UT Arlington Art + Art History Newsletter 2009 by Philip Thepkaysone

The University of Texas at Arlington

art happenings | 2009 Department Chair’s welcome  On behalf of the Department of Art and Art History, I hope you enjoy our departmental newsletter. This year’s news about our students, alums, faculty and programs provides a glimpse into our dynamic university. In addition, please review our web site to investigate our activities and achievements throughout the current academic year. Our Department, comprised of outstanding students, faculty, and staff, is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). In addition we belong to the New Media Consortium, College Art Association, Fate and various state art organizations. With a distinguished faculty of approximatly 45 artists, designers, and historians and a diverse body of 800 undergraduate and graduate students, we continue to educate a new generation of artists, designers, historians and educators. As Chair of the Department of Art and Art History, it is very exciting to watch the growth of our Undergraduate Programs, Graduate Programs, and Special Programs that have an impact at the international level. As you know, we are located in the middle of the Dallas - Fort Worth metroplex which has a thriving fine arts environment. If you are in the region, please visit and see how the program and university continues to move towards Tier One research status. Please keep in touch,

Robert Hower

Dr. Nada Shabout

His accident and Abandon of Such Customary Writings | Jesse Barnett, 2009

Alumna Helps Iraqi Museum of Modern Art

Annual MFA Summer Exhibition

Shortly after the invasion of Iraq, alumna Nada Shabout returned to the country where she grew up. As an art history professor, one of the first stops she wanted to make was the modern art museum. But Shabout, who was in Baghdad just months after the U.S.-led March 2003 invasion, soon found that seeing the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art would be impossible.

In Other News 6

Alumnus Opens Studio/Gallery in Kathmandu, Nepal

The Year at the Gallery

UTA Students Create Mural for Boys and Girls Club

Faculty Spotlights

Barton Weiss Recounts Trip to Pakistan

Professor Stephen Thomas Rascoe, 1924 - 2008

502 South Cooper St. #335, Arlington, TX 76019 | 817.272.2891 (fax) 817.272.2805 | art@uta.edu

Professor Barton Weiss Recounts Recent Time in Pakistan “Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Pakistan as an expert in American documentary film and join my peers in several educational workshops for that country’s filmmakers and media. I traveled with veteran filmmaker Tricia Reagan who was screening her film “Autism: The Musical,” which follows several autistic kids and their efforts to stage a musical. As it turns out, the film was more about the families and their struggles with autism then the musical.

Professor Barton Weiss

We held three screenings a day for nine days, showcasing the film to mostly film students, journalists, filmmakers and artists. My role as an expert was to place her film in historical and aesthetic context, to talk about the festival world, and to talk a little about camera technology and editing gear. After each screening, which would sometimes include local films, we would discuss with the audience how to make documentary films tell stories – instead of just following a story. Using Tricia’s film as an example, we showed how the audience learns about autism by getting to know the characters. The Pakistani films we say included a lot of “wall to wall” voiceovers and plugged pictures in to show what they were talking about. It reminded me of educational television from the 1960s, and it would not play well in today’s America.

We encouraged these filmmakers and film students to make documentaries about what was going on today in Pakistan. We told them the world wanted to see what life was like – especially where the modern world and Al Qaeda clash. The first film that told the story of the Pakistani people, we said, might easily be shown at the Sundance Film Festival. At every screening, I would receive videos from local filmmakers. These will be put together into a compilation and show at VideoFest on Nov. 5-8 at the Angelica Theater in Dallas. The trip was organized as a cultural exchange program with the U.S. State Department, the University Film and Video Association and the International Documentary Association. We were initially set to visit Libya and Iraq, but at the last minute that trip was postponed and we went to Pakistan (the second most dangerous place in the world).

Professor Stephen Thomas Rascoe, 1924 - 2008

tephen Thomas Rascoe, 84, an artist, retired fine art professor and gentleman, passed on Monday, June 16, 2008. Stephen Thomas Rascoe was born May 8, 1924, in Uvalde, TX, son of the late William Marion Rascoe and Jane Grace Johnston Rascoe. He grew up in Corpus Christi. He was a student at the University of Texas at Austin before serving in the United States Army Air Force from 1942-1946. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in 1948 and his Masater of Arts degree in painting in 1951, both from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Since we were guests of the state department, we traveled with security escorts and drove in fully armored vehicles. We felt safe, but it felt like we were traveling in a security bubble. It made me think about the larger bubble we live in here in the U.S.”

