives, they will be able to realize work reflecting their unique experience and deep understanding of Italian art and the nature of the artist’s role in society. www.saci-florence.edu

44

Frittelli Arte Contemporanea Gallery of Contemporary Fine Art

Frittelli Arte Contemporanea opened at its current location in 2006 in the northwest area of Florence. The main space hosts temporary exhibitions by renowned Italian and international artists, while a section of the structure, called “Le Stanze,” is dedicated to collateral exhibitions.

The gallery pays special attention to post-war Italian abstract art (Vinicio Berti, Piero Dorazio, Mauro Reggiani), Analytical Painting (Riccardo Guarneri, Paolo Masi, Lucio Pozzi), Visual Poetry (Nanni Balestrini, Tomaso Binga, Ketty La Rocca, Lucia Marcucci, Eugenio Miccini, Luciano Ori, Lamberto Pignotti), artists such as Georges Adéagbo, Giuseppe Chiari, Gianni Bertini, Pino Pascali, Mimmo Rotella, Arturo Vermi, and new generations (Andrea Francolino, Luca Matti, Susana Serpas Soriano), with a special focus on photography (Aurelio Amendola, Paola Di Bello, Nicole Gravier, Paola Mattioli, Libera Mazzoleni).

Among the objectives of the gallery is the critical and philological recognition of art in Italy from the 50s to today, also pursued through close cooperation with museums, foundations, and public institutions, and dialogue with artists, curators, critics, art historians and collectors. The gallery is home to the Pino Pascali Graphic Art Archive, the Frittelli Archive for the works of Gianni Bertini, and the Frittelli Archive for the works of Vinicio Berti. www.frittelliarte.it/en/

45

EXHIBITION This catalog is published in conjunction with the exhibition UN PUNTO D’INCONTRO at Frittelli Arte Contemporanea, Via Val di Marina 15, Florence, Italy, from the 12-18th of April 2019. The exhibition features the final projects of graduating students in the MFA in Studio Art and MFA in Communication Design programs at Studio Arts College International (SACI) in Florence, Italy.

TEXTS BY Steven Brittan (SACI President), Filipe Rocha da Silva (Director, MFA in Studio Art), Camilla Torna (Director, MFA in Communication Design) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Lisa & Simone Frattelli, Lucia Minunno, Špela Zidar EXHIBITION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Luca Carosi GRAPHIC DESIGN / COVER DESIGN Naomi Muirhead / George Alexander PHOTO CREDITS Michaela Mau, Jacopo Santini, and the artists COPY EDITING Christina Gednalske PRINTED BY Litografia I.P. - Florence, Italy ISBN 9788885495029 Studio Arts College International Palazzo dei Cartelloni Via Sant’Antonino, 11 50123 Florence, Italy info@saci-florence.edu www.saci-florence.edu Copyright © 2019 Studio Arts College International, SACI Press. All rights reserved.

PRESS 46

INDEX

Forward

5

Introductions

6

Alina Akbar

9

George Alexander 13

Maria Manuela Bosch 17

Julia Bowden 21

Robin DeSantis 25

Rachel Dziga 29

Rebecca Jane MacLachlan 33 Koyal Raheja 37 Caline Touma 41 Studio Arts College International 44 Frittelli Arte Contemporanea 45

47

ISBN 9788885495029