RISD XYZ Spring/Summer 2016 by Rhode Island School of Design

spring / summer 2016 rhode island school of design

inside FEATURES // 36 New Life for Old Ways Three Architecture alumni reconnect in Beijing to establish a studio devoted to revitalizing ancient craft traditions in China.

// 18

// 26

Following the Thread

Against the Grain

When Sophia Narrett MFA 14 PT first tried embroidering instead of painting her detailed narratives, she knew she had found her medium.

Manny Flaherty 04 ID and Miles Endo 10 ID

are each building their own practices based on a strong personal vision of what it means to make work by hand.

DEPARTMENTS

// 82 unraveling mystery abbreviations

// 08 look

// 58 impact

// 62

• embracing obsession

who’s giving to risd + why

class notes + profiles

// 60

// 96

looking back

sketchbook

changes over time

sketches, thoughts, ideas in progress

• personal made public • feeling at home • fine craftsmanship

// 42 reflect a message from the president

// 44 two college street campus community newsbits

// 03 comment

// 06 listen

// 52 six degrees

online, incoming, ongoing

reflections, opinions, points of view

connecting through the alumni association

moving forward

start here

// thoughts from the editor

Honoring the Hand Working with our hands to make things—whether for a specific purpose or just because we can—has got to be one of the most satisfying and naturally rewarding things we do—and that humans have done since the dawn of time. But now that we no longer need to make everything by hand, we tend to hunger for the haptic all the more. Making handmade works of art and design takes not only inspiration and skill but also huge amounts of time, with certain processes demanding more painstaking effort than others. As an antidote to today’s prevailing preoccupation with using our hands to scroll, tap and text, this issue looks at the enduring value of making work by hand—a practice that is priceless in an age of globalization, homogenization and mass production.

Stories and snippets throughout this issue focus on alumni who work as studio artists and/or run cottage industries making beautiful one-of-a-kind objects and small-batch products with an originality and sense of soul that mass-produced items can’t quite match. These makers remind us of why it’s so gratifying to take the time to master exacting techniques of making ceramics, glass, furniture, rugs, quilts, tintypes, artist’s books, embroidered paintings and more—and why that work resonates so deeply with people eager to view it, touch it, feel it and increasingly more often, welcome it into their lives. In short, as summer begins here at RISD and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, this issue extols the value of slowing down and honoring the handmind connection at the core of a RISD education and a life well lived. — Liisa Silander

Please let us know what you think — about this issue or anything else on your mind: email risdxyz@risd.edu.

contributors E D ITOR / LEAD WR ITE R

Liisa Silander lsilande@risd.edu

THIS ISSUE

LEAD D E S I G N E R / PR OD U CTI ON COOR D I NATOR

Elizabeth Eddins 00 GD CONTR I B UTI N G WR ITE R S

Robert Albanese Simone Solondz CONTR I B UT I N G D E S I G N E R

Sarah Rainwater

cover

CONTR I B UTI N G PH OTOG RAPH E R

Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

cover

D I R E CTOR OF ALU M N I R E LATI ON S

Sophia Narrett MFA 14 PT

Christina Hartley 74 IL

The multicolored piles of thread strewn around Sophia’s studio aren’t all that different from the tubes of paint that used to fill her workspace. But for her, the shift in materials half a dozen years ago has made all the difference. After living in Providence for seven years — while earning her undergraduate degree at Brown and her master’s at RISD — Sophia is now based in Brooklyn, where she thrives on the art and artists all around her and the energy of city life in general. This year, after completing a month-long residency at Lux Art Institute in California, Sophia has been home sewing her heart out preparing for two groups shows this spring and a solo exhibition that opens in September at Freight + Volume, her NYC gallery. Find out more about her in the lead feature story (pages 18 – 25).

PR I NTI N G

Lane Press Burlington, VT Paper: 70# Opus Satin (R) FSC text and 80# Sterling Dull (R) FSC cover F ONTS

Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk and text face, Quiosco, designed by Cyrus Highsmith 97 GD COVE R

Naked Bride in the New Basement (2015, embroidery thread and fabric) by Sophia Narrett MFA 14 PT

listen

listen // 06

Rebecca lives in Westchester County, NY, where she works as a studio artist and spends as much time as she can in the garden at this time of year. Just this spring she earned a Windgate Project Grant from the Center for Craft, Creativity & Design — a follow-up award to the Windgate Fellowship she won as she was graduating from RISD. The new funding is allowing her to continue to make large, multifaceted porcelain spheres and hire fellow alum David Mendoza 11 PT as a studio manager, along with several summer interns.

sketchbook

sketchbook // 96

Sally Mara Sturman 76 PR

R I S D XYZ

Two College Street Providence, Rhode Island 02903-2784 USA

In the late 1970s Sally lived, painted and studied in Paris before settling in New York City, where she has lived ever since. As a working artist, she has learned to be a Jaqueline of all trades — making paintings on commission, illustrating ceramics, creating watercolor illustrations for books, ads and editorial publications, and working as a fishmonger at the NYC Greenmarket. Through her personal work, Sally focuses on landscape watercolors and whimsical map-like paintings of her travels — both near and far.

risdxyz@risd.edu

risd.edu/xyz Published twice a year by RISD Media (in conjunction with Alumni Relations) AD D R E S S U P DATE S

Postmaster: Send address changes to Office of Advancement Services RISD, Two College Street Providence, RI 02903 USA

back cover

Duke Riley 95 PT

Or email gduarte@risd.edu

back cover

Every weekend from early May through mid June, Duke (dukeriley.info) is taking his longtime love of homing pigeons to new heights with Fly By Night, a work of public art “of unprecedented scale and beauty,” as Creative Time — its sponsor — describes it. Instead of tying messages to his pigeons’ legs, the NYC-based artist is outfitting them with small LEDs. At sunset, he releases roughly 2,000 birds from an aircraft carrier docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, illuminating the sky with a natural dance of transcendent beauty.

back cover: Jarrard Cole/Wall Street Journal 360° Video | left: photo by Will Star/Creative Time | top: photo by Charlie Rubin

Rebecca Manson 11 CR

comment REMEMBERING THE BOWIE BUZZ As art students, Tina Weymouth 74 PT and I shared a painting studio at RISD. We would listen to the radio—mostly WBRU FM from Brown University— while we painted and sometimes we would think out loud to each other. When David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars traveled through the airwaves to our ears, we felt as if someone was speaking directly to us in our own artistic language… In fact, it was his music and image—along with other legends like Lou Reed, The Stooges and James Brown—that inspired me to form a band called The Artistics with David Byrne and some other cool RISD friends. One autumnal afternoon around that time, I was sitting in front of the sandwich shop on Benefit Street when a friend called Charlie Rocket 73 PH, who was in a great band called The Fabulous Motels, got out of his car and came over to say he had just seen David Bowie up in Boston and that the show had changed his world. When Tina and I moved to New York City in 1974, I urged David Byrne to start a band with us. We wanted to have a band that spoke to people the way David Bowie and his band had spoken to us, with a soulful intelligence and an artistic integrity. This was the band we called Talking Heads. We were told that David Bowie came to see us play at CBGB’s, but he left before we had a chance to meet him. Years later—in 1982—we had the good fortune to meet David when we played the Montreux Jazz

// online, incoming, ongoing

Festival with Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club. He had a home nearby, and he decided to drop into our dressing room to say hello. Dressed very unpretentiously in a brown anorak and a Shetland wool tweed cap, he was friendly and a little bit shy. By this time, we knew, through our mutual collaborator Brian Eno, that our music had been an influence on his, and… this was a great honor. [David’s last] album, Blackstar, is very challenging music to me, but I mean this in the best possible way. It’s kind of scary, like the first time I heard Heroin by The Velvet Underground…. The cutting edge is not always very easy…. David Bowie’s music will live forever. I’m grateful for his time here among us and for never failing to create that buzz we have been searching for. Thank you, David. Respect. Peace. Chris Frantz 74 PT 2015 honorary degree recipient

Westport, CT

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS In the Fall/Winter 2015/16 issue, we incorrectly stated that a January exhibition of work by Lily Prince 84 PT (lilyprince.com) at the Naples [FL] Museum was her first solo show. Dream State was actually her fifth solo show, just her first in Florida. In November and December alone, Lily’s work was on view at Thompson Giroux Gallery in Chatham, NY; Projects Gallery in Miami; Drawing Rooms in Jersey City, NJ; Kleinart James Gallery in Woodstock, NY; and in a traveling show with New York’s Pierogi Gallery in Sorrento, Italy. Please let us know what’s on your mind. Email comments to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

IN A NUTSHELL I have always enjoyed reading the copies of RISD XYZ that come to my mailbox, even though my name, as far as I know, has never appeared in it (duh!). So I thought I’d let some folks at RISD know some of what I’ve done with my post-RISD life. I’ve always regarded challenges as opportunities, and have tried—and almost always succeeded—to “bloom wherever I was planted.” Sadly, in spite of graduating in the top 5% of RISD’s class of 1959, I have never won an art prize or a scholarship or a Pulitzer; I have never had a one-man show or garnered any other public accolades for outstanding achievements in anything, although I’ve done just about everything. [After an engrossing 37-page letter outlining his entire career, Jonathan concludes:] On second thought, after rereading some of the unbelievably brief notes in XYZ re: RISD alumni, I guess my bio info might, at the very most, perhaps read: “Jonathan A. Willetts ID, top 5% of his graduating class, did lots of art and really good industrial design stuff all over the country but scrupulously avoided ever getting any public recognition or awards or any serious money for his ingenuity or accomplishments.” Jonathan A. Willetts 59 ID Middletown, CT

// RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

tracts You needn’t sign on with any constituency to enjoy her audacity. New Yorker critic Peter Schjeldahl in a rave review (5.16.16) of the Nicole Eisenman 89 PT retrospective at NYC’s New Museum

Everybody works with their hands at RISD. But judging by the prevailing interest in fingernails that make a statement, it’s sometimes tough to believe that people actually get their hands dirty here.

My relationship to working with my hands is addictive. It’s a kind of communication that is not analytical, not intellectual. It’s primal and mysterious.

OLD MADE NEW The recent loss of Malcolm Grear (see page 50) aroused in me a great lament. While attending the beautiful service… to bid farewell to Malcolm, the flood of memories of all that RISD was to me became very apparent. He was but one giant to me, among the… many that caused me to look nostalgically back on the RISD of old. In 1973 I was accepted to RISD as a transfer into the BFA photo program and was about to begin study with Harry Callahan. I thought I was hot, having come off a tiny program where I was the pampered first photo major. I had applied to a slew of grad programs intent on my MFA, but was shockingly rejected from them all. It was a wakeup call—one that was much needed. Hot I was not. Fearful of being without the security of a school assignment, I realized that I could well benefit from being in a larger and more challenging pool of photo people. What an awakening I had that pivotal and crucial year, but more importantly it became for me an opening… into the serious, precarious, whacky, odd, funny, exciting, difficult and profound learning camp that RISD was in the 1970s. I was later accepted into the grad program and spent two additional years that were the most amazing of my life.

// comment

Lindsey Adelman 96 ID

Today, I see a bygone era and that is my true lament. But I also am heartened to see new leadership with someone from the same era who may ignite the RISD of old, while embracing the ever-changing, lightning-paced world that is. I did not know Rosanne Somerson 76 ID while a student, but I did hear her speak at Malcolm’s service and it brought a sense of relief and hope. Here is someone who quite literally came up through the ranks and well understands the pulse, the uniqueness and the gifts that RISD has. We need not try to recreate history, but we can regain a tone of togetherness that has been lost. Rosanne has this opportunity, and I think she will likely succeed. That is my simple wish. Stephan Brigidi MFA 76 PH Bristol, RI

in a Bloomberg Business video (2.8.16)

These are beautifully painted— you have a real hand. Natalia Nakazawa 04 PT of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) in NYC speaking to a RISD student at a recent portfolio review

With absurdity, affection and feminist vibrato, Dufresne presents figurative articulations that feverishly emerge out of the paint. from the Foundation’s announcement that Assistant Professor Angela Dufresne has won a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship

Hand sewing is like meditation to me. It calms me down. new graduate Jingxin Ju 16 AP speaking about her work

A VERY GOOD YEAR Peter Mersky 67 IL (see page 6 in the Spring/Summer 2015 issue), what could you have been thinking of to be so uninformed and whiny about our class members’ achievements? When I read your letter I sent this magazine a list of two dozen of my classmates I thought of off the top of my head who have distinguished themselves in so many fields—people ranging from Linda Connor 67 PH, one of the most exhibited and competent photographers in America, to Pamela (Resch) Tarbell 67 AE, proprietor of Millbrook Gallery in Concord, NH and recently named one of six notable New Hampshire businesswomen, to Ingrid Petersen Apgar 67 PT, Peter Chamberlain 67 SC, Mary Curtis Ratcliff 67 AE, Deidre Scherer 67 AE and so many more who regularly appear in the pages of XYZ. We of the Class of 1967 have our strong histories but are not a group to beat our chests and crow loudly about all we have done. Faculty—with one exception— were first class. They strove to connect with me and to stretch my capabilities. My thanks to them—some of them posthumously.