Upon returning to Texas, Mr. Rascoe worked as a draftsman before accepting a position at the University of Texas at Arlington as a fine art professor in 1964 and continued in this role until his retirement in 1990. Through his work at UTA, Mr. Rascoe was able to inspire and encourage a whole new generation

-Barton Weiss Professor, Film/Video For more info: www.uta.edu/art

Dr. Mary Vaccaro Concludes Year-Long Faculty Development Leave

Faculty Exhibit World-Wide Galerie Palais Walderdorff in Trier, Germany, will feature works from Nicholas Wood, in the “Skulpturen & Zeichnung” (or Sculpture & Drawings) exhibition.

Nancy Palmeri, associate professor in Printmaking/Foundation, was featured in the Kimbell Art Museum’s Artist Eye Lecture Series. She was also in the exhibition: Monumental Idea in Miniature Book, part of the Southern Graphics Council Conference, at Columbia College, Chicago, IL.

Associate Professor Robert Grame participated in many international exhibitions, such as: “What the World Needs”, Forum Mazartplatz, Vienna, Austria. The Fourth “United Designs” Biennial International Design Exhibition, Korean Society of Experimentation in Design and The Applied Science University. Faculty of Arts and Design in Los Angeles, CA. “Cross Connections - Graphic Design from China to America”, The University of Southern Mississippi.

Michelle Murillo participated in “Limerick Printmakers Open Submission Exhibition”, Limerick Printmakers Gallery, Limerick, Ireland. “Destinos/Destinations”, Artist in Residence Exhibition, invited to exhibit an installation as part of a three week residency program, SUB 30. Transverse Space Gallery, Proyecto’ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina. “Maps and Remaining Geographies”, Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Associate Professor Leighton McWilliams had work in a traveling group show in Puebla, Mexico at Galeria de Arte Contemporaneo y Diseno. He also had work in the Bellocq Gallery at Louisiana Tech, and in a group show, “wood/metal/glass” at the Rockport Center for the Arts in Rockport, TX.

Dr. Beth Wright Speaks at Symposium in London

His paintings are included in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Art, Art Museum of South Texas, Texas A&M University Museum, Arlington Museum of Art, University of Texas at Arlington, Southern Methodist University, Texas Fine Arts Association Laguna Gloria Museum and the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin and numerous private collections. Stephen was most recently represented by Paula Kornye Tillman of Fort Worth.

For more info: www.uta.edu/art

Professor Barton Weiss

Associate Professor Andrew Ortiz exhibited in two UTSA art gallery competitions entitled “New Art/Arte Nuevo: San Antonio 2008”, and “Anje III” at the 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, FL.

of Texas artists. During his distinguished career, Stephen Rascoe won many prestigious art awards.

Associate Professor Dr. Vaccaro recently concluded a year-long Faculty Development Leave during which time she also held the J. Clawson Mills Senior Research Fellowship in residence at the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. During her stint in New York, on the basis on her expertise, was able to re-attribute several drawings in the Metropolitan Museum permanent collection. One of her discoveries was featured in a full-length article in the newsletter of the Metropolitan Museum of Art last fall. Dr. Vaccaro’s article about the reattribution of another Italian drawing in the French regional museum in Rennes recently saw publication in the major French-language journal for French museums, La Revue du Louvre, La Revue des Mus’es de France (February 2008). Two full-length articles in the Gazzetta di Parma, the newspaper of Parma, Italy (2 June and 23 June 2008), featured the recent discoveries by Dr Vaccaro, described therein as “a US scholar in love with the painting of Renaissance Parma and author of a successful book on Parmigianino”: specifically, her reattribution of a drawing in the Uffizi to an artist from the circle of Correggio (published in the Burlington Magazine, 2007) and her use of unpublished notices in the baptismal registers of Parma to reconstruct social networks among artists in 16th-century Parma (published in Renaissance Studies, 2007).

Beth Wright, Art professor and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts was an invited speaker at an international symposium at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in June 2009. The symposium (“1789, 1989, 2009: Changing Perspectives on Post-Revolutionary Art”), organized by graduate students at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University College – London, and the University of Michigan brought together speakers from France, Great Britain, America, Germany, and India to consider how new methodologies (especially those privileging subjectivity) shed light on art in revolutionary and post-revolutionary France.

T 1

20 09

In June 2008, Dr Vaccaro was invited by the Director of the Civic Museums of Parma, Italy, to give a lecture at the Pinacoteca Stuard in Parma, Italy, about drawings for the 16th-century decoration of the choir of Parma Cathedral.

