Products and services by SVA artists and entrepreneurs
PORTFOLIO: WILLIE COLE | 22
The artist and SVA alumnus creates “the way nature does”
GENERATIVE AI: CRISIS AND/OR OPPORTUNITY | 36
The SVA community considers a potentially revolutionary technology
HIDDEN TRACKS | 44
The enduring music and little-known life of the late SVA alumnus Harumi
BORDER LINE | 48
Artist and SVA alumnus Steve Mumford draws from life at the U.S.–Mexico border
Q+A: TODD RADOM | 56
The SVA alumnus and Alumni Society board chair on his three-plus decades of sports branding and design
ALUMNI AFFAIRS | 64
For Your Benefit
A Message from the Director
SVA Alumni Society Awards Donors
Alumni Notes and Exhibitions In Memoriam
FROM THE ARCHIVES | 80
PORTFOLIO: WILLIE COLE
“I believe that I can access creative energy from the universe. And I proceed that way every day.”
56
Q+A: TODD RADOM
The new Bob Gill Collection celebrates the late designer and SVA faculty member
80 FROM THE ARCHIVES “The fun of being a designer is to invent a solution that is unique.”
“This is some of the most visible design out there. Sports fans are the most ardent brand loyalists on Earth.”
VISUAL ARTS JOURNAL
Fall/Winter 2024–25
Volume 32, Number 2
EDITORIAL STAFF
Angie Wojak, executive director
Joyce Rutter Kaye, editorial director
Greg Herbowy, editor
Tricia Tisak, copy editor
VISUAL ARTS PRESS, LTD
Anthony P. Rhodes, executive creative director
Gail Anderson, creative director
Brian E. Smith, design director
Mark Maltais, art director
Anthony Carhuayo, senior designer
Jennifer Liang, assistant director
COVER FRONT Willie Cole, Lizard Mommy, 2017. BACK Willie Cole, Red Spirit Light , 2013, plastic bottles, galvanized steel, and cellophane. Images courtesy of the artist. (See page 22.)
TO READ THE VISUAL ARTS JOURNAL ONLINE, VISIT ISSUU.COM/SVAVISUALARTSJOURNAL
IFROM THE PRESIDENT
n March of this year, SVA was recognized by The City of New York at a ceremony that celebrated the co-naming of a section of East 23rd Street—the location of several College buildings and operations—as SVA Way.
As I noted in my remarks on that day, the continued success of the School of Visual Arts would not be possible without our good fortune to be based in New York City, with its many overlapping creative industries, unparalleled diversity, and culture of dynamism, invention, and perseverance. We strive to embody these qualities in the classrooms, workshops, and studios of our campus, and they are reflected in our growing alumni network, which now encompasses more than 43,000 people from nearly 130 countries.
More than any mission statement or founding principles, the talent, hard work, and achievements of our alumni, students, and faculty have secured SVA a place in New York City’s history and future.
I hope you enjoy this issue of the Visual Arts Journal.
president school of visual arts
BY
PHOTO
NIR ARIELI
MY SVA
Vivi John
MFA 2024 Illustration as Visual Essay vivijohn.com @vivijohn_
Vivi John grew up in Taiwan, dreaming about making a living as an illustrator, “but I didn’t think it was a real job,” she says. She got her undergraduate degree in design instead, and after graduating worked as an editor at the media and advertising company Everyday Object, interviewing creative professionals in a variety of fields. Inspired by their example, she decided to pursue her love of drawing and applied to SVA. She graduated with her MFA this past spring and now lives and works in New York City.
John aims for “a little retro/ vintage” feeling in her drawings, with a warm-toned palette and a focus on small, recognizable, and uplifting moments. For this issue’s MySVA, John turned to one of her current visual fascinations—the old-fashioned sardine tin, which employs a key to wind back the lid. (“I’ve never tried sardines,” she says, “but I like how the old cans look.”) Instead of tightly packed fish, John’s tin is filled with bears standing shoulder-to-shoulder, crowded subway-style, with the patterns on their outfits spelling out the SVA letters.
The tin itself, she says, represents SVA. “It’s filled with diverse people from different places, who came for different reasons and are developing their own different styles and voices. But we are all united by our dream to pursue something we love.”
CLOSE UP
News and Events from around the College
Continued on page 6 ➞
Remix Masters
➞ THIS FALL, in addition to the latest Masters Series exhibition, an ambitious survey of designer and former faculty member Stefan Sagmeister’s career to date, SVA Galleries has mounted two major shows: a tribute to the late design legend and SVA faculty member Ivan Chermayeff, as well as the sustainability-focused group effort “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers,” reimagined after its initial 2020 run was postponed due to the pandemic.
“Copy, Cut + Paste: The Visual Language of Ivan Chermayeff” ran September 11 through October 1 at the SVA
SVA WAY
“THANKS TO SVA, OUR CITY HAS NURTURED GENERATIONS OF CREATIVE MOVEMENTS AND COMMUNITIES.”
—NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MEMBER CARLINA RIVERA
➞ ON MARCH 29, THE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS , in partnership with the New York City Council and New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), was honored with an official street co-naming in Manhattan. The stretch of East 23rd Street between Second and Third Avenues, which the College has called home
for more than 60 years, is now also known as SVA Way.
Ceremony attendees included SVA President David Rhodes and family member Eric Rhodes; City Council Member Carlina Rivera; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo; Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine; NYCDOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner Edward Pincar, Jr.; and New York State Assembly Member Harvey Epstein.
Efforts to co-name the street began in 2022, SVA’s 75th anniversary year, and involved gathering support from surrounding businesses, the local community board, and NYCDOT. Among other College facilities, the newly named SVA Way is home to the College’s flagship building at 209 East 23rd Street, which opened its doors in 1960; the 23rd Street Residence Hall; the SVA Campus Store; Registrar’s Office; and the SVA Student Center.
Officials at the ceremony spoke about the indispensable contributions of artists and educators, and SVA specifically, to the city’s vitality. Rivera and Epstein, both of whose districts include part of the College’s campus, respectively called SVA a longtime “anchor” and “home” for artistic talents and visionaries.
“It’s thanks to institutions like SVA,” Cumbo said, “that our city has nurtured generations of creative movements and communities.”
“SVA has long been a vital part of New York City’s cultural landscape, so it’s a pleasure to inaugurate SVA as part of New York City’s literal geographic landscape,” Levine said.
In his own remarks, Rhodes thanked “the many businesses and community members we are lucky to call our neighbors” for their role in the College’s enduring success and for supporting the street co-naming honor.
“We are thrilled,” he said, “for SVA to continue to make its mark on SVA Way and beyond.” [Maeri Ferguson]
Gramercy Gallery, and was conceived in partnership with the College’s Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives after a significant donation of Chermayeff’s work by his family nearly four years ago. Curated by SVA’s archivists Beth Kleber and Lawrence Giffin, the show featured nearly 50 of Chermayeff’s personal collages— a signature technique in his commercial work, too—as well as a number of curios from his personal collection. (A selection of Chermayeff’s art, along with commentary by his daughter, former MFA Social Documentary Film Chair Maro Chermayeff, appeared in the spring/summer 2020 Visual Arts Journal.)
Chermayeff was known for his influential work for brands and institutions as wide-ranging as Mobil and the Smithsonian, and his collages are an ode to his love of collecting and imaginative play. As he once said, “Collage makes it possible for everything to be something else.”
In “Plasticulture,” on view through December 7 at the SVA Chelsea Gallery, 15 artists from the Project Vortex collective—an international group of creative professionals dedicated to intercepting plastic waste—came together to innovate with plastic debris. Curated by artist and Project Vortex founder Aurora Robson, the exhibition brings the collective’s mission to life with sculpture, photography, and more. Across large-scale, colorful, and even interactive pieces, the participating artists emphasize the significant environmental repercussions of plastic use and pollution, aiming to increase global awareness, consciousness, and action. As plastic is designed with “archival integrity,” it is an excellent medium for a vast number of creative applications. [MF]
For a Good Cause
➞ THIS PAST SPRING, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bangkok presented “Hush-a-Bye. A Childhood Is But a Dream. A Tale in Five Acts,” an exhibition of work by photographer and educator Oscar Villegas-Paez (MFA 1994 Photography and Related Media).
The project was commissioned by the Safeguard Kids Foundation in Bangkok and the World Childhood Foundation, two organizations dedicated to preventing child abuse and exploitation. The exhibition coincided with the related Child Protection Summit held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok in May.
“Hush-a-Bye” featured Villegas-Paez’s meditative blackand-white and color photography and wall texts organized into five thematic groups, or acts, designed as a whole to raise
awareness and support for campaigns to protect children. An exhibition reception was attended by Queen Silvia of Sweden, founder of the World Childhood Foundation, among other notables. [Greg Herbowy]
The Art of Persuasion
➞ IN AUGUST, as the U.S. elections entered their final stretch, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, launched its 2024 Unity Project—an arts and civics initiative that featured digital get-out-the-vote posters by six artists and illustrators, including BFA Illustration faculty member Lisk Feng, Timothy Goodman (BFA 2007 Graphic Design), and BFA Illustration faculty member
Edel Rodriguez. The museum shared the artworks on its website for online publication and social media; they were also available to buy on T-shirts, sweats, totes, and mugs.
The Norman Rockwell Museum introduced the Unity Project in 2020, with contributions from BFA Illustration faculty Tim O’Brien and Yuko Shimizu (MFA 2003 Illustration as Visual Essay). [GH]
Heard at SVA
➞ “THE RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH is being dismantled in front of our very eyes, and unless the creative community takes a stand against it, it will be eradicated.”
—GARY SIMMONS (BFA 1988 Fine Arts), artist. From Simmons’s 2024 SVA Commencement address.
➞ “WHEN I WAS STARTING out as a visual artist, which was rather late in life—in my 50s—I took figure drawing classes [taught by Anton van Dalen] in this building religiously. . . . It was a remarkable experience.”
—WAYNE KOESTENBAUM, writer, artist, and filmmaker. From a talk hosted by MFA Fine Arts.
The New Class
➞ LAST OCTOBER, longtime SVA employee Tyson Skross was promoted to director of SVA Galleries, succeeding Francis Di Tommaso, who retired after more than 30 years with the College. Skross brings to this new position nearly 20 years’ experience in academic art institutions, including a dozen years as a pivotal part of the SVA Galleries team. In his first year as director, Skross oversaw “Underground Images: A History,” a survey of SVA subway posters; “Wilde Mind,” a celebration of former BFA Advertising and BFA Design Chair Richard Wilde’s life and legacy; this fall’s “The Masters Series: Stefan Sagmeister”; and numerous juried exhibitions. He holds a BFA in studio art from the Maryland Institute College of Art and continues to be a practicing artist.
This summer, MFA Design welcomed 2007 program alumnus Randy J. Hunt as its new chair, succeeding founding co-chairs Steven Heller and Lita Talarico (MFA 2007 Art Criticism and Writing), who retired this spring after nearly
30 years at the helm. Hunt had previously lectured at SVA and served as a thesis advisor to MFA Design students. He brings an impressive track record in design leadership to this role, including as head of design at Grab, head of design at Artsy, and VP of design at Etsy, where he and his team received the 2014 National Design Award for Corporate and Institutional Achievement from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. In addition to his MFA degree from SVA, he holds a BFA in design from the University of Central Florida, and completed an executive education program for creative leaders at Yale School of Management.
“As we evolve MFA Design together with the design community, students, and alumni,” Hunt says, “we aim to commit to its roots while adapting to prepare future design leaders to shape the world in the way we hope and dream it can be.”
Also this summer, the College appointed its new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion director,
Andrew “Dru” Alvez, Sr., who comes to SVA from Union College, where he simultaneously held the positions of chief diversity officer for student and institutional success and director of intercultural affairs. A native of Albany, New York, Alvez discovered a passion for DEI work in educational settings during his time as a student at SUNY Potsdam, where he earned a BA in speech communication and an MA in English and communications. He is pursuing a doctoral degree in organizational change and leadership at the University of Southern California. Alvez has also been an elementary-, middle-, and high-school basketball coach, and a writer and editor of sports media, contributing to publications and sites like Bleacher Report, Elite Daily, and VladTV.
“I am beyond excited to join such a vibrant and diverse community at SVA,” he says. “I look forward to years of collaboration and creating a sense of belonging for all, both in and out of the classroom.” [MF]
Coming Attractions
FOR MORE INFORMATION on SVA events, visit sva.edu/events.
➞ I3: IMAGES, IDEAS, INSPIRATION LECTURES
MPS Digital Photography presents talks by photographers and industry professionals. Tuesdays, 7:00pm, online. Full schedule at sva.edu/events.
➞ UNDERGROUND IMAGES: ICONIC SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS POSTERS FASTTRACKED TO PARIS
An exhibition of subway posters from throughout the College’s history. November 25, 2024 – January 3, 2025. Caserne Napoléon, 4 rue Lobau, Paris, 4th arrondissement.
➞ MFA ILLUSTRATION AS VISUAL ESSAY EXHIBITIONS
MFA Illustration as Visual Essay presents
concurrent shows curated by program alumni and faculty Carol Fabricatore (1992) and Anna Raff (2009). November 26 – December 14, 2024. Reception TBA. SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 East 23rd Street.
➞ BFA INTERIOR DESIGN EXHIBITION
A selection of work by students in the SVA undergraduate program. December 7, 2024 – January 2, 2025. SVA Flatiron Gallery, 133/141 West 21st Street.
➞ JURIED STUDENT EXHIBITION
A juried exhibition of work by SVA students in various programs. January 14 – February 1, 2025. Reception TBA. SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor.
True Stories
➞ LAST SPRING, a group of four MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media students, with support from SVA Executive Vice President Anthony P. Rhodes and the program’s chair, Charles H. Traub, embarked on an open-ended project to document the lives and stories of Mexican and Central American migrants who have recently arrived in New York City.
Since May, Alejandro Abarca, Victoria Campa, Tatiana Kireicheva, and Ari Temkin have worked with Mixteca, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit offering programs and services for Latin American migrants. Through attending the organization’s weekly free-food distributions and other events, the
Something Old, Something New
students have gotten to know several families and begun to amass an archive of photojournalism, portraiture, video, and oral history about their lives and experiences.
The final shape of the project has yet to be determined—whether an exhibition, a publication, a film, or some combination of all three—but whatever form it takes, Campa says, will be decided with the input and approval of all participants.
What gets lost in the news about migration, she says, is how “these are multidimensional individuals, all with different backgrounds and reasons for being here. We want them to be in control of their narratives, and to do justice to them.” [GH]
➞ IN THE PAST six months, New York City’s commuters have seen two posters in SVA’s long-running “subway series” campaign installed on station platforms throughout the boroughs.
The first, on view this summer, was a rerun. Featuring a fantastical and happily crowded city street rendered by artist Gary Panter, who taught for many years at the College, its original spring 2020 release coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was consequently little seen.
The latest, rolled out for the fall, was a double-wide design by illustrator, animator, and graphic designer Melinda Beck, who teaches in the BFA Design program. Beck’s poster, titled “The SVA Way,” depicts a fancifully outfitted astronaut in profile, with a gloved hand holding the pencil that is putting the final touches on the composition—and their own space suit. [GH]
Recent Passings
➞ THE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS lost six longtime and consequential faculty members over the past year.
On June 20, artist ANTON VAN DALEN , whose work often documented the transformation of his Lower East Side neighborhood and who taught drawing at SVA for many years, died at the age of 85. Van Dalen was born in the Netherlands and moved with his family to Canada as a teen and then to New York City in his 20s. Within a few years, he was assisting The New Yorker illustrator Saul Steinberg, a job he would hold until Steinberg’s death in 1999, and had moved into the Avenue A building that would be his home and studio for the next half-century. His work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA); and Whitney Museum of American Art.
HOWARD BECKERMAN , an author, animator, cartoonist, and Korean War veteran, died on June 29 at the age of 93. Beckerman joined SVA in 1972 as one of its earliest animation faculty members and taught at the College for 47 years. His own career in the field began in 1949 and included work on ads for brands like Xerox; cartoons featuring Mighty Mouse and Popeye; and segments for Nickelodeon and Sesame Street. His
2001 book Animation: The Whole Story, serves as both a history and a how-to for the medium.
On July 13, artist ABBY ROBINSON died at the age of 76. Robinson started teaching at SVA in 1977, leading a summer session in photography. She went on to teach photography at the College for nearly 50 years. Her art and writing earned her honors like an Asian Cultural Council fellowship award and a Fulbright research grant, which funded a year of work and study in Sri Lanka and India. Her work was exhibited internationally, appeared in publications such as Newsweek and The New Yorker, and is in the collection of the Whitney Museum.
MANFRED KIRCHHEIMER , a nonfiction filmmaker who taught at SVA from the 1970s into the 2010s, died on July 16 at the age of 93. Kirchheimer and his family emigrated from Germany to Manhattan when he was 5, escaping the rise of Nazi party. After college, he taught and worked as a film editor while forging his reputation as a maker of impressionistic documentaries like Stations of the Elevated (1981), a celebration of subway graffiti. For We Were So Beloved (1986), Kirchheimer interviewed his family and other Jewish refugees about their experiences as Holocaust survivors;
that year, he also received SVA’s Distinguished Artist–Teacher Award.
On August 17, artist BILL BECKLEY, who taught semiotics and aesthetics at SVA for over 50 years, died at the age of 78. Beckley grew up and studied in Pennsylvania, moving to New York City in 1970. He began teaching at the College shortly after, where he would meet his wife, artist and SVA Humanities and Sciences Director of Operations Laurie Johenning. (One of their two sons, Tristan Beckley, is a BFA 2017 Animation alumnus and SVA staff member.) Beckley’s conceptual art is in the collections of many institutions. He also edited the essay collections Uncontrollable Beauty: Toward a New Aesthetic (1998, with David Shapiro) and Sticky Sublime (2001).
And on September 3, sculptor JACKIE WINSOR died at the age of 82. Born in Canada, Winsor moved with her family to the U.S. as a teen. She joined SVA’s faculty in 1974 and taught in BFA and MFA Fine Arts for over four decades, receiving a Distinguished Artist–Teacher Award. Winsor—the first female sculptor to receive a MoMA retrospective— often used natural materials for her work, which is in the collections of many major institutions, including MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [GH]
Drawing Them In
➞ SVA LIBRARY WEST, which opened in the lower level of the College’s 133/141 West 21st Street building in 2018, has plenty going for it: a Moe’s Café, two study rooms, books and zines, a video and tabletop game collection (and game room), and an ample lounge area with a large-screen TV. What it didn’t have, until recently, was much of a street-level presence. That changed this summer, when Visual Arts Press, SVA’s in-house design studio, hired MFA Illustration as Visual Essay faculty member and 2011 program alumnus Hyesu Lee to create a mural for the library on the building’s ground floor, just past the security desk. Visible from the sidewalk through the façade’s large windows, the mural features a happy crowd of fruit, animals, people, and more, and an inviting message for students to “Come on down.” [GH]
A Dream Come True
➞ THIS YEAR’S POSTER for SummerStage—the performing arts festival that in 2024 brought nearly 100 free and benefit shows to New York City’s Central Park and other parks in the five boroughs—was created by BFA Illustration faculty member Eugenia Mello (MFA 2017 Illustration as Visual Essay). Mello calls the assignment “a dream project” that brought together her love of music, the city, and public spaces. Her art was also featured on the cover of the festival brochure. The 2024 SummerStage calendar ran from June into late October. [GH]
HYESU LEE
PHOTO BY MARLENA KONGLAU (BFA 2014 CARTOONING).
Heard at SVA
➞ “MAKING ART has always been the safest space for me to grieve.”
