2D Studies
Apply your passion to the page with two-dimensional studies in fine art, and learn from award-winning faculty members who are committed to interdisciplinary teaching. Choose from two 2D Studies degree programs:
- Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art, 2D Studies Emphasis
- Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art, 2D Studies Emphasis
Which appeals to you more: painting and drawing or printmaking? Although you’ll study both, you’ll select a specialization in one of them, enabling you to pursue your curiosity wherever it may take you.
Painting and drawing courses feature labs with ample natural light to provide inspiration as you follow your creative muse. Printmaking courses are held in fully equipped facilities that provide for a wide range of traditional and alternative printmaking techniques.
Your courses will lead to conceptual growth and define your personal aesthetic. While you hone technical skills, you’ll refine your ability to communicate the connection between the meaning of your art and the work itself.
- Resources and Facilities
- Faculty
- Degrees
- First Year Experience
- Student Work
- Admissions
Resources and Facilities
Painting and Drawing
Painting courses are primarily held in one of two large painting labs with tall clerestory windows providing abundant north light. A room used for critiques, projections, and exhibitions connects both rooms. Additional well-equipped classrooms support courses in drawing, combined media and watercolor.
Non-toxic and less hazardous substitutions for traditional toxic solvents, pigments and grounds are used wherever possible.
Printmaking
The spacious printmaking facilities support work in Intaglio, Lithography, Relief, Screen Print and a variety of alternative processes including photographic and digital processes, bookmaking, solar plates, polyester plates, polymer plates and monoprinting.
View Our Facilities2D Faculty
Our faculty gives students an inside look into arts careers, having had direct experience and success in the professional world. In addition to being leaders in their fields, our faculty works closely with students to provide the kind of guidance and mentorship that turns raw talent into developed professionalism.
Alejandro Macias
Assistant Professor
Angie Zielinski
Associate Professor
Degrees
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
125 units are required to complete the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art, 2D Studies, 42 units of which must be upper division coursework. Students must complete 24 units of upper division coursework in 2D Studies and specialize in Painting & Drawing or Printmaking.
Download the BFA/2D Studies checklist.
Specific Program Requirements can be viewed through UA Academic Catalogs.
Contact an academic advisor or set up an advising appointment to learn more about School of Art programs and admissions.
PAINTING & DRAWING
The Painting & Drawing program offers courses that encourage you to explore the field of painting and drawing and to develop your work within a wide range of technical, aesthetic and conceptual approaches. From beginning courses to the most advanced, you will work under the guidance of a diverse faculty of active and exhibiting artist-teachers.
Critiques and seminars, led by your faculty and a series of visiting artists, will provide you with the forum and structure to discuss your work in relation to contemporary art issues. Your faculty will encourage you to take responsibility for the definition and direction of your work while you develop a unique stylistic and conceptual approach.
PRINTMAKING
Established in the early 1960’s, the Printmaking program is not only committed to preparing you to make art of the highest quality, but also to sustain a successful and productive career as an artist/printmaker. With this in mind, the program concentrates on personal style, artistic ability, contemporary and historical awareness, technical ability, and communicative capabilities.
The facilities support work in Intaglio, Lithography, Relief, and a variety of alternative methods including Photographic and Digital processes, Bookmaking, Solar plates, Polyesterplates and Monoprinting.
UNDERGRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Two tracks are available to students seeking the Masters of Fine Arts in Studio Art: 2D Studies Painting & Drawing and Printmaking:
PAINTING & DRAWING
The Painting & Drawing area of emphasis is committed to fine art painting and its related media. It is our belief that painting and drawing is an expansive field of study that is constantly influencing and evolving in response to current cultural and technological developments. When set apart from a global techno-culture, painting is also valued for its poetic and deliberate non-virtuality.
The painting faculty at the School of Art are practicing visual artists in the field. The trajectory of our curriculum demonstrates and engages with painting’s potential to reformulate meaning. Our charge is to critically address painting and drawing in the context of contemporary art, re-framing its instruction with traditional, modernist as well as post-modernist strategies inclusive of identity-based content, media culture and new technologies.
You are encouraged to consider the wide scope of ideas within the discipline and your unique position in concurrence with contemporary culture. Critiques, classes and seminars led by the faculty and visiting artists provide you with the forum and structure to discuss your work in relation to ongoing art issues. Ultimately, the goal is for you to take responsibility for the definition and direction of your own work, creating an individual stylistic and conceptual voice.
PRINTMAKING
The graduate printmaking program concentrates on personal style, artistic ability, contemporary and historical awareness, teaching skills, technical ability, communicative capabilities, and professional “survival” skills, with the goal of preparing you to make art of the highest quality to sustain a successful and productive career as an artist/printmaker.
The program stresses skill and technical command with a major emphasis on the development of ideas and concepts. The print area encourages a pedagogical approach that treats prints as one of many tools in an expanded field of art production. Printmaking students are equally encouraged to explore traditional applications of print media and new genres in drawing, collage, book arts, and installation.
Through seminars, critiques, and studio visits, you will engage in challenging discussions on contemporary art, critical theory, and art history to gain perspective on your own creative process and the art world as a whole.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
60 units are required to complete the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio Art degree.
Please see the Studio Art Graduate Handbook on the Graduate Advising page for specific program requirements.
GRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
MINOR REQUIREMENTS
- 2.0 GPA
- 4 units of ART 100A,B,C,D,E,F,G or J
- 6 units of a 200 level art studio
- 9 units upper division art studio
We encourage students to come in for an appointment if they have questions about specific courses that can be used to satisfy the minor.
DECLARING THE MINOR
- No portfolio needed
- This minor is open! If you are interested, please set up an appointment using our online scheduling using this link: https://trellis.arizona.edu/solutions/appointment-scheduling
- Only an art advisor can declare this minor
DOUBLE USE OF MINOR COURSE WORK
We allow six units of coursework to satisfy general education credit.
First Year Experience
All Studio Art majors at the School of Art will begin their journey with the First Year Experience. The program is an engaging variety of 8-week thematic workshop-structured art courses, designed as an experiential initiation into professional artistic practice, creative methodology and studio work ethic.
Learn MoreStudent Work
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