Additionally, Dr. Vaccaro spoke on “Imitatio: New Attributions for Copies after Correggio” at an Oct. 17 symposium at Columbia University in New York. She was one of eight former graduate students of Columbia Professor David Rosand, who was honored at the symposium upon his retirement and 70th birthday.

Photography Faculty Establish Scholarship The tenured photography faculty at UTA have established a scholarship for a student in photography starting January 2010. The $500 award will be given to a junior/senior student based on the portfolio reviews completed by the photography program in December. Our criteria will be to recognize a student with exemplary work and potential for future growth in the medium. The photography program has grown considerably and currently embraces over one hundred majors working in all elements of photography: digital imaging, large format, black and white digital and silver, alternative processes and large scale printing. Each semester we have more students going forward into MFA programs and hope that this scholarship will encourage continued professional growth by our undergrads. Kenda North Professor and Head of Photography

T 1

20 09

Annual MFA Summer Exhibition Nancy Palmeri

Associate Professor, Printmaking MFA Advisor

The Annual Summer Graduate Exhibition is presented in the Gallery at UTA on the University of Texas at Arlington campus in Arlington, Texas. This venue makes it possible to exhibit a broad range of work, both in terms of media and in scale. The works are by a diverse group of UTA’s MFA candidates at varying stages of their program of study. Nancy Palmeri, MFA advisor, and Benito Huerta, Director of the Gallery, assisted the students in the presentation of their work. The MFA candidate’s major professors - Andy Anderson, Benito Huerta, Darryl Lauster, Robert Grame, Kenda North, and David Keens selected the work to be exhibited.

twothousand + nine | Ben Dolezal, 2009

In addition, this year Jesse Barnett and Janet Morrow were recognized with the Chairs Awards of Excellence. In 2009, Janet Morrow and Rachel Gibson-Shepherd were awarded the Ideas in Art prizes from James S. Barnett Jr. Foundation. The MFA Program is organized into four areas: Studio-Intermedia, Visual Communication, Film-Video and Glass. The seventeen MFA candidates engaged in conceptual investigations of a variety of issues as they realize their visions in their respective mediums. Among the issues explored in these works are intimacy, relationships, domesticity, and concepts of landscape. The artists also address the act of seeing, film noir, and real and psychological space. The goal of the works in this exhibition is to provoke the viewer into questioning what they are witnessing, while calling into question the boundaries of what is considered to be art.

Suad Al-Attar, Garden, 1988 | One of the art pieces Dr. Nada Shabout helped document

The originality of this years UTA Summer MFA Exhibition resided between the dynamic intersection of object and image and the equilibrium of well-directed theoretical structure. Following no formula, the work by the students in the program expressed the power of interplay between media. The pieces in the show where ironic, playful, striking, engaging, composed, tense, subversive, and beautiful. They suggested a visual account of each artist’s ongoing transformation and individual studio practice. The exhibition revealed the scope and diversity of the artists within the MFA at UTA, who are superbly balanced between the complex hemispheres of traditional and media-based art as well as film and video. The depth and diversity of the exhibition underline the excellence of the Department of Art and Art History’s faculty, student body and staff.

Alumna works to compile list of missing works from Iraqi Museum of Modern Art

hortly after the invasion of Iraq, Dr. Nada Shabout returned to the country where she grew up. As an art history professor, one of the first stops she wanted to make was the modern art museum. But Dr. Shabout, who was in Baghdad just months after the U.S.-led March 2003 invasion, soon found that seeing the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art would be impossible. Not only had it been burned and looted, but the area was blocked off and dangerous. As she traveled around the city and spoke to art experts, she realized that thousands of works were looted from the museum, possibly gone forever. She made it her mission to document what had been there. Five years later, she’s still working toward that goal. “I saw a great need of help,” said Dr. Shabout, an associate professor of art history at the University of North Texas. “It was natural for me to do this.” On that fact-finding trip to Iraq with a group of fellow academics, gallery owners and artists told Shabout how pieces once displayed in the museum were now selling on the black market or in other galleries. Of the 8,600 works in the museum before the invasion, only 1,420 remained after the looting and some of those were damaged. Hassan Qussai, an official in Iraq’s culture ministry, said that so far, 59 of the 7,180 missing pieces have been recovered and authorities in Iraq are working to document the rest. Dr. Shabout, who specializes in Arab art, particularly Iraqi artists, plans to eventually publish a list of what was once in the museum. Such a publication could not only help law enforcement identify works floating through black markets, but also be a reference for museums to ensure they aren’t buying stolen goods, she said. So far, she has authenticated with images and documentation about 500 works once in the museum. Since 2003, Dr. Shabout’s painstaking research has taken her to Paris, Jordan, London and other locations to determine what was in the museum. Her resources include photographs of some of the works that hung in the museum, its catalogs and books published by the Ministry of Culture. People around the world have