—KENNY RIVERO (BFA 2010 Fine Arts), artist. From a talk hosted by BFA Fine Arts.
➞ “WORKING CLOSELY WITH artists as a critic allowed me to maintain a deep appreciation for doubt and for unknowing, and for revising and iterating my own mental models of writing and curation.”
—NORA M. KHAN, writer, editor, and curator. From “The Algorithmic State: Between the Curatorial and Computation,” a panel hosted by MA Curatorial Practice.
➞ “AT FIRST, everybody tries to take a good shot . . . but at the end of the day, everybody tries to tell a compelling story.”
—PHUONG VO (MPS 2020 Digital Photography), photographer and multimedia producer. From a talk hosted by MPS Digital Photography.
It’s for the Birds
➞ BFA FINE ARTS faculty member George Boorujy (MFA 2002 Illustration as Visual Essay), subject of the spring/summer 2024 Visual Arts Journal’s Portfolio, completed a mural in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood over the summer. The subject of the work—migratory birds that can be seen in the area and the native plants they depend on—is typical enough for the artist, who is known for his detailed, larger-than-life, ecologically themed drawings and paintings. But its surface is anything but: Boorujy’s mural, Migratory Pathways, stretches across 963 feet of a low retaining wall along Bay Street, near Red Hook’s public pool and ball fields.
Migratory Pathways was created for the Audubon Mural Project, a joint initiative of the National Audubon Society and the Gitler &_____ gallery, with support from the Red Hook Conservancy and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation’s Art in the Parks Program. [GH]
WHAT’S IN STORE
The latest from SVA entrepreneurs: books, movies, products, and more
GALLERY, GIFT SHOP, AND COMMUNITY SPACE Kingston, New York www.holdingspace.place @holdingspace.place
Holding Space
➞ EARLY IN THE COVID PANDEMIC, Bridget Badore (BFA 2013 Photography) moved from Brooklyn back to her upstate New York hometown to help care for an ailing family member. She continued to commute to the city for her work as a freelance photographer for outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. But then a serious car accident during her travels left her shaken and concussed, unable to work in front of a computer
or focus through a camera viewfinder for any extended period of time.
Contemplating a longer-term plan and change of pace, Badore launched Holding Space, a gallery, gift shop, and gathering hub in Kingston last December. Designed as “an accessible space for artists of all types,” she says, the store hosts exhibitions and artists in residence, collageand rug-making workshops, and group critiques, support
meetings, and other community-building events. It also sells zines, prints, stickers, pins, magnets, and more.
Holding Space left its most recent home, in Kingston’s Rondout–West Strand Historic Waterfront District, last month. To keep tabs on its virtual and pop-up programming while Badore finds a new location, check out the store’s website or Instagram for the latest information (and online shopping). [Greg Herbowy]
Cone of Shame
Union Square & Co. Hardcover/e-book, $25/$11.99 unionsquareandco.com
TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING, Cone of Shame is a collaboration between photographer Winnie Au and designer Marie-Yan Morvan (BFA 2009 Graphic Design) to reimagine the humble cone collar— the plastic restraint worn by dogs after surgeries or injuries to keep them from chewing or licking their wounds.
The fantastical cones in Cone of Shame, devised and constructed by Morvan, an art director and prop, costume, and set designer, were made with fabrics, eggshells,
sponges, and other unexpected materials, often complementing or playing off the appearance of their canine models. Calvin, a shaggy komondor, also known as a Hungarian sheepdog, wears a droopy cone of wool yarn, while Blue, a French bulldog, looks resplendent and serene in a collar of silk flowers and leaves. There are 60 designs (and dog subjects) in all.
Au and Morvan’s project, while playful and fun, is also meant to raise support for rescue-animal welfare. A silent auction and dog adoption at Cone of Shame’s launch event last month supported the Animal Haven shelter, in Manhattan, and a portion of booksale proceeds will go toward medical treatment for animals in the nonprofit’s care. [GH]
Print Coat Wrap It
VINYL-WRAP, PRINTED-GRAPHIC, AND PAINT-PROTECTION-FILM SERVICES 3480 Hampton Road, Oceanside, New York bjsvision.myportfolio.com @printcoatwrapit
➞ B.J. JOHNSON (BFA 2006 Illustration) was still an SVA student when he joined Marvel Comics—first as a creative services intern, then as a production designer in the bullpen—where he first worked with large-format printers. He went on to production work with print companies, and eventually got into event and retail graphics, printing and installing vinyl texts and designs at stores, pop-ups, and exhibitions for brands like Agnes B. and Vans and for the Moniker and Hamptons art fairs.
In 2020, Johnson established Print Coat Wrap It on Long Island. Along with
continuing his environmental-design work, the business prints and installs custom vinyl and paint-protection-film (PPF) wraps for commercial and personal vehicles, everything from delivery vans to luxury SUVs and sports cars, and is one of the few shops in the area certified to install STEK protective products. Johnson and his team create text or illustrations, patterns, and more subtle effects like fades, tints, and satin or matte finishes. The price for a full-car job starts at around $3,500 and can go up to as much as $14,000 for high-end projects.
“We can achieve effects you can’t get—or would cost an exorbitant amount—with paint, which is also much harder and more expensive to reverse,” he says. Plus, in addition to being removable, vinyl and PPF wraps help protect a car’s exterior from scratches and dings.
[GH]
High Res Low Res
PODCAST o-fishel.com/podcast
➞ ILLUSTRATOR, animator, and educator
Daniel Fishel (MFA 2011 Illustration as Visual Essay) is the creator and host of the High Res Low Res podcast, for which they interview art directors, cartoonists, graphic novelists, and other creative professionals about their backgrounds, inspirations, and creative practices. The show started its second season in July; past guests include fellow MFA Illustration as Visual Essay alumni John Malta (2012) and Nicole Rifkin (2017). High Res Low Res is available on all major streaming platforms, as well as Fishel’s own site. [GH]
The Met x Sprayground
BACKPACKS, DUFFLES, AND HANDBAGS store.metmuseum.org sprayground.com
➞ IN AUGUST, The Met Store, a gift shop supporting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, announced a collaboration with Sprayground, the backpack and luggage brand created by David Ben-David (BFA 2005 Graphic Design), last featured in the spring 2013 Visual Arts Journal
The Met x Sprayground line comprises 17 bags based on works in the museum’s collection, including paintings, sculpture, and armor. Each bag comes with a QR code linking to more information about the related artwork; several incorporate Sprayground’s signature “shark mouth” design. [GH]
Rubber Bones
➞ INSPIRED BY HOW her own jujitsu practice helped to fuel her creativity, in 2020 illustrator and graphic designer Maria Schweitzer (MFA 2021 Visual Narrative) launched Rubber Bones, a line of rash guards, apparel, and related products, via a
RASH GUARDS, APPAREL, PRINTS, AND STICKERS rubberbonesrashguards.com @rubberbonesrashguards
Along with its publicly available merchandise, sold through its website, Rubber Bones partnered with Google earlier this year to create a line of rash guards and sweats exclusively for the company’s employees that incorporated the search-engine giant’s logo and signature colors. [GH]
DOUBLE-SIDED WRAPPING PAPER
$48 per 10 sheets greathonourgoods.com successful Kickstarter campaign. The brand’s designs and graphics are all by Schweitzer and reflect her many interests: comics, horror, science fiction, and, of course, the martial art itself.
Forest Feast x Great Honour
➞ THE FOREST FEAST, originally a series of seasonal produce–focused cookbooks written, illustrated, and photographed by Erin Gleeson (MFA 2007 Photography, Video and Related Media), has expanded into a lifestyle brand, with products like cheese boards, clothes, and tablecloths. This year Gleeson rolled out her latest offering: a set of five double-sided floral wrapping papers, with two sheets per pattern, produced in collaboration with Great Honour Goods, a printed-goods company that, like Forest Feast, is based in and inspired by rural Northern California. [GH]
Screen time with SVA alumni and faculty
WATCH LIST
Amy Sillman: To Abstract
This nine-minute documentary from Art21 spotlights the work of acclaimed artist Amy Sillman (BFA 1979 Fine Arts), who talks about her approach to making paintings, describing her process as “getting from one trouble to the other trouble.”
The film is available to stream at art21.org.
Robot Dreams
After a long festival circuit—and an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature—this dialogue-free film about an unlikely friendship, based on a graphic novel of the same name by SVA faculty member Sara Varon (MFA 2002 Illustration as Visual Essay) premiered in U.S. theaters in June.
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Carlos Saldanha (MFA 1993 Computer Art) made his live-action directorial debut with this riff on the beloved 1955 children’s book by Crockett Johnson. Zachary Levi stars as the grown-up Harold, whose magical crayon has the ability to bring his drawings to life.
MaXXXine
The X horror trilogy, written and directed by Ti West and executive-produced by Peter Phok (both BFA 2003 Film and Video) concluded this past summer with MaXXXine, in which the title character (Mia Goth) pursues her Hollywood dreams while running from a killer and her own past.
Hazbin Hotel
Formerly a YouTube phenomenon, this adult animated comedy, created by Vivienne Medrano, a.k.a. Vivzie Pop (BFA 2014 Animation), is now a marquee series of Amazon Prime Video. The show follows Charlie Morningstar, the princess of Hell, as she tries to run a rehab center for demons.
Dis-Ease
Mariam Ghani (MFA 2002 Photography and Related Media) unveiled her latest film, a documentary about the cultural, scientific, and sociopolitical ideas surrounding contagious illnesses, in August at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia and Tate Modern in London.
SHELF LINERS
ACTIVITY/COLORING
The Greek Mythology Coloring Book: Epic Scenes from Olympus and Beyond
Jen Yoon (MFA 2024 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 2019 Illustration)
Clarkson Potter Paperback, $18
ART/PHOTOGRAPHY
Elegy
Dawoud Bey (1977 Photography)
Aperture/Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Hardcover, $65
I’m Not a Painter, I Just Brush a Lot
Kenny Rivero (BFA 2010 Fine Arts)
Charles Moffett Hardcover, $75
Lost and Found
Sally J. Han (BFA 2016 Cartooning) Fortnight Institute Hardcover, $60
CHILDREN’S/PICTURE/ YOUNG ADULT
Amazing Abe: How Abraham Cahan’s Newspaper Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants
Norman H. Finkelstein; illustrated by Vesper Stamper (MFA 2016 Illustration as Visual Essay)
Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life over 50
Edited by Sharon Louden (faculty, MFA Fine Arts) Intellect Discover Paperback, $34.95
POETRY
Nothing Happened Last Night
Karen Morris (BFA 1978 Fine Arts); cover by Jerry Moriarty (retired SVA faculty member) Finishing Line Press Paperback, $17.99
Portfolio: Willie Cole
By DIANA M c CLURE
In his heart of hearts, artist Willie Cole
(BFA Media1976Arts)—
whose illustrious career decades—spans says that he is a painter.
PREVIOUS
ABOVE
OPPOSITE
All images courtesy of the artist.
But it is his sculptural work and printmaking,
which often employ unexpected, usually upcycled objects, repetition, and a spirit of play, that have largely fueled his public acclaim, and led to a number of recent high-profile collaborations with avant-garde fashion house Comme des Garçons, Italian luxury brand Tod’s and Yamaha.
Cole’s process, rooted in a serendipitous yet associative relationship to the materials he uses, is open and receptive to change. “I don’t really look for objects, the objects come to me,” he says. “I let the materials do their own thing. If I do have a concept, I don’t know immediately what medium it will be in. I just play and accept the results that come from that.”
“I don’t feel like I’m part of any kind of -ism,” he says. “I believe that I can access creative energy from the universe. And I proceed that way every day.”
Cole often works with “single objects multiplied”—shoes, plastic bottles, steam irons, musical instruments, and more— reimagining and reconfiguring their potential to create new visions and fields of interpretation. “I see each object as a building block or cell,” he says. “I create the same way nature does: by multiplying single cells against themselves until they become something new.”
Cole’s material acts of arrangement and composition are often prefigured by a spontaneous unfurling of psychological referencing. “People process all they see through their own individual filters,” he says, and while he is aware of the many filters he has accumulated throughout his life, he is not tied to any one perspective: his coming of age in an era of Black consciousness in
Willie Cole, With a Heart of Gold, 2005–06, shoes, wood, screws, metals, and staples, 85 x 16 in.
Willie Cole, Five Beauties Rising , 2012, suite of intaglio and relief prints.
Willie Cole, American Domestic , 2016, serigraph and digital print.
the ’60s; an interest in Buddhism in his 20s; artists like Carl Andre, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Arman, Katsushika Hokusai, and Pointillist and Impressionist painters; or the many women in his family. (“I grew up with all women,” he says. “My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, aunts and sister and female cousins.”)
Early in his career, as he was expanding into sculpture, he landed the now-coveted Studio Museum in Harlem artist-in-residency program. He was selected based on his paintings and woven-steel sculptures, made from 10-foot-by-1-inch strips of scrap metal from a business next to his then studio in New Jersey. The opportunity proved to be pivotal.
“I lived in New Jersey and caught the train to Harlem everyday,” Cole says. “On the way to the train station, I saw an iron in the street that had been run over by cars and trucks. I lived near the highway. It was completely flat. At that time, my best friend was a dealer of African art. So when I saw this iron in the street, I immediately saw it as looking very African. I saw it through my filters. So I brought it back to my studio in New Jersey and I began to photograph it. After a while, it just began to say so many things. It became a part of my life.”
The iron would come to define the next stage of his practice—his “scorch work.” Cole began to make a list of what the iron meant to him symbolically, spiritually, physically, and functionally.
“That list became a catalyst for work for the next 10 years,” he says. Stories and associations related to the formal qualities and social meanings of irons and scorching—the making of marks with either burning or red-hot instruments—revealed themselves over time: Zulu shields, heat, previously unnoticed burn marks on Cole’s studio floor, his own family history in relation to antebellum domestic work and more. Scorch works made by applying household steam irons to wood, paper, and plywood, as well as stunning wood-block
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Willie Cole, TwoFaced Blues , 2021, Yamaha electric acoustic guitar parts, 23 x 29 x 15.5 in; Strummer and Picker, 2022, Yamaha 3/4-size acoustic guitar parts, 28 x 16.5 x 15 in. and 27 x 15 x 15 in; Frontman, 2022, electric acoustic guitar parts, 28 x 29 x 19.5 in. All images courtesy of the artist.
and intaglio relief prints of distressed ironing boards, are all highly regarded works from Cole’s oeuvre, and still part of his practice today.
Cole had another unexpected encounter with an object when, while searching a thrift store for sneakers for a sculpture, he was unexpectedly blindsided by a pair of high heels. The discovery initiated an ongoing series of sculptures made from heels, some made with actual shoes and others cast in bronze.
“Women’s shoes are much more interesting and intricate than men’s shoes,” says Cole. “Some of them are like architecture.” They also have personal significance. “Most if not all the women in my childhood wore and loved high-heeled shoes,” he says, and his nearly 90-year-old mother keeps a collection of miniature high heels in a cabinet at her home. His shoe sculptures can be read as either abstract or figurative and have also been featured in his collaborations with Comme des Garçons and Tod’s.
For the Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Autumn/Winter 2021 collection, Cole created headpieces made of black high heels. The creative process between Cole and founder Rei Kawakubo’s team unfolded digitally during the pandemic, with Cole sharing photographs of himself wearing the headpieces that he later turned into watercolors that are works of art in their own right. Kawakubo’s vision for the headpieces, as well as some textile prints, were riffs on Cole’s shoe masks and assemblages—one of which, Shine, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and on view at the museum’s ongoing exhibition “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room.”
Another body of work spawned from a singular object
are Cole’s sculptures of cascading chandeliers made with thousands of plastic water bottles, with the largest to date measuring 12 feet by 8 feet. He started collecting the bottles when he was invited to create work for an outdoor sculpture park that did not have a budget for materials or fabrication. While his plastic-bottle sculptures are now often framed within conversations on the environment or the systemic water crises in places like Newark, New Jersey, and Flint, Michigan, Cole’s initial relationship to the material was more practical—the empty bottles are free, durable, and abundant.
“I wasn’t thinking about the environment in an overt way because I have lived with that awareness my whole life,” Cole says. “I was not a little kid who littered or any of that kind of stuff. So I didn’t think of myself as doing anything extraordinary to save the environment.”
Nevertheless, the work has resulted in several projects with students at schools and universities, including a 2023 rendition of a lounging figure made from 20,000 plastic bottles at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center in Texas, and commissions for spaces all over the world, from the median of Park Avenue near 72nd Street in New York City and private homes in Pennsylvania and Brooklyn to a makeup store in Australia and a monastery in Colombia.
Cole has also worked extensively with musical instruments. For a 2022 public art commission, Ornithology, at Kansas City International Airport, Cole’s signature filtering of thought associations landed on a prototype: saxophones recontextualized in the form of a bird.
“It was a no-brainer for me,” he says. Airplanes mimic birds in flight; “Bird” was the nickname of jazz-saxophonist legend and Kansas City native Charlie Parker; and the city is known for the adage, “Jazz was born in New Orleans, but it grew up in Kansas City.”
The project took two years to complete. “I purchased 300 saxophones,” says Cole. “My first prototype involved 30 horns per bird. I wanted to make 10 birds. That was the first month. By the third month I had a whole new concept for the design.” Ultimately, Cole used fewer saxophones per sculpture and created a dozen birds hanging from the ceiling and one at ground level, perched on a saxophone case, for visitors to see up close. Inspired
THIS PAGE Willie Cole, Soul Catcher, 2023, recycled plastic water bottles, wire.
OPPOSITE Cole with one of his saxophone “birds,” which pay homage to Charlie “Bird” Parker and Kansas City’s rich jazz heritage.
All images courtesy of the artist.
ABOVE Willie Cole, Men of Iron, 2004, archival inkjet print, 22 x 29 in. Image courtesy of the artist.
by the Jazz District, the location of the Kansas City studio he used for the project, Cole decided to hold on to the studio and continue working with the leftover saxes, even though the airport project is completed.
For another project, a collaboration with Yamaha, Cole reconfigured 75 recycled guitars into sculptures for “No Strings,” his 2022 solo show at Alexander and Bonin in New York. Another solo show of instrument sculptures, “Lyrical Reconstructions,” was held earlier this year at the Haley Gallery in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in Nashville.
This recent, music-related work has kept Cole’s interest. When asked about what’s next, he says, “What’s next, in terms of an object? I don’t look for objects. I wait for them to find me. But every object I’ve worked with, I’m never really finished with it.”
Willie Cole’s work is in the collections of the Met and Museum of Modern Art, both in New York, and has been on view in countless solo and group exhibitions at museums, galleries, and academic institutions such as the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. He has received numerous public and private commissions for his work, including a recent outdoor installation on New York’s Upper East Side mounted for the Fund for Park Avenue and the New York City Parks Department of Parks and Recreation. For more information, visit williecole.com. ◆
Diana McClure is a writer and photographer based in New York City. Her essays, reviews and profiles have appeared in Art Basel magazine, Art21, Cultured, catalogs, monographs, and other publications.
CLOCKWISE FROM
Willie Cole, Lizard Mommy, 2017; Black Panther, 2016; Throne , 2007; Untitled, 1997. All images courtesy of the artist.
Willie Cole, Ornithology ( installation views), 2022, saxophone sculptures installed at the Kansas City International Airport. Images courtesy of the artist.
Surreal Desert , which MFA Computer Arts Assistant Director for Innovation Technologies Rochele Gloor created with ChatGPT. Though striking, the image exhibits some of the lingering shortcomings of generative AI. (Count the fingers on the hands.)
