former roommate, actress and comedian Ellie Kemper—star of the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt—showed her portrait on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
2009 James Foster MFA 11 SC In the artist’s statement accompanying The Black Hole Storybook, his second solo show at Bible in NYC, James says: “My right-brain is science fiction; my left-brain is fantasy.” It’s an apt summary of the genesis of the work in the exhibition, which was on view for a month last September.
2007 continued After teaching at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA for 10 years, Washington, DC native Stephanie Williams MFA SC is “back home” in nearby Baltimore and enjoying her new role as a faculty member in Maryland Institute College of Art’s Animation department. She also continues to show her work in such venues as Stand4 Gallery in Brooklyn, where her video installation The Lingering Survival of the Unfit was on view from August–October.
2008 Tokyo-based artist Yuka Otani MFA GL participated in an artist residency program in Yunlin, Taiwan, where she worked on a new video installation, The Ocean Inside You, the Ocean Inside Me. 92
// graduate class notes
Inspired by Taiwan’s coast and its rich history of sugar farming, the piece was on view at Nanyao Temple in Changhua City last February and at the Yunlin Storyhouse in June. In a fascinating photo essay published in The New York Times last June, Providencebased photographer Jo Sittenfeld MFA PH focused on a group of pregnant teens and young mothers taking an evening off to go to their high school prom. Another ambitious project featuring then-and-now photos of friends from Princeton that was published in The New Yorker in 2017 was back in the spotlight in October when Jo’s
Colleen Clines MLA 10 Colleen (Louisville, KY) and her sister Maggie — the designers behind the nonprofit Anchal Project — created a brilliant capsule collection in partnership with the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. Inspired by the current exhibition of paintings by Hilma af Klint, their colorful quilts, scarves and bags are handmade by the Indian women Anchal helps support. The accessories are available at the museum shop and online through April 23, when the show closes.
In an in-depth interview published in Boston Voyager in June, RISD Printmaking faculty member Johnny Adimando MFA PR shared his personal philosophy as an artist and a human being. A first-generation college graduate from a modest background, he has faced financial struggles, which he describes as a “huge blessing because they have helped me cultivate a working methodology that is tireless and a form of production that is always—and unwaveringly— prolific.”
Tamara Johnson MFA 12 SC Last June Tamara installed Picnic, a 5 x 6-foot site-specific public art project, at Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick (Brooklyn), where it’s on view through March 15. “The familiar picnic scene symbolizes the gathering, relaxing and sharing we experience with friends and family,” the artist says.
In October Bryan Chou MLA , a senior associate and design leader at Mikyoung Kim Design, and Shi Chen MLA 17, a designer on the team, were thrilled to share the spotlight in accepting the 2018 National Design Award for Landscape Architecture at the annual Cooper Hewitt gala in NYC. The firm in Allston, MA is led by former RISD professor and department head Mikyoung Kim. Brooklyn-based film and video artist Sunita Prasad MFA PH edited 93QUEEN, a new documentary about a Hasidic
lawyer and mother of six determined to create the first all-female ambulance corps in NYC. Bowie Zunino MFA SC (see page 16)
2010 Glass artist Charlotte Potter MFA GL recently left Norfolk, VA for Vermont, where she’s producing new jewelry and cameos in her mother’s former studio. After contributing to group exhibitions throughout the summer—at such venues as the Wichita [KS] Art Museum