FEATURE

helped, including some who sent her catalogs purchased from the museum before the war. She also has to be mindful of the motives of some who provide information. For instance, art dealers have denied certain pieces she authenticated were ever in the museum, a clue that the dealer may have sold that piece. “I did a lot of sort of detective work,” said Dr. Shabout, who will teach contemporary Arab art history at the University of Jordan in Amman as a Fulbright scholar this fall.

For more information on the MFA Program at UTA go to: http://www.uta.edu/art/graduate_program

The Iraqi Museum of Modern Art, formerly known as the Saddam Center for the Arts, was inaugurated in the mid-1980s. After Baghdad fell, much of the attention was on the looting of the Iraqi National Museum home of ancient art and antiquities. As a result, Dr. Shabout said people seemed to forget that there was also a modern culture. Traveling to Iraq in June 2003 was a return home of sorts for Dr. Shabout. Born in Scotland to an Iraqi father and Palestinian mother, she returned with her parents to Iraq when she was 6. After graduating from high school in Baghdad, she came to the United States. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Texas at Arlington and then studied for her master’s at the Architecture Association School of Art in London. Dr. Shabout said that a comprehensive history of modern art in Iraq hasn’t yet been written and there are few comprehensive catalogs of the museum’s works, making the loss of the art and documents a disaster.

An Obstinante Passion | Matthew Patterson, 2009

Associated Press Writer Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report. Article pulled from PR-Inside.com

For more info: www.uta.edu/art

You Are Here | Soyla Santos, 2009

T 1

20 09

FEATURE

T 1

20 09

MFA Students are Active

Students and Alumni Participate and Win Awards in many Exhibitions and Competitions

• Janet Morrow, a Studio/Intermedia MFA student was included in The CraigheadGreen Gallery’s “New Texas Talent 2009” exhibition. Ideas in Art Scholarship Award Winner. Presenter at the ACES Conference on campus. Included in exhibition, Creative Blood, Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. Selected to participate in FW Museum of Modem Art Graduate Student Lecture Series. Awarded first annual departmental Graduate Student Excellence Award.

• The HCG Gallery in Dallas, TX featured works from undergraduate sculpture student David Ricks, in the Texas Sculpture Association’s 2009 State-wide Juried Art Exhibition.

• Glen Holland, painting and drawing alumnus, had his work featured in Devotions, an exhibition at the Fischbach Gallery in New York City. Glen Holland received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UTA in 1990 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio State University in 1992.

Kapil Dixit

Alumnus Kapil Dixit Opens Studio and Gallery in Kathmandu, Nepal Kapil Dixit, Art + Art History alumnus, recently opened Apartment 8 Art Studio and Gallery in his community of Kathmandu, Nepal and has begun featuring work from local artists around the area. Apartment 8 Gallery is a private studio and Kapil revealed the secret behind its name. “Since I love having something subjective in everything I possess, I’m naming this gallery after the apartment that I lived in when I was in the U.S., and which shared some of my most creative moments.”

• Iris Bechtol, a Studio/Intermedia MFA student, recieved Graduate Deans Maters Fellowship. Included in Word + Image, Brooklyn NY, received special travel funds from the Dean. Included in an exhibition in Belgrade. Recognized at the Presidents Convocation for Academic Excellence. Finalist Ideas in Art. Included in juried exhibition, Rising Eyes of Texas 2009, Rockport Center for the Arts. Invited to teach Drawing from the Collection for Children at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth on May 3, 2009 as well as the Modern Art Camp in June, 2009. She was also selected as a UT Arlington University Scholar.

• UTA Photo Students Justin Bolle, Katie Nixon, Charity Moelling and UTA/MFA student Thomas Lumpkin had work juried into the “Seen/Unseen” exhibition at the 14th Street Gallery in Plano.

• UTA students Debbie Bryan, Armando Garcia, Katie Nixon, MFA student Iris Bechtol, and alumna Betsy Williamson participated in the annual “Rising Eyes of Texas”, a juried exhibit at the Rockport Art Center.