A NEARLY TWO-HOUR-LONG EVENT AT THE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS this past May delved into topics like the nature of machine versus learning, creativity in a tech-dominated era, and the very purpose of education itself. Convened by the Office of the Provost and moderated by Molly Heintz (MFA 2011 Design Criticism), chair of MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism, “Crisis or Opportunity: Generative AI and the Education of Artists and Designers” was a veritable town hall about the incursion of a technology in arts education. The conversation turned philosophical and even contentious in parts; it was clear to everyone in attendance that what was on the agenda was a beast that can no longer be ignored. “Crisis or Opportunity” offered vivid proof of how the emergence of generative AI is affecting artists and designers. Suddenly, creative professionals must face the reality that the means of making images, text, audio, logos, and video is now available to anyone who has access to Midjourney, ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, and other generative-AI tools.
And while these nascent tools are potentially revolutionary for digital animation or visual effects, they have been seen as threatening to art and design specializations that prize hand-hewn creativity.
Recognizing the multiplicity of concerns, SVA Provost Christopher Cyphers tasked each department to set its own AI policy as the College worked toward a “statement of philosophy,” issued at the start of this academic year, calling for an ethical, critical, and creative approach to the technology, and requiring full disclosure of any use.
“What everyone does seem to agree on is the fact that AI, in its various permutations, is here to stay,” he says. “Burying our heads in the sand would be a disservice to our community of students and educators. Like the technology itself, SVA’s approach to its use will be evolutionary.”
MAKING SENSE OF AI BY DEPARTMENT
Among SVA’s most ardent proponents of generative AI is Terrence Masson, chair of MFA Computer Arts and a CGI veteran who has worked on the Star Wars films and Titanic (1997). To him, the technology will ultimately be democratizing.
“It’s going to be a beautiful and amazing thing for everybody,” Masson says. “It raises the low bar and also raises the high bar, meaning that the low bar for art is now very high because basically anybody can make mediocre art instantly. That means that a true artist using these tools to help in their process will be able to produce stuff that we’ve never seen before.
“If you weren’t trained as an artist or as a storyteller, it can be incredibly frustrating to express yourself. I think we’re going to get better human stories and different kinds of art.”
So convinced is Masson of AI’s potential that he created a new departmental position to make sense of the deluge of tools and burgeoning technologies.
“The goal is to optimize the animation production pipeline so our students can focus on the storytelling and aesthetic aspects of their projects,” says Rochele Gloor, the newly hired assistant director for innovation technologies in MFA Computer Arts. Formerly of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s widely admired generative-AI research group, Gloor keeps abreast of the latest academic research on the topic while helping establish a new virtual production studio for the program.
MFA Computer Arts is also introducing several new AI-focused courses—including AI and Filmmaking, taught by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Anthony Giacchino—and retooling several others to integrate the technology into the curriculum. Masson says his department’s AI policy is
“short and sweet: we actively, highly encourage you, the students, to use all these tools in whatever ways you want. Play, iterate, have fun. Just tell us that you’re using them and be part of the open discussion.”
Allan Chochinov, chair of MFA Products of Design, believes that creating a space where students can wrestle with the thorny issues of technology is the mandate for design schools. “We have to teach this stuff in school because when our students graduate, they’re going to be asked to use these tools without any conversation around copyright or consent or bias at all,” he says.
In thinking about a curriculum for AI education, Chochinov explains that it’s crucial to tailor discussions based on
A sweater inspired by the Hubble telescope’s Pillars of Creation photograph, created by Rochele Gloor with ChatGPT and Meshy.
the audience. “For non-designers, these tools can get you to a kind of finished product of design that you can use to hopefully have a fruitful conversation about, instead of talking about things in the abstract. Working with designers, it becomes much more complex.
“We always start with a very hardcore conversation” about ethics, he says. “We also talk to our students about why we are even having this conversation in school and the questions around the original sin of large language models and diffusion models”—AI tools that can create new images, texts, sounds, and videos—“that were trained on other people’s work.”
To this end, each year MFA Products of Design convenes a five-part advanced
founding co-chairs Steven Heller and Lita Talarico (MFA 2007 Art Criticism and Writing), says that generative-AI tools can be particularly beneficial to the type of well-rounded professional his department seeks to develop.
“There’s great opportunity there for the kind of multi-hyphenated hybrid creative mindset,” he says. “They can engage with different mediums and disciplines with higher resolution, greater frequency, and potentially greater depth and understanding.”
Hunt, who is the head of design at Notion, an AI-powered productivity startup, and the former vice president of design at Etsy, explains that designers who can bridge several disciplines are in great demand. “Generalists are really powerful and are good to have as part of
seminar in AI where students tackle topics like ethics, mechanics, tools, ventures, and experiments.
Chochinov says he expects that the department’s AI policy—which requires approval of use by the course’s instructor, barring its use in final outputs, and disclosure—will evolve as the technology advances and if it becomes more pervasive. For instance, he contends that disclosures may soon become moot, pointing out that AI is already built into widely used software programs offered by Adobe and Microsoft. “To say something like, ‘This was written with the help of AI,’ is going to sound pretty ridiculous in another year.”
Randy Hunt (MFA 2007 Design), who began his tenure as MFA Design chair this past summer (see page 9) following the retirement of the program’s
from Millman—is required. Any work incorporating AI must be “properly and rigorously attributed” as such, and any deviations “will be considered plagiarism, at which point all SVA school policies will immediately go into effect,” she says.
Millman’s priority, she explains, is on training sensibilities. “The role of AI in branding will be similar to [its role in] other disciplines: it depends on how the people using it use it. Good people will use it for good and bad people will use it for bad. Technology can only be directed by people. It doesn’t self-direct or write its own prompts.”
At this stage, Millman believes, generative AI is most effective as an idea-generation tool. Images and texts created through AI alone are often glitchy, adding extra fingers to hands or citing inaccurate or invented sources as factual.
your practice but it is really difficult to manage that at scale. The few organizations who manage to do it are places where really special stuff happens. It’s one of the attributes of the Apple design team that people may not know about.”
“A lot of educational institutions are oriented around specialization, because the narrative is that you need to really go deep in one area to get those jobs,” he continues. “I think that’s not actually true, or not what we want to make happen.”
SVA’s MPS Branding program, chaired by Debbie Millman, is taking a measured, ethics-focused approach to AI. Like other departments’ policies regarding students’ use of the technology, prior approval—in this case,
“I’ve yet to see many examples of AI art or design that have true originality,” she says. “That might change, and I’ll be super-interested to see where it goes next.”
For the time being, at least, Millman sees little cause for concern over AI-powered platforms like Namelix or 99Designs, which generate logos and branding schemes on demand. “I am not worried even a tiny little bit,” she says. “The work is dreadful. I guess the old adage is true: You get what you pay for.”
“Educational institutions are places for boundaries to be explored and pushed,” says Jimmy Calhoun (BFA 2003 Animation), chair of BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects. “Today’s young artists get to help find ways to use emerging technologies . . . [but] we all have to
“Cyborg horse” images created by MFA 2023 Computer Arts alumni Boning Li and Fanyu Liu with Stable Diffusion.
For their thesis film, BFA 2023 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects alumni Mulin Chen, Josh Marquez, and Robert Yu used Midjourney to generate scenes of an abandoned and decaying grand cathedral (bottom row) that were used as reference for creating their own unique imagery through the software program Unreal Engine 5.
protect our own intellectual properties from being scraped by these tools.”
As chair of an undergraduate program in particular, he says, “we have to help students develop their artistic skills and visual thinking. To do this, it’s important that they learn foundational art skills and practices without using an algorithm to generate a part of the final project.
“AI built on large language models cannot shape or be shaped by language in the same way our students can. They cannot care, share space, have concern, show commitment, mood or emotion. They’re nothing without artists. No one will write an algorithm that replaces the human spontaneity of artists.”
Likewise, in BFA Comics and BFA Illustration, both chaired by Viktor Koen (MFA 1992 Illustration as Visual Essay), generative-AI use is restricted to research and reference-making. “Students can experiment with them to create reference materials as long as the final artwork is done by hand,” Koen says. “I think illustration and comics are a little misunderstood as disciplines. Things are a little more intimate; they’re a little more human-to-human.”
For Koen, educating illustrators and comic-book artists is about nurturing unique voices, something machine-learning models aren’t able to offer. “We’re being flooded with a lot of sameness,” he says. “This is where the trained artist comes in and takes that tool and pushes it forward in ways that are very different.” But that isn’t to say that the department is turning its back on generative AI.
“We are focused on helping art students become artists, which involves dealing with this technology and finding ways to incorporate it organically into their process,” he says. “The trick word is organic.”
BEFRIENDING THE BEAST
Of all the panelists in “Crisis or Opportunity,” trademark and copyright attorney Frank Martinez—who teaches in the BFA Design, MFA Design and MFA Interaction Design programs—appeared to be the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable about AI. Studying how algorithms work over the past few years has helped him make sense of its power.
“There’s really nothing to panic over,” says Martinez, who has learned how to code in Python, the lingua franca of AI. “The reason people panic is because they don’t understand the tools they’re using and how they work.”
In his classes at SVA, Martinez advocates for openness and experimentation. “If you approach creativity from the perspective of protecting rights, it may, to a certain extent, create an atmosphere of limitations,” he says.
Similarly, photographer and creative director Apeksha Agarwal (MPS 2020 Digital Photography) recently taught herself how to integrate generative AI into her work. (Agarwal’s black-andwhite photographs of Mumbai during its COVID-19 lockdown were featured in the fall/winter 2020 Visual Arts Journal.) After losing a job to AI last year, she dedicated months to learning about algorithms and applications.
“I was alarmed,” she says. “I remember going back to my studio, sitting down at my computer and typing, ‘What is generative AI?’ on Google. That’s how basic I started.”
Agarwal, whose work has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and exhibitions at Art Basel Miami and New York Fashion Week, has since become a proponent of generative-AI photography, which combines traditionally shot studio images with backgrounds, fashions, and other visual elements that are created with the aid of applications like Midjourney, Photoshop AI, and Stable Diffusion.
In weaving AI throughout her workflow—from composing cover letters, creating storyboards, to producing the final artwork—Agarwal attests that the human touch isn’t lost in the fray. “My knowledge as a photographer has a huge role in what I’m creating,” she says. “As an artist, I don’t think I could be replaced. I could’ve been replaced if I didn’t go out and learn about it.”
Apart from her studio practice, she also conducts workshops on generative AI.
“I got into education because I observed that there were so many who are so scared of AI,” she says. “I started to like to teach in the hopes of opening a dialogue. It’s not all bad. You can use it for some very, very positive outcomes if you learn about the applications and the technology.”
THE LONG VIEW OF GENERATIVE AI
As generative-AI technology develops, and debates around its true economic and cultural effects continue, perhaps the biggest lesson from its sudden emergence is about perspective.
“The conversations and debates we are all having about AI now remind me of the conversations and debates designers had in the late 1980s about the use of computers in creating design,” Millman says. “Back then, designers were convinced we were doomed—that computers would take all of our jobs and create utterly soulless design. While some jobs were indeed lost, hundreds
of thousands of jobs have since been created, and the originality in the work of designers has not diminished.”
“If we just zoom out and look at a longer arc of time, there were similar trends in the history of technology and innovation,”
Hunt says, citing a range of breakthrough inventions that disrupted entire economies, from sewing machines in the Industrial Revolution to personal computing and the Internet. “There’s a good chance that this period will be a defining moment. I think we’ll behave
differently, we will experience things quite differently, but a lot of things like that eventually become oxygen—they become a fundamental truth.”
And, despite all of the hype, some department chairs note that their students, who will comprise the next generation of thought-leaders and creative professionals, tend to have a more tempered sensibility about generative AI. “The thing that’s really interesting to me is some people just aren’t interested,” Chochinov says. “I had a presumption that everyone would be interested in this. That’s not true, it turns out.”
“The biggest reaction has been no reaction at all,” Masson agrees, describing a common nonchalance among his program’s students. “It’s not apathy. They’re just seeing it as another tool and when they’re ready, they’ll use it.” ◆
Anne Quito (MFA 2014 Design Criticism) is a journalist, design critic, and MFA Products of Design faculty member. She wrote Mag Men: Fifty Years of Making Magazines (2019) with Walter Bernard (1961 Graphic Design) and the late Milton Glaser, a longtime SVA faculty member and former acting chairman of the College’s board.
Photographs by Apeksha Agarwal (MPS 2020 Digital Photography altered through generative AI) to swap in different pieces of jewelry (top left, bottom right) and cosmetics.
UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OF THE BOUNDARY-BREAKING MUSICIAN HARUMI , AND HIS SVA CONNECTION
By BETH KLEBER
A Tracks Hidden * ←
s an archivist, I love receiving a stumper of a question; that’s when the detective work kicks in. Earlier this year, the SVA Archives got an inquiry from a college student, Olivia Bresnahan, who was researching a mysterious 1960s psychedelic musician named Harumi, who she believed had attended the College. The name was unfamiliar, but a bit of digging revealed a considerable amount of interest in the man and his music in various corners of the Internet. I was intrigued. In 1968, Harumi released a beautifully packaged, self-titled double album, recorded by legendary producer Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, the Velvet Underground) and put out on the Verve Forecast label. He embarked on a 15-city tour that same year, which included a performance at the grand Pasadena Civic Auditorium. It was an accomplished, auspicious debut for an essentially unknown young artist, but soon after he disappeared from the public eye. Who was he and what became of him?
It turns out that Harumi, whose full name was Harumi Ando, did indeed attend the School of Visual Arts, studying advertising from 1963 to 1965. During this time he met fellow student Sherri Baxter, who would go on to create the exquisite artwork for Harumi, on which she is credited as “Sherri Berri.” (Attempts to reach Baxter for this article were unsuccessful.) The album, a copy of which has been acquired
← PERHAPS THE MOST COMPELLING PART OF THIS STORY IS THE WAY IN WHICH HARUMI’S WORK HAS CONTINUED TO RESONATE WITH SUBSEQUENT GENERATIONS OF LISTENERS.
by the SVA Archives, contains a mix of charming psychedelic pop and soft rock on two sides, and a pair of experimental tracks on the other two: a 24-minute spoken-word piece delivered by Harumi and the late William Roscoe Mercer, a.k.a. Rosko, an influential New York DJ; and the 18-minute “Samurai Memories,” which incorporates a recording of Harumi, his parents, and his sister, Hisako, conversing in Japanese.
With the help of a journalist acquaintance, Willa Paskin of Slate’s “Decoder Ring” podcast, I was able to track down Harumi’s daughter, Junet,
and through her his sister, Hisako. Both spoke with me and generously filled in the gaps.
The Ando family emigrated from Tokyo to Queens when Harumi was a young teen. “He always wanted to be a singer,” Hisako says. “He taught himself guitar, harmonica. He played violin, he played clarinet. The music was in his blood.”
During his teen years and early adulthood, Harumi forged a series of remarkable connections in New York City’s music scene, jamming with the likes of Richie Havens and Cat Stevens.
For a period, Allan Montoya, the son of legendary flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya, played guitar in Harumi’s band. He seemed to have a knack for meeting people: one day he came home and told his sister he’d played pool with actor Peter Falk, TV’s Columbo. Hisako recalls Rosko visiting their home in Queens to interview her, Harumi, and their parents at time of the album’s release. As a Japanese American, Harumi’s mere presence on the rock scene was unusual. “In those days, you didn’t really see any Asian singers in the U.S. at all, so it was unique,” Hisako says. Her friends in California were astonished that he played at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
However, the environment of the music business took its toll, and Harumi stepped away. While he never released another album, he continued his artistic pursuits. He later attended the Germain School of Photography in Manhattan (which has since closed) and had a second career as a photo retoucher and expert in dye-transfer photographic printing, working with many commercial clients. He lived in a rent-controlled loft near the World Trade Center for more than 30 years until his death in 2007.
“9/11 impacted him greatly,” Junet says. “Our loft was just a couple blocks away. He got really involved with the community. A church nearby volunteered to help him clean the apartment because he was on the top floor. The soot that covered the city was all over his apartment as well. I know it took a toll on him because he couldn’t walk barefoot at home for over a year after the event.” When the group overseeing the World Trade Center area’s reconstruction announced a competition for a 9/11 memorial landscape design, Harumi submitted a proposal.
His was an only-in-New-York kind of life, but perhaps the most compelling part of this story is the way in which Harumi’s work has continued to resonate with subsequent generations of listeners. His fans can be found writing blog comments and Reddit posts, many of them searching for more information about the artist—information which, like more than we would like to admit, does not exist online. Sometimes, answers are contained behind paywalls of publications and research databases, but even more often they are only held by human memory. ◆
*Beth Kleber is the head of archives at the School of Visual Arts.
BORDER LINE
ARTIST AND ALUMNUS
BY DIANA M c CLURE
HUMAN MOMENTS AMID SCENES OF CONFLICT, TENSION AND STRUGGLE ARE CENTRAL
TO THE ART of Steve Mumford (MFA 1994 Fine Arts). Over the course of his career to date, he has created detailed, deeply felt drawings and paintings based on his firsthand observation of America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2010
BP oil spill, Black Lives Matter activism, antifa protests, Trump rallies, and more. These works have appeared as portfolios in Harper’s Magazine and in several solo exhibitions at Postmasters Gallery, in New York City. But despite his focus on humanitarian crises and hotly debated geopolitical issues, Mumford is clear on separating his artistic goals from any activist motivations.
“I’m not interested in drawing as a way to advance my own politics,” he says. “When I’m actually in front of somebody and drawing them, it is much more powerful than any kind of pre-assumed political opinions.”
Mumford’s current body of work centers the migrant experience at the United States’ southern border, in all of its human complexity. On a 10-day trip this past spring to the border town of Sasabe, Arizona, he began work on a new series of drawings amid what he describes as an environment of “controlled chaos” populated by a cacophony of characters: border patrol agents, independent aid organizations,
suspected cartel members, journalists, artists, ranchers, locals, and migrants. Tapping into the emotive depth of his newfound environment, he focused on documenting our shared humanity with a reporter’s—and artist’s—skill for observing and accumulating details that speak to individual lives and experiences.
“Art is not about generalizations; art is about specificities,” he says. “Whether that’s person-to-person empathy or just the way you’re engaging with line, color, and the moment, it’s always about empathizing, drawing into what a person is feeling. It’s about the human in front of me, what they have gone through, and how that’s reflected in what they are doing.”
Prior to his trip, Mumford heard about the Tucson Samaritans, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid to migrants who cross the southern Arizona border, in the news. Mumford splits his time between New York City and rural Maine, where he and his wife, painter and fellow MFA 1994 Fine Arts classmate Inka Essenhigh, keep
studios and homes. Though he says he is not naturally spontaneous, he does rely on serendipity when initiating new projects, and these leaps of faith drive a practice that could be described as historical painting, formed in the moment.
“I just got a flight to Tucson, rented a car, and kind of presented myself in Sasabe, which is this tiny town with no more than a general store,” he says. “It just so happened that a woman was there at the time who said, ‘Oh, yeah, the Tucson Samaritans, they often pull up at this warehouse a block away to pick up supplies. In fact, they usually pull up in about 10 minutes.’ And so I went over there. And sure enough, they did.”
With a ranch-house bed and breakfast in Sasabe as his home base, Mumford was about a 45-minute drive—on “tiny” dirt roads and up precipitous inclines—from the spot near the border wall where the Samaritans keep a camp of about two dozen tents. Named after its first arrivals, migrants from Cuba, it’s called Little Havana, and sits on a former border-wall
PREVIOUS AND ABOVE
Artist and alumnus
Steve Mumford, who works from firsthand observation of geopolitical events, traveled to the border town of Sasabe, Arizona, earlier this year to draw and interview migrants, volunteers, and Border Patrol agents. Sketches courtesy of Steve Mumford.
construction site. Little Havana is a steep, three-hour walk along a dirt road from where migrants from all over the world— Central America, Africa, South Asia, and Eastern Europe—first enter the States. The location is also where the U.S. Border Patrol picks up migrants and takes them five or six miles away, to apply for asylum.