Peter H. Dudley 67 PT Greenfield, MA

LOST AND FOUND

This little book is the one object I treasure above any other. Years ago, I lost it during a move. One day, going through an odd box of photos, I found the metal tin I kept it in. My hands shook as I opened it— and there it was!

My wife saw me walk into the kitchen crying. She assumed the worst… someone must have died. But they were tears of joy. I found my book! It’s in a fireproof lockbox today. Guy Jeffrey (GJ) Nelson 92 GD (as shared on Facebook) Greensborough, NC

listen

// reflections, opinions, points of view

MAKING MY WAY AS A WORKING ARTIST I make work that embraces a sense of simplicity and revels in the handmade. Why? Making is my outlet for trying to make sense of myself in relation to society— to address human behavior and relationships. That’s actually why I make small, handmade pieces with a unique identity and then piece them together to make a larger whole. Clay has a way of recording touch that is intensely personal and intimate. The pleasure and growth that I experience as I see a piece through the transformational stages of ceramic processes are similar to two of my hobbies that straddle the line between my personal life and studio practice: gardening and raising guide dog puppies. I enjoy the rewards of sowing seeds that grow into plants and put food on my table. I also love molding a puppy into a confident dog through the relationships we build throughout training. What I make with clay mirrors my mind. Building a relationship with the material is really about building a relationship with my mind—and my hands are the mediator in that relationship. 06

by Rebecca Manson 11 CR

Five years ago, I was lucky to earn a Windgate Fellowship as I was graduating from RISD—one of many highly coveted awards for fine artists just starting out. At that point, I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing. My goals were firm and I had a plan about how to transition when the $10,000 Windgate funding ran out. After doing a summer residency at the Zentrum Fur Keramik in Berlin, I worked as a resident artist at California State University, Long Beach for two years. To support myself during the second year at CSULB after Windgate was over, I did freelance fabrication work and my parents helped me out a bit, too. Knowing that I wanted to establish my own practice, I had thought that when I was finished at CSULB I would move to Los Angeles, rent a studio space and get a full-time job. What I didn’t foresee was that when the grant ended, my goals would totally shift. I suddenly realized that plans are hypotheses—not conclusions—and you can’t always depend on them. That realization totally

“Building a relationship with the material is really about building a relationship with my mind—and my hands are the mediator in that relationship.”

freaked me out, but also helped me learn the value of improvisation. I wanted to make studio work full-time but the idea of renting space in LA felt daunting, so when my parents offered me an empty barn at their house to use as a studio and my boyfriend was offered a job in New York, the move back east suddenly fell into place. Initially, setting up my studio was challenging in different ways than I had expected. I had been excited about working alone, but then discovered that the isolation of my environment pushed me to look more internally for motivation. Some days, I just love making my work and that’s enough. Other days, I am so stressed about my trajectory that I question everything. But I think it’s healthy to question your choices—and to have to fight for them. That’s certainly helped me to build a personal philosophy as an artist. Since I’ve been back on the east coast, I’ve been making spheres, which are about the strength of community as individuals unite. For me, working in a range of scale from handheld to monumental is vital to conveying the importance of unity. I work mainly in porcelain, which is intrinsically white—often seen as a symbol of modernity in art. But when I read David Batchelor’s book Chromophobia, I became interested in his notion of whiteness as cultural whitewashing, so I use color in subtle ways to break through that whitewashing. See more of Rebecca’s work at rebexman.com.

Even though I live an hour outside NYC—in Westchester County—it has been difficult to make connections in the art world. I would usually rather be in the studio than out socializing, so I have to build a structure in which I force myself to get out. I go to museums and galleries in Manhattan and visit with friends in their studios in Brooklyn. Sometimes I feel a bit deprived of the creative community I had at RISD, but I’ve chosen to make the trade-off to have less distraction in my workspace. That said, the energy and camaraderie I get from sharing experiences with my peers is uplifting and essential to my perseverance as an artist.

The most fun part of establishing my own studio is seeing the set-up physically change over the years. Not only does it become more full of work but the space becomes more functional and more lively as I figure out what my needs are and how to use my space and tools to accommodate those needs. Now that I can see that happening, this whole experience is getting easier. It’s finally beginning to feel normal and stable, even though I understand that developing a studio practice is a lifelong pursuit. At the end of the day, the only thing I can really control about my career is in the studio, so I make a point to enjoy it, get a sense of accomplishment from it and not depend so much on shows, sales and reviews for validation. In the past five years, I have supported myself through sales, by doing freelance work, selling pottery on Etsy and working a retail job. As artists we often need to prioritize and juggle a dozen different roles to keep our careers moving forward. There’s no prescribed way to do it. Sometimes that feels like a burden, but deep down, I know that it’s an adventure—and a privilege.

// RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

look

// embracing obsession

DIGITAL/PHYSICAL RECONCILIATION For Love May Fail, But Courtesy Will Prevail, his first New York solo show in five years, Alex Dodge 01 PT has brought a fascination with the intersection of digital and analogue processes to a wonderful new series of paintings. His patterned, textured and often boisterously psychedelic images literally rise from the canvas thanks to a new experimental process. For work like No Rainbow Without Rain (Fukushima) (2016, oil on canvas, 24 x 32"), Dodge builds images by stenciling 3D renderings onto canvas using thick oil paint. The work debuted this spring at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, where his show ran through June 5. “On one hand, I love materials,” Dodge notes in a recent ArtNews interview. “I love to paint and I love very historical processes. But on the other hand, I have this real desire to understand how to reconcile the digital and the physical.” After RISD Dodge went on to study coding and electronics at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications program and has since been exploring how technology creates a “digital overlay on top of our experience.” Now that he has won a fellowship from the Japan-US Friendship Creative Artist Exchange, the Brooklyn-based artist is also looking forward to his 20th trip to Japan this year for a three-month residency working with traditional Japanese carpenters. alexdodge.com

// look

embracing obsession

Bundling the Beauty of Life Radius Books has just released the first full-length survey of the work of Carol Anthony 66 PT, who has long lived in Santa Fe. Carol Anthony: Paintings, Prints & Constructions 1975 – 2015 offers a 296page overview of the artist’s intimate paintings, drawings and prints. It’s work that shows her intense focus on the seemingly small and unassuming aspects

of everyday life — a pear, a dog biscuit, a weathered tennis ball, a house on the horizon. All in all, as this new monograph so succinctly sums up, Anthony’s atmospheric paintings and other artwork convey a reverence for the earth, respect for the past and a deep love of life itself. radiusbooks.org mclarryfineart.com

The Power of Pots The mark of the hand (and the mind behind it) clearly comes through in the intriguing work Nicole Cherubini 93 CR puts out there. Earlier this year, the Brooklyn-based artist exhibited pieces such as this one — Earth Pot #9, 3 Fates (2015, earthenware, glaze, bronze, medium-density fiberboard, 58 x 25 x 27") — in a solo show at Samson Projects in Boston, spurring growing interest in her work. “Cherubini’s processing of handmade objects through a technological filter seems to underscore the human element,” notes Hyperallergic’s Robert Moeller. Her work is also on view through July 24 in A Whisper of Where It Came From, a six-person show of contemporary ceramics (including three RISD alums) at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO. nicolecherubini.com

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spring/ summer 2016

//////////////////////////////////////////////////// // personal made public

COMFORT WITH CHAOS

top: photo by Genevieve Garruppo

Minutes before his first solo show at Friedman Benda opened earlier this spring, Misha Kahn 11 FD was still putting final touches on an inviting pink chaise at the center of the wild mix of objects he presented “to encourage comfort with one’s own mental chaos.” It’s not surprising, especially given the insane level of detail in each of the playful objects that transformed the Chelsea gallery into “Candy Land by way of an acid flashback,” as Artsy put it, or “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” as a Friedman Benda curator quipped. Called In Return of Saturn: Coming of Age in the 21st Century, the show gave Kahn an opportunity to think about both the past and the future. “As I sort through my nearly 27 years, I realize I have been wildly inspired by objects I wasn’t sure if I loved or hated,” he said of his mini-retrospective. As when he was at RISD, the Brooklyn-based artist still prefers to make objects that are more fanciful than functional — that mess around with perception, memory and how our minds work. “People aren’t thinking that much about what the future’s going to look like,” Kahn told a reporter for Architectural Digest in speaking about his show. “I think there needs to be more room for delusional visions of what things could become.” mishakahn.com

// look

personal made public

Transformations Using tintypes — the wet collodion plate process dating back to the early 19th century — Meg Turner 08 PR is bringing “a lot of love and admiration” to her celebration of “exactly where people are right now,” she says. And that’s a place of between-ness, where individuals and feelings don’t fit neatly into tight little boxes. With her two most recent series, Tuff Enuff and Sometimes We Call It Goth Beach, Turner focused on her own “family of partners, lovers and friends” in New Orleans — people who give her strength through their own. “The process of making something by hand and of outmaneuvering the limitations of the chemistry — in addition to the total slowdown of pace tintypes demand — makes the experience both magical and frustrating,” says the artist, who’s slated to begin an MFA program at Columbia this fall. Ultimately, “it’s very transformative — exciting and rewarding for both me as the photographer and the subjects I collaborate with.” megturnerprints.com

Well Worth Watching Since making a splash in 2015 at Frieze New York — where she gave away 800 handmade ponchos she called “habitable paintings” — artist Pia Camil 03 PT has been attracting attention for her paintings, photographs, sculpture, raku and fabric pieces — work that largely explores issues of urban decay in Mexico City, where she lives and works. In December artnetnews named her one of its 20 Emerging Female Artists to Keep on Your Radar, and in January Artsy included her in its list of 16 Emerging Artists to Watch in 2016. In March Camil’s first US solo exhibition, Skins, finished its five-month run at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, OH and A Pot for a Latch, her first solo museum show in NYC, was at the New Museum from mid January through mid April. Imagine all that in 2016 — and it’s not even summer yet. piacamil.me // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

//////////////////////////////////////////////////// // feeling at home

Rawhide Retooled Taking an “anthropological” approach to design, Brit Kleinman 07 ID brings a love of painting and a real feel for material to her work. Her Painted Plains collection of hand-dyed cowhide rugs and wall hangings quickly became AVO’s signature product. But since starting her business in 2014, she and her Brooklyn-based team have also complemented their line of “hides” with pillows and other home accessories that play on the same feel for line, shape and pattern. avoavo.com

CREATING CAMBIO Los Angeles-based artist Tanya Aguiñiga MFA 05 FD says that when she first started out she felt the need to limit her making to furniture and other functional objects — things her dad could relate to. But after crossing literal borders her entire life, she now prefers to cross boundaries and mix it up as she takes her socially conscious work to the streets. Aguiñiga’s recent win of a 2016 Creative Capital award — one of 46 projects funded from a national pool of 2,500 proposals — will enable her to draw attention to the hot-button issue of immigration in a way that’s meant to educate and inform in the face of heightened fear and suspicion. With Casa de Cambio (or House of Change), which draws on her own experiences as a teenager crossing the US-Mexico border, Aguiñiga is collaborating with some of the 300,000 commuters who come into the US from Mexico every day to create a site-specific installation on the Mexican side of the San Ysidro border. tanyaaguiniga.com 12