Boys and Girls Teen Club Members

Art Students Create Mural for Boys and Girls Teen Club Room

• UTA photo students Sean Brecht, Shawondra Hardy, Christine Davis, and Tristan Evans were finalists in the 29th Annual College Photography Contest sponsored by Nikon. These students will have their work published in the Best of College Photography 2009.

Sue Stevens

mural painted in UT Arlington colors and featuring college logos and a UT Arlington basketball player took shape in the teen room at the Arlington Boys and Girls Club on North Elm Street. Art students from The University of Texas at Arlington designed the mural, which celebrates higher education, with club members. Project leader Sharon Miller, a UT Arlington senior, calls the mural a true group effort involving University art students, the Boys and Girls Club staff, and teens who are doing the painting.

• UTA photo students Michael Hoefle, Armando Garcia, Jeanne Lopez, and Katie Nixon exhibited in the ‘Visual Language of North Texas’ exhibition, sponsored by the Greater Denton Arts Council.

“Their faces really lit up when the color started to go up on the background and they began to paint the college logos,” Miller said. “One of the boys wanted to skip his lunch to finish the logo he had started. Another teen said he felt a real sense of accomplishment and couldn’t wait to go home and show his mom his paint-splattered shirt to prove it.” Miller said UT Arlington is the focal point, but the teens were encouraged to include the colleges they hope to attend some day. Most are in Texas, but Stanford, Penn State and other national universities also are depicted.

• Film student David McGinnis won Best Student Film at the Fearless Film Festival 3 in Fort Worth. He won for “Gillface,” an unconventional love story.

The project grew from Michael Clark’s determination that the teens he meets as branch director of the Elm Street Boys and Girls Club know that college can be in their future. He starts by pointing them to The University of Texas at Arlington, just a mile north of the club. “We have this University, a great school that offers degrees in many subjects,” Clark said, “but many of the kids have never even seen it.”

• Visual Communication students LIsa Tseng , Jon Graf, Nam Hua, Olumide Eseyin, Danielle Johnson, and Tim Mock participated in the 2009 Fort Worth Addy Competiton and won three Gold Addy awards, four Silver Addy awards, and one bronze addy award.

Film Students’ Work on KERA ‘Frame of Mind’ Bart Weiss, associate professor for film in Art + Art History, has produced two programs featuring work by UT Arlington film students for “Frame of Mind” on KERA-TV.

• Jesse Barnett, a Studio/Intermedia MFA student, was awarded departmental Graduate Student Excellence Award.

Senior Media Relations Officer

• Jennifer Haywood won First Prize College/University - Digitally Constructed Single Image for the annual PIEA Competition this spring. Her work, Death of Imagination, was exhibited at the PMA Imaging 2009 Convention in Las Vegas, NV USA March, 2009.

Still from Aaron Halloway’s “Schadenfreude

• Soyla Santos, a Studio/Intermedia MFA student, was included in Word + Image, Brooklyn, NY . Work included in Electric Art, F6 Gallery, Arlington, TX.

* UTA photography alumna Hannah Frieser is currently director of Light Work, a non-profit organization which features exhibitions, publications and artist in residency programs at Syracuse University. She was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Society for Photographic Education.

About a year ago, Clark visited the UT Arlington campus to ask for banners, posters and anything else he might display in the club’s teen room to raise awareness of the University. Gayonne Quick, associate director of UT Arlington admissions, was eager to help him spread the word about the university. Campus tours and admissions presentations at the club followed and evolved into the mural project. “These guys and girls are soaking up this experience like a sponge. They are really taking ownership of it, and that alone is a real accomplishment,” Miller said.

• UTA photography alumnus Oscar Plascencia has accepted a full time position as assistant professor in photography at Lycoming College in Ohio.

Film student Aaron Halloway directed “Schadenfreude,” which won first place in the college division of the Future Vision competition. Student Daniel Laabs made a mood piece named “Deep Ellum in Passing.”

Marilyn Jolly, associate professor of art and art history, said she hopes the project will empower the student apprentices to use their new skills to paint other walls in the club.

• Becca Hirsbrunner, a Visual Communication MFA student, was included in Word + Image, Brooklyn, NY, received special travel funds from the Dean.

• Ben Dolezal, a Visual Communication MFA student, was included in International exhibition, Cross Connections. International exhibition, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China. Message Exchange, National, Truman Statue University.

• Shannon Brunskill, a Glass MFA student, received an Excellence Award for Graduate Research/Creative Activity. Received a Termini Research Travel Award. Received a graduate student senate travel award.

