Dec. 8

The Roads That Divide Us: Student artists Ben Tisdale and Branden Gosse held a reception for the street photography exhibition at the Lionel Rombach Gallery. Details

De/Compositional Logic: The Loft Cinema hosted a free screening of selected works from Artists’ Video 2022, organized and curated by Prof. Marcos Serafim‘s Fall 22 ART349 students. Details

Dec. 13

Ingrained: Animation I students presented their short film, “Ingrained,” at The Loft Cinema as part of TFTV Documentary students’ program “What’s Up Docs?” Students artfully documented the Nahua Cosmology and ceremonial practices around the growth of corn/cintli/maize/elote and process of making tortillas based on a workshop hosted by Flowers & Bullets community garden. Students and the garden stewards shared skills and stories and applied the ethos of community building to the assembly of the film. The project was made possible through a generous CUES Spanning Boundaries grant received by Prof. Nicole Antebi and the team of Community Stories of Sustainability and resilience. More details

Nov. 29

Silas Munro: Arizona Arts and the Racial Justice Studio, led by Prof. Amelia (Amy) Kraehe, co-sponsored a visit from Munro, a renowned graphic design artist and scholar, as part of the Black Faculty Speaker Series. In a fireside chat and lunch with students and a public lecture at the Student Union, Munro related how his journey to find himself as a Queer, Black designer in the past also shaped potential futures for practice, teaching and life. Through poetic research, written scholarship, and visual art Munro questioned the often-unaddressed post-colonial relationship between design and marginalized communities. Munro bio

Nov. 18

Photography and Southeast Asia / History and Practice: The virtual symposium was the final of three in a series organized by Prof. Jeehey Kim. This symposium examined how photography in Southeast Asia is intertwined with the colonial history of the region, with European photographers opening their studios in local cities. Among other topics, iI addressed what impact the Vietnam War had on photographic practices in Asia. More details

Nov. 17

Myra Greene / VASE Lecture: In her presentation, “Underpinnings,” Greene shared the thoughts, processes and precedents that have influenced her artistic career as part of the School of Art’s Visiting Artists and Scholars Endowment (VASE) series. She talked about how she uses both photographic materials as well as hand-crafted textiles to articulate her thoughts about seeing, being and race. More details and Photos

Nov. 12

Art Days: High school students and their parents attended our Art Days at the School of Art. Profs. Jim Cook, Lawrence Gipe, Kelly Leslie, Martina Shenal and Karen Zimmermann reviewed students’ portfolios, while Profs. Carissa DiCindio and Sarah Moore gave presentations about the school’s Art & Visual Culture Education (AVCE) and Art History programs. Alumna Denise Angulo (the school’s administrative associate), Max Jackson (recruiting coordinator for the College of Fine Arts) and Maria Del Rocio Sanchez (assistant to director) also helped answer questions for students. Photos

Nov. 8-22

Place of Painting: Students in instructor Jonathan Marquis‘ ART 380B class held their reception on Nov. 17 for “The Place of Painting” at the Lionel Rombach Gallery. Students were Fatema Abizar, Joseph Barraza, Krysta Ellis, Linda M. Garcia Escobar, Julie Fan, Rachael Huffman, Sophia Laing, Jon Savarese, Ana Paula Monobe, Erika Elizabeth Moreno, Isabel Orozco-Anguiano, Casaundra Rodriguez, Gracie Thomas and Allisen Warner. More details and Photos

Nov. 3-5

Emerging Conversations: Grad students Napur Sachdeva and Meghan Hipple organized the 10th annual “Emerging Conversations,” for the school’s Art & Visual Culture Education program. This year’s hybrid event featured nearly 30 speakers with the theme, “(Un)framing Borders: sharing knowledge across boundaries of art, visual culture and education.” The virtual and in-person sessions included a presentation with School of Art Prof. Nicole Antebi and San Diego State Prof. Emerita Norma V. Iglesias-Prieto. They discussed “The Other Side of the Line: Tijuana-San Diego Crossed Gazes,” a trinational project; and Antebi’s co-created workshop, where she led children and dressmakers from Colonia Martin Lopez, Chihuahua, Mexico, in making puppets for a participatory stop motion animation.  More details and Photos.

Oct. 31-Nov. 1

Día de Muertos: Students, faculty and staff contributed to a beautiful offrenda outside the Fred Fox Faculty of Music to honor loved ones no longer with us. Art Prof. Carissa DiCindio and Music Prof. Gabriela Ocádiz organized the event, helping participants create their memorials in Art Room 241 with photos, flowers, colorful tissue paper, notes and candles. The ofrenda is an Indigenous pre-Hispanic tradition (primarily Aztec) that merged with Catholic beliefs and traditions during colonization in Mexico, but it continues to bring people together today to remember loved ones. Photos

Oct. 22

National Portfolio Day: Profs. Karen Zimmermann and Simon Hinchliffe reviewed high school students’ work — for four straight hours! — during National Portfolio Day at Mesa Community College. Max Jackson, recruiting coordinator for the College of Fine Arts; Wilma Pinedo, School of Art program coordinator; and graduate student Deb Ruiz also helped out at the event, which drew 20 art schools from across the nation. Photos