After spending a couple of days at the camp, Mumford realized it was an ideal place to talk to people and draw. “I use watercolor paper and I draw with a dip pen with indelible, or waterproof, ink,” Mumford says. “The sun was strong there, so it dried really quickly. The waterproof ink is great because you can do washes or watercolors on top of it. The ink demands a degree of spontaneity. You have to draw fast. It’s easy to mess up in terms of accuracy. But on the other hand, what seems initially like a mess-up can actually add a great deal of personality. The point is to make an interesting drawing more than something photographically accurate.”
Mumford, who speaks Spanish and made it a point to ask his subjects for their permission to draw them, found plenty of bustle to fill his sketchbooks: lines for ramen-noodle meals, women and children passing the time together, kids playing in the grass, interactions between new arrivals and border-patrol agents. A second drawing location—a vast open space at the end of the border wall, where migrants cross over into Arizona—was more isolated. There were no houses in sight, just ranch land as far as the eye can see, and many of the people who are guiding migrants to the border, Mumford says, are reported to be involved with drug cartels.
“It’s not a constant thing,” he says. “Migrants might come every second day or every third day. When they’re dropping people off, it might be just a small number of people, 25 to 30, or it might be 150. It’s very random. I never knew what to expect.” Mexican and U.S. ranchers were another
Mumford largely drew at two locations: a camp maintained by the Tucson Samaritans humanitarian aid group, and a vast open space at the end of the area’s border wall, where many migrants cross over the U.S.–Mexico border. Sketches courtesy of Steve Mumford.
“I’M INTERESTED IN WHATEVER EMOTIONS THE MIGRANTS ARE FEELING: HAPPINESS, OR A SENSE AT HAVING ARRIVED.
presence around the area. Mumford began to make the hour-and-a-half drive there early in the morning to see who would be arriving with the rising sun.
While on site, Mumford prioritizes capturing gestures and evocative moments, adding little in terms of embellishment.
“I’m interested in whatever emotions the people are feeling: happiness, or a sense of peace at having arrived. Hope, whatever it is—a face, a gesture. A mom might be reaching toward her son or daughter. . . . It speaks to a sense of her protective feeling about her children, who’ve just been on a dangerous journey. Maybe she feels like she’s finally arrived at a place where she can let her guard down a bit. If I can get any of that in the drawing, that’s gold.”
Wherever he stays on his working trips, he sets up what he calls a “mini-studio, so I can add more detail based on photographs I take. Often I find it’s nice not to work them up too much—which is a temptation—in order to keep a lot of the quick touch of the hand. Then I’ll work on them more when I get back to New York. And then, if one or two strike me in terms of painting, they
have to go beyond the specific and really address the universal.”
When Mumford paints from one of his drawings, he often hires models, or will ask friends or his students at the New York Academy of Art, to pose to re-create the drawn scene. The end result can measure up to seven-by-17 feet and take up to a year to finish.
Migration is a global phenomenon, Mumford points out. “It’s a universal topic that has tremendous resonance. I got a drawing of one woman just starting to cross. It was too fast for me to draw, but for a second the woman, who was Mexican, held her baby up to an African immigrant who received the baby so she could climb over. That’s something. I thought, ‘This could be a painting.’ . . . That’s what you hope to see when you set out.” ◆
Diana McClure is a writer and photographer based in New York City. Her essays, reviews and profiles have appeared in Art Basel magazine, Art21, Cultured , catalogs, monographs, and other publications.
When drawing on location, Mumford works fast with watercolor and inks, prioritizing gestures and evocative moments. Later, in his studio, he uses select sketches to create monumental paintings measuring up to eightby-10 feet, a process that can take as long as a year to finish. Sketches courtesy of Steve Mumford.
Q+A
TODD RADOM
(BFA 1986 Media Arts) grew up in Yonkers, New York, with no shortage of creative role models in his family. His father was a designer and photographer, his grandfather an illustrator and painter, and his great-grandfather a lettering artist. So although he was, by his own admission, fuzzy on professional goals when he enrolled at SVA on a full-tuition merit scholarship, he never doubted that, once defined, he could achieve them.
By GREG HERBOWY
Nearly 40 years later, Radom has built a career as one of America’s premier sports-branding experts and designers. His team identities, event logos, and commemorative designs have been worn by the players, sold on the merchandise and seen throughout the stadiums, broadcasts, and print and online media of dozens of professional teams. In 2016, Ice Cube tapped Radom to create the branding and identities for Big3, the entertainer and entrepreneur’s new three-on-three basketball league. He has published two books—Winning Ugly (2018), on Major League Baseball’s most out-there uniform designs, and Fabric of the Game (2020), a look at the National Hockey League’s team brands and histories—and is a sought-after writer and commentator on sports design.
“Todd isn’t just a great sports designer,” says Paul Lukas, journalist, critic, and founder of Uni Watch, the long-running column-turned-website dedicated to sports-uniform news and analysis. “He’s a great sports design historian, a rare dual expertise that informs and elevates so much of his work.”
OPPOSITE, TOP Joel Piñero pitching for the Los Angeles Angels in 2012, wearing a uniform bearing Todd Radom’s 2002 team rebrand.
Photo by Keith Allison, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
OPPOSITE, BOTTOM The case for the Chicago White Sox’s 2017 premium season ticket package, designed by Radom. ABOVE Radom’s sketches for the Big3 basketball league’s championship trophy; Todd Radom.
TOP, FROM LEFT Todd
Radom designed this limitededition 2019 poster for the New York Jets, and revamped the Los Angeles Angels’ brand in 2002.
ABOVE Radom created this site-specific work in 2023 for Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, celebrating a career milestone of the late, legendary Pittsburgh Pirate Roberto Clemente.
OPPOSITE A selection from a set of 81 premium tickets designed by Radom for the Chicago White Sox’s 2017 season. (See page 63.)
Radom also maintains close ties to SVA. Since 2015, he has served as chairman of the SVA Alumni Society’s board; in 2015, he co-curated “The Sports Show,” an exhibition of sports-related alumni work; and his wife, Susanne Reece, is both a 2020 alumnus and faculty member of the College’s MFA Visual Narrative program.
This past year, Radom partnered with fellow sports designer Bill Frederick on what he calls one of his most rewarding assignments yet: a top-to-bottom rebrand of the SSG Landers, one of 10 teams in the Korean Baseball Organization, Korea’s pro baseball league. The Visual Arts Journal recently spoke with Radom about the project, the evolution
in attitudes toward design for sports, and his all-time favorite team identities.
This question probably has an obvious answer, but were you passionate about sports as a kid?
I was not necessarily a great athlete when I was growing up, but I was a sports fan, and baseball has always been dearest to my heart. It’s a marathon of a season. In New York you’ve got the Mets and the Yankees, so there are a lot of games, and it was always there in the summer when you’d be off from school and up late watching TV. In the ’70s, there were a lot of sports on TV— though there was less TV than there is now [laughs]—and there were different
leagues and new teams, and it was this moment that was, in retrospect, very expressive from a visual perspective. And I noticed all of that and, because of my family background, I would say that I observed the games through a bit of a different lens. I would go to, let’s say, a Yankee game with my dad, and I would doodle all the logos of the American League teams in the scorebook. Now all these years later, my work has been on all of those uniforms, and I’ve even replaced a couple of them entirely.
Are there any looks from that time that stick out as favorites? When I think of 1970s baseball fashion, I think of the Pittsburgh Pirates hat that looked like a layer cake.
Yeah! It’s funny you mention that— I just got back from PNC Park in Pittsburgh, where they commissioned me to make a piece of art for the ballpark that honors Willie Stargell¹, and I created a series of Andy Warhol–style portraits as a tribute to that era. I noticed those Pirates uniforms when they came out. They inspired me because they showed that things don’t have to be just black or white or gray. There was a wonderful expression that extended down through the brand. The Houston Astros’ famous rainbow uniforms were another example. All these years later, they are often imitated but never duplicated.
I’m kind of all over the map as far as favorite team identities. On the one hand, I appreciate the classics, like the Montreal Canadiens in hockey or the Green Bay Packers in football. They look great and are associated with winning and have a unique sort of mystique. The original logo of the Toronto Blue Jays, from 1977, could almost be a corporate logo in certain respects, but it’s elegant, it’s modern, and it extended out to all these different uniforms and wordmarks and pieces of design that were flawlessly activated. Peter Good’s Hartford Whalers² logo, to designers and many sports fans who are not necessarily into design, is considered to be the GOAT: you’ve got a W; you’ve got a whale’s
fluke above it; and you’ve got a negative space in between that contains an H, for Hartford. So it does a lot with a little. There’s an elegance to it that is timeless and wonderful.
But having grown up in the ’70s, I do appreciate some of the more, frankly, garish and [laughs] silly identities of that era.
NOTES
1 The late Willie Stargell played for the Pirates for his entire career, winning multiple MVP awards, All-Star distinctions, and other honors. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.
dumpster-diving. It was not considered as prestigious as things like annual reports or Broadway posters.
Can you talk a bit about how you broke into the field?
3 Starter, established in 1971, produces licensed apparel as well as uniforms and other clothing for professional and collegiate sports.
4 The Double-A class team, now known as the Tennessee Smokies, is presently affiliated with the Chicago Cubs.
2 The Hartford Whalers, formerly the New England Whalers, were a hockey team in Connecticut from the 1970s through the late 1990s, when they moved to North Carolina and became the Carolina Hurricanes.
Given your preexisting interest, was designing for sports something you were thinking about as a career when you were at SVA? No. Like most knuckleheaded 18-yearolds, I had to navigate my way through school, figure out what I wanted to focus on and then take it from there. There was no clear pathway to sports-related design in 1986. It was also looked at as almost a kind of
After graduating, I had a couple of design jobs in publishing, the last one being at Penguin Books. This was a time when there were a lot of baseball books, for whatever reason, and they would always give those assignments to me, because I knew the sport and its history, and I developed quite a portfolio of baseball-book covers.
And at that particular moment, there were a couple of things happening in the world of professional sports. The National Football League has had an internal creative department going back to the early ’60s. They were way
ahead of the game in terms of marketing. But in the late 1980s, very early 1990s, MLB, the NBA, the NHL—they all opened up their first in-house creative services departments. And there was a reason for this. This was a moment where licensing—T-shirts and sweatshirts and jackets and all sorts of stuff with logos on it—was booming. Leagues were expanding, with a lot of new teams coming online, and you had teams moving, which means that there was a need for new visual identities.
But I think most critically, we were witnessing this seismic shift in the marketing of sports. They were being marketed to youth. You had this pop-culture crossover thing happening with hip-hop and sports, with ball caps and Starter³ jackets showing up in music videos. It was about the fashion.
So I’m in New York, hustling and taking my portfolio all over the place, and I saw all of this and recognized the need for freelance designers in the industry. My first job from the MLB was to create a minor-league baseball team logo— the Knoxville Blue Jays, a Toronto Blue Jays farm team in Tennessee, was changing its name to the Knoxville Smokies�—and I’ve been a proud freelancer ever since.
This past year you partnered with fellow sports-branding expert Bill Frederick to create a new identity for the SSG Landers. Had you ever worked on a project outside of North America prior to this?
No, and I’ve always gotten asked, “What’s on your bucket list?” And I’ve always said it would be really cool to rebrand a baseball team in Japan or Korea.
I’ve been associated with baseball for all these years, but in Japanese or Korean baseball the culture and the branding landscape around the sport are different. And lo and behold this opportunity came along, and it was a really fun one. I got to spend a week in Seoul in the spring of last year, I went back there for a week just this past January, and I’ve spent a lot of time here in the United States with our partners there. It was a very detail-oriented design experience, a very close collaboration, and unique compared to anything I’ve ever been involved with.
What are some of the distinctions between Korean baseball and baseball in the U.S.? For one, in Korea the teams are associated with their parent corporations. So instead of the Pittsburgh Pirates, you would have the U.S. Steel Pirates,
FAR LEFT Team jerseys for Big3, a three-on-three professional basketball league, designed by Todd Radom.
ABOVE AND LEFT Uniforms and logo for the SSG Landers, one of 10 teams in the Korean Baseball Organization. Radom partnered with fellow designer Bill Frederick this past year on the project, a top-to-bottom rebrand that he describes as one of the most rewarding opportunities of his career to date.
Images courtesy of Todd Radom.
or the Apple Giants instead of the San Francisco Giants, and the uniforms will have more advertising on them. And SSG, which is the Shinsegae Group, purchased the Landers club a couple of years ago, so the rebrand was a full rollout, kind of a fresh start for them.
Also the Korean Baseball Organization, which is the equivalent of the MLB, only dates back to 1982. The Landers were established in 2000. So while the visual traditions of MLB and many of its teams can stretch back to well over a century—for example, the Cincinnati Reds’ identity dates to the Cincinnati Red Stockings team of 1881—this is all much younger.
What about the game itself or the stadium experience?
I had a Korean baseball official say to me, “I went to a Yankee game recently, and on the scoreboard was a message for the fans to make noise. Here in Korea, we don’t have to say that.” And that’s because the whole game is filled with joyful noise.
South Korea is geographically a small place, and you’ve got the vast majority of teams residing in and around metropolitan Seoul, including the Landers. So fans will travel from game to game. I have a couple of videos I took at games where opposing teams have cheerleaders on top of their visiting dugout and someone with a megaphone who is leading the call. The home team has songs for every player that are played and sung throughout their
at-bats. It’s really an electric mindset and just unbelievably fun.
What sorts of things did you take into consideration for the Landers rebrand?
Well the team is based in Incheon, which is just west of Seoul and a large city in its own right, even though it’s part of the greater Seoul area. It’s a port city and a transportation hub, and considered to be the gateway to South Korea.
Their prior logo was of a UFO, and ultimately we landed on a look that preserved that sense of exploration and wonder while adding a dynamism and symbolism that could translate to a lot of things. The new logo employs a star, and stars of course are very aspirational—we reach for the stars, we aspire to be all-stars—and the way that it’s placed on the L in Landers suggests movement, which from a design perspective sets the club up well for motion graphics and social-media graphics. We wanted to give them a lot of assets that could serve as a wide and expressive brand for the ball club.
Korea is one of the most culturally influential places on the face of the Earth. And that has to do with K-pop, film and TV, food, fashion, and retail culture as well: Shinsegae Group, the Landers’ parent corporation, are the largest retailers in Korea. So to be there and to see their design sensibilities and how they’re manifested in terms of retail environments and malls and architecture and clothing—things that are off the baseball
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT 2017 Big3
Championship patch, designed by Todd Radom; Fabric of the Game (2020), one of Radom’s two books on sports uniform history; “retro” logos for the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, two of countless created by Radom to celebrate professional sports teams’ past eras.
field—were all things that needed to be seen in person.
You talked about the explosion of popularity for sports-related content, apparel and merchandise that happened early in your design career, and that arguably has grown even more since then. Why do you think that’s the case?
This is some of the most visible design work out there. Sports fans are the most ardent brand loyalists on Earth. People who don’t otherwise follow or care about art and design have arguments about these uniforms and logos. There are people all over the world who tattoo this stuff on their body. You or I may be partisans of a certain soft-drink brand or coffee or beer or bank, but the odds are you’re not going to have it tattooed on you.
I also think that sports live and breathe, for the most part, at a local level. It’s about your sense of civic identity. Fans in Kansas City are different from fans in New York or here in Philly. There are older people who are still absolutely gutted that the Brooklyn Dodgers moved out of New York City in 1958. It’s a hard thing to quantify, but being a sports fan, you’re not asked what color you are, your age, your income level … you’re part of this group of fans. You can be part of something, and in today’s world, that’s a pretty special thing. ◆
This interview has been condensed and edited.
HIGHLIGHT REEL
For more than three decades, Todd Radom has helped define the look of professional sports in the United States. Here are five career highlights.
SUPER BOWL XXXVIII
Creating a Super Bowl logo is, Radom points out, basically the Super Bowl of sports-related design. The National Football League’s championship game is “the biggest one-day sporting event on Earth,” he says. “Hundreds of millions of people, if not more, see it.” Radom’s year presented a special challenge: the Super Bowl famously uses Roman numerals to keep count, and 2004’s Super Bowl XXXVIII was the longest string of them to date.
CHICAGO WHITE SOX PREMIUM TICKETS
In 2017, Radom produced a collectible ticket set for the Chicago White Sox organization’s premium season-ticket holders that commemorated the team’s “entire, expansive history, dating back to 1901,” he says. Radom’s work, which used vintage photography, typography, and original illustrations to create an era-spanning feel, was subsequently added to the permanent collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, in Cooperstown, New York.
ICE CUBE IMPACT AWARD
Earlier this year, when the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in Springfield, Massachusetts, announced the Ice Cube Impact Award, to honor contributions within the sport to building community and inclusivity, the rapper and inaugural honoree asked Radom, his Big3 collaborator, to design the trophy, which depicts a basketball encased in ice. Radom calls the assignment “a full-circle moment”: in 1997, he designed the hall’s logo, which is still in use today.
SACRAMENTO KINGS’ 100TH ANNIVERSARY
Radom avoids extraneous ornamentation in his work. “Design needs to be functional, and form and function need to marry up nicely,” he says. But when possible, he works in subtle references to a team, sport or player’s backstory. His centennial logo for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, for example, created for the 2023 – 24 season, features five jewels in the crown: one for each city the team has played in over the years.
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
First held in 2006, the World Baseball Classic, which brings together all-star teams from around the globe, has become one of the most popular quadrennial events in international sports. Radom created the look and logo for the inaugural tournament, which he says “reflect the international nature of the event.” He adds, “I was there at the inception, having begun work on the identity back in July 2004. Seeing it grow into what it has become has been really special.”
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For complete details and up-to-date information, visit sva.edu/alumni. Questions? Contact SVA Alumni Affairs at 212.592.2300 or alumni@sva.edu.
ALUMNI AFFAIRS
Indulge Your Intellectual Curiosity at SVA!
SVA LIBRARY ACCESS
A Privilege Worth Embracing
A MESSAGE FROM JANE NUZZO, DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND DEVELOPMENT AT SVA
I am delighted to announce that after a prolonged, pandemic-induced hiatus, alumni access to the SVA Library’s main location has been reinstated. All libraries are bastions of knowledge, but SVA’s is one of a kind, offering numerous resources that benefit our community members far beyond their graduation day.
Located on the second floor at 380 Second Avenue, the main SVA Library has supported
the study and practice of art and design and catered to the needs of creative professionals in all stages of their careers for over 60 years. It is an accessible, inviting space with wired tables, lounge areas, charging stations, and themed displays and selections of material. Perhaps best of all, beverages and snacks are welcome.
While alumni do not have borrowing privileges, abundant materials are available on-site. The library’s holdings extend beyond typical academic texts to include underground comics, graphic novels, digital
and analog image collections, DVDs, rare books, artists’ books, published alumni works, illustrated children’s books, film scripts, posters, many periodicals, and popular fiction. The library also houses a computer lab with Apple computers, Cintiq stations and several scanners. Blackand-white as well as color printer–copiers are additionally available for modest per-page fees.
Alumni must register with SVA Alumni Affairs before they visit the library’s 380 Second Avenue location. For complete details, visit sva.edu/alumnibenefits and navigate to the “SVA Library:
Alumni Access Instructions” dropdown menu.
Whether you seek to expand your knowledge, advance your career, or simply indulge your intellectual curiosity, do not underestimate the value of SVA Library access—it’s a privilege worth embracing.