• Matthew Patterson, a Glass MFA student, received an Excellence Award for Graduate Research/Creative Activity. Named in the President’s Convocation for Academic Excellence. Included in Word + Image, Brooklyn, NY. Finalist Ideas in Art.

• Justin Ginsberg, a Glass MFA student, received an Excellence Award for Graduate Research/Creative Activity. Included in the Craighead Green Gallery group exhibition, “Stimulate”. Included in the Craighead Green Gallery group exhibition, “Emerging Texas Artists”. Studio assistant, Corning Museum of Glass, “2300 Fine and Ice”.

• Rachel Gibson-Shepherd, a Film/Video MFA student, received Excellence Awards for Graduate Research/Creative activity. Received Ideas in Art Award.

• Clinton Rawls, a Film/Video MFA student, participated in Lonestar International Film Festival in Fort Worth, TX. 2009 Boomtown Film and Music Festival in Beaumont, TX.

For more information on the MFA Program at UTA go to: http://www.uta.edu/art/graduate_program

T 1

20 09

T 1

20 09

The Year at the Gallery

he 2008-09 Gallery at UTA exhibition season showcased an eclectic mix of artists showing work in a wide variety of media. In addition to our two semester-ending Bachelor of Fine of Arts exhibitions featuring graduating seniors, this year’s programming included aesthetically and conceptually diverse exhibitions, a series of exhibiting artist lectures and gallery talks, and the publication of illustrated exhibition brochures. The year began with a group show of recent work by three women artists: Allison Hunter, Cindy Hurt and Michelle Murillo. Each artist’s work, while stylistically very different from one another, was approached from an emotional platform that created intimate and evocative imagery. Hunter’s photographic images of animals in zoos and animal sanctuaries explored cultural attitudes about man-made environments through subtle and sometimes surreal juxtaposition of subject and background. Hurt’s drawings and mixed media pieces were an investigation of transition and “the process of letting go” through immediate, fluid markings on paper and books. Murillo, a printmaker who incorporates a variety of materials and media, such as silkscreen on glass and aluminum, examined the idea of personal history, memory and its role in connecting past to present. Steve Brudniak: Noumenon and Cameron Schoepp: Room to Breathe brought together the conceptually intriguing and technically exacting works of two Texas sculptors. Steve Brudniak from Austin showed intriguing found material assemblages that evoked memories of science fiction movies of the past. The eccentric, mechanical appearance of his creations made of metal, wood and glass contrasted with the surprisingly emotional human stories that accompanied each piece. Cam Schoepp from Ft. Worth created a roomsized, texturally rich carpet/text installation that viewers had to walk into and become immersed within. The air-inflated plastic cocoon and its highly contrasting white meets red carpet with stylized text embedded in it was definitely something to experience rather than passively view. This exhibition highlighted

Faculty Spotlights

James Dunning

Darryl Lauster

Tore Terrasi

Benjamin Lima

Seiji Ikeda

Good art can stop time. Mired in the arcane and eccentric history of the United States, second-year art professor Darryl Lauster is intimately familiar with how a quality piece of art can transcend hundreds of years. Applying such social science methodologies as archaeology, anthropology and micro-history, Lauster studies relics of Americana and recreates them with a contemporary twist.

Even the simplest two-dimensional rendering holds the potential for more. That’s how art professor Tore Terrasi sees art and the world around him: in layers. It’s not enough to enjoy the art on the page or canvas or screen in front of you -- he wants to know how it works on a variety of levels.

For Dr. Benjamin Lima, art and history go hand in hand. And while every piece of artistic work has a story, not every item is historically significant.

When Seiji Ikeda steps into the classroom, he doesn’t just talk about online design and digital art with his students – he talks about the future.

how contemporary sculptors use objects and space very differently to create equally thought provoking and viscerally felt work. Without End presented the collaborative exhibition concept of Los Angeles-based artists Michelle Dizon and Vincent Valdez. The two met in 2008 and discovered that, although focusing on different historical events and geographic subjects, each was dealing with issues of political resistance in their artwork. Vincent was in the process of completing a painting, Nuthin’ to See Here, Keep on Movin’, that dealt with police brutality at the May 1, 2007 protest at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. Michelle had just finished a video installation, Civil Society (I) that dealt with events of civil unrest in Paris in 2005 and Los Angeles in 1992. Their conversations raised the question of how people resist in the face of oppressive forces and how it is that they, as artists, bear witness to this struggle. Finally, Rimer Cardillo / Darryl Lauster brought Uruguayan printmaker Cardillo together with sculptor/installation artist Lauster for an intellectually stimulating show. Cardillo’s large-scale diptychs of animals and bones, and bird photographs, and prints addressed themes of memory, artifact and the impact of humans on nature. Lauster created and displayed artifacts from pseudo-archeological sites complete with faux wall texts to look at the meaning of objects and their validity as signifiers of past cultures. Although the two artists had never met previously, their ideas about tracing history (whether animal or human society) through artistic display came together beautifully in this thought-provoking exhibition.