Oct. 13

Tarrah Krajnak / VASE Lecture: In her presentation, “On Photography, Visibility and Psychic Histories, Krajnak explained how she has used expanded forms of documentary practice to question the role of photography in shaping history. Spanning the political, personal, and institutional, she talked about her recent and ongoing projects, as well as how the role of educator continues to shape her studio practice, as part of the School of Art’s Visiting Artists and Scholars Endowment (VASE) series at the Center for Creative Photography. More details and Photos

Oct. 11

Lonnie Holley: The acclaimed artist gave a free art-making workshop to 20 students in Room 119 of the School of Art. Inspired by Holley’s assemblage sculptures on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in the exhibition “The Relevance of Your Data,” the artist led participants in creating individual and collectively-built sculptures using found and recycled materials. Holley’s critically admired art practice spans painting, drawing, assemblage sculpture, sandstone carvings, and performance that combines experimental music and poetry. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many other museums. Photos

Sept. 29

Delivery Systems: The exhibition opened at the Joseph Gross Gallery. Sixteen artists from across the United States exhibited their work alongside the materials, mechanisms and collateral they used to ship that work to the gallery and plan their installation. Co-curators were  lydia see, the school’s gallery director, and Eli Blasko. The show ran through Nov. 18. Story and photos.

Sept. 8

New Student Welcome: The School greeted first-year and transfer students at the School of Art courtyard and lobby, where faculty, staff and students enjoyed screen printing, crafts and snacks. Grad student Gabrielle Walter  — who created two cool bandana designs — helped students, along with Visiting Prof. Erin DiGiovanni and her 2D crew of grad students Deborah Ruiz and Jandey Shackelford and undergrad Nina Pida. Earlier at Holsclaw Hall, Director Colin Blakely, Ph.D. student Ricardo Chavez, academic adviser Ashley Rubin, Tioni Collins (Fine Arts Admin) and undergrads Kaila Hines and Danielle Hunt gave students an overview of the school. Dean Andy Schultz of the College of Fine Arts and faculty also welcomed students. Assistant Director Karen Zimmermann organized the event with help from Wilma Pinedo (program coordinator), David Huber (digital studio) and John Nelfs (photography). Photos

April 29

New Gallery Director: The School of Art announced that lydia see had been named the new Gallery Director and inaugural Joseph F. Gross Endowed Curator. She relocated to the desert from lower Appalachia (unceded Cherokee and Yuchi land). As an artist who works across making, teaching, and curatorial practice both in and outside the institution, lydia is passionate about the intersections of art and cultural labor with social justice and civic engagement. As a serial collaborator, most of lydia’s work relies on co-creative relationships with artistic and curatorial peers, students, and members of impacted communities. Recent exhibitions include Connecting Legacies: A First Look at the Dreier Black Mountain College Archive at Asheville Art Museum, Coco Villa: How to Turn Poison into a Meal at Elizabeth Holden Gallery, and Carolina Record Shop, an installation at Buncombe County Special Collections with Engaging Collections Resident Artist Honey Simone celebrating the Black cultural history and legacy of the region. Read story 

April 16-May 14

2022 Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition: Graduating MFA students presented their work at the Joseph Gross Gallery and University of Arizona Museum of Art, with a reception on April 21. The students: 

April 7-9

Photography and Taiwan / History and Practice: The virtual symposium was the second of three in a series organized by Prof. Jeehey Kim. This symposium examined how Japanese colonialism structured photographic practices and culture in Taiwan from 1895 to 1945. More details

March 30

Distinguished Alumni Award: The school and its Art Advisory Board honored alumna Julie Sasse (Ph.D. Art History and Education, ’13) at a reception at the Stevie Eller Dance Theater. Details

March 29

Ashurbanipal, P.T. Barnum, Royal Eunuchs and Fat-tailed Sheep: A virtual event, detailing the “Surprising Journey of a Fragmentary Sculpture from Ancient Mesopotamia to the Arizona State Museum,” feature Dr. Irene Bald Romano, curator of Mediterranean archaeology, professor of art history, anthropology, and affiliated faculty in the department of religious studies and classics. More details

March 14-April 5

BFA Exhibition: Featuring 135 works by 65 students, the exhibition was the first in-person show in the renovated Lionel Rombach Gallery and refreshed Joseph Gross Gallery in three years. The show, which takes place annually each spring semester to highlight the work of the school’s BFA studio and AVCE undergraduates, had its reception on March 31. See photos: Series 1 and Series 2 and Series 3 and Series 4 and Series 5.

Feb. 24-26

Photography and Korea / History and Practice: The virtual symposium was the first of three in a series organized by Prof. Jeehey Kim. This symposium examined the introduction of photography in Korea, which was considered part of an enlightenment effort by the royal court and the intelligentsia as it incorporated advances in scientific knowledge and technological developments. More details

Feb. 10

Analia Saban / VASE Lecture: The artist and scholar gave a comprehensive talk at the Center for Creative Photography about her art practice during the last 16 years, since her days as a graduate student until today. She spoke about her interest in materiality, technology, and how the history of materials influences Art History as part of the School of Art’s Visiting Artists and Scholars Endowment (VASE) series. More details