For more information about the SVA Library or to get in touch with a librarian, visit sva.edu/library. For a comprehensive list of SVA alumni benefits, visit sva.edu/ alumnibenefits. Questions? Call 212.592.2300 or email alumni@sva.edu. ◆
ALUMNI AWARDS
Spring 2024 SVA Alumni Society Awards
The SVA Alumni Society celebrates its latest group of award winners: 13 students and recent graduates from a range of the College’s BFA programs.
Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends of the College, each spring the SVA Alumni Society distributes several awards honoring current and graduating students. The accolades include the Alumni Society Merit Award, for a BFA candidate who demonstrated community building and leadership excellence while at SVA; the Brian Weil Memorial Award, for graduating BFA Photography and Video students; the
Jack Potter Memorial Award, given to two first-year students who have demonstrated exceptional drawing skills; the Korean Alumni Association Award, given to two fourth-year students with South Korean citizenship; the Lila Eva Lewental Memorial Award and Rodman Family Scholarship, merit-based awards for students in their second or third year; the Richard Wilde Award, given to third-year BFA Advertising and BFA Design students; the Russell J. Efros Memorial Award, for graduating BFA Film students; the Silas H. Rhodes Memorial Award, established in memory of SVA’s founder, given to third-year BFA Visual and Critical Studies
1. Shuwei Guan, Landscape with Mingshan Mountain and Snow, 2023, pencil. 2. Aden Hardin, light, to see, death, 2023, mixed media. 3. Melanie Turner, Stitched Up, 2023, digital comic. 4. Emma Pierce, Untitled 2 , 2024, monoprint. 5. Nanki Singh, Peek-a-Boo, 2023, inkjet print. 6. Dahui Kim, How to Use Semicolon, 2023, digital motion graphic. 7. Sabrina Valderrama, Sonido Magazine, 2023, editorial. 8. Seongyun Park, Bodega, 2024, branding project.
students who demonstrate excellence in writing; and the Will Eisner Sequential Art Scholarship, for BFA Comics students entering their third or fourth year.
To support the SVA Alumni Society Awards, visit sva.edu/give.
ALUMNI SOCIETY MERIT AWARD
Sabrina Maria Valderrama, BFA 2024 Design
BRIAN WEIL MEMORIAL AWARD
Nanki Singh, BFA 2024 Photography and Video
JACK POTTER MEMORIAL AWARD
Shuwei Guan, BFA Illustration
Yi Zhou, BFA Illustration
KOREAN ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION AWARD
Dahui Kim, BFA 2024 Design
Jina Kwon, BFA 2024 Illustration
LILA EVA LEWENTAL
MEMORIAL AWARD
Gianna Tafa, BFA Illustration
RICHARD WILDE AWARD
Kacey Le, BFA Design
Seongyun Park, BFA Advertising
RODMAN FAMILY
SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Aden Hardin, BFA Fine Arts
RUSSELL J. EFROS
MEMORIAL AWARD
Maura Garnett, BFA 2024 Film
SILAS H. RHODES
MEMORIAL AWARD
Emma Pierce, BFA Visual and Critical Studies
WILL EISNER SEQUENTIAL
ART SCHOLARSHIP
Melanie Turner, BFA Comics
DONORS
Dawn E. Albore
BFA 1981 Media Arts
Ingrid Andresen Lindfors BFA 1987
Photography
Anonymous (1)
Mr. Gary Brinson BFA 1985
Media Arts
Mr. Angelo Canitano 1970
Paul K. Caullett BFA 2000
Graphic Design
Anthony Chibbaro 1979
Gordon Cowan BFA 1977
Photography
Charles Curcio BFA 1983
Media Arts
Tom Engelhardt
1957 Cartooning
Bill Giles 1968
John and Lauren Giuffre (alumnus) BFA 1986
Media Arts
Ann Gong
BFA 1993
Cartooning
Howard Greenberg BFA 1982
Media Arts
David Haas 1974
Lisa HirshLeventhal 1971 Fine Arts
Barbara (Huhn) Holt
BFA 1983 Fine Arts
Yusheng Jiang MFA 2024 Photography, Video, and Related Media
Tak Hoon Kim BFA 1997
Animation
Jean B. Kooi
BFA 1978
Media Arts
The Alumni Society gratefully acknowledges these SVA alumni who gave to the society January 1 through June 30, 2024.
J.P. Lee
MFA 1991
Computer Art
Lee and Beverly Leung
1974 Media Arts
BFA 1977
Media Arts
Meredith J. Lewin
1986 Graphic Design
Elizabeth Clark Libert
MFA 2010 Photography, Video, and Related Media
Missy Longo-Lewis
BFA 1984 Media Arts
Patrick F. Loughran
BFA 1980 Fine Arts
Kymm Malatesta
BFA 1986 Media Arts
Patrick McDonnell (alumnus) and Karen O’Connell
BFA 1978
Media Arts
Wyatt Mills
BFA 2013 Fine Arts
Edith Ostrowsky 1972
T. Padavano
BFA 1984
Media Arts
Peter Papulis
BFA 1977 Fine Arts
Alexander Payson
BFA 2017 Photography and Video
Steven Pullara
BFA 1979 Fine Arts
Todd L. Radom
BFA 1986
Media Arts
Frank Riley BFA 2003
Illustration
Rise Again Productions/Brittany Neff
BFA 2012 Film and Video
Jorge Luis Rodriguez
BFA 1976 Fine Arts
Linda Saccoccio (alumnus) and Barry Winnick
MFA 1991 Fine Arts
Joyce O. Schnaufer
1980
Steel Wool Games, Inc./Andrew Dayton
BFA 1998
Computer Art
Philip Sugden BFA 1977 Fine Arts
Eva Tom BFA 1987
Media Arts
Mark Willis BFA 1998
Illustration
Danielle Taylor Windram BFA 2021
Animation
We also thank these parents and friends of SVA who supported the SVA Alumni Society.
The DiLillo Family, in memory of
Cynthia Duffy Exclusive Contracting
Noreen, Rich and Brendan Gaschke
Edith Gross and Yoseph Feit
Hogan Marren
Babbo & Rose, LTD
Allison Lowe
William McAllister
Paul Milbauer, in memory of Lawrence Milbauer (1965)
Novartis
June Paul
Patricia Romeu
Laura Thomas
Charles R. Vermilyea, Jr.
W.B. Mason
Wells Fargo Middle Market Banking
Will & Ann Eisner
Family Foundation
9. Jina Kwon, Peephole, 2024, graphite and Photoshop. 10. Poster for Maura Garnett’s Disoriented, 2023, designed by Vasavi Bubna (BFA 2024 Design).
11. Zhou Yi, Baby Food, 2024, Photoshop. 12. Gianna Tafa, still from Beetle Hunt! , 2024 2D animated short.
ALUMNI NOTES & EXHIBITIONS
ABOVE
C. BAY MILIN (MPS 2010 Digital Photography), Amulets, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2013, and The Coat of Many Colors, Apollo Theater, Harlem, NYC, 2019. From “Hits & Near Misses,” Golden Belt Artist Studios, Durham, NC, 5/1-5/30/24.
SVA alumni achievements from December 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024.
Single Episode for The Nevers (2021 – 2023); John Paino (BFA 1983 Fine Arts), production designer, was nominated for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program for The Last of Us (2023 – ); and Matthew Yonks (BFA 2001 Film and Video), producer, was nominated for Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series for Saturday Night Live Presents: Behind the Sketch (2023), 2023 Emmy Awards, Los Angeles, 1/15/24.
GROUP EFFORTS
Helia Chitsazan (MFA 2023 Fine Arts) and Xinyu Wo (MFA 2021 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “All Our Puny Sorrows,” Pablo’s Birthday, NYC, 11/15-12/15/23.
SVA alumni participated in Miami Art Week, 12/5-12/10/23: Roberta Ruocco (BFA 2007 Photography) and Fabricio Suarez (BFA 2005 Illustration) had work in Aqua Art Miami; Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.) (1995 Fine Arts), Ali Banisadr (BFA 2005 Illustration), Katherine Bernhardt (MFA 2000 Fine Arts), Andrew Brischler (MFA 2012 Fine Arts), TM Davy (BFA 2002 Illustration), Ja’Tovia Gary (MFA 2014 Social Documentary Film), Adebunmi Gbadebo (BFA 2017 Fine Arts), Dozie Kanu (BFA 2016 Film), Lyn Liu (BFA 2016 Fine Arts), Vera Lutter (MFA 1995 Photography and Related Media), Jamie Nares (1975 Fine Arts), Elizabeth Peyton (BFA 1987 Fine Arts), Matthew Pillsbury (MFA 2004 Photography, Video, and Related Media), Sarah Sze (MFA 1997 Fine Arts), Rebecca Ward (MFA 2012 Fine Arts) and Nina Yankowitz (1969 Fine Arts) had work in Art Basel Miami Beach; Rance Jones (MFA 1993 Illustration as Visual Essay), Ben Quesnel (MFA 2017 Art Practice), Michael Reeder (BFA 2007 Fine Arts) and Brian Rutenberg (MFA 1989 Fine Arts) had work in Art Miami; Reuben Negron (MFA 2004 Illustration as Visual Essay) had work in Context Art Miami; Alina Bliumis (BFA 1999 Computer Art), Rosson Crow (BFA 2004 Fine Arts), Anthony Iacono (BFA 2010 Illustration), Nianxin Li (MFA 2023 Fine Arts), Ellie Kayu Ng (BFA 2019 Illustration), Antonio Pulgarin (BFA 2013 Photography), Kenny Rivero (BFA 2010 Fine Arts), Aya Rodriguez-Izumi (MFA 2017 Fine Arts), Lisa Saeboe (BFA 2015 Visual and Critical Studies) and Tianshu Zhang (MFA 2023 Fine Arts) had work in NADA Miami; Gonzalo Fuenmayor (BFA 2000 Fine Arts) had work in Pinta Miami; Barbara Kolo (BFA 1981 Media Arts) and Dee Solin (MFA 2017 Art Practice) had work in Red Dot Miami; Brian Andrew Whiteley (MFA 2013 Fine Arts) organized and Alfredo Travieso (MFA 2014 Art Practice), Denise Treizman (MFA 2013 Fine Arts) and Katherine Verdickt (MFA 2015 Fine Arts) had work in Satellite Art Show; Kyungtae Kim (MFA 2017 Fine Arts) had work in Scope Art Show; Charles Fazzino (BFA 1977 Media Arts) had work in Spectrum Miami; Artem Mirolevich (BFA 1999 Illus-
tration) was art fair director of Synergy Art Fair; Simon Cooper (MFA 2023 Fine Arts), C. Fodoreanu (MFA 2024 Art Practice), Tyler Frigge (BFA 2023 Photography and Video), Davina Hsu (MFA 2023 Fine Arts), Kiara Ocasio (a.k.a. kiarita) (BFA 2023 Visual and Critical Studies) and Tianshu Zhang had work in the SVA Galleries booth curated by Dan Halm (MFA 2001 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 1994 Illustration) at Untitled Art Miami Beach; Alex Allenchey (MFA 2012 Art Criticism and Writing), Valerie Amend (MA 2017 Curatorial Practice) and Asya Geisberg (MFA 1999 Fine Arts) organized and/or worked in booths at and Tiffany Alfonseca (BFA 2020 Fine Arts), Ashley Garrett (BFA 2008 Fine Arts), Alexis Rockman (BFA 1985 Fine Arts), Pacifico Silano (MFA 2012 Photography, Video, and Related Media), Nicolas Touron (MFA 2003 Fine Arts) and Penelope Umbrico (MFA 1989 Fine Arts) had work in Untitled Art Miami Beach; Apeksha Agarwal (MPS 2020 Digital Photography) had work on view at the Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel; Ryan Koopmans (MFA 2012 Photography, Video and Related Media) had work in “Gateway Miami” at Faena Forum; Tina Paul (BFA 1982 Photography) had work in “Walk the Night: Nightlife and Club Culture 1977 – 1990,” at Arlo Hotel Higher Ground; and Loren Santiesteban (BFA 2005 Fine Arts) had work in “Feria Clandestina.”
Helia Chitsazan (MFA 2023 Fine Arts) and Suyi Xu (MFA 2022 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Take a Break,” Fou Gallery, NYC, 12/9/23-2/24/24.
James Camali (BFA 2015 Film and Video) directed and co-wrote and Ronnee Swenton (BFA 2015 Film and Video) was cinematographer of The Mental State (2023).
Najeebah Al-Ghadban (MFA 2015 Design; BFA 2013 Design), Tyler Comrie (BFA 2015 Design), Jon Key (MA 2021 Design Research, Writing and Criticism), Benjamin Marra (MFA 2003 Illustration as Visual Essay), Toma Vagner (BFA 2017 Illustration), Xiao Hua Yang (MFA 2018 Illustration as Visual Essay) and Naï Zakharia (BFA 2015 Illustration) were featured in “The Year in Illustration,” The New York Times, 12/22/23.
Johnny Han (BFA 2003 Computer Art), visual effects supervisor, was nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a
Daniela Alatorre (MFA 2015 Social Documentary Film) produced Igualada (2023); Johan Grimonprez (MFA 1992 Fine Arts) directed Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat (2024), which won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation; John Lavin (MFA 1994 Fine Arts) was production designer of Penelope (2024); and Bao Nguyen (MFA 2011 Social Documentary Film) directed The Greatest Night in Pop (2024), all of which screened at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Salt Lake City, UT, 1/18-1/28/24.
Storm Ascher (BFA 2018 Visual and Critical Studies) curated and Kelly Shami (BFA 2013 Design) and John Rivas (BFA 2019 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Bounce Basel 2023,” Oolite Arts, Miami, FL, 10/18/23-1/21/24.
Arts) were selected for the 2024 Sculpture Space Residency, Sculpture Space, Utica, NY, 2/1/24.
Ferguson Amo (MFA 2019 Fine Arts) and Nichole Washington (MPS 2016 Digital Photography) had work in the group exhibition “It Takes a Village,” Kates-Ferri Projects, NYC, 2/8-2/24/24.
Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman (both BFA 1985 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld,” Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA, 2/9-6/9/24.
Raheem Nelson (BFA 2007 Cartooning) curated and Christopher Ortiz (BFA 2011 Animation) screened his animated short film Redress (2021) during “A World of Wonders: A Celebration of Black Creativity,” Milford Arts at Firehouse Gallery, Milford, CT, 2/153/3/24.
Lorna Simpson (BFA 1982 Photography) and Sarah Sze (MFA 1997 Fine Arts) gave a talk about their work in the exhibition “Making Their Mark,” on view 11/2/23-3/24/24, “Sarah Sze and Lorna Simpson Moderated by Thelma Golden,” Shah Garg Foundation, NYC, 2/22/24.
Xayvier Haughton (MFA 2022 Fine Arts) and Lamar Robillard (MFA 2021 Art Practice)
SVA alumni won awards in “Illustrators 66,” Society of Illustrators, NYC, 1/31-5/11/24: Tara Anand (BFA 2011 Illustration), Editorial; Nan Cao (MFA 2019 Illustration as Visual Essay), Surface/Product Design; Jaedoo Lee (BFA 2016 Design), Institutional; Yinan Liang (MFA 2022 Computer Arts), Animation; Deena So’Oteh (MFA 2018 Illustration as Visual Essay), Editorial; and Vikki Zhang (MFA 2018 Illustration as Visual Essay), Book, were gold medalists. Hye Jin Chung (MFA 2013 Illustration as Visual Essay), Surface/Product Design; and Chiung Zhang (MFA 2023 Computer Arts), Animation, were silver medalists. Simone Noronha (MFA 2014 Design) was the “Illustrators 66” chair.
Xayvier Haughton (MFA 2022 Fine Arts) and Julie Schenkelberg (MFA 2011 Fine
had work in the group exhibition “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” Swivel Gallery, NYC, 2/22-3/23/24.
Chris Bors (MFA 1998 Illustration as Visual Essay) and Stan Narten (MFA 2008 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Vision of the Invisible,” Rosebud Contemporary, NYC, 2/22-4/25/24.
Hailun Ma (MPS 2018 Fashion Photography; BFA 2016 Photography and Video) and Caroline Tompkins (BFA 2014 Photography) were nominated for the Salzman Prize Emerging Photographer of the Year, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Kingston, NY, 2/23/24.
Barbara Owen (MFA 2020 Art Practice) and Marianna Peragallo (MFA 2019 Fine
Arts) had work in Spring/Break Art Show, Los Angeles, 2/27-3/3/24.
Trey Abdella (BFA 2016 Illustration), Katherine Bernhardt (MFA 2000 Fine Arts), the late Tim Rollins ’ (BFA 1977 Fine Arts) Studio K.O.S. and Christine Sun Kim (MFA 2006 Fine Arts) had work in Frieze Los Angeles, 2/29-3/4/24.
Jay Elizondo (MFA 2020 Fine Arts) and Katelyn Kopenhaver (BFA 2016 Photography and Video) had work in the group exhibition “#WomenNow,” AHA Fine Art, NYC, 3/7-3/30/24.
SVA alumni screened their work at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2024, Austin, 3/8-3/16/24: Martin Ahlgren (BFA 2000 Film and Video) was cinematographer of 3 Body Problem (2024 – ); ChanJun (CJ)
Ja’Tovia Gary (MFA 2014 Social Documentary Film) and Kenny Rivero (BFA 2010 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940,” The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, 3/10-7/28/24.
SVA alumni exhibited work at the MoCCA Arts Festival, Society of Illustrators, NYC, 3/16-3/17/24: Andrew Alexander (MFA 2022 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 2016 Cartooning), Julian Alexander (BFA 2020 Illustration), Flora Bai (MFA 2021 Illustration as Visual Essay), Alexandra Barsky (MFA 2018 Visual Narrative; BFA 2013 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects), Josh Bayer (MFA 2009 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 2007 Cartooning), Lauren Simkin Berke (MFA 2003 Illustration as
2012 Illustration as Visual Essay), Xiao Mei (BFA 2018 Illustration), ShinYeon Moon (MFA 2017 Illustration as Visual Essay), Zawadi Noel (BFA 2006 Cartooning), Nicholas Offerman (BFA 2011 Cartooning), Aatmaja Pandya (BFA 2014 Illustration), Swayam Parekh (MFA 2023 Illustration as Visual Essay), Carmen Pizarro (BFA 2015 Illustration), Bill Plympton (1969 Cartooning), Olivia Porretta (BFA 2022 Animation), Nate Powell (BFA 2000 Cartooning), Radhia Rahman (BFA 2020 Illustration), Indra Rodies (BFA 2019 Animation), Matthew Rota (MFA 2008 Illustration as Visual Essay), Cecilia Ruiz (MFA 2012 Illustration as Visual Essay), Karina Shor (MFA 2015 Illustration as Visual Essay), Mei Yee Tan (BFA 2019 Animation), Toma Vagner (BFA 2017 Illustration), Wenjia Wang (BFA 2018 Illustration), Breanna
Lobotsky (BFA 1982 Fine Arts), John MacConnell (MFA 2009 Illustration as Visual Essay), Eric Rhein (MFA 2000 Fine Arts; BFA 1985 Fine Arts), George Towne (MFA 1997 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 1990 Media Arts) and Darin Wacs (MFA 1993 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Connections VIII,” Atlantic Gallery, NYC, 3/26-4/13/24. Brian Andrew Whiteley (MFA 2013 Fine Arts) launched Satellite Art Show Gallery, NYC, and hosted a month of one-day solo exhibitions, featuring work by Yuli Aloni Primor (MFA 2023 Fine Arts), Colleen Terrell Comer (MFA 2020 Art Practice), Dan Halm (MFA 2001 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 1994 Illustration), Alexandra Hammond (MFA 2015 Art Practice), Jennifer “Ocean” McDermott (MFA 2014 Fine Arts), Stephanie McGovern (MFA 2022 Fine Arts),
Chun (BFA 2015 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects) worked on visual effects on Star Trek: Discovery (2017 – 2024); Yuqi Kang (MFA 2016 Social Documentary Film) directed 7 Beats Per Minute (2024); John Lavin (MFA 1994 Fine Arts) did production design for Penelope (2024 – ); Lanbing Lyu (BFA 2022 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects) worked on visual effects on Y2K (2024); Crystal Moselle (BFA 2002 Film and Video) co-directed and produced The Black Sea (2024); Sonja Moses (MFA 2022 Social Documentary Film) was assistant editor and Jabu Ndlovu (MFA 2022 Social Documentary Film) was technical coordinator for This Is a Film About the Black Keys (2024); David Osit (MFA 2011 Social Documentary Film) edited The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem (2024); and Joel Sevilla’s (BFA 1999 Computer Art) company Track VFK worked on visual effects on The Fall Guy (2024).