“I am struck by the beauty and simplicity of the everyday,” he said. Since his days as an undergrad at the University of Houston, Lauster has been drawn to “venacular” art, commonplace pieces those in the fine arts world might find mundane. His body of work is rife with celebration of America’s past, including a large-scale commissioned piece for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “I believe in leading by example. As a mentor, my students can learn as much by understanding my work ethic and realizing how important production is,” he said. “I also believe in perseverance. My body of work takes time to produce. Art takes a lifetime, not just the 16 weeks a student might be in class.”

It was a highly rewarding season for The Gallery at UTA; as always, we are eagerly planning more exciting ways to bring contemporary art to the university and Metroplex community through our programs planned for the future.

For more info: www.uta.edu/art

Lauster’s work has been showcased in a variety of museums throughout the country, including the Barry Whistler Gallery in Dallas; The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; the University of Central Arkansas; and the Cameron Museum of Art in Wilmington, N.C. His experience, he says, has taught him the value of approaching his art methodically and analytically.

“It comes down to work and patience and honing your skills of perception and observation. Art is not something that happens quickly.”

Communications Coordinator

T 1

20 09

“Work needs to be aesthetically beautiful and interesting,” Terrasi said, “and it needs to have a story and come with a concept that works on different levels. It’s not just eye candy; it needs to be a thoughtful creation.” For some, “thoughtful creation” is what distinguishes digital artists from graphic designers. But Terrasi thinks that line is blurred. Take his own spin on typography: a series of letters and numbers with no straight lines, only circles. The work has been showcased in the 2005 edition of ARTSCAPE and is part of a national tour that ended in Baltimore in 2009. The assistant professor’s experience at several East Coast universities and exhibitions in more than three dozen galleries give him a unique outlook on the world of art. “The first truth (in art) is there is no truth,” he said. “ If you’re looking for black and white, right and wrong, go study computer science. In art, there is no absolute. … Art should exist, and evolve.” Terrasi is also a firm believer that a strong work ethic and a willingness to take risks are keys to successful art – especially in the competitive academic landscape of North Texas. “We do our best when we work from our own experiences. We also need to work hard. There’s a lot of talent (on this campus), but there’s a lot of talent at other schools in our area. With talent levels being equal, we need to outwork them to set ourselves apart.”

“You have to balance subjective imagination with concrete evidence,” Lima said about the historian’s approach to art. “You can’t label every artwork with a historical event. The challenge as a scholar is to be clear and responsible in connecting the art with the history that surrounds it.” Lima, who teaches modern and contemporary art history, enjoys these challenges in his own research: German and Western European art from the 1950s and 1960s. Examining how artists grappled with the echoes of Nazism after World War II offered Lima a glimpse into how art students consistently look back to move forward. “There were similarities in the youth and student culture between the U.S. and Germany (in the Sixties),” he said. “Those (German) students blamed their parents for Nazism and what happened. The artists had to reconnect to what was going on before the war.” His teaching and museum experience includes work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, N.Y., Yale University and the University of California at Irvine. His publishing credits include Art Journal and Art in America and he is currently writing a book on the action- and event-based art of the 1960s. At UT Arlington, Lima urges his students to connect with local museums and take time studying the history of their medium as they work through the creative process. “Each artist had to be a student and respond to the history around them,” he said. “I encourage my students to respond in their own way.”

“I’m heavily interested in web art,” said Ikeda, an assistant professor who previously worked in a design firm before earning his master’s of fine arts degree from Kansas State University. “It’s been a part of the subculture for such a long time. It’s a nontraditional expression.” Ikeda splits his course on this evolving medium into two sections: First, the practical, basic fundamentals of design, usability and engaging your audience; then the second, reviewing criticism and theory with the digital medium itself. His research, at times, explores how those online interact with one another through community sites like Facebook and YouTube. “People often think about the Internet as this thing that will be around forever. But I wonder what is after the Internet? And how does art exist in that environment?” Ikeda likens our digital experiences to that of Alice in the “Alice in Wonderland” tale – our computer screens are mirrors that reflect the real world (the Internet) but we’re unable to see beyond the surface. “Technology is sculptural; like a tree, it keeps branching off,” he said. “Art is all about being away from the tree while computers are all about being the tree. “There’s a strong perception of digital and web art coming from traditional media. For me, art is all about moving outside the sphere and moving in different directions. … I want people to be inspired.”

