MFA VISUAL STUDIES

A MENTOR-BASED PROGRAM CELEBRATING DIFFERENCE AND SUPPORTING INDIVIDUAL INQUIRY AS WELL AS THE CAPACITY TO CONTEXTUALIZE ONE’S WORK WITHIN CRITICAL DISCOURSE AND HISTORIC AND CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICE.

The MFA IN VISUAL STUDIES is a multidisciplinary, mentorbased program that encourages independent inquiry and supports critical approaches to visual art production. The program’s flexible structure and nature allow students to pursue a single discipline, such as painting, or a combined practice that bridges multiple disciplines and media, such as installation, painting, performance, photography, printmaking, sculpture, sequential arts, sound, and video.

Guided by the principles of ethics and mutual respect, our program strives to ensure equity and social justice within our community of students, educators, and staff. To that end, our curriculum and roster of artists build on an intersection of voices and experiences.

As a complement to intensive one-on-one faculty mentorships, students benefit from contact with a rich network of instructors, critical thinkers, writers, and curators in the Portland area, as well as from exposure to a dynamic roster of acclaimed visiting artists and curators. In addition, seminars, lectures, exhibition opportunities, and national and international travel add to a rigorous and investigative educational experience.

This is a program for experienced makers looking to refine and expand their creative practice.

GARRICK IMATANI

Charirman

GARRICK IMATANI

Imatani holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He maintains an active art practice that moves between traditional and emerging media –sculpture and 3D fabrication, digital imaging and video, research, the written word, socially-engaged practices, and public art. Drawing, photography, video, memorials, and situated events, Imatani places the complexities and nuances surrounding race, the body, and political history within the framework of slow-moving performance and constructed landscapes. His work has been featured at the Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland, OR); Art in General (NY, NY); Portland Museum of Art (Portland, ME); Incident Report (Hudson, NY); Institute for Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art; Ditch Projects (Springfield, OR); Asian American Arts Centre (NY, NY); and, White Box at the University of Oregon, School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Support for Imatani’s work has come from the The Ford Family Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Oregon Arts Commission, Maine Arts Commission, Regional Arts and Culture Council, and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.

PROGRAM TRAVEL

Program trips are an opportunity for students to meet with working professionals, visit exhibitions, and observe a range of contemporary studio practices. Previous travel has included an annual group trip to New York City, where they met with some of the most interesting and active visual artists and curators in the contemporary art world through intimate, on-site visits. Past visits have included time with Postcommodity, Ruba Katrib, Nari Ward, Baseera Khan, Letha Wilson, Nayland Blake, Sara O’Keefe, and Sarah Crowner. Other trips have included Mt. Hood, the Oregon Coast, and Astoria, OR.

RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITY

At the Artist Residency in the ruralPacific Northwest, students gatherwith visiting artists, scholars,curators, and critics to engage inart making, research, and visualand written investigations. Previousguests have included Julie Ault,Gregg Bordowitz, Sara GreenbergerRafferty, Saul Ostrow, Tom Zummer,Alix Pearlstein, Kate Gilmore,Amanda Hunt, and Will Rawls.