// look

feeling at home

Comforts of Home Meg Callahan 11 FD embraces the time-honored tradition of patchwork quilting in a way that allows her to focus on “the beauty and complexity of construction.” Since founding M.Callahan Studio in 2011, she has been pursuing the “interest in the value of the handmade in contemporary life” she first discovered at RISD. In a nod to her Oklahoma roots, Callahan designed the Harrah Quilt in collaboration with Matter, the NYC gallery where her Mattermade collection of quilts is sold. megcallahan.com

Happily Human After meeting at a residency in Denmark, Noel O’Connell MFA 09 CR and Jasna Sokolovic immediately recognized their “common interests in craft traditions, sustainable making and unconventional materials (re)use.” In 2011 they launched Dear Human in Montreal as a means of making products and projects that reflect their sense of what it means to be responsible designers and consumers. Paperscapes, their latest series of furniture, lighting and subway tile-like wall coverings, makes inspired use of recycled papers sourced from local waste. dearhuman.ca // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

//////////////////////////////////////////////////// // fine craftsmanship

MAKING BEAUTIFUL BOOKS In her bifurcated practice, artist Amy Borezo MFA 00 PT/PR builds on her love of books as objects of profound significance to both make extraordinary artist’s books and run Shelter Bookworks, an edition binding studio in Orange, MA. Earlier this year she released her most recent artist’s book, a contemporary fine press edition of the H.P. Lovecraft story The Colour Out of Space, which includes 14 of her own color images and incorporates a “shaped concertina” structure for binding. The cult horror writer’s 1927 story of a meteorite that hits a central Massachusetts farming community and causes massive ecological damage also hits close to home for Borezo, who lives and works nearby. Since opening Shelter Bookworks in 2007, she has been making presentation boxes for artists and fine press publishers and doing edition binding while also teaching book arts — most recently at Dartmouth. shelterbookworks.com

Gorgeous Guitars Even before he graduated from RISD, Nick Holcomb 08 SC had begun designing and building custom guitars in classic styles and wonderfully sculptural shapes. “The magic that exists between musician and instrument is what drives me to create,” he says, comparing the musician-tool relationship to modern day alchemy. The Providence-based luthier — who also works as a tech at RISD — crafts each bass, six-string and experimental piece he puts his hands on with confidence and mastery, transforming his sumptuous woodwork into sensational sounds. holcombguitars.com

// look

fine craftsmanship

Signs of the Times As cofounder of Providence Painted Signs (PPS), Buck Hastings 06 PT makes his mark throughout southern New England with bold, standout signage. The artist and his business partner Shawn Gilheeny paint and letter all of their work by hand, creating contemporary storefronts that show a human touch and using nostalgic fonts that enhance the historic character of specific neighborhoods. “We create signs that turn into art,” say the prolific duo, who also exhibited new fine art paintings this spring in Afterglow, a pop-up group show with Martin Smick MFA 09 PT in downtown Providence. providencepaintedsigns.com

Old-Fashioned Fanatics Now based in Colorado Springs, Ladyfingers Letterpress cofounders Morgan Calderini 07 PR and Arley-Rose Torsone have been making inspired and of-the-moment stationery that adheres to an old-fashioned “fanaticism” since 2011. Though their appreciation for traditional modes of production runs deep, the wife-and-wife team insists they’re comfortable with technology.

“Technology is cool,” they proclaim online. “We’re still really psyched about the biggest thing from 1440.” Ladyfingers’ devotion to the printing press has attracted a lot of positive buzz for the duo, who have won the Greeting Card Association’s Louie Award for Print and Production Excellence four years running. ladyfingersletterpress.com // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

features

18 // following the thread 26 // against the grain 36 // new life for old ways

For most artists, making goes hand in hand with materials—the ingredients for expressing what’s on their minds. In the stories that follow, a handful of alumni talk about why they love making work by hand—using traditional materials in new ways.

photo by Tyrrell Mooney

“I’m able to connect with the physical qualities of embroidery more than I had been able to with paint.”

For Sophia Narrett, the slow process of hand stitching richly detailed narratives proves to be far more satisfying than using a brush and paint.

AS WITH MANY GOOD TH I NG S I N LI FE , Sophia Narrett MFA 14 PT discovered thread by chance. And once she did, she began to find her voice. Narrett was at Brown—majoring in visual arts—when she bought a few skeins of green thread to sew details onto the felt four-leaf clovers she was making for an installation her senior year. Since she primarily thought of herself as a painter, the immediate feel of the material—the thrill of thread in her hands—surprised her. “After that initial project, the embroidery thread sat around in my studio for awhile,” Narrett explains. “But a few months later I was still primarily interested in making image-driven work, and one day it seemed natural to try making a simple drawing in thread.” As soon as she did, the thrill of the process returned, she says. “I was able to connect with the physical qualities of embroidery more than I had been able to with paint.” In the six years she has been experimenting with embroidery, Narrett has pushed her own needlework capabilities to new levels, transforming a traditional craft historically associated with women’s work. Forget cutesy kits full of bouquets and butterflies, the Brooklyn-based artist stitches up a storm of sensual, intricate and meticulously detailed narratives of contemporary life that help her make sense of her “own fantasies and emotional experiences.”

by Liisa Silander

As she was looking for the right source images for her embroidery, Narrett became intrigued by the breaking story that Lauren Morelli, a writer on Orange Is the New Black, had just left her husband in order to date Samira Wiley, an actress on the show. In the end, the narrative in this piece, Stars Align (2014–15, embroidery thread and fabric, 33 x 48") from the This Meant Nothing series, isn’t “about” them per se, she says, “but the way their relationship was framed by the press—and the way their relationship began in proximity to fiction—resonated with things that I was trying to explore with the series.”

“ I’m a very sensitive person and I easily get invested in psychological dramas, or to be honest, in almost any reality TV show.”

photos by Stan Narten

And she does so by tapping into pop culture to reference problematic aspects in the storytelling. I’m a very sensitive movies, books, hiphop artists, fashion designers and plenty of person—maybe overly sensitive—and I easily get invested cable and streaming content. “I love to listen to long TV series in psychological dramas, or to be honest, in almost any while I work,” says Narrett, who has consumed the entire multi- reality TV show.” season runs of both The Wire and The Sopranos several times. As these bold, explicit and often violent and bloody Her most recent series of embroideries, titled This Meant narratives unfold on screen, Narrett quietly stitches for hours Nothing, features an actress and a writer from the Netflix on end, making her own refined and transcendent work. favorite Orange Is the New Black as characters in her own “I began working in embroidery for formal and material reasons,” she says, but “the history of embroidery as a fictional narrative. The ill-fated love story symbolically begins traditional craft undeniably influences the meaning of my during a rose ceremony on The Bachelor, a context Narrett work.” Clearly, her approach to embroidery veers from says she chose for its “expression of desperation—and a real, a practice passed down for generations—almost exclusively if somewhat overwrought, desire for connection—as much as by women. for its embodiment of patriarchy and heteronormativity.” “Narrett’s pieces are reminiscent of 16th-century Dutch “I think it can be a powerful thing to embrace your own desires,” Narrett says, explaining that little makes her painter Hieronymus Bosch, known for his detailed landscapes happier than embroidering. “The fact that for centuries and wild images, most fantastical and sexual in nature,” notes Michael Rocha in a recent story in The San Diego Union women were socialized to do this—or analogous activities— Tribune. “Like Bosch, Narrett engages the viewer in images in a way that I assume did not allow for the level of selfexpression or exploration that my work provides me is a so complex—so detailed—that looking at them and following the narrative… feels almost voyeuristic.” complicated and very real fact. For better or for worse, Drawing from the entertainment industry gives Narrett I’m a very feminine person, so embroidery may be a way of working with that in a genuine way, although it has never a way to communicate using a visual language with widely really been a conscious strategy. I think of embroidery the shared symbols and images. Even though viewers may not way I thought of paint when I was a painter: It’s the best recognize the exact source, it gives them “a point of access,” she says. “Often shows dealing with seemingly cliché situaphysical way for me to create the narratives I want to think tions can tap into something very real, even if there are about and communicate.”

sophianarrett.com

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PHYS ICAL PROCE SS

When Narrett was a girl growing up in Ellicott City, MD, she loved playing with the wooden dollhouse her father and brother made for her. “I made tons of things to go in it,” she says, “and I was always acting out narratives between the dolls.” Even though she reluctantly let go of her Barbies in junior high school, Narrett suspects that her current passion for embroidery may stem from a similar sensibility. “I feel a deep responsibility for the type of images I’m putting out into the world,” she says, “but when I’m truly just starting a piece, I feel like it’s more connected to imagination and doll play.” Narrett first got interested in art through her grandmother, a painter who loved to copy Chagall. Until she got to Brown, Chagall’s paintings (“especially the ones with the floating bodies”) summed up her sense of “what a painting was—and even more so, what art was.”

“ I plan a lot but the embroidery takes on a life of its own in a way I find really satisfying.”

// following the thread

Sophia Narrett MFA 14 PT

top and facing page: photos by Stan Narten | left: photo by Tyrrell Mooney

In I Can’t Stop Crying Except Sometimes When I Think About Ari Gold (2016, embroidery thread and fabric, 34 x 12") the devastated person in this piece is lying on the floor, too sad to even sit in the chair. Narrett incorporated a framed portrait of Gold, the obnoxious movie agent in the long-running bro-fest of a show Entourage, after a participant on a reality dating show described him “as her ideal man,” Narrett says. The woman on the show professed to “like his aggression, dominance and faithfulness, but completely ignored his misogyny, racism and anger issues.”

By the time she applied to RISD, Narrett knew that even though she had started to work with embroidery as her medium of choice, she wanted to be a part of a painting dialogue. “Doing a master’s in Painting at RISD was a process of trying to understand exactly what I wanted to say, and how to say it,” she explains. “Being part of this dialogue allowed me to take a deeper look at my work, to begin to understand inclinations or tendencies that were a part of my process—and to question them. Self-awareness is really difficult to achieve, and working at RISD allowed me to make some great strides towards this, both in terms of my work and personally.” Though Narrett now works with thread instead of oils, she learned a lot about color and composition through painting. She also believes that her embroideries “function as paintings” and in many ways, aren’t really “any different from paintings.” That said, with embroidery she loves “the specific material quality of the image and also the time element.” The painstakingly slow process of sewing intricately detailed narratives by hand allows the meaning behind her work to surface as each piece develops. Narrett starts by making a collage in Photoshop that illustrates the story or part of a story she intends to embroider and then draws an outline of the image onto cotton fabric. She then works freehand to essentially paint or draw with thread, while looking at the Photoshop collage for reference. But it’s through the process of stitching that things really shift and come alive. “I definitely think there’s value in the delayed gratification of the process,” Narrett says. “The pace that embroidery dictates has become an incredibly meaningful way for me to commit to the stories I want to tell.” While conceptualizing each piece is clearly driven by ideas, research and intense thinking, Narrett says that during the sewing process her hands and mind work together as one. “I’m constantly making decisions about how to render in thread,” she says. “I enjoy the challenge of simple aspects like how to get something to look like it’s in front of something else, what color to use in a specific place so another color will contrast with it in the right way, and just generally how to translate the images into embroidery. As much as it’s representation, it’s also a process of abstraction in a way—to reinterpret an image in thread. And at a certain point the materiality takes over. Usually halfway or so through a piece I’ll go back and revise the initial Photoshop collage based on what’s happening physically. I plan a lot but the embroidery takes on a life of its own in a way I find really satisfying.”