Visual Essay), G. Davis Cathcart (MFA 2021
Visual Narrative), Junjun Chen (MFA 2023
Illustration as Visual Essay), Izzy Delore (BFA 2023 Animation), Maelle Doliveux (MFA 2013 Illustration as Visual Essay), John Dombrowski (BFA 2010 Illustration), Karina Farek (BFA 2015 Animation), Katy Freeman (MFA 2023 Illustration as Visual Essay), Karlotta Freier (MFA 2021 Illustration as Visual Essay), Raisha Friedman (BFA 2016 Illustration), Ashley Gerst (MFA 2011 Computer Art), Fin Handel (BFA 2021 Animation), Tomer Hanuka (BFA 2000 Illustration), John Hendrix (MFA 2003 Illustration as Visual Essay), Nora Krug (MFA 2004 Illustration as Visual Essay), Hyesu Lee (MFA 2011
Illustration as Visual Essay), Yuke Li (MFA 2020 Illustration as Visual Essay), Xinmei Liu (MFA 2020 Illustration as Visual Essay), Winnie Lu (BFA 2022 Animation), Zack Lydon (BFA 2012 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects), Jerry Ma (BFA 1997 Cartooning), John Malta (MFA
Watson (BFA 2019 Animation), Danielle Windram (BFA 2021 Animation), Lilith Wu (MFA 2023 Illustration as Visual Essay), Yao Xiao (BFA 2013 Illustration), Keiko Nabila Yamazaki (BFA 2017 Illustration), Xiao Hua Yang (MFA 2018 Illustration as Visual Essay) and Emily Zullo (BFA 2023 Animation). Hyesu Lee was also a recipient of an Award of Excellence at the festival.
Alexander Bustamante (BFA 2016 Fine Arts) and Anisa Li-A-Ping (BFA 2020 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects) had work in the group exhibition “Evolution,” JCAL Artworks Residents, NYC, 3/16-5/3/24.
Jamie Keesling and Eric-John Russell (both MA 2013 Critical Theory and the Arts) gave a talk, “The Self-Devouring Society: Capitalism, Narcissism and Self-Destruction,” The Word Is Change, NYC, 3/23/24.
Stefano Imbert (BFA 2002 Illustration), Susan Leopold (BFA 1982 Fine Arts), JoAnne
Travis Rix (BFA 2014 Photography) and Katherine Verdickt (MFA 2015 Fine Arts), 4/1-4/30/24.
Barry Hazard (MFA 2008 Fine Arts), Peter Hristoff (BFA 1981 Fine Arts) and Joanne M. Wezyk (MFA 2008 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “What Remains,” PIASA Gallery, NYC, 4/2-5/6/24.
Several SVA alumni were recipients of fellowships in various categories from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, NYC, 4/11/24: Lisa Elmaleh (BFA 2007 Photography), Photography; Raúl Paz-Pastrana (MFA 2012 Social Documentary Film), Film-Video; James Scruggs (BFA 1979 Film and Video), Drama and Performance; and Jennifer Sirey (1990 Fine Arts), Fine Arts.
Fitgi Saint-Louis (BFA 2011 Graphic Design) and Sophia Victor (MPS 2024 Art Therapy; BFA 2010 Fine Arts) were among six artists selected to create community murals, NYC Health + Hospitals, NYC, 4/15/24.
REBECCA GOYETTE (MFA 2009 Fine Arts), from left: Marionettes: Horse Girl Pink, Marionettes: Dream Horse, Mountain Mother, Marionettes: Horse Girl Red, 2024, handbuilt ceramic sculptures. From “Who Gets to Be a Horse Girl?,” Artshack Brooklyn’s Keepsake Gallery, NYC, 2/10-3/17/24.
SVA alumni were featured in “T’s Culture Issue: Beginners,” T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 4/18/24: Michael Bailey-Gates (BFA 2015 Photography), TM Davy (BFA 2002 Illustration), Bon Duke (MPS 2012 Fashion Photography; BFA 2009 Photography), Murray Hill (MFA 1997 Photography and Related Media), Christine Sun Kim (MFA 2006 Fine Arts), Melody Melamed (MFA 2013 Photography, Video, and Related Media) and Jamie Nares (1975 Fine Arts).
Sara Arno (MFA 2019 Photography, Video, and Related Media), Amina Gingold (BFA 2020 Photography and Video), Julianne Nash (MFA 2018 Photography, Video, and Related Media), Marianna Peragallo (MFA 2019 Fine Arts) and Lorenzo Triburgo (MFA 2005 Photography, Video, and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Mad World,” SoMad, NYC, 4/20/24.
Elizabeth Clark Libert (MFA 2010 Photography, Video, and Related Media) and Stephanie Pfriender Stylander (BFA 1983 Photography) had work in the group exhibition “The Photography Show 2024,” Association of International Photography Art Dealers, NYC, 4/25-4/28/24.
Matt Enos (BFA 2012 Film and Video) and Kyle Walton (BFA 2007 Film and Video) were interviewed in “Colonial Theatre to showcase locally made films,” WABI, 4/26/24.
Ollie Yao (BFA 2023 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects) and Heather Yun (BFA 2023 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects) screened their thesis film Twin Sparks (2023), Cannes Film Festival, 5/21/24.
SVA alumni won awards and placed at the 54th ASIFA-East Animation Festival, NYC, 5/23/24: Jeremiah Dickey (BFA 2001 Animation) won The Peggy Award for Best in Show for Sürgünlik (Exile); Alba Garcia-Rivas (BFA 2000 Animation) won the Craft Award for Excellence in Design for Dangerously Ever After ; Lisa LaBracio (BFA 2006 Animation) won the Craft Award for Excellence in Education for MetKids Create: Why Do Pennies Turn Green? and second place in Commercial for Metkids Microscope; and Xinyu Sun , Chenyi Zhu and Yingyu Zhu (all MFA 2023 Computer Arts) won third place in Student Films for Night Market
Ren Abueg , Milo Ferguson and Reid Sandlund (all BFA 2023 Animation) were featured in “Milo Ferguson, Reid Sandlund and Ren Abueg answer: ‘What’s a Flimpo?’,” Toon Boom Animation, 5/28/24.
Eric Clinton Anderson (MFA 2007 Illustration as Visual Essay), Chris Bors (MFA 1998 Illustration as Visual Essay), Daina Higgins (BFA 2001 Fine Arts), Ketta Ioannidou (MFA 1999 Illustration as Visual Essay), Ming-Jer Kuo (MFA 2014 Photography, Video and Related Media), Heather Renée Russ (MFA 2011 Photography, Video, and Related Media), Basharat Ali Syed (BFA 2023 Fine Arts) and Jeremiah Teipen (MFA 2001 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “NARS Spring Open Studios,” NARS Foundation and J&M Studios, NYC, 5/31-6/1/24.
To submit items for consideration for Alumni Notes & Exhibitions, email alumni@sva.edu.
Individual Notes
1967
Joseph Kosuth (Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Tabula Rasa,” Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC, 5/30-7/26/24.
1969
Bill Plympton (Cartooning) received the Breakouts Feature Honorable Mention for Slide (2023), Slamdance, Park City, UT, 1/19-1/25/24.
1972
Kathleen McSherry (BFA Media Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Cerulean Arts Collective Members’ Exhibitions,” Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, 4/10-5/5/24.
Linda Stillman (Graphic Design) had work in the group exhibition “Transmissions,” Canopy, Austin, 4/6/24.
1974
Bill Skrips (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Up For It,” Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2/23-2/28/24.
1975
Jamie Nares (Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Preoccupations: A Jamie Nares Retrospective,” Museum of Modern Art, NYC, 5/23-6/2/24.
Nancy Palubniak (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “In Print,” Wayne County Arts Alliance Gallery, Honesdale, PA, 2/29-4/14/24.
1976
Theresa DeSalvio (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “A Picture Book Deconstructed,” Cornwall Public Library, Cornwall, NY, 1/52/28/24, and was featured in “Book About Loons Is a Universal Story,” Essex News Daily, NJ, 1/30/24.
1977
Dawoud Bey (Photography) was featured in “Dawoud Bey’s Meditations on History and Vision,” Southern Cultures, 2/7/24, and gave a talk, “Dawoud Bey with Siddhartha Mitter: Elegy,” New York Public Library, NYC, 2/21/24.
1979
John Michael Pelech (BFA Media Arts) had work in the group exhibition “town & country,” A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX, 5/24-7/4/24.
Amy Sillman (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “To Be Other-Wise,” Gladstone Gallery, NYC, 5/2-6/15/24.
1980
Jane Swavely (Fine Arts) gave a virtual talk “Jane Swavely: Paintings,” The Brooklyn Rail, 2/6/24.
Wendel White (BFA Photography) was the recipient of Doctor of Arts Honoris Causa, Oakland University, Oakland, CA, 12/15/23.
EILEEN FERARA (MFA 1999 Illustration as Visual Essay), Sploosh, 2023, mixed media on canvas, and “Uneasy Balance” installation detail. From “Uneasy Balance,” Hutchins Galleries at The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ, 11/27/23 – 1/11/24. Photos by Megan Maloy.
1981
Drew Friedman (BFA Media Arts) was the subject of the documentary, Drew Friedman: Vermeer of the Borscht Belt (2024).
Barbara Kolo (BFA Media Arts) was featured in “Meet Barbara Kolo,” Bold Journey, 2/16/24.
Rita Maas (BFA Photography) had work in the group exhibition “A Plethora of Plants: Real, Observed, Imagined,” Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY, 4/6-7/14/24, and “Works on Paper 2024,” Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts & Sciences, Loveladies, NJ, 5/18-7/8/24.
Kenny Scharf (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Kenny Scharf’s Life in Parties,” W, 1/8/24.
1982
Joey Skaggs (BFA Media Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Perpetual Motion,”
Pérez Art Museum, Miami, 12/6/23-5/31/24, and screened Joey Skaggs: The Solomon Project, New Jersey Film Festival, New Brunswick, NJ, 2/9/24, and San Francisco Independent Film Festival, San Francisco, 2/8-2/18/24.
1983
Kenneth Wenzel (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Chasing Ephemera,” Riverland Community College, Austin, MN, 3/18-4/18/24.
1984
Gail Anderson (BFA Media Arts) was featured in “13 African American Graphic Designers You Should Know,” Print, 2/10/24.
Lydia Panas (BFA Photography) had work in the group exhibition “Memory Orchards: Photographers and their Families,” and the eponymous book, Candela Books and Gallery, Richmond, VA, 1/19-3/2/24, and won “AAP Magazine 38 Women: Celebrating Women’s
Impact in Photography,” AAP Magazine, 3/28/24.
Prelli Anthony Williams (BFA Media Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Against All Odds! International Art Exhibit 2024,” Art Impact International, 2/3-4/30/24, and live-painted portraits during “Art of Resilience: Celebrating DC’s Black Arts Community,” HumanitiesDC, Washington, DC, 5/4/24.
1985
Alexis Rockman (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Untitled Art Review: An Exuberant Fair in Miami Beach,” The Wall Street Journal, 12/6/23, and had work in the group exhibition “Conflagration,” Huxley-Parlour, London, England, 3/6-4/13/24.
Collier Schorr (BFA Communication Arts) photographed “Kristen Stewart Uncensored: ‘I Want to Do the Gayest Thing You’ve Ever Seen in Your Life’,” Rolling Stone, 2/14/24.
1986
Annie Sprinkle (BFA Photography) was featured in “Sisterhood of Sex,” Bust, 5/20/24. The late Rumi Tsuda (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 1984 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Godzilla: Echoes from the 1990s Asian American Arts Network,” Eric Firestone Gallery, NYC, 1/17-3/16/24.
1987
Aleathia Brown (BFA Media Arts) had a solo exhibition, “The Intersection of Harlem Colors,” Refettorio Harlem, NYC, 12/30/23, and was honored with a citation of recognition from Senator Jamaal T. Bailey, “Black History Month Exhibition,” NAACP, NYCHA Branch, NYC, 2/21/24.
Gary Petersen (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Restless Geometry,” Walter Storms Galerie, Munich, Germany, 4/23-6/1/24.
1988
Chenhung Chen (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “bLAh, bLAh, bLAh,” Launch Gallery, Los Angeles, 2/10-3/2/24.
Devon Dikeou (MFA Fine Arts) was the recipient of the Jules Guerin Rome Prize in Visual Arts, American Academy in Rome, 4/25/24. Catya Plate (Fine Arts) won the Best Animation award for Las Nogas (2023), Queens World Film Festival, NYC, 4/28/24.
Gary Simmons (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Gary Simmons: Public Enemy,” Pérez Art Museum, Miami, 12/5/23-4/28/24; curated “Daydream Nation,” Hauser & Wirth, NYC, 5/2-7/26/24; and was the keynote speaker and received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts at the 2024 SVA Commencement Exercises, 5/20/24.
1989
Margaret Lanzetta (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibitions “Anywhere But Here,” Project: ARTspace, NYC, 5/8-7/7/24, and “Travelers, Liars, Thieves,” Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY, 5/25-6/23/24.
Suzanne McClelland (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Highland Steer,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, NYC, 5/9-6/8/24, and was featured in “The Adroit Formalism of Suzanne McClelland,” Hyperallergic, 5/21/24.
Al Nickerson (BFA Cartooning) was interviewed in “How Can You Self-Publish A Comic Book?,” on the Christian Nerds Unite Podcast, 1/2/24, and Comic Book Podcast, 2/10/24.
Brian Rutenberg (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Brian Rutenberg: Celebrating 25 Years,” Forum Gallery, NYC, 5/1-6/14/24.
Penelope Umbrico (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Seizing the Sun,” Hangar Y, Meudon, France, 12/16/23-4/21/24.
1990
Steve DeFrank (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Playlist,” 1GAP Gallery, NYC, 1/25-4/30/24.
Gina Minichino (BFA Media Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Gina Minichino,” George Billis Gallery, NYC, 4/4-4/27/24.
Archil Pichkhadze (BFA Media Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Dust: Memory Scenes,” Lace Mill Gallery, Kingston, NY, 2/3-2/25/24.
1992
Gabriela Dellosso (BFA Illustration) had a solo exhibition, “The Paintings of Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso, A Retrospective,” Museum of Art – DeLand, DeLand, FL, 1/123/30/24, and was featured in the cover story, “Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso Looks Back, and Forward,” Fine Art Connoisseur, January/ February 2024 issue.
The late Dinh Q. Lê (MFA Photography and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics,” The Institutum, Singapore, 1/18-1/30/24.
Jenny Polak (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Jenny Polak: Homeward Bound,”
1994
Roderick Angle (BFA Photography) created a podcast, “The Big Life NYC,” MORE Network, 1/25/24.
Joseph Castronova (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 1991 Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Swallow a Fly,” ArtLab Gallery, Mendham, NJ, 1/17-3/2/24.
Nona Faustine (BFA Photography) had solo exhibitions “She was a culmination of all things in Heaven and Earth,” lumber room gallery, Portland, OR, 12/3/23-2/24/24, and “White Shoes,” Brooklyn Museum, NYC, 3/8-7/7/24; gave a talk “Artist Talk: Intergenerational Collaboration with Nona Faustine and Queen Ming,” Brooklyn Museum, NYC, 1/27/24; and was featured in “‘Once You Know the History, You See It Everywhere’: Nona Faustine on Uncovering New York’s Uncomfortable Past,” The Art Newspaper, 5/1/24.
Leemour Pelli (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “A View from the Easel,” Hyperallergic, 5/9/24.
Oscar Villegas-Paez (MFA Photography and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Husha-Bye. Childhood Is But a Dream. A Tale in Five Acts,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Bangkok, 5/17-6/30/24.
1995
Michael De Feo (BFA Graphic Design) had work in the group exhibition “Cereal Isle,” Marquee Projects, Bellport, NY, 5/4-6/9/24. Jalal Pleasant (a.k.a. PLEASANT) (Fine Arts) won “Raddest Motorcycle,” Radwood Festival, Amelia Island, FL, 3/2/24.
Edie Winograde (MFA Photography and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Western Values: Re-Thinking the ‘Old West’,” Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, 1/20-3/2/24.
1996
BRIC, NYC, 10/10/23-1/21/24, and was featured in “Jenny Polak by Michelle Millar Fisher: Art About Visibility and Hiddeness,” Bomb, 1/4/24.
Christine Romanell (BFA Graphic Design) was featured in “A New Art Weekend Touches Down in New Jersey,” Hyperallergic, 4/9/24, and organized the first Garden State Art Weekend, East Orange, NJ, 4/19-4/21/24.
David Snider (BFA Photography) wrote and photographed “Photographing My Blind Parents,” Blind Magazine, 5/8/24.
1993
R. Gregory Christie (BFA Illustration) had work in the group exhibition “The End of Fossil Fuel,” The Climate Museum, NYC, 10/7/234/25/24.
Miles Ladin (MFA Photography and Related Media) had work in the group exhibitions “It’s Up to You, Darling,” Musée Picasso, Paris, 10/3/23-1/7/24, and “Fashion Forward,” “B” Dry Goods, NYC, 1/25-3/30/24.
Shawn Martinbrough (BFA Illustration) wrote the series Red Hood: The Hill (2024), DC Comics, and was nominated in the Outstanding Literary Work, Children category for Like Lava In My Veins (Penguin Random House, 2023), which he illustrated, NAACP Image Awards, Los Angeles, 3/16/24.
Irina Danilova (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “The Alphabet Diet Project,” Harriman Institute, Columbia University, NYC, 3/25-5/9/24.
Justine Kurland (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “This Train, 2005 – 2011,” Higher Pictures, NYC, 1/24-3/23/24, gave a virtual talk about the exhibition, The Brooklyn Rail, 2/9/24, and published a photobook, This Train (MACK Books, 2024).
Gini Cruz Santos (MFA Computer Art) was featured in “7 Inspiring Filipinas Making Waves in the Country and Beyond, from Actresses to an Animator,” The Smart Local: Philippines, 3/5/24.
Bari Winter (BFA Film and Video) edited the film Tiny Joy (2023), which screened at Atlanta Women’s Comedy Film Festival, 3/17/24, First Glance Film Festival, Los Angeles, 3/17/24, and Disorient Asian Film Festival, Eugene, OR, 3/11-3/17/24, among others.
1997
Nanci France-Vaz (BFA Computer Art) had a solo exhibition, “Metamorphosis: Works by Nanci France-Vaz,” Pollak Gallery, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ, 3/25-5/2/24.