T 1

20 09

Outstanding Senior Awards

Wishful Wings Award Winners

The Department of Art and Art History is proud to announce the Outstanding Senior Award winners for the graduating class of Fall 2008 and Spring 2009. Each semester the faculty has an opportunity to nominate a graduating senior for the Outstanding Senior Award in each of the areas of concentration.

In support of The University of Texas at Arlington’s fine arts community, the Wishful Wings: James Samuel Barnett Jr. Charitable Foundation wishes to support and recognize visual artists enrolled at UTA through the Ideas in Art Awards annual visual art project competition. ‘Ideas in Art’ focuses on the creative process, rather than the finished piece. The intent of the Wishful Wings: James S. Barnett Jr. Charitable Foundation is to support and motivate student artists, helping them recognize that the ideas they conceive are just as significant as the finished works.

Fall 2008 Art Certification - Haley Garcia Art History - Elizabeth Hodges Clay - Sarah Morgan Drawing - Kate Stipp Film, Video, Screenwriting - Noe Medrano Jr Metals - Elizabeth Covert Painting - Richard Skurla Photography - Kathryn Mitchell, Reuben Gonzalez Printmaking - Erin Chester Visual Communication - Jonathan Graf, Seth Whitton Spring 2009 Art Certification - Erica Criswell Art History - Leah McCurdy Clay - Amanda Eubanks Drawing - Michael Tracy Film, Video, Screenwriting - David McGinnis, Jerod Costa Glass - Michael Tracy Metals - James Ryan Painting - Lee Peterson, Jon Ramon Photography - Calen Barnum, Erica Martinez Printmaking - Sara Shinn Visual Communication - Alex Pierce, Kimberly Engel, Olumide Eseyin

High School Award recipients William Sarradet - Cleburne High School Parker Ott - Kennedale High School Laura Riley - Brock High School Photography Award recipients: Calen Barnum Christine Davis Lyndee Davis Cody Kindle Undergraduate Award recipients: Francisco Moreno - Recipient - Painting Nathan James - Recipient - Film/Video Paul Windle - Finalist - Visual Communication and Printmaking Debbie Bryan - Finalist - Painting Graduate Award recipients: Janet Morrow - Recipient - Intermedia Rachel Gibson-Shepherd - Recipient - Film/Video Matthew Patterson - Finalist - Clay Iris Bechtol - Finalist - Intermedia

Faculty and Staff Awards The Department of Art and Art History is proud to announce the Faculty and Staff Award winners for the 2008-2009 academic year. Andy Anderson - Teaching Excellence Michelle Murillo, Mary Vaccaro - Research Excellence Nancy Palmeri - Service, The Jack Plummer Award Breanna Beacham, Jessica Rose, Soyla Santos - Staff Excellence Janet Chaffee, Mark Clive, Pauline Hudel-Smith - Adjunct Teaching Recognition

Graduate Student Excellence Awards

Arlington Arts League Recipients: Each year, the Arlington Arts League awards scholarships to students who are enrolled in the fine arts programs at the University of Texas at Arlington, Tarrant County College Southeast Campus, and graduating seniors from Arlington high schools entering into a fine arts program at the university of their choice. David Ricks - 1st Place (tie) - Sculpture Hon Mok - 1st Place (tie) - Visual Communications Kristi Kennington - 3rd Place - Clay

The Department of Art and Art History is proud to announce the Department Chair’s Graduate Student Excellence Award winners for the 2008-2009 academic year. Fall 2008 Janet Morrow Jesse Barnett

Make a Lasting Investment UT Arlington’s Art and Art History Departments are synonymous with words like excellence, achievement, longevity, and distinction. Your gift will benefit students who will eventually go into the world and accomplish remarkable and distinguished works. To help continue our work in progress, will you consider making an investment? Stock options and interest rates fluctuate, but an investment in students lasts a lifetime. To find out how you can make a difference, please contact Myke Holt, Director of Development for the College of Liberal Arts at (817) 272-1055.

502 South Cooper St. #335, Arlington, TX 76019 | 817.272.2891 (fax) 817.272.2805 | art@uta.edu