Self Care (2016, embroidery and fabric, 46 x 16") presents a row of five eligible bachelors, seated in a bar above a row of Tinder buttons. The Valerian tea bags—often referred to as nature’s Valium—and the Bandaids that hang from the flowering branches are semi-ludicrous gestures that are ultimately unable to protect the heart from the miscommunication and confusion typical of dating. “On a more optimistic note,” Narrett adds, “the bachelors are potentially sweet men who might actually offer emotional healing.” sophianarrett.com

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“The threads that she leaves hanging are almost like music and very emotional.” Reesey Shaw, Lux Art Institute

Narrett also likes that the time she spends sewing each piece “leaves a physical residue that is readable” and hopefully invites the close inspection her work demands. “When something has been touched and manipulated every day for two months there is a special kind of weight to it,” she points out, adding that “the palette, the experience of building images stitch by stitch and the ability to make pieces that are objects as much as they are windows or images is incredibly exciting for me.” RAW E MOTION Reesey Shaw, founder and executive director of Lux Art

Institute in Encinitas, CA, was immediately drawn to Narrett’s work when she first saw it at a show in Miami a couple of years ago. “I especially felt the threads that she leaves hanging are almost like music and very emotional,” says Shaw, who keeps a close eye on contemporary artists from all over the world. “I felt that they were operatic and very courageous and inspiring, so I sought out her work after that and was very excited that we could bring her here.” During a February residency at Lux, where her work was on view in one of several shows already exhibited this year in California, Long Island, New York state and Massachusetts, Narrett approached her recent exploration of emotional games and relationships from a new direction. “The embroideries and sculptures that I worked on at Lux actually became attempts to describe moments of respite, escape and recovery from the types of experiences characteristic of the overall narrative,” Narrett explains. In both I Can’t Stop Crying Except Sometimes When I Think About Ari Gold and Self Care she looks at notions of withdrawal and selfprotection. It’s part of a new body of work she’s preparing for a September solo show at Freight + Volume, the gallery that represents her in New York. “The project began as an exploration of how transcendent emotional and sexual experiences can be,” Narrett explains, “and the type of creative space that intense relationships can potentially foster for the people involved. I’m thinking a lot about different ways people try to connect—and also what happens when these efforts fall short or backfire.”

// following the thread

Sophia Narrett MFA 14 PT

Something Went Wrong (2014–15, embroidery thread and fabric, 35 x 53") is another piece from Narrett’s This Meant Nothing series, a sequential narrative of four pieces that relate to each other in a linear fashion. This one focuses on the ill-fated love story between two women who meet on an episode of The Bachelor, which for Narrett epitomizes a “context of heteronormativity and patriarchy” and points to a “desperation for love” that’s universal.

photos by Stan Narten

After watching The Affair, which is likely to inform this new work, Narrett admits that “it had its silly moments,” but says that “it was interesting in terms of the basic but very real existential premise of how differently two people can perceive the same interaction or conversation.” Unlike her linear series This Meant Nothing, the new project is “a more branching, circular narrative,” Narrett says. “There are pieces that are meant to establish the setting or history, pieces that will be clustered together as simultaneous events and pieces that are meant to exemplify alternate endings.” In keeping with an emphasis on materiality and tactility, Narrett presents her embroideries unframed and hung about an inch off the wall, which creates a natural shadow—an organic framing that lends the work dimension and impact. “She’s very contemporary,” Shaw says, pointing out that “framing work is kind of an old-fashioned technique [that] cuts the emotional impact of the work by a third. With the glass and the frame, it’s almost like imprisoning it. And so what she’s doing by hanging it on a nail and making it really present… the thread becomes the paint, and it’s very visceral. She’s found and created her own muse. It’s incredible.”

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Establishing an ethical practice and a way of life to match means making tough choices.

studio photos by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

Miles Endo 10 ID and Manny Flaherty 04 ID don’t actually know each other. They don’t share studio space, travel in the same circle of friends or even live in the same state. But the two furniture makers lust after some of the same tools, share a lot of the same thinking and believe in a specific approach to making. Like so many other alumni, the two Industrial Design graduates tried working at a few different jobs right after graduation but felt restless and dissatisfied. After stepping back, reassessing what they want and focusing on what feels right, they’re both attempting to do what people have done for centuries: make a way of life and a living by working in their own shops making things by hand. The thing is, in many ways that life choice feels oddly anachronistic in today’s “developed” world. Now that so many people live largely virtual lives, are online more hours of the day than off and feel the need to make six-figure salaries just to get by, choosing to live from the labor of your own hands may sound both ridiculously romantic and ludicrously luxurious. But for Endo and Flaherty, it’s not about starry-eyed idealism or family wealth to fall back on. It’s that they’re good with getting their hands dirty and they each bring a mix of hope, pragmatism and optimism to what they’re attempting to do.

by Liisa Silander

“ Part of the tradition at RISD is making objects by hand.” Miles Endo 10 ID

Working with his hands is in Flaherty’s DNA. As a flooring guy and general contractor, his father always had tools around the house, and growing up in the Bronx, his parents kept the place supplied with plenty of good stuff for curious kids: wooden blocks and train sets, Lincoln Logs, Legos. “I’ve always been interested in how things work and how they’re made,” Flaherty says. “It started out with play as a kid, but these very basic concepts continue to interest and excite me today.” For Endo, who was born in Tokyo but grew up in Honolulu, the interest in creative making is deeply embedded in his background as well. His parents teach and perform the art of Japanese Taiko drumming and as big fans of Miles Davis, gave their son the name he uses today. “I always knew I wanted to make things with my hands and be a creative person,” Endo says, which is what attracted him to RISD in the first place. “Part of the tradition at RISD is making objects by hand,” he says. “I think many schools focus on design but don’t emphasize making and handcraft, so later there’s a hard line between design and production. But I like the balance. That’s why I chose RISD. I wanted to be able to think through how things are made and create them myself.” Though both Endo and Flaherty are now making furniture, each shied away from majoring in Furniture Design due to similar misconceptions. “At the time, my view of furniture was so traditional that I didn’t want to limit myself,” Endo says, “and I thought the Furniture Design department would be too limiting.” Unsure of what he wanted, Flaherty says, “I just knew that 3D was my medium, what I felt good at and what I enjoyed. Majoring in Sculpture felt too free for me. I needed something more focused, but Furniture Design felt too specific, so I settled on Industrial Design—and struggled with it, but at least I learned what I didn’t want to do.” Part of those struggles led Flaherty to take a year off after his junior year to learn about making wooden boats. After working on boat interiors for a few months, he dabbled in carving and as a guitarist himself, worked with a luthier. He also studied at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Hadlock, WA for a year. In the end, like Endo, Flaherty says that RISD helped him to really think through making and allow his lifelong interest in woodworking to “grow into more of a passion.” He remembers a specific ID project to carve a wooden mask as a real break-

// against the grain

Miles Endo 10 ID // Manny Flaherty 04 ID

Hand tools of the trade and bits of domestic hardwood are givens in small shops like the ones these alumni run. Endo made this Bamboo Sling Chair in 2009, when he was still a student. Flaherty’s end table (opposite page top) can be custom-fitted with drawers and shelves.

through moment. “It wasn’t so much that I thought the mask I made was that great,” Flaherty says. But the process—first sketching his ideas, then making a small clay model—stuck with him. “When I completed the final piece in wood, I was impressed with how closely I recreated the design in a much larger size and in a very different material, using the opposite sculpting method of removing wood by carving as opposed to building up clay. That was the moment that I realized that if I saw something in my mind, I could make it with my hands.” STRONG VALU E S

That clear confidence in the hand-mind connection and the accompanying joy of embodied making drives many alumni to figure out how to hang onto and nurture it—to build a life around the gift of being able to make beautiful, functional objects by hand. “I originally wanted to be an architect or a car designer,” Endo says, “but I was turned off by the lack of control you have over large-scale projects, with decisions made by committee. Making furniture or smaller objects gives you more control.” After working in New York for a short period of time doing small-scale manufacturing for a commercial furniture company, he couldn’t resist the urge to regain control of the process by setting up his own shop in Rhode Island. “It took a couple years to find the right space to work efficiently, but since 2012, I have been able to practice and grow my skills in design and craft,” he says, just weeks before packing up to relocate to a new space in Providence. Endo initially began experimenting with making traditional Taiko drums—an instrument he has played since first learning as a toddler—while also taking on small commissions for custommade furniture, which he designs with his clients to meet their specific needs. While he admits “it’s hard to do a lot of things well,” he finds that his drums and custom furniture and lighting pieces actually inform each other. In Japan people often build these large, traditional drums using a single chunk of wood that takes five years to dry— or they jerry-rig an old wine barrel to make it sound like a drum, Endo says. His own approach is to use CNC technology and 3D printing to make his drums more efficiently. “Drum-making will always be a handmade process,” he says. “I’m just entering the conversation with knowledge of the tradition and an interest in incorporating CNC machinery. But it’s always going to be finished by hand and tuned by hand. There’s a lot of furniture and ID background influencing the way I’m making the drums,” he adds. “And now it has come full circle since I’m using inspiration from the drum to make lighting fixtures.” Flaherty also appreciates the value of circling back, but more in terms of his approach to his own studio practice. Since he took a year off during school to do the boat-building thing and figure out next steps, he was a year behind two of his friends, Bill Hilgendorf 02 ID and Jason Horvath 02 ID, when he moved back to NYC after graduation. But he soon joined them at Uhuru Design, their then-fledgling startup in Brooklyn.

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“ Many of the same values that go into my furniture are consistent with other aspects of my life and the products and food I consume.” Manny Flaherty 04 ID

“We had a great team dynamic,” Flaherty says. “Bill and he says. As he saw it, he could compromise on quality and Jason took care of the business end, sales and design, and increase prices, but since that “goes against everything that I mostly lived in the shop. When things got really busy or we went into my starting my own business in the first place,” in were working on prototypes, we would all be in the shop.” 2014 he relocated to Rutland, VT instead. As Uhuru began to take off, the business grew quickly and “I’m single and don’t have kids, so I have flexibility,” Flaherty Flaherty soon found himself managing the shop—checking in says. “I love New York. It’s my hometown and I had never really on the people hired to make furniture, rearranging and rebuildlived anywhere else. But I had been coming up to Vermont ing the space to accommodate more people and more machines, almost every summer since I first worked as a camp counselor and generally keeping the shop shipshape. “It was great, but in high school and I have found a community up here. Many I realized that I had stopped growing and learning as a maker,” of the same values that go into my furniture are consistent with he says. So, somewhat reluctantly, he opted to move on. other aspects of my life and the products and food I consume. So For a few months, Flaherty helped his father keep up with a big part of my move to Vermont had to do with wanting to live demand at his floor-covering business, working to save enough in a place that supports and encourages living by these values.” to buy the tools and machinery he needed to set up his own The move has since paid off, Flaherty says, enabling him to workshop in Red Hook. In the spring of 2010—just a year save enough to buy a wonderful old post-and-beam farmhouse before Studio Endo surfaced in Rhode Island—he founded a this spring, where he expects to set up shop by late summer. business called Mi Mesita (Spanish for “my little table”), which is largely built on values he learned at home from his Puerto HAVI NG IT ALL? Rican mother. Put simply, it’s a business dedicated to making Since they steadfastly refuse to compromise on their own “high-quality, handmade furniture that is accessible and principles, both Endo and Flaherty are facing similar hurdles. affordable”—at least relative to what most high-end custom “People don’t expect to pay a lot for furniture compared to art,” furniture studios charge. Endo points out. “It’s so utilitarian. But it’s really hard to keep For Flaherty, affordability, quality and sustainability are expenses down in building the shop.” at the heart of his approach. But since it takes time and space That said, Endo is pleased that he has his built his “workto make furniture by hand and overhead is incredibly high in shop bit by bit, without borrowing any money. It’s been tough Brooklyn and everywhere else in NYC, he soon realized that but I’m glad I don’t owe a lot of money. I make things on my if he were to build a business on his own terms, it needed to be own out of necessity. It’s just cheaper and faster for me to somewhere else. “I was making a living, but just scraping by,” make things in my own studio than to involve other people.”

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Miles Endo 10 ID // Manny Flaherty 04 ID

Through Mi Mesita, Manny Flaherty is able to draw true satisfaction from making work by hand using materials he loves.

“ Drum-making will always be a handmade process. I’m just entering the conversation with knowledge of the tradition and an interest in incorporating CNC machinery.”

As one-man operations, both designers struggle to balance the business end of their shops with what they really love: hands-on design and making. “It’s tough to make something different every single time,” Endo says of the custom commissions at the heart of his business. “But I’ve also made multiples— about 200—for someone else,” he says. “That helped me learn about small-batch production and informed the way I think Miles Endo 10 ID about making my own work.” This year, he has been focusing on developing a collection of objects—including lighting, mirrors and seating—influenced by his drum-making and recent reinvestigations of folding paper and metal. preferring instead to keep busy with the steady stream of work Committed to taking it slow in creating something he hopes that comes through word of mouth and relatively low-key will last, Flaherty resolved “to start from the beginning” and online presences. But last year, Endo decided to make a bold carefully think through every step in establishing Mi Mesita in marketing move by applying to be a contestant on Ellen’s sync with his chosen lifestyle. As he designs, he’s always Design Challenge, comedian Ellen Degeneres’ furniture design looking for ways “to keep prices down without compromising competition show on HGTV. on quality.” These include temporarily working in less than “I wasn’t so sure if it would be a good career move,” he ideal workshop space; using reclaimed materials and locally admits, noting that he worried it might be “embarrassing.” But sourced wood like cherry, maple and ash; developing a leg after talking with two RISD alumni who competed on the first design that works on multiple pieces; and assiduously avoiding season of the show, he decided to go for it. “I figured I’d take the serious temptation to hire an office manager. advantage of my RISD skills: working under pressure, driven In other words, except for the occasional RISD intern or by a deadline,” Endo explains. “I wanted to get my name out when they need to hire a friend to help with a larger project, there and see what I could come up with under pressure.” both Flaherty and Endo do it all, designing, making, marketing, The risk seems to have been worth it. On TV Endo came shipping and/or delivering their own pieces. And as anyone across as super creative and calm, cool and collected—so cool, who has tried to do this knows, that’s a real challenge. in fact, that despite being “eliminated” on the second to last “When I have a deadline to meet, I’ll work strictly in the shop episode, he saw huge spikes of interest via his website. “I’ve while neglecting the office work,” Flaherty admits. “After the had lots of emails and inquiries about pieces,” Endo says. deadline, I’ll spend a couple days catching up. It’s not ideal, “And when I went to a trade show this spring, so many people and I’m constantly working on ways to find a healthy balance, recognized me from the show and kept telling me I’d done especially since I wish I could spend all of my time in the shop.” a good job. That never happens in Providence when I’m Neither designer is much into self-promotion, either walking down the street. Most people don’t really care about (“crappy” is how Flaherty describes his own skills in this area), furniture design.”

For designer-makers, working in the shop is largely a solo venture — except when an extra pair of hands (or paws) is needed for heavy lifting.

studioendo.com // mimesita.com

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“ I’m always making new things that interest me, without sticking to one style or material.” Miles Endo 10 ID

TH E B EAUTY OF I M PE R FECTION

Both Endo and Flaherty realize their work doesn’t have mass-market appeal, but that’s deliberate. “There is definitely a place for mass production, so I don’t want to knock it,” Flaherty says. “But for me it doesn’t make sense because it’s about a few people making a lot of money regardless of who they harm along the way. What I’m trying to do is make furniture that isn’t so much special as normal—that’s not elite and expensive. I think there are more people interested in that and asking questions about where their stuff is coming from and how and why it’s being made.” Endo is equally committed to the integrity of his work and avoiding mass-marketing, though he’s hoping that if any of his designs from the TV competition get selected when Degeneres launches a new line of home accessories, he’ll have the option of helping to translate the design for production. “Large companies might look at small designers for inspiration for their own collections, grabbing the concepts,” he says. But since “you can only patent an aesthetic for a year, it’s not worth it— unless you’re really invested in one concept.” Ultimately, both designer/makers simply hope to be able to make work in a way that’s personally satisfying and spiritually rewarding—with low overhead so that they can keep pricing down and without outsourcing so that they can keep quality up. And both like the idea of timelessness—both in their own designs and in how they live day to day.

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Miles Endo 10 ID // Manny Flaherty 04 ID

“ What I’m trying to do is make furniture that isn’t so much special as normal— that’s not elite and expensive.” Manny Flaherty 04 ID

facing page, top: photo by Rythum Vinoben

Inspired by the carved interior of Taiko drums, Endo’s new HIRA lighting series involves pressing traditional patterns into copper. Flaherty’s end and coffee tables showcase the beauty of burl.

“I like time-tested materials,” Endo says, noting that he’s using a lot of copper and steel these days and enjoys working with such woods as ash and oak and reclaimed materials like beams from old mills. “I’m trying to innovate on the design—using classic materials. I like geometric forms, gentle curves, simple shapes and not overly ornate details.” “Furniture is just one of the things that I enjoy building,” Flaherty says, “so it became a natural way for me to make a living doing something that I love: woodworking.” He’s committed to using traditional building techniques and domestic woods to create furniture “that will withstand the test of time, both structurally and aesthetically.” But he eschews the notion of mastering the craft. “Mastery always sounded to me like the end of the road of learning. I like the idea of working towards it, but I never want to stop learning and growing.” Like many makers who run their own shops, Endo is equally restless and eager to explore where his curiosity will lead him next. “I’m always making new things that interest me, without sticking to one style or material,” he says.

studioendo.com // mimesita.com

“One way to maintain your originality as a designer is to incorporate some element of handwork that can’t be replicated by someone else,” he points out. “You can always tell when an object is made by hand. I use a press to put the texture into the sheet metal I’m working with, and then I fold the edge over by hand, so there’s evidence of irregularity—that it was created by hand.” Even Endo, a professed perfectionist, concedes the beauty of imperfection: “I’m OK with it because that’s what adds a unique identity.”

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bottom, far right: photo by Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxx

“Handmade objects have a kind of natural and essential imperfection that reveals the energy of the person who made them.”

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Name Xxxxxxxxx XX XX

bottom, far right: photo by Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxx

by Liisa Silander

and you’ll find the exact same brands competing for attention in almost the exact same way. Consumer culture has flattened the world so much that a Banana Republic in Miami looks like its namesake in Caracas, an H&M in NYC feels identical to one in Berlin and the Hermes in Nice matches the one in Hong Kong. “You can probably buy custom Moroccan slippers in Portland, OR in a color or material you wouldn’t ever find in Casablanca or Fez,” laughs Catherine McMahon BArch 03, one of three alumni behind a multidisciplinary design studio in Beijing established to both push back on and take advantage of the ways of the world in the 21st century. TRAVE L TO ALMOST ANY CITY I N AM E R ICA

Xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx: risdxyz@risd.edu.

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Given that we now live with around-the-clock internet access and at a time when people travel the globe more than ever before, “a lot of contemporary design references a broad spectrum of visual and material culture,” McMahon points out, adding that this “is both an opportunity and a curse. At the end of the day, it’s just the current reality we have to grapple with.” To grapple in ways that make most sense to them, McMahon and her friends Ahti Westphal BArch 04 and Jenny Chou BArch 04 joined forces in 2014 to found Atlas studio in Beijing. Their goal is “to use design as a tool for uncovering and documenting information about place” and more specifically, for researching and preserving craft traditions in China, which date back as far as the early 700s.

“We were all educated in a certain way and have a certain set of tools for framing and navigating the world that are linked to making spaces and things from ideas,” the trio tells us from Beijing. “It’s important to us to actually inhabit a place and try to better understand the specificity—the people and materials— that set that place apart.” LOCAL FLAVOR

Though they met and became friends at RISD, the three Architecture alumni went separate ways after graduation. Chou, who is Taiwanese, went on to earn a graduate degree in Urban Design at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation before moving to China seven years ago. McMahon worked for a few years at various firms, returned

“ We were all educated in a certain way and have a certain set of tools for framing and navigating the world that are linked to making spaces and things from ideas.”

left and facing page, top left: photos by Christopher DeWolf

Three RISD alumni are among the designers who have been invited to help revitalize the historic Dashilar district in Beijing by working with local artisans to develop new applications for their craftsmanship. Master Zhou (above right) learned the age-old art of wire weaving from his grandfather and hopes to pass the tradition along.

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// new life for old ways

Jenny Chou BArch 04 // Catherine McMahon BArch 03 // Ahti Westphal BArch 04

to school to earn a master’s degree in the History, Theory and houses, silk shops, opium dens, tea houses and brothels, as Criticism of Art and Architecture at MIT and then moved to well as the city’s first cinema and stock exchange. Though it Shanghai in 2013. Like his friends and now studio partners, had become rundown, since the launch of the craft pilot things Westphal also earned a graduate degree—in Architecture and are beginning to change as artists and designers like the Atlas Sustainable Design—from the University of Minnesota and studio work with neighborhood artisans and still others are landed in China four years ago. moving into the district themselves. “We had been talking about setting up something for a while,” McMahon says, and when Chou and Westphal ended up in TH I R ST FOR HAN D S-ON MAKI NG Beijing, she joined them, noting that about two years ago “we Working with Zhou to explore the potential of wire weaving, found ourselves in a situation where we could make it happen.” Atlas initially encouraged him to create new shapes of lanterns, What they’ve begun to “make happen” got going in July which allowed them to experiment with the play of light, 2014 when the Dashilar Platform, a government-funded shadow and materiality in space. They also learned the basics organization dedicated to the preservation and renewal of the of wire weaving from him as a means of better understanding Dashilar district in Beijing, invited them to participate in a pilot the design possibilities. “Everyone in our studio can now weave program that pairs designers with local artisans to identify wire, though not nearly as well as he does,” they admit. new and innovative ways to revitalize craft traditions. Their As the Atlas designers continued to work with Zhou throughpartnership with Master Zhou, whose grandfather taught him out 2015, preparing for a second exhibition at Beijing Design to weave wire to create traditional Chinese lanterns, is one Week (BDW) last fall, they experimented with new metals, papers of a number of such collaborations highlighted during the last and a variety of patterns. In addition to showing new lighting two rounds of Beijing Design Week—in 2014 and again in 2015. designs, they exhibited tea utensils—canisters, strainers and Though China destroyed much of its ancient culture in its snack trays—incorporating the same materials and techniques. push to modernize in the 20th century, the Chinese are But learning to collaborate across cultures and with an increasingly aware of what’s been lost and are anxious to older artisan who works in his own way and at a very different prevent further erosion. In recent years, as other sections of pace has taken a lot of patience and perseverance. “We have Beijing were razed and redeveloped, Dashilar had been largely learned so much from Mr. Zhou,” the design partners agree. ignored. Centrally located near the Forbidden City, it had “We’ve learned to respect the process and the time it takes to been a bustling commercial center from the 14th through 20th get to know someone—to build trust and slowly evolve a craft centuries, when its narrow hutongs were filled with opera process into something new.”

studio-atlas.com

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At last fall’s BDW—after working for more than a year to develop a solid relationship—they began to help Zhou lead workshops, something he finds especially rewarding since he’s eager to keep the wire-weaving tradition alive. “There’s a huge thirst in China for learning to make things with your own hands,” says McMahon, who points out that the entire generation of people who were immersed in rote memorization in schools is now eager to learn hands-on making skills. “These workshops are a chance for Mr. Zhou to cultivate a new and appreciative audience and to pass down his knowledge before it’s eroded or lost all together.” Inspired by the craft of wire weaving—which they describe as precise and geometric yet capable of showing the beautiful and expressive “imperfections of the hand”—Atlas is now launching Wireworks, a line of lighting fixtures featuring woven copper and steel wire that project extraordinary patterns of light and shadow throughout a room. They showed the pieces at several exhibitions in Shanghai as well as at the Rotterdam Architecture and Urbanism Biennale in April and hope to have designs ready for production and sale (in limited numbers) later this year. “Working with these materials and this craft is so hands-on that it creates a kind of openness that lets us all contribute, experiment and collaboratively edit,” the designers explain, which is very reminiscent of their years at RISD. “Foundation year made it clear that thinking is not only a function of the mind but also of the hand,” they say. “We learned that making with your own hands is essential to gaining knowledge and developing a particular kind of expertise. For us this is the fundamental meaning of craft—and this is what’s at stake when communities lose knowledge of craft techniques that artisans have historically passed on to one another for hundreds of years, whether in textiles, ceramics, metalwork or any number of mediums.”

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Jenny Chou BArch 04 // Catherine McMahon BArch 03 // Ahti Westphal BArch 04

“ There’s a huge thirst in China to learn to make things with your hands.”

In studying with Master Zhou to learn how to weave wire, the Studio Atlas team has developed a better understanding of how to design contemporary products that incorporate this traditional Chinese handcraft.

studio-atlas.com

TH E E SS E NCE OF CRAFT

To help keep the studio afloat and support research and development of projects like Wireworks, Atlas takes on commissions for architecture projects as well. For instance, in designing custom lighting for Beijing’s Orchid Hotel and the interior of a local restaurant called Napa, they figured out how to further develop their work with Zhou. The team intends to continue to look for opportunities to bring their lighting designs into their built projects in the future and notes that a continuous exchange of ideas feeds both the research and commercial sides of the studio. With the sense of place at the core of their work, the Atlas team is committed to using “materials that reveal something about China’s landscape, history or culture.” Most of the hardware they need comes from Taobao, China’s online marketplace for just about everything—from live pet monkeys to imported Italian cheeses to knock-off designer clothing. Each of the materials they work with comes with its own history or story, which gives the designers a “direct window” into Chinese culture and history. “This project has allowed us to learn about a side of China we would never otherwise have known,” they say.

“Of course, coming from RISD,” the trio notes, “we love experimenting with materials to see how much we can transform them.” But they also prefer using materials capable of retaining marks of the hand. For example, they dye their light fixtures with ink that dries a little differently on each object. “The outcomes are based more on the interactions with the materials than on any predetermined ideas about how the mark will turn out,” McMahon explains. “That allows for mistakes or differences to be part of the final piece.” The Atlas designers are quick to point out that they don’t see handmade and mass-produced objects in a binary relationship, but rather as existing along a spectrum. “It’s a choice we all make about how we live and how the objects around us embody our values,” they note. “Our lights were born from a desire to explore craft as a place for new ideas, a way of deeply understanding the history, materiality and social relations of Beijing’s Dashilar neighborhood.” Chou, McMahon and Westphal also feel fortunate to have been at RISD “right on the cusp of the shift from 100% making by hand to more contemporary forms of digital production.” With the shift to digital and other post-industrial forms of production, they feel that “the meaning of the term ‘design’ has drifted away from this kind of direct, embodied knowledge,” which has led them to “become disenchanted by the methods of making we found in the ‘real world.’” In recommitting themselves to the value of the hand as the enduring heart of embodied knowledge, they already feel optimistic about the future and their ability to help the Chinese restore and retain many of their ancient craft traditions. “Handmade objects have a kind of natural and essential imperfection that reveals the energy of the person who made them,” the Atlas crew points out. “Even when the technique is quite technically perfect you can still feel the labor and human touch in the objects in a way that you can’t with machine-made objects. It’s just a difference in quality you can intuitively feel.”

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reflect

// a message from the president

MAKING THE FUTURE I N A WOR LD THAT I S I NCR EAS I NG LY COM PLEX

and fast-paced, one critical role of making is that it gives artists and designers a tangible language through which to sift through some of this complexity. Making helps us develop essential kinds of knowledge and intelligence. It’s not just a mode of production, but a way of thinking and rethinking the world—informed by our hands and through the actions of our bodies and deep interaction with physical and digital materials. Making brings us profound emotional and ethical awareness and embeds that awareness within the objects we create. In my teaching I always reminded myself that the students in my studios might never again make the way they do while they’re here. But the ability to think through hands-on making—a process students absorb in every RISD major—will guide their future work, regardless of the path they choose in their professional lives. Because of the unique awareness that making enables and entails, artists and designers often create works and experiences that add to other people’s lives

“We continually remake the act of making itself so that it’s always dynamic... and so that it responds to our times, our cultures and our fellow human beings.”

in positive ways. We’re adept at altering assumptions and proposing new realities. We learn not to be stymied by impasses, but rather to see obstacles as points of pause that necessitate divergences and create new pathways. Through this combination of insistent focus and adaptive flexibility—endemic to making as an embodied practice of thought—artists and designers generate diverse possibilities rather than singular answers. By residing in the experiential and the physical, and by understanding the “hands-on” as a portal of intelligent learning, art and design practice affirms the mind as maker and making as a state of mindfulness. Being at RISD for several decades has afforded me a unique perspective on the impact that the practice of critical making has on students. I have seen firsthand—generation after generation—how making accelerates individual growth and development, and I have watched how that language develops later in life into other forms of professional achievement. Since many types of intelligence flourish here—intellectual, emotional, aesthetic, spatial, interpersonal, intuitive,

ethical—we push each other to thrive in all these areas. As alumni well know, at RISD students don’t just refine techniques or explore formal possibilities at RISD. They also learn to make their place within a community— to understand themselves and others, to see the world and their potential role in it more broadly. Many also become leaders. As students direct their critical capacities towards making, they cultivate other kinds of awareness—including a deeper respect for and a deeper connection with human experience, human expression and human potential. Making requires materials, and the question of materials is more complex now than ever. As critical makers we are able to interpret

“Making is a way of thinking informed by our hands, the actions of our bodies and deep interaction with physical and digital materials.”

photos by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

Students in every RISD studio work with their hands, but the tools and materials they’re using are changing rapidly. Glass artist and visiting critic Jamie Carpenter 72 IL (opposite page, top left) responds to a wonderful sculptural installation made of Mylar. President Somerson comments during a Furniture Design crit last semester, and in Experimental and Foundation Studies (opposite page, bottom), students are experimenting with new digital tools. At this spring’s Graduate Open Studios, students played with light in a different way — through an immersive, interactive installation (above). In other grad studios, students are experimenting with new materials in interesting ways.

many forms of matter as material. We perceive workable substance where others might see something more mundane, or just perceive silence and stillness. But as today’s makers, you don’t just render previously existing matter into material, you also proliferate and create entirely new kinds of material, redefining the very concepts of matter and material along the way. Here at RISD, students are making new composites out of previously existing materials, using their combined characteristics to explore novel questions and investigate inventive possibilities. Increasingly, they combine digital and analogue materials, bridging the realms of past and present to point to a new future. What becomes possible when code is employed like thread woven into a textile, or evolving fabrication techniques lead to such new developments as transparent wood?

What happens when the two-dimensional realm shifts from the physical plane of pigment and texture to the virtual domain of time as a material? Most importantly, as critical makers we continually remake the act of making itself so that it’s always dynamic, so that it reflects the will of the artist or designer and so that it responds to our times, our cultures and our fellow human beings. As artists and designers, we can help curate, interpret, frame and disseminate the variegated flow of matter and information that define the world(s) we want to create. Through our insights, intuition and resilience, we can ask impossible questions and solve impossible problems. Critical making is about making a better reality—whether real or imagined—now and for the future. — Rosanne Somerson 76 ID // RISDXYZ

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// campus community newsbits

HONORING ACHIEVEMENT AT COMMENCEMENT 2016

As part of an annual speaker series honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., RISD invited three powerful visitors to campus during the 2015/16 academic year. Noted anti-racism author and activist Tim Wise kicked off the series last October with a talk called Uprooting Privilege: Leadership Responsibility in a World of Institutional Inequality. A white man himself, he encouraged the audience to follow the lead of people of color—and not only respected scholars of color—and listen carefully to their take on white supremacy and strategies for combatting it. “White people have always denied the existence of racism,” Wise pointed out. “And yet they still insist that they know more about [it]… than black people who are dealing with it every day.” In January former UN Ambassador and noted Civil Rights activist Andrew J. Young, Jr. presented the second warmly received talk in the series. “We are ready to take on the future,” he said. “We just need to have faith and confidence. There is a resilience driving the American people that comes from our diversity.” 44

On April 13 students packed RISD Auditorium to hear from 86-year-old artist Faith Ringgold, who has been making politically powerful work since the 1960s. “None of us will ever be free until women become leaders in religion and politics,” she said. “And no one is going to give us that freedom. We’ve got to take it.” Tony Johnson 93 SC, assistant dean of Student Affairs, notes that RISD holds the series “not only to honor King’s legacy, but also to continue RISD’s commitment to social justice, diversity and inclusion. Our goal,” he adds, “is to inspire students to answer the call for justice and use their unique talents and privileges to make the world a better place for everyone.”

Writer and cultural critic Hilton Als, chief theater critic for The New Yorker, is delivering this year’s keynote address at Commencement, where he’ll accept an honorary degree and celebrate with the 708 students who will become RISD’s newest alumni on June 4. Best known for his incisive theater reviews and cultural criticism, Als has also written about race, gender and identity for more than a decade, with his most recent book, White Girls, nominated for a 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. RISD is also recognizing artist Martha Rosler with an honorary degree. Since the mid 1960s, her work in photomontage, video, installation and performance art has conveyed strong feminist and anti-war messages by contrasting domestic life with global politics and national security issues. Journalist and educator Esther Wojcicki, the former chair and then vice chair of the board of Creative Commons, will also accept an honorary degree for her work as an educational reformer. Her 2015 book Moonshots in Education: Launching Blended Learning in the Classroom focuses on digital and online learning in K–12 schools and what it takes for motivated teachers to achieve a successful “moonshot.”

Martha Rosler ’s photo collage Photo-Op from her 2004 series Bringing the War Home, House Beautiful

top inset: photo by Thea Goldberg | far left: photo by David O’Connor

IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE

BOLD STATEMENTS This spring’s wonderfully rich and diverse Graduate Thesis Exhibition—showcasing work by 217 students who earned their master’s degrees this year—drew a steady stream of visitors to the Rhode Island Convention Center between the opening reception on May 26 and its closing right after Commencement on June 4. The images shown here only hint at the overall flavor, but in the giant exhibition hall each student shows a final body of work, not just a single piece. Clockwise from top: • Royal Mourning (detail) by Luci

Jockel MFA 16 JM Fuller MFA 16 CR • Plunge by Kate Aitchison MFA 16 PR • Sofia by Shona McAndrew Okoshken MFA 16 PT • ushi by Brendan

For more campus news, go to risd.edu/news.

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OLDHAM’S EXCEPTIONAL EXUBERANCE At the April opening celebration of All of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion, a major retrospective at the RISD Museum, the multitalented artist didn’t hesitate when asked why his crazy, inventive clothing from the 1990s still looks so fresh and appealing. “Well, we were never fashionable,” he said. “We were on our own little island doing our thing and bumped into fashion enough to not make it too strange.” Though Oldham’s passion for fashion has since shifted elsewhere—to everything from books to furniture, film and his two craft lines, Hand Made Modern and Kid Made Modern— he was happy to revisit his work from the 1990s for the show at RISD, which features more than 65 full ensembles along with video projections of runway shows. Kate Irvin, curator of Costume and Textiles at the RISD Museum, began initial conversations with Oldham in 2014, when he came to RISD to accept an honorary degree at Commencement. While touring the museum, the NYCbased designer offered to give the museum several runway pieces from his studio archives, many of which now form the core of the All of Everything exhibition. “The most exciting thing is that this exhibition is at RISD,” notes Oldham, who values the “bright and beautiful people” who study here so much that his four-member design team is now comprised entirely of RISD alumni (see below). Having visited campus many times before as a speaker and guest critic, he sees that his commitment to process and experimentation are mirrored at RISD.

If you’ve found the graveyard, you’ve arrived. Tucked away from Manhattan’s churning Financial District, Todd Oldham Studio is a quiet creative haven overlooking St. Paul’s Chapel. Here, the designer and his partner in life and business Tony Longoria collaborate with their design team and other artists, writers and thinkers on a broad range of projects—from book design and photography to film production, interior design and product design. For those of us on Oldham’s current design team—Joseph Kaplan 11 GD, Greg Kozatek 10 IL, Karin Kunori 10 GD and Nora MacLeod 11 TX—this multifaceted creative environment feels like a natural extension of the hands-on, risk-taking atmosphere at RISD. The studio offers a stimulating workspace that reflects and informs the happy chaos of our practice, 46

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encouraging “what ifs” with a dose of wit and an abundance of color. Oldham values working with RISD artists, welcoming different perspectives, unique skill sets and new ways of problem solving. Depending on the scale or specialization of a project, there may be as many as 10 freelancers joining the studio at once, coming from backgrounds in photography, film, textiles, illustration and more. Alumni who have recently worked with the studio include Matt Cylinder 10 PH, Ben Hirt 10 FAV, Matt Long 10 IL, Emily Oliveira 12 IL, Laura Perez-Harris 10 PH, Scott Stevenson 10 AP, Ole Tillmann 11 IL, Sierra Urich 12 IL, Jennifer Whitney 09 GD and Wendy Wood 10 TX, to name a few. Oldham is always excited to work with RISD artists and designers because we’re able to balance the duality of artistry and infrastructure necessary to meet deadlines and solve creative problems. We’re also encouraged to cultivate our own artistic practice and contribute not only our practical design skills but also our individual creative interests to each project we undertake.

For the past year we have been busy assembling elements for the Oldham retrospective now at the RISD Museum, and working on Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, a book due out later this year that expands on a 2014 exhibition at the LeslieLohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Co-written by Oldham and John Chaich, it features the works of 30 fiber artists, including alumni Liz Collins 91 TX/MFA 99 and Aubrey Longley-Cook 07 FAV. In order to create a meaningful narrative featuring sculpture and installation works, metal and delicate embroidery, we laid images across the studio floor, carefully looking at each page and making adjustments. The cover

lower left: photo by Miles Crist

BOUND TOGETHER

“I’m rarely attached to outcomes. That’s a very boring way to go about things.” Todd Oldham

lower right: photo by Miles Crist

“My work is completely process-oriented,” Oldham said at an exhibition-related event with Wendy Goodman, design editor at New York magazine. “I’m rarely attached to outcomes. That’s a very boring way to go about things.” All of Everything has given him a wonderful opportunity to reflect on an exciting creative period in his life, Oldham told the overflow crowd. “I didn’t realize what I was really working with at the time, but in hindsight I do.”

and interior artworks are original thread compositions that create a conceptual link between the content and the book as an object. Though we finalized the design digitally, there was a back and forth between handmade and digital processes in order to create finished pieces that marry the material depth of the artworks and the material used to present them: the book in the reader’s hands. Each project we work on, regardless of medium, starts with the hand and maintains the handmade energy of Oldham’s fashion practice. Whether rebranding the studio, developing a website or creating new packaging concepts, there’s a constant conversation between analogue and digital approaches. This year the studio will be launching a wholesale brand of children’s art supplies, designing an artist’s book and working on a film, among other projects. It’s this dynamic revolving door of ideas and Oldham’s core commitment to the mark of the hand that continue to draw new creative talents into the studio and make the RISD graduates who work here feel at home. —Nora MacLeod 11 TX For more about Oldham’s studio and team, go to toddoldhamstudio.com.

As a visiting critic in two Fabric Silkscreen studios last spring, Todd Oldham worked with more than 30 Textiles majors—“artists who were pretending to be students,” as he describes them — to embellish 18 yards of muslin used in this RISD Ensemble dress (above). The piece takes center stage in All of Everything, a riotous retrospective of Oldham’s fashion from the 1990s that continues through September 11 at the RISD Museum.

Tony Longoria (left) and Todd Oldham with their in-house design team: Greg Kozatek 10 IL, Nora MacLeod 11 TX, Joseph Kaplan 11 GD and Karin Kunori 10 GD.

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Maharam Backs Internships On May 13 RISD and Maharam — North America’s leading creator of textiles for commercial and residential interiors — celebrated five years of offering students third-party internship opportunities through the Maharam STEAM Fellowship in Applied Art and Design. At an event at the Maharam studio in Manhattan, the company announced that it’s renewing its support of the fellowship, which enables students to pursue summer internships working with government or nonprofit organizations in need of design thinking. “Maharam believes that critical, creative thinking is essential to shaping a desirable cultural and economic future,” notes Mary Murphy MAE 86, senior vice president of design at Maharam. “With nine RISD alumni on staff,” she added, “we can’t overstate the importance of a RISD education to Maharam’s success.”

When artists Lizzie Fitch 04 SC and Ryan Trecartin 04 FAV returned to RISD in early April, students packed into the Chace Center auditorium for a screening of their work, followed by a Q+A. They were on campus as part of the Robert Turner-funded course Dada Today: 100 Years of Radical Performance, co-taught by Professor Mairéad Byrne and FAV Senior Critic Martha Swetzoff. Trecartin and Fitch have been making groundbreaking work since they first met at RISD more than a decade ago. Hugely well received in the art world, they have created single and multichannel videos, large-scale installations and densely layered soundscapes that have been exhibited everywhere from the Whitney and MOMA PS1 to the Venice Biennale. Earlier this spring their latest NYC solo show was on view at Andrea Rosen Gallery, which represents them. After watching bits of three recent films—some of which include animation overlays—students were full of questions. “Do you practice 48

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constraint?” one student asked. Grinning, Trecartin said, “I’m not really sure what you mean,” but then offered insight into their process. Highly collaborative, improvisational and experimental, the work is based on loose concepts and scripts but morphs during an editing process that is ultra malleable. Is the over-the-top makeup most of the performers wear meant to suggest “blackface”? No! Trecartin responded. The work is not trying to get at racial issues. How much do you edit? Where do you draw the line between casting and curating? Are you presenting cyborgs or are these supposed to be ‘real’ people? How much do alcohol and drugs influence the work? What’s the relationship of the music to the films themselves? Throughout the Q+A, Trecartin—supported by Fitch, who spoke less—did his best to explain their big and bizarre use of body language, the scripted and improvised lines and the unexpected content that emerges from giving non-actors lines to say without knowing where the narrative is going. In fine Dadaist tradition, Trecartin admits: “I like creating a place where logic doesn’t really hold—where things don’t add up.” top and far left: photos by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

DID SOMEONE SAY DADA?

COMICS LOVERS UNITE “All of this looks so much more polished than when I was here,” Sonny Liew 01 IL told Illustration seniors after examining the comic books they had laid out for him to review. “I’m not sure what [feedback] I can offer all of you. These are really cool.” The Malaysian-born artist lives in Singapore and returned to campus in April to talk with students while on a book tour of the US for his most recent graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2016, Pantheon Books), a virtuoso work of historical fiction about Singapore that has already earned rave reviews.

National Public Radio critic John Powers describes his mash-up of comics genres as “at once dizzyingly meta and deeply heartfelt, [reminding] me of everything from Maus and The Tin Drum to, believe it or not, Ulysses.” Ultimately, he says, it’s “probably the greatest

work of art ever produced in Singapore.” “Working in comics isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination,” Liew told students, speaking candidly about his experience over the past 15 years. Even with the positive reviews of his latest and most ambitious book yet, he takes it all in stride. “How long will it generate good buzz?” he asks. “You can’t really control those things.”

right and top left: photos by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

WORKING FOR EQUITY + INCLUSION

Hundreds of students of color, students with disabilities, LGBTQIA students and allies from the RISD and Providence communities gathered at RISD twice in early April to call for a more diverse, inclusive and equitable environment on campus. Organized by the student group Black Artists and Designers (BAAD), the gatherings were moving and effective. “When we stand together, we can change anything,” noted Tony Petit 17 ID (above right) at the April 5 event. BAAD Vice President Chantal Feitosa 18 FAV (left) For timely campus news stories, go to our.risd.edu and risd.edu/news.

quietly explained her experience of feeling like an outsider on campus. “I have to remind myself every day that I actually deserve to be here,” she said. Together, Petit and Feitosa read a list of proactive changes students want to see made at RISD to help the community become more inclusive and supportive. Faculty also watched and discussed The Room of Silence, a short film produced by BAAD President Olivia Stephens 17 IL and directed by Eloise Sherrid 15 FAV to call attention to the experiences of marginalized students at RISD. “These students spoke the truth of their experiences with terrific power,” President Rosanne Somerson 76 ID said in response, “and I welcome the sense of clarity

and urgency that their voices have added to our commitment to this work.” Earlier this year, the president launched a Social Equity Action (SEA) group to focus on addressing issues of inclusion. “Our students are using their creative voices to plead for an institution where every student can expect and receive the same quality of education and where no student feels marginalized,” she said. “We must listen … and make real, lasting change at RISD.” // RISDXYZ

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MALCOLM GREAR 1931– 2016

“Not by design but through design, I have gained a life full of friendships, respectful affections and delightful collaborations—all born of my work, which…brings pleasure to my soul.” the late Professor Emeritus Malcolm Grear

NADE HALEY 1947– 2016

Professor Emeritus Malcolm Grear, a renowned designer and devoted teacher who was deeply connected to the RISD community for more than half a century, died peacefully on January 24. He was 84. After arriving at RISD in 1960, the Kentucky native not only helped shape and build the Graphic Design department, he also developed an increasingly strong reputation as an international force in design education. In the process, he mentored thousands of Graphic Design alumni and built Malcolm Grear Designers (MGD), a world-class design firm in Providence. During his 38-year teaching tenure (from 1960–98), Malcolm was well known on campus for his wit, wisdom and wry commentary. He earned the John R. Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1986 and in the early ’90s, published the design textbook Inside Outside: From the Basics to the Practice of Design. From the start, MGD made a mark in the design world through memorable identity and print design work for national clients ranging from the US Veterans Administration to the Presbyterian Church, Vanderbilt University and the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA. The small studio is also well known for the many exhibitions and catalogues it has designed for the Guggenheim Museum, the RISD Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among many others. “I am a lucky man,” Malcolm said in recent years. “Not by design but through design, I have gained a life full of friendships, respectful affections and delightful collaborations—all born of my work, which in itself—in its daily texture and visual diversity—brings pleasure to my soul.” Malcolm is survived by his brother and sister, his wife Clarice, his children Joel Grear 83 GD, Amie Grear Ray 85 TX/MAT 90, Jason Grear, Leah Grear 88 PH, their spouses and partners, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Contributions in his memory may be made to RISD’s Malcolm Grear Endowed Scholarship Fund (online at risd.edu/give). 50

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Experimental and Foundation Studies Professor Nade Haley, who first started teaching at RISD in 1983, passed away in Brooklyn on April 21. She was 68. Nade taught Spatial Dynamics studios at RISD since 1993, when she joined the full-time faculty. Prior to coming to RISD she taught at Western Michigan University, Montgomery College in Maryland and Washington University in St. Louis, MO, where she earned an MFA in sculpture and printmaking. Nade’s practice and pedagogy were informed by the natural sciences, politics and a profound knowledge of and respect for materials and tools. Her passion for biophilia and lifelong fascination with the patterns created by the interplay of light and shadow emerged in her photography, prints, drawings and sculpture. Throughout her creative career, Nade lived in Brooklyn and spent summers in Nova Scotia. She earned fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and the NEA, along with multiple grants from RISD’s Professional Development Fund. Her work was exhibited throughout the country and was shown most recently in Brooklyn—in a 2016 group show at Sideshow Gallery and a December solo show at Art 101. Highly respected by her colleagues, Nade was a strong and generous educator known for her honest, knowledgeable and supportive approach to teaching.

Small Invasions, a solo show of recent sculpture and mixed-media work by Painting faculty member Jerry Mischak 73 PT, runs from June 2 through July 10 at Jim Kempner Fine Art in NYC. His paintings Two Chairs (2015, paper, synthetic paint, oil stick, vinyl tape, 35 x 25") and No Body Just Pizza (2015, paper, synthetic paint, oil stick, vinyl tape, 29 1/2 x 39 1/2") are but two recent examples of his engaging work.

Faculty Newsbits Opus chartaceum, a site-specific installation by Architecture Professor Gabriel Feld, is on view through June 19 in the XXI Triennale di Milano. He’s in Italy this spring serving as chief critic at RISD’s EHP in Rome.

MARIE CLARKE 1927– 2016 Marie Clarke, a well-loved professor emerita in Apparel Design who was deeply committed to working with and mentoring RISD students, died in Providence on April 26. She was 88. After earning a degree at Pratt in 1948, Marie designed for Max Schenk and Brothers in NYC, Bancroft Sports in Canada and Bennett & Co. in Newburyport, MA, among other design firms. During her career, she also led the design division at India Imports of Rhode Island. Marie first started teaching at RISD in 1972 and served as a full-time faculty member from 1976–2000. During her tenure, she deepened her love of Italian culture through two sabbatical years living there and Find more faculty news at our.risd.edu and risd.edu/about/news.

also served as chief critic of the European Honors Program (EHP) in Rome from 1997–99. Cited in Who’s Who of American Women, she volunteered for a number of nonprofit organizations and proved to be a strong role model for generations of young women. After retiring from teaching in 2000, Marie remained active in the RISD community, participating in Apparel Design critiques and attending the annual Collection runway show. She is survived by her husband Banice Webber, her son and daughter and their spouses, and two grandchildren.