Raul Manzano (BFA Illustration) was named to the 2024 SU-CASA Cohort, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NYC, 2/21/24, and was featured in “A Light for the Overlooked: The Artwork of Empire State University Chapter Member Raul Manzano Focuses
JANA JACKSON (BFA 2015 Photography), Edith + Kay, Bushey, Hertfordshire, 2023, part of an ongoing project documenting first-generation British nationals of Caribbean heritage. Recipient of the Portrait of Britain Award, British Journal of Photography, 1/8/24.
on the Oppressed,” The Voice, magazine of United University Professions’ SUNY Empire State Chapter, spring 2024 issue.
Dominick Rapone (BFA Illustration) had a solo exhibition, “Nature’s Whispers,” The Crafts Center, Raleigh, NC, 1/10-4/22/24.
Manu Saluja (BFA Illustration) painted a portrait of Sojourner Truth, Mechanics Hall Portraits Project, Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA, 3/14/24.
1998
Brian Finke (BFA Photography) photographed “Behind the Scenes of the Most Spectacular Show on TV,” The New York Times Magazine, 12/2/23.
Anna Sew Hoy (BFA Fine Arts) co-curated “Scratching at the Moon,” The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2/107/28/24.
1999
Eileen Ferara (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) had a solo exhibition, “Uneasy Balance,” Hutchins Galleries at The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ, 11/27/23-1/11/24.
Ketta Ioannidou (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) had a solo exhibition, “Unravel,” ChaShaMa, NYC, 1/16-7/9/24.
Janelle Lynch (MFA Photography and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Index Naturae,” Fotograpfia Europea, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 4/26-6/9/24, and had a solo exhibition, “Endless Forms Most Beautiful,” Flowers Gallery and Exhibition,
The Barn, Frampton Co, Bridgehampton, NY, 5/11-6/29/24.
Andrew Ramsammy (BFA Film and Video) was named interim president, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT, 12/31/23.
Mike Roth (BFA Animation) directed Merry Little Batman (2023), Netflix.
2000
Katherine Bernhardt (MFA Fine Arts) published Why is a mushroom growing in my shower? (David Zwirner Books, 2023), and was featured in “Katherine Bernhardt: Everlasting Butter,” Juxtapoz, 5/29/24.
Kevin Cooley (MFA Photography and Related Media) was featured in “With Striking Images, This Photographer Is Illuminating Our Relationship with the Planet,” CNN, 12/4/23.
Gonzalo Fuenmayor (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Exotic Utopias,” Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna, Austria, 4/11-6/14/24.
Tomer Hanuka (BFA Illustration) had a solo exhibition, “Unknown Pleasures: The Art of Tomer Hanuka,” Society of Illustrators, NYC, 3/6-7/13/24.
Nate Powell (BFA Cartooning) published Fall Through (2024), Harry N. Abrams.
Eric Rhein (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 1985 Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Kindred,” Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ, 4/11-7/19/24.
2001
Dan Halm (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 1994 Illustration) curated “Glisten,
SUPPORT THE TALENT
Sparkle, Shine,” Here Arts Center, NYC, 5/9-8/10/24.
Daina Higgins (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibitions “South Brooklyn Salon,” Thomas VanDyke Gallery, NYC, 12/2-12/24/23, and “Speak Up! Women, Art & Social Justice,” Basin Gallery and Studio, NYC, 3/8-4/18/24.
Mika Rottenberg (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in the video and article “Mika Rottenberg: Plastics,” Hauser & Wirth, 5/17/24.
2002
Deborah Adler (MFA Design) was featured in “Meet the American Who Made Prescriptions Safer, Deborah Adler, Inspired by Holocaust Survivor Grandma,” Fox News, 4/12/24.
Michael Alan Alien (BFA Fine Arts) had a public art performance, “The Living Installation,” Washington Square Park, NYC, 4/20/24.
Marlena Buczek Smith (BFA Graphic Design) had work in the group exhibition “Mariupol: 86 Days of Defense,” Kyiv Museum of History, Kyiv, 2/22-3/6/24.
TM Davy (BFA Illustration) had work in the group exhibition “Adrift on the Lonely Etheric Ocean,” The Hole, NYC, 3/9-4/7/24.
Mariam Ghani (MFA Photography and Related Media) co-created the choreographic performance “Like a Phantom Near or Far (An Occasional Figure Moving),” Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, 1/11/24.
Reka Nyari (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Chromatic Ink,” Fremin Gallery, NYC, 1/11-2/25/24.
Raina Telgemeier (BFA Illustration) was featured in “The Magic of Raina Is Real,” The Atlantic, 2/6/24.
Sara Varon (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “In Conversation: ND Stevenson and Sara Varon,” Publishers Weekly, 3/7/24.
Phoebe Washburn (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Giving Good Fwar Gwaar,” Marinaro, NYC, 1/9-2/3/24.
2003
Phil Buehler (MFA Photography and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “No Man Is an Island: Poetry in the Ruins of the New York Archipelago,” Front Room Gallery, Hudson, NY, 5/25-7/7/24.
Joseph Iorio (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Structural Abstractions,” Oyster Point Gallery, Red Bank, NJ, 4/30-7/1/24.
Natalja Kent (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Light Waves,” Oolong Gallery, Encinitas, CA, 12/2/23-1/14/24.
Meir Kruter (BFA Graphic Design) was featured in “Kruter Popularizes Unique ‘Paint Press’ Technique,” Jewish Link, 1/11/24.
Jade Kuei (a.k.a. MUMBOT) (BFA Animation) was chosen to send their art piece, “Aughostus,” to space on Axiom Mission 3, 1/17/24.
Guadalupe Maravilla (BFA Photography) had work in the group exhibition “What Matters: Help students realize their dreams by donating today. Learn more and make your donation at sva.edu/give. Questions? Email alumnisociety@sva.edu. This scholarship turned what could have just been homework into a chance to collaborate with others, enriching my learning experience and the outcome of my project.”
Jennie Choi BFA 2024 Design
Robert I. Blumenthal Memorial Award | @jennie_jiiin_choi
A Proposition in Eight Rooms,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 7/22/23-9/22/24, and had a solo exhibition, “Si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana,” P.P.O.W., NYC, 3/1-4/6/24.
Lauren Matsumoto (MFA Design) had work in the group exhibition “Lauren Matsumoto and Wendy Westlake,” Shain Gallery, Charlotte, NC, 5/3-5/16/24.
Yuko Shimizu (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Society of Illustrators, 4/17/24.
Alina Tenser (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Circles with Sharp Corners,” Hesse Flatow, NYC, 2/29-3/30/24.
René Treviño (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Stab of Guilt,” Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, 2/17-6/9/24.
2004
Joshua Clark (BFA Graphic Design), senior creative director at Pepsi, led the production of video advertisements such as “A.I. Can Do That?,” 3/14/24.
Rosson Crow (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Babel,” Miles McEnery Gallery, NYC, 5/16-7/3/24.
Saskia Jordá (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “New Worlds: Women to Watch Exhibition,” National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, 4/148/11/24.
Kurt Lightner (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Spark,” Harper’s Chelsea 534, NYC, 1/4-2/17/24.
Chris Oh (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “5 Artists on Our Radar in January 2024,” Artsy, 1/8/24.
Alexis Trice (BFA Illustration) had work in the group exhibition “Potluck,” Hashimoto Con-
temporary, Los Angeles, 2/10-3/2/24, and had a solo exhibition, “Undercurrent,” Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, 3/2-3/30/24.
2005
Andrea Burgay (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Los Raros. Las Raras: New Narratives of Contemporary Collage,” Municipal Exhibition Hall of La Pasión, Valladolid, Spain, 5/10-7/7/24.
Lauren Castillo (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) wrote and illustrated Nana in the Country (Clarion Books, 2024) and Just Like Millie (Candlewick, 2024).
Zackary Drucker (BFA Photography) co-directed The Stroll (2023), which won Outstanding Documentary, 35th GLAAD Media Awards, NYC, 5/11/24.
Karen Gibbons (MPS Art Therapy) participated in an artist talk, 440 Gallery, NYC, 4/14/24.
Domingo Milella (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Futuroremoto,” Giancarlo Ligabue Foundation, Venice, Italy, 4/184/27/24.
Yamini Nayar (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Ouroboros,” Thomas Erben Gallery, NYC, 5/2-6/8/24.
Rachel Papo (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) photographed “How Richard Kennedy Made an Operetta for the Outcasts,” Interview, 1/18/24.
Ashley Reid (BFA Photography) created WiseOcean, an animated music and education series for children, YouTube, 12/21/23.
2006
Brent Birnbaum (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Puppies & Trolls & Giraffes, Oh My!” Keijsers Koning, Dallas, 3/30-5/4/24.
Shen Wei (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “My Garden,” Foreign Agent, Lausanne, Switzerland, 3/21-4/27/24.
2007
Rachel Fawn Alban (MPS Art Therapy; BFA 1999 Graphic Design), with Armisey Smith, created The Golden Life, a series of murals, Newark, NJ, January 2024.
Robbie Banfitch (BFA Film and Video) was interviewed in “On Achieving Goals Without Compromise,” The Creative Independent, 12/6/23.
Amy Elkins (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Parting Words,” Field Projects, NYC, 5/16-6/20/24.
Andrew Thornton (BFA Fine Arts) curated “No Place Like Home,” Metal Museum, Memphis, TN, 5/1-6/2/24.
Rafael Vasquez (BFA Photography) was featured in “Rafael Vasquez: Being in the Creative Moment,” Graphis Blog, 3/19/24.
2008
Cat Del Buono (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Voices,” 1/20-4/21/24, and gave a talk on violence against women, 4/4/24, Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT.
Jade Doskow (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) participated in the talk “Reuse: City as Canvas,” International Center for Photography, NYC, 4/17/24, and had work in the group exhibition “Art at Work: Sanitation & Social Practice,” All Street Gallery, NYC, 5/4-5/30/24.
Barry Hazard (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Land Ballads,” York College Gallery, NYC, 2/8-3/22/24.
Dana James (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Hushed Neon,” Bode Gallery, Berlin, 2/3-3/10/24.
Allison Kaufman (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Smooth Confident Perfection,” The Shirley Project Space, NYC, 3/8-4/18/24.
Sarah Palmer (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) photographed “Our Last Great Adventure,” The Atlantic, 4/9/24.
2009
Allison Belolan (MAT Art Education) had work in the group exhibition “Surroundings: Sewn & Torn,” The Gallery at Yellow Studio, Cross River, NY, 12/2/23-1/5/24.
RACHEL FAWN ALBAN (MPS 2007 Art Therapy; BFA 1999 Graphic Design) and Armisey Smith, The Golden Life (details), 2024, murals in Newark, NJ, comprising photographic prints, paint on polytab, and other surface applications. Photos by Rachel Fawn Alban.
Andrew Castrucci (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 1984 Media Arts) curated “CO 2 Blues: The Art of Melvin Way (1989 – 2024),” Andrew Edlin Gallery, NYC, 4/13-5/25/24.
Noa Charuvi (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Tools as Art,” Petaluma Arts Center, Petaluma, CA, 5/9-6/22/24.
Rebecca Goyette (MFA Fine Arts) had solo exhibitions “Who Gets to Be a Horse Girl?,” Artshack Brooklyn’s Keepsake Gallery, NYC, 2/10-3/17/24, and “Mother, Mother, Mother,” Shelter Gallery, NYC, 4/11-5/12/24.
Gregg Louis (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “No Empty Sky,” Nohra Haime Gallery, NYC, 12/15/23-1/13/24.
Lissa Rivera (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “The Artist and Her Muse,” University of the Arts, Philadelphia, 1/22-4/1/24.
Christina Sucgang (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Zzyzx,” Canada, NYC, 4/24-6/1/24.
Trish Tillman (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Grooming Kit,” Asya Geisberg Gallery, NYC, 4/26-5/25/24.
Rich Tu (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was selected for “People to Watch 2024,” Graphic Design USA , 3/6/24.
2010
Matthew Craven (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Rendezvous with Rama,” Asya Geisberg Gallery, NYC, 5/31-7/3/24.
C. Bay Milin (MPS Digital Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Hits & Near Misses,” Golden Belt Artist Studios, Durham, NC, 5/1-5/30/24.
Angela Riechers (MFA Design Criticism) wrote The Elements of Visual Grammar: A Designer’s Guide for Writers, Scholars, and Professionals (Princeton University Press, 2024).
Devin Oktar Yalkin (BFA Photography) had work featured in and on the cover of American Photography 39, AI-AP, 12/15/23, and photo-
graphed the cover story “Anne Hathaway Is Done Trying to Please,” The New York Times Magazine, 4/27/24.
2011
Tamisha Anthony (MFA Computer Art) illustrated There’s No Place Like Hope (Macmillan Publishers, 2024), by Janet Lawler.
Zachary Brunner (BFA Film and Video) had work in the book Vision Two (Dream Brothers Gallery, 2024).
Bobby Doherty (BFA Photography) photographed “Why Are Pants So Big (Again)?,” The New York Times Magazine, 3/3/24.
Kayla Harren (BFA Illustration) illustrated A Voice Like Yours (Sleeping Bear Press, 2024) by Frank Murphy and April Groman.
Heather Renée Russ (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Death Rights,” apexart at Communion Gallery, San Antonio, TX, 2/24-3/23/24.
Tony Toscani (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Tony Toscani: A World of Melancholia,” ArtRKL , 2/6/24.
Emily Weiner (MFA Fine Arts) had solo exhibitions, “Never Odd or Even,” Red Arrow Gallery, Nashville, 2/3-2/24/24, and “Time and Tide,” König Galerie, Berlin, 4/276/23/24.
2012
Sydney Colburn (BFA Photography) wrote “I Can’t Stop Buying Decks of Cards,” New York, 3/25/24.
Matt Enos (BFA Film and Video) directed Battle Legends: The Legend of the Battle Master (2024).
Doron Gild (MPS Fashion Photography; BFA 2005 Photography) was featured in “Making It His Own,” Professional Photographer, 2/1/24, and had work in the group exhibition “No Place Like Home,” Grit Gallery, Newburgh, NY, 5/4-7/7/24.
Peter Ash Lee (MPS Fashion Photography; BFA 2009 Photography) was featured in “In-
side One Photographer’s Journey to Capture the Lives of South Korea’s Female Divers,” Vogue, 1/24/24.
Erick Sasso (BFA Film and Video) was featured in “Diving into Premiere Pro with Filmmaker Erick Sasso, Editor and Post-Producer of Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story,” Adobe Blog, 3/5/24, and “Editing Tyler Perry’s Life Story with Filmmaker Erick Sasso,” The No Film School Podcast, 4/19/24.
Pacifico Silano (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) was the recipient of the artist residency, Fountainhead Arts, Miami, January 2024, and had a solo exhibition, “Psychosexual Thriller,” Island, NYC, 4/45/18/24.
Paul Hunter Speagle (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “The Speagle’s,” JPS Gallery, Hong Kong, 5/3-6/1/24.
An Rong Xu (BFA Photography) photographed “In the Battle over Identity, a Centuries-Old Issue Looms in Taiwan: Hunting,” NPR, 1/30/24.
2013
Frankie Carino (BFA Photography) photographed Arc’teryx’s Lunar New Year Collection, 1/29/24.
Richard Eick (BFA Film and Video) was featured in “Actor and Filmmaker Richard Eick on His Directorial Debut and Upcoming Short Film, Foolhardy Love,” Vents Magazine, 1/19/24.
Haruko Hayakawa (BFA Design) was featured in “Haruko Hayakawa Creates Surreal CG Artwork Packed with Humour and Subversion,” Creative Boom, 12/11/23, and “What 0.1%? The Undervalued Force of Women Founders,” Print, 3/7/24.
Chemin Hsiao (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 2011 Animation) had a solo exhibition, “Dimensions in Aging,” Nan Shan Senior Center, NYC, 2/20-2/23/24, and illustrated the cover of Good Son (Sundress Publications, 2024) by Kyle Liang.
Melody Melamed (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) was featured in “Melody Melamed: Body, Skin, Soul,” Fisheye, 5/23/24.
Matt Shaw (MFA Design Criticism) wrote “What Is the Future of Aalto’s Landmark Paimio Sanatorium?,” The Architect’s Newspaper, 3/20/24.
Denise Treizman (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Glean, Glow, Glam!” Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL, 1/18-3/30/24.
Patricia Voulgaris (BFA Photography) was interviewed in “Artist to Watch: Patricia Voulgaris,” Musée, 1/29/24.
Brian Andrew Whiteley (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Human Petting Zoo,” The Invisible Dog Art Center, NYC, 5/9/24.
Zipeng Zhu (BFA Design) was featured in “Designer Zipeng Zhu Wants to Make Every Day a ‘Razzle-Dazzle Musical’,” Fast Company, 2/16/24.
2014
Graciela Cassel (MFA Fine Arts) directed the documentary We Are Rivers, which screened at Women Filmmaker’s Movie Night, Culture Lab LIC, NYC, 3/30/24.
Lynda Decker (MFA Design Criticism) wrote “Strategizing Brand Presence in User Interfaces,” Print, 2/29/24.
Alison Kuo (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “You Pick the Moon,” Field Projects, NYC, 3/14-4/20/24.
Vivienne Medrano (a.k.a. VivziePop) (BFA Animation) was featured in “One Hell of a Show! Checking In with Hazbin Hotel Creator Vivienne Medrano,” Animation Magazine, 1/3/24, and “Hazbin Hotel Is a Childhood Dream Streamed Out to the World,” The New York Times, 1/22/24.
JASON ISOLINI (BFA 2017 Photography and Video), installation views of “You’re Bringing Me Down,” Picture Theory, NYC, 1/19-3/9/24. Courtesy of Jason Isolini and Picture Theory.
Caroline Tompkins (BFA 2014 Photography) photographed the cover story “Matt Smith Pulls Back the Curtain on House of the Dragon Season 2, From Losing a Showrunner to Playing a ‘Much Weaker’ Daemon in Crisis,” Variety, 5/29/24.
Darya Warner (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “How a Bioartist from Ukraine Brought Attention to Colorado Groundwater Concerns,” CU Independent, 1/21/24. 2015
Yasi Alipour (BFA Photography) had work in the group exhibition “Delicately Does It,” AICON, NYC, 5/23-6/29/24.
Christina Arza (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) published a photobook, slowly, tenderly (2024).
Michael Bailey-Gates (BFA Photography) photographed “Selena Gomez Wants to Comfort You,” Vogue Japan, 12/22/23, and “Dua Lipa Is Done Being a Mystery,” Rolling Stone, 1/16/24.
Vincent Cy Chen (BFA Fine Arts) was interviewed in “Vincent Cy Chen by Jenny Wu,” Bomb, 2/5/24.
Nico Del Giudice (BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects) was interviewed in “So, How Do You Winterize a Film?,” Befores and Afters, 3/13/24.
Nadia DeLane (MFA Visual Narrative) was featured in “Meet Nadia DeLane,” Canvas Rebel, 3/7/24.
Sarah Dineen (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Addition/Subtraction,” Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, NYC, 1/10-2/10/24.
Nicasio Fernandez (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Been Here Before,” Harper’s, Los Angeles, 5/31-7/13/24.
Kathie Halfin (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Embodied Cosmos,” Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Tech University, Smithville, TN, 5/4-7/14/24.
Jana Jackson (BFA Photography) was a recipient of the Portrait of Britain Award, British Journal of Photography, 1/8/24.
Carlos Jaramillo (BFA Photography) photographed “Lily Gladstone Is Seizing the Moment—and Making History,” Rolling Stone, 1/12/24, and “On This South Dakota Reservation, Hair Is Memory,” Vogue, 3/7/24.
Enle Li (BFA Design) was featured in “Do You See What He Sees? Enle Li’s Animations Show How Subjective Our Experience of Nature Really Is,” It’s Nice That, 4/24/24.
