Careers + SMFA Alumni

REVIEW BOARDS

“I always try to choose faculty that don’t work in my mediums— that I haven’t worked with before in classes. I like to get faculty that don’t know my work and its history because I know that when I show sculptures in a gallery, it won’t be just metalsmiths looking at my work—in fact, half of the people won’t even be artists. My most recent Review Board felt like everything came together. It helped me to see connections in my work I hadn’t seen before. I was standing before these two artists, and they could hear my voice. They could see my potential.”

Damaris Swass, BFA ’18

to their material choices, and having access to working artist faculty helps students to contextualize their work beyond an academic environment.” “Mentorship with students is a really long-term understanding of what the students are up to. It’s about maintaining those close relationships to make sure that we can advise you throughout your school experience about your work, your ideas, your goals for the future, and all those kinds of good things. Our view of mentorship is we want you to be successful in whatever it is you choose to do.” Ethan Murrow, Faculty Tanya Crane, Faculty

Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez BFA ’03 Victor is a self-dubbed “prolifi c artisan” whose work spans illustration, graffi ti, fashion design, mixed-media installations, his own line of toys, and an award-winning creative agency, Street Th eory, that he founded and runs with his wife, Liza. “A huge infl uence on my personal work is the ability to think like an illustrator, and a product designer, and a fine artist, and to combine all of those things when working on a piece.” Victor’s “Neo-Indigenous” style is unmistakable, whether in his commissioned murals around the world, his gallery exhibitions, or his work in fashion design: powerful imagery drawing on graffi ti and street culture, boldly mixing pop culture and traditional Mexican imagery, with the purpose of “engaging an audience in a dialogue on cultural authenticity driven by self-expression.” diverse they are in terms of the students that they accept — the students that they allow to have a platform. It doesn’t matt er how you identify. Being a Mexican artist dealing with subject matt er of immigration and politics: that’s all encouraged.” “A thing that I really respect about SMFA is how 48 Careers + SMFA Alumni

Kate Gilbert, MFA ’13

Kate is an artist and curator who, through her role as executive director of Now + Th ere, is transforming the public art conversation in Boston. Th e nonprofi t’s core mission is to “awe, illuminate, challenge, unsett le, confound, provoke, and, at times, off end.” It works with local and international artists engaging in timely and critical public conversations, highlighting the role of public art in strengthening and connecting communities throughout the city. Kate says, “SMFA has a really wonderful, non-disciplinary way of helping artists identify what’s most important to them. It doesn’t say you have to be a painter, or you have to be a sculptor. It says, ‘You’re an artist with an important voice. Now, what is that voice?’”

+ SMFA ALUMNI

CAREERS

“I’m an intern.” Just imagine that for a minute. Where would you Your career will be one of your greatest creations at SMFA. As you pursue your enthusiasm and strengthen your skills, you’ll become better prepared for the work you want to do. Internships, mentors, alumni, visiting artists, the Tufts Career Center … all of it readies you for life after graduation. Dominique Avila BFA ’15, MAT ’16 Dominique teaches upper and middle school art at the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island. “The nature of being an art teacher is that you’re going to make it work with whatever you’ve got. It’s about being creative and figuring it out with the students—being open-minded to what’s thrown at you. That’s the nature of an art teacher, and it’s something that I learned through the MAT program at SMFA.” hierarchy. I never felt uncomfortable approaching teachers. It was a very collaborative space. This feeds into how I teach now—this is a community and we’re all working together.” “At SMFA, I never felt like there was a 51 Careers + SMFA Alumni like to learn on the job? In an artist’s studio? Maybe with an internationally known artist like Ai Weiwei, Maya Lin, or

Matthew Barney? Or would you like a taste of entrepreneurship at a product-design firm? Maybe you’d like to work at Furen Dai, PB ’14, MFA ’16

Furen is an internationally exhib- ited artist whose work focuses on the economy of the culture industry and how language carries and encodes social class, political ideology, and economic conditions. Her projects span video, performance, installation, painting, sculpture, and public art. She works for the Asia Art Archive in America, a New Yorkbased nonprofit dedicated to developing programming in support of underrepresented Asian-American and Asian artists.

“SMFA places the most importance on developing your subject or the topic that you’re most interested in, but at the same time, it pushes you to pick up all of the tools and techniques that

Gonzalo Fuenmayor MFA ’04

“My experience at SMFA made me value a cross-disciplinary approach to learning and art making, which has informed my practice ever since.I also made amazing friends with both classmates and faculty which have lasted until now.” A native of Colombia now practicing in Miami, Florida, Gonzalo’s breathtaking large-scale charcoal drawings elaborate on the history of colonial encounters, spoofing rococo style and revealing structures of power hidden by ornament. By turns humorous and ominous, his work performs a tightrope walk between exoticism and belonging that many immigrants experience. His pieces are featured in museums and collections around the world.

you to pick up all of the tools and techniques that Catherine Armistead BFA + BA ’17 Catherine is a product designer at the e-commerce company Wayfair. At Tufts, she focused on engineering psychology, which applies knowledge of human behavior to the design of websites, software, environments, and products. She explored a wide range of studio disciplines, concentrating on metalsmithing and installation. Her senior thesis drew on these experiences to create a body of research and installation work highlighting “the growing, complex connection you’ll need. So when you leave, you have this whole set of skills to carry out your projects.” between our waste and natural ecosystems.” Its intention was “to re-establish a connection to the ecological world that surrounds us, while invoking a sense of wonder and respect.”

Bradley Tsalyuk, BFA ’13

Bradley is the exhibit developer for the San Diego Natural History Museum, leading the creation of experiential learning environments ranging in focus from “outrageous insect biology to the intersections between art and natural history.” He says, “SMFA is an environment in which experimentation and risk-taking are encouraged. I found a peer group with diverse backgrounds that challenged my assumptions and that worked to uplift each other’s practices. And I found the freedom to push and pull an idea through different mediums.”