Dean of Liberal Arts Dan Cavicchi has been appointed to the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities’ Board of Directors as of June. In early June Marcin Gizycki, a senior lecturer in the History of Art + Visual Culture, will accept an Award for Outstanding Contributions to Animation Studies at Animafest in Zagreb, Croatia. He’s being honored for his film STO[NE] S, which has been screening at festivals around the world this year. Architecture Professor Kyna Leski has been touring the country speaking about her book The Storm of Creativity, which has been getting great reviews since its release last fall. Suzanne Mathew, assistant professor of Landscape Architecture, spoke at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) conference this spring and at Keeping History Above Water, a gathering focused on the risks of sea-level rise to historic coastal communities.

In April Associate Professor and HPSS Department Head Damian White gave a keynote talk on Design Futuring in the Anthropocene at Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Bound and Unbound conference. // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

six degrees

// connecting through the alumni association

Horenstein on Animalia On March 6 alumni in the New England area gathered to hear photographer Henry Horenstein 71 PH/MFA 73 speak about his work at UMass Dartmouth’s University Art Gallery, where his solo show Animalia was on view through March 20. During the Q&A session that followed, the longtime RISD professor talked more about his equipment and process, noting that his evocative images of animals were taken at various zoos and aquariums between 1995 and 2001. He also pointed out that the technique of visually separating each animal from its usual environment allows viewers to experience the purity of each creature’s form along with details, patterns and abstractions.

Local Shows in LaProv On Saturday, May 7 RISD/RI alumni got together for two opening night events at Providence Picture Frame’s Dryden Gallery. Artists John Riedel 71 IL and Ida Schmulowitz 74 PT each spoke about their work (above left and middle) in Bringing the Outside In, which continues through July 2 in Dryden’s Grand Gallery. The festivities continued downstairs in the Red Gallery with the opening of Very Local, a show of landscape paintings (right) by Nick Jainschigg 83 IL , an associate professor of Illustration at RISD.

RISD WEEKEND BECKONS October 7 – 9

Every fall RISD’s alumni and parents’ weekend gets a bit better as we incorporate new ideas and suggestions from previous participants. This fall the recently reconceived RISD Craft exhibition will anchor the weekend again, along with a multifaceted celebration of 50 years of glass at RISD—with a new book to be released on Saturday by way of marking the milestone. Glass alum Tavares Strachan 03 GL will kick off the weekend with a presentation about his wonderful work and the entire campus will be alive with workshops, demonstrations, open studios, exhibitions, reunion dinners and, most of all, plenty of people you wish you saw more often. So please remind your friends and classmates, and plan to join us. Registration opens in late June. 52

HARVEY EARNS TOP AWARD At RISD’s June 4 Commencement ceremony, the Alumni Association is presenting its 2016 Alumni Award for Professional Achievement to Bunny Harvey 67 PT / MAT 71/ MFA 72 for her accomplishments as a gifted teacher and talented studio artist. As someone who reads the dictionary and the Encyclopedia Britannica as if they’re novels, Harvey not only earned three degrees from RISD but has spent her life exploring personal interests ranging from archaeology to particle physics to biology, sound and more that eventually find their way into her lush paintings. Her large body of work—made in the past half century—follows the twists and turns of her intellectual curiosity over the decades. To culminate her 40 years of teaching at Wellesley College, Harvey helped organize a comprehensive retrospective of her work that was on view last fall at the college’s Davis Museum. As an artist, educator and Rome Prize winner, she found the ideal match for her peripatetic mind in combining the slow process of making complex, multidimensional oil paintings with teaching and mentoring exuberant young thinkers eager to express their own thoughts through art.

For more information, be sure to check risdweekend.com as more details firm up over the summer.

CONNECTING @ NYCXDESIGN

photos by Thomas Arena 14 PH

On Sunday, May 15, alumni involved in the crazy abundance of activity going on as part of NYCxDesign paused to meet up with RISD friends at WantedDesign Brooklynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great space in Industry City. During the evening reception, President Rosanne Somerson 76 ID addressed the gathering and enjoyed speaking with fellow makers individually. Alumni and other guests happily experimented with a virtual reality viewing experience hosted by Evan Polivy 10 FAV of Drury Design Lab and watched projections of work by alumni showing at ICFF and the many related shows going on at venues all over the city (see next spread). While catching up with each other, alums also savored a fabulous spread catered by Court Street Grocers, the popular Brooklyn eatery run by Matt Ross 03 SC and Eric Finkelstein 03 SC.

//â&#x20AC;&#x2030;RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

RISD @ NYC xDESIGN In mid May a frenzy of NYCxDesign exhibitions and events brought art and design lovers and practitioners together throughout the city. In Chelsea and Brooklyn, in particular, the creative energy was palpable—fed in large part by scores of RISD alumni who design and make furniture, lighting, rugs, ceramics and a host of other functional (and fun) objects. Artist/designer/makers at all stages of their lives and practices showcased wonderful work at venues such as Collective Design, Sight Unseen Offsite, Surtex and WantedDesign (both in Manhattan and Brooklyn), among many others. Providing the primary pull, the massive International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Javits Center felt something like the sun around which the planets orbit. Dozens of RISD alums (and several students) brought their beautifully designed and executed work to this year’s ICFF, where they created inviting displays and manned their booths for four days running to speak with buyers, curators and other tastemakers about every aspect of the work they make. Although it’s impossible to share all of the enticing alumni work shown during NYCxDesign 2016, a small sample is shown here and in several other spots in this issue of XYZ.

For more images of RISD work shown this spring, go to risddesignweek.com . And please email alumni@risd.edu if you plan to show in any NYCxDesign 2017 venues so that we can make next year’s online guide even more comprehensive than this year’s.

// six degrees

clockwise from far left: Rui Li MID 16 of Sora Studio (with Kaichuan Wang MFA 15 FD) at WantedDesign Manhattan • Stephanie Housley 99 TX of Coral & Tusk at ICFF • chair by Jason McCloskey MFA 12 FD at WantedDesign Manhattan • ceramics by Felt + Fat (Wynn Bauer 08 CR) at Sight Unseen Offsite • the RISD student booth at ICFF • David Gaynor 04 FD at his booth at ICFF • people catching a break on work by Liz Collins 91 TX/MFA 99 at Sight Unseen Offsite • Lit’s new neon light by Alice Taranto 15 ID at WantedDesign Manhattan

photos by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

// RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

BUILDING ON RELATIONSHIPS Todd McKie 66 PT + Judy Kensley McKie 66 PT

Though artists Todd McKie 66 PT and Judy Kensley McKie 66 PT initially became buddies at RISD, they found their relationship “slipping into something else” while collaborating on a project with their friend Martin Mull 65 PT/MFA 67 (who subsequently moved on to a high-profile career as a TV and film actor and still makes wonderful paintings). The three were busy creating a student musical for Take a Break Weekend—an annual event that was big at the time—when things got steamy. “It was those late nights that did it,” Todd quips. It was spring of their sophomore year and he was taking a rare break from the studio to write the script for the show with Martin. Like Todd, Judy had settled on Painting as her major but unlike him, hadn’t actually found her medium. “My mind was never a painting mind,” she says now. “Even when working on 2D surfaces at RISD, I was better at thinking three-dimensionally.” Judy’s aha-moment didn’t actually come until after she and Todd had graduated, gotten married and were living in an almost empty apartment in Boston. “We couldn’t afford to buy furniture,” she explains. “But my

Todd’s recent paintings are as colorful and distinctive as ever. The two shown here are called Sunny with a Chance of Seafood (flashe on paper collage, 28 x 33") and Look Up and Live (flashe on canvas, 24 x 20"). One of Todd’s pieces is on view through September 18 at the deCordova Sculpture Museum in Lincoln, MA.

// six degrees

father had a drill press in his garage, so I taught myself how to put together simple wooden pieces using dowel joints.” Before long, Judy began carving and painting benches, tables, chairs and even bunkbeds for friends and family—and with every custom-made piece she got better, refining her skills and hungering to push further still. When a friend in California introduced her to cast bronze, she began working in both wood and metal—and producing twice as much work. “After that, she dropped painting like a hot potato,” Todd chimes in. “But seriously, her background as a painter has always informed the surfaces of her furniture.” “I don’t think the Painting degree hurt,” Judy agrees. “If I’d studied furniture design, I might have ended up making more conventional furniture instead of allowing [my practice] to evolve on its own.” As Judy pursued her newfound passion for making furniture, she developed a unique voice and shared studio space with another young furniture maker, Rosanne Somerson 76 ID, now president of RISD. Meanwhile, Todd was honing his own style as a painter and showing witty abstracts throughout the country. “There’s a veneer of humor in my work,” he says, “but I’m not dealing with humorous topics. “People say that you need only one good teacher,” Todd adds. “For me that was [late Professor] Richard Merkin MFA 63 PT, who was always very encouraging. I remember him telling me not to be too precious about my work— to get it out there at any price and then move along to the next piece.” As well-known artists in their own right, Todd and Judy have rarely collaborated, but they frequently give each other feedback and call themselves “our own best critics. That honesty is a great gift,” says Todd. “You don’t always get it from the outside world.”

Now, after more than a half century together and working in the studio, Todd says that he’s feeling less constrained than ever. “When you reach a certain point in your career,” he notes, “you’re up for trying anything in any medium. I’m making sculpture, prints, drawings—and writing short fiction.” Both artists are also still busy with exhibitions. Todd’s solo show at Gallery NAGA in Boston just closed in late May and Judy has one coming up this fall at the same venue. “In fact, we should be working right now!” Judy says. And with that they’re both back at it—making separate work together. Beautifully beastly work by Judy such as Duck Bowl (2010, bronze) and Horse Andirons (2010, bronze) shows her exceptional expressive qualities and exquisite craftsmanship.

A PLACE OF PROMISE by Mike Fink Professor of Literary Arts + Studies

Otto Reyes celebrates and collects the arts and crafts of his Puerto Rican neighbors— including many RISD alums. He keeps their drawings, paintings, sculptures, jewelry items and toy designs in cabinets, files and on shelves and tables—and shows me his fabulous treasures graciously and knowledgeably. My host for the day, Fernando Abruna BArch 74, brings me to Otto and a group of architects charged with the job of putting up the controversial— and colossal—statue of Christopher Columbus in Arecibo. It has been a long journey for the monument to the celebrity admiral, both in time and in space, but the complex commitment will be completed—and dedicated— sometime soon, which will evoke amazement, admiration, astonishment and aggressive protests. Next on my personal engagement list for my visit to the creative core of this island uncertain of its future is a cocktail party for RISD grads— the very first such gathering in Puerto Rico—in the studio home of jewelry designer Jeannette Fossas MFA 84 JM, who was recently commissioned by the government to present a necklace to the Queen of Spain. She combines a showplace with a workspace and a wee kitchen with an ice box that chills the champagne I have brought. I have another reason to visit this—what is it? A possible state? An

independent country? Maybe still a territory or perhaps a commonwealth?—place: to feed the pigeons (palomas in Spanish) in a rededicated park meant to welcome the bird that symbolizes peace, gentleness and survival skills. Amara Abdal BArch 13, a founder of our campus Pigeon Club, first told me of Pigeon Park. Fernando and I also made our way to the historical sites of Viego San Juan and to shop a bit in old San Juan and visit the restored dwellings that call out the history and the mix of emotions and memories. He took me to a slim bright yellow portal to a skinny homestead crammed into the alleyway space between two ancient buildings. Fernando and his wife Margarita—both architects who share an office and practice focused on sustainability—have restored the two-centuries-old residence into a serene retreat with a wall-length library of books, mostly about architecture, but also containing the literary works we share among our interests. I found both the poetry of Robert Frost as well