Melissa Malzkuhn (MFA Visual Narrative) received the 2024 Elevate Prize, The Elevate Prize Foundation, Miami, 2/6/24.
Karina Shor (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “‘Girls Like Us’: Karina Shor and Natalie Norris in Conversation about the Perils and Triumphs of Making Graphic Memoirs About Trauma,” The Comics Journal, 2/5/24.
Jared Simon (BFA Film and Video) was interviewed in “The Editor and Assistant Editor Relationship,” Avid, 12/14/23.
Tiffany Smith (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) was selected as a fellow of the 2024 Create Change Artist Development Program, The Laundromat Project, NYC, 1/25/24, and had a solo exhibition, “Back Home,” Ten Nineteen, New Orleans, 5/96/29/24.
Panayiotis Terzis (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 2006 Illustration) collaborated with Hermès and Heavy Eyes Studio to create window display designs for Hermès storefronts, NYC, 2/26/24.
Jocelyn Tsaih (BFA Design) illustrated This Way to Change (Chronicle Prism, 2024) by Jezz Chung.
Heath Wagoner (MFA Products of Design) was featured in “Ocean-Inspired Tableware From a Brooklyn Silversmith,” The New York Times Style Magazine: Australia, 12/9/23. 2016
Lila Allen (MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism) wrote “Inside Vincent Van Duysen’s Brutalist Foray Into Stone Furniture,” Architectural Digest, 12/20/23.
Alex Cassetti (BFA Photography and Video) was a runner-up for the 2024 Light Work Grant in Photography, Light Work, Syracuse, NY, 5/1/24.
Sean Donovan (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Natura Morta,” Museo Burel, Belluno, Italy, 5/11-6/23/24.
Sally J. Han (BFA Cartooning) published Lost and Found (Fortnight Institute, 2023).
Georgia Lale (MFA Fine Arts) presented a solo exhibition, “Neighborhood Guilt,” as part of an International Women’s Day celebration, Technopolis City of Athens, 3/8-3/10/24.
Netta Laufer (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Distant Lights,” Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, 2/21-7/20/24.
Susan Luss (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibitions “Shadow Selves,” M. David & Co., NYC, 2/16-3/3/24, and “Mind Leaves Body,” Westbeth Gallery, NYC, 4/3-4/21/24.
2018
Storm Ascher (BFA Visual and Critical Studies) was the recipient of the New Leadership Award, ArtTable Annual Benefit, Los Angeles, 2/28/24.
Mengfan Bai (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Thus Have We Seen,” Nan Ke Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2/29-4/14/24.
Ken Castaneda (BFA Photography and Video) was named director, Company Gallery, NYC, 11/30/23.
Hailun Ma (MPS Fashion Photography; BFA 2016 Photography and Video) photographed the April 2024 cover story, “Rihanna: Beauty in Individuality,” Vogue China
Pedro Mesa (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “The Oracle of Latin American Women,” Galería Plural Nodo Cultural, Bogotá, Colombia, 2/22-3/2/24.
Emma Rose Milligan (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media; BFA 2015 Photography) photographed “A Rave in the Ring for Trans Boxers,” Washington Post, 3/19/24, and wrote and photographed “‘It’s Like Unwrapping a Present.’ Inside the Super 8 Film Revival,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/26/24.
Hanna Washburn (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Hanna Washburn,” Olin Fine Arts Center, Washington, PA, 2/2-2/25/24.
Jamele Wright, Sr. , (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Landscapes for Richard Mayhew,” Black Art in America Gallery, East Point, GA, 4/4-5/4/24.
2019
Seungkyung Oh (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Jungle Odyssey,” Space Kyeol, Seoul, 4/16-4/27/24.
Jessica Pettway (BFA Photography and Video) was featured in “Behind the Scenes of Jessica Pettway’s Brand Collaboration with InStyle x Macy’s,” Giant, 4/15/24.
Bat-Ami Rivlin (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “The Socrates Annual 2023,” Socrates Sculpture Park, NYC, 9/30/23-3/24/24, and had a solo exhibition, “Boat, Plastic, Tire,” L21 Gallery, Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 11/17/23-1/5/24.
Richard Vivenzio (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Pi Art Festival,” Pi Art Festival, Punta Islita, Puerto Rico, 3/143/17/24.
Dareece Walker (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “With And Within,” AHA Fine Art, NYC, 2/8-2/28/24.
2017
Adebunmi Gbadebo (BFA Fine Arts) is now represented by Nicola Vassell Gallery, NYC, 3/28/24, and was featured in “‘It Wasn’t Enough to Put the Black Figure in My Work’: Rising Artist Adebunmi Gbadebo on Why She Works With Earth, Hair, and Indigo,” Artnet, 5/9/24.
Jason Isolini (BFA Photography and Video) had a solo exhibition, “You’re Bringing Me Down,” Picture Theory, NYC, 1/19-3/9/24.
Jake Kaplan (BFA Animation) produced Pete (2022), which was shortlisted for Best Animated Short Film, 96th Annual Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 3/10/24.
ShinYeon Moon (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) illustrated Laolao’s Dumplings (Godwin Books, 2023) by Dane Liu.
Poyen Wang (MFA Computer Art) was selected as an artist in residence, Triangle Arts, NYC, winter 2024.
Maggie Dunlap (BFA Visual and Critical Studies) had a solo exhibition, “Gilded Splinters,” No Gallery, NYC, 1/11-2/18/24.
Jonathan Ellis (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Portal: Shifting Landscapes,” 4Heads and ChaShaMa, NYC, 1/27-2/10/24.
Yam Chew Oh (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Climate for Change,” Pinkard Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, 1/19-3/3/24.
Marianna Peragallo (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Thank You, Have a Nice Day,” Oresman Gallery, Smith College, Northampton, MA, 2/1-3/14/24.
John Rivas (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Que Haces Vos? Yo Pinto,” François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, 1/13-2/17/24.
Laura Scofield (MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism) was interviewed in “Brazilian at Heart, Global in Spirit: Aprender Design Lets Us In on the Online School’s Jump to the US,” The Brand Identity, 2/12/24.
Hugo Yu (BFA Photography and Video) photographed “Best New Martinis in NYC,” New York, 2/12/24.
2020
Jiawen Chen (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “10 Brilliant Illustrators You Should Have on Your Radar,” Creative Boom, 3/4/24.
Minkwan Kim (BFA Design) was featured in “‘Never Be Afraid to Make Mistakes’: Minkwan Kim on Designing Visuals for YouTube Music,” Creative Boom, 2/15/24.
Esteban Kuriel (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) was featured in “‘Is This an Image of a Sculpture or an Invitation to a Sexual Encounter?’: Esteban Kuriel’s Best Phone Picture,” The Guardian, 5/4/24.
KENNY
Yi Hsuan Lai (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Ongoing Narratives, Go Left, Go Right, or Go to the Other Side,” Chinese American Arts Council and Gallery 456, NYC, 4/19-5/4/24.
Carlos Rosales-Silva (MFA Fine Arts) was selected as a spring 2024 artist-in-residence, Bemis Center, Omaha, NE.
2021
Lisa Durden (MFA Social Documentary Film) produced and contributed to the documentary special “Diary of a Killer,” 20/20, ABC, 12/8/23.
Yan Jin (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “I Don’t Want to Make Photographs Anymore,” Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Xiamen, China, 12/30/23-2/4/24.
Jon Key (MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism) illustrated “Celebrating James Baldwin,” Black History Month Google Doodle, 2/1/24.
You Zhang (MFA Interaction Design) was the recipient of the Platinum Award in the Digital Illustration (Campaign) – Unpublished/ Personal/Passion category for Procedural Flowers, VEGA Awards, 12/5/23.
2022
Stefano Curti (BFA Illustration) received the second place award in the Future Generation Competition, Portrait Society of America, Tallahassee, FL, 12/8/23.
Yuan Fang (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 2019 Visual and Critical Studies) had a solo exhibition, “Flux,” Long Museum, Shanghai, China, 1/13-
3/24/24, and was featured in “30 under 30 Asia 2024,” Forbes, 5/16/24.
Bryan Fernandez (BFA Fine Arts) was a recipient of the AIM Fellowship, The Bronx Museum, NYC, 1/31/24, and was a finalist, 2024 New York City Artadia Awards, 4/25/24.
Yirui Jia (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Red Thread,” Latitude Gallery, NYC, 11/17-12/31/23, and had a solo exhibition, “Seasonist,” Mitchell-Innes & Nash, NYC, 3/14-4/20/24.
Ailyn Lee (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 2017 Illustration) had work in the group exhibition “Lucid Dreaming,” Here Arts Center, NYC, 3/7-5/4/24.
Bass McNeese (BFA Animation) illustrated Gifts, which was projected on the Manhattan Bridge, 2023 DUMBO Holiday Projections, NYC, 12/13-12/27/23.
Esther Tang (BFA Illustration) was featured in “Esther Tang’s Gloriously Textural Illustrations Help Her Connect to the World Emotionally,” Creative Boom, 4/23/24.
Roshita Thomas (MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism) wrote “A Window of Opportunity: The Lack of Cultural Nuance in Air India’s Rebrand,” Print, 2/7/24.
Suyi Xu (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Free Fall,” Europa, NYC, 3/7-4/7/24. 2023
Ramie Ahmed (BFA Photography and Video) photographed “In Irish Dance, Hate Is Against the Spirit of the Sport for Trans People,” Teen Vogue, 3/15/24.
Anoushka Bhalla (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Now Streaming,” Rajiv Menon Contemporary, Los Angeles, 2/13-3/3/24, and “Peeling the Onions: Visual Reminders,” Elza Kayal Gallery, NYC, 5/10-6/29/24.
Capucine Bourcart (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibitions “Odas Marinas: The Ocean Unbound,” Revolú Gallery, NYC, 4/4-5/31/24, and “The Golden Thread: A Fiber Art Exhibition,” BravinLee Programs, NYC, 4/25-5/19/24.
Janine Brown (MFA Art Practice) had work in the group exhibition “To Know the Earth Through Roots,” Field Projects Gallery, NYC, 12/7/23-1/6/24, and had a solo exhibition, “Patterns and Pieces: Recipes of Home,” Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT, 5/25-7/11/24.
Giancarlo Cipri (MFA Products of Design) was featured in “Giancarlo Cipri’s Mail Courier Bag Is a Witty Reimagination of the Flat Mail Tray,” HypeBeast, 2/19/24.
Davina Hsu (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “I Should Have Been a Pair of Ragged Claws,” Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY, 12/9/23-3/16/24.
Jingyao Huang (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 2019 Photography and Video) was featured in “Daily Inspiration: Meet Jingyao Huang,” Voyage LA , 1/15/24.
Polin Huang (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Waking Life,” VillageOneArt, NYC, 12/7/23-1/6/24.
Nianxin Li (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibitions “Pillow Talk,” La Beast
Gallery, Los Angeles, 1/20-2/24/24, and “Our Currents Unleashed,” Latitude Gallery, NYC, 5/3-6/2/24.
Shwetlana Mehta (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Fragmented Memories,” Temple Gallery, NYC, 2/3-2/5/24, and was featured in “Shwetlana Mehta on Making Vibrant Paintings with Personal Stories,” Whitehot Magazine, 2/23/24.
Silvia Muleo (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Refraction,” New Collectors Gallery, NYC, 2/16-3/24/24.
Kiara Ocasio (a.k.a. kiarita) (BFA Visual and Critical Studies) was featured in “A Look at Some of the Incredible Art You Can See at the Fairs During Miami Art Week,” Miami Herald, 12/8/23.
Swayam Parekh (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “Swayam Parekh’s Silent Comic Greenhouse Illustrates the Growth in Finding Yourself,” It’s Nice That, 2/27/24.
2024
Chukwuemeka Anthony Chukwu (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Mercurial,” VillageOneArt, NYC, 4/11-5/11/24.
Tyson Houseman (MFA Fine Arts) created a music video for the song “Shrouded Mountain” (2024) by Vulvatorious.
Al Svoboda (MFA Fine Arts) had work in april april’s booth, Barely Fair Chicago 2024, Chicago, 4/12-4/21/24.
Jen Yoon (MFA Illustration; BFA 2019 Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “Jen Yoon’s AR Illustrations Adapt The Yellow Wallpaper for a Modern Audience,” Creative Boom, 3/18/24.
R. GREGORY CHRISTIE (BFA 1993 Illustration), installation view of Making Tomorrow, mural. From “The End of Fossil Fuel,” The Climate Museum, NYC, 10/7/23-4/25/24. Photo by Sari Goodfriend.
IN MEMORIAM
DONNA BERWICK (BFA 1981 Fine Arts) died on July 14, at the age of 66. Berwick grew up in Queens, New York, and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology before enrolling at SVA. After graduating, she designed for singer Grace Jones and was a member of the Rodeo Caldonia artist group before becoming a costume designer for such films as Donnie Darko (2001), Inside Man (2006), and Da 5 Bloods (2020), earning a Costume Designers Guild nomination for her work on the latter. She is survived by her longtime companion, Andrei Kovacs, brothers Jeffrey and Stephan, and Jimmy Simmonds; and sister, Beverly Morris.
KRISTA BEBEZAS (MPS 2005 Art Therapy) died on February 24, at the age of 48. Bebezas grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts, and attended UMass Amherst and Clark University before attending SVA. Bebezas worked at Bellevue Hospital in New York, did graphic design work for Procter & Gamble, helped adults with disabilities at The Arc of Opportunity, and established her own practice as a mental-health counselor and art therapist. She is survived by daughters Ava and Alanna and their father, Damon Keveany; mother, Rosemarie Gaffny; brothers Alexi (Lucinda) and Greg (Corrie); sister, Sophia; stepsiblings Erin Balogh and Eddie Gaffny; and many relatives and friends.
SAL DEVITO (1970 Advertising) died on July 15, the day before his 77th birthday. DeVito grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island. After high school he studied at SUNY Farmingdale before attending SVA. As a student, he created an SVA subway poster; he would also later teach at the College. DeVito cofounded DeVito/Verdi in 1991; his and his company’s numerous honors include Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, One Show Pencils and Radio Mercury Grand Prizes. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; son, John (Paula); and many relatives and friends.
ANGEL R. IBAÑEZ (1974 Illustration), an artist, U.S. Air Force veteran and longtime SVA employee, died on February 13, at the age of 78. Ibañez grew up in Spanish Harlem before making his home in the Lower East Side. He released a record with neighborhood friends as The Magnetics before enrolling at SVA in 1970. After college, he worked for the E.N.T.E.R. rehab center as a counselor and director of media; he was later recognized by New York State for pioneering the use of photography as therapy. His 1986 photo of Jalil Hutchins, frontman of the hip-hop group Whodini, appeared on a 2023 SVA poster celebrating 50 years of hip-hop. Ibañez worked for some 30 years as assistant studio manager of SVA’s Digital Imaging Center, where he mentored countless students. This past summer, a selection of his art and music were presented in his memory at the SVA All-Staff Art Show. Ibañez is survived by his daughter, Kara, and many friends and colleagues.
DINH QUANG LÊ (MFA 1992 Photography and Related Media), artist and co-founder of the Ho Chi Minh City arts nonprofit Sàn Art, died on April 6, at the age of 56. Lê was born in Vietnam and, after the Khmer Rouge’s invasion of the country following the Vietnam War, emigrated with his family to the U.S. He spent his adolescence in Los Angeles and attended UC Santa Barbara before enrolling at SVA. He moved back to Vietnam in the mid-’90s and regained his Vietnamese citizenship in 2021. Lê’s art often contrasted the experiences of Vietnamese people with Western depictions of the country and the war, and sought to preserve personal histories in the face of propaganda and suppression. In 2010, he received the Prince Claus Award in recognition of his socially engaged practice. He is survived by his partner, Ngo Minh Hao; his mother, Diep Tu Doan; and siblings Thuy Q., Cac Q., Chieu P., Luyen Q., Huyen P., and Ly P. Lê-Cao.
MARC LEVINE (BFA 1980 Photography), the official photographer for Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, died in early July at the age of 65. Levine began freelancing as a baseball photographer in his teens and became the Mets’ chief team photographer in 1989.
Off the field, he was a volunteer reading tutor to grade schoolers and a board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. After his death, the Mets celebrated Levine’s life with tributes online and at their home stadium of Citi Field, including a chair dedicated in his memory in the field’s photo well. In 2015 Levine’s work was in “The Sports Show,” an exhibition of sports-related art by SVA alumni, at the College. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie (BFA 1991 Photography), and daughter, Samantha.
CAROL O’NEILL (BFA 1987 Fine Arts) died on July 6 at the age of 71. O’Neill grew up in Kearny, New Jersey, and in addition to SVA attended the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art, in New Jersey, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she earned an MFA. After many years in the Netherlands, she returned to the U.S. in 2000, settling in Fairhaven, New Jersey. O’Neill was a member of the National Association of Women Artists, and a recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowship. She is survived by her husband, Charles; mother, Alice Skromyda; brother, Michael Skromyda, and sisters Diane and Janet Skromyda.
JAMES “JAMIE” R. SALOMON (BFA 1986 Photography) died on July 15, at the age of 60. Salomon grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut, and after graduating from SVA he married and moved to Portland, Maine, where he built a career as an architectural photographer while also teaching ski lessons during the winters. He is survived by his wife, Susan; daughter, Sophie (Andrew); son, Ben; parents Suzanne and Robert; brother, Robin (Sarah); and sister, Debbie Smith.
JOSEPH ROBERT VETRONE (BFA 1986 Media Arts) died on November 14, 2023, at the age of 60. Vetrone was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in the St. Louis area before attending SVA. After college, he returned to Missouri and worked at local clubs before joining the staff of the Pageant, one of St. Louis’s premier live-music venues. He was an avid cartoonist, illustrator and musician. Vetrone was predeceased by his mother, Janice, and brother, Mark. He is survived by his father, Don, and partner, Patty Faller.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
The Bob Gill Collection, the latest addition to the Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives at the School of Visual Arts, is now open for research.
The collection, generously donated by Gill’s widow, producer and WNYC radio host Sara Fishko, represents the expanse of Gill’s career, from the early 1950s through 2018, and contains posters, ads, illustrations, and books, as well as original art and production files. Video and audio recordings will be available at a later date.
Born in Brooklyn, Gill (1931 – 2021) studied piano as a child, and later spent his summers playing jazz at resorts in the Catskills. When he was drafted into the U.S. military in 1952 he
worked in the design corps in Washington, D.C., returning to New York two years later to freelance as a designer and illustrator. He joined the SVA faculty in 1956 as one of its earliest design instructors, and created two subway posters for the College. (He taught again at SVA in the ’90s.)
In 1960 Gill moved to London, where he cofounded Fletcher/Forbes/Gill (later known as the global design firm Pentagram), with Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes, and British Design & Art Direction, now known as D&AD. In the late ’60s, he returned to freelancing, creating the album jacket for George Harrison’s Wonderwall Music. Back in New York in the 1970s, Gill cocreated the Broadway sensation Beatlemania. In addition to teaching, designing, and writing books for children and designers, he produced, wrote, and directed industrial films. Among his many honors, in 1991 he was elected to the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame.
Gill was a singular designer, always witty, provocative, and surprising. In his work and his teaching, he exemplified the ethos that design is about effective communication, not trends or styles.
“The fun of being a designer is to invent a solution that is unique,” he said in a 2018 interview for SVA. “I try to get my students to make statements, not regurgitate what the culture tells them a great poster should be.”
ABOVE Bob Gill’s poster for The Mattei Affair at the Gate Cinema in London, 1972.
ABOVE, FROM LEFT Bob Gill’s magazine cover for Art Direction no. 45, March 1957; poster for The House of Bernarda Alba, Great Neck Theater, 1957; and SVA poster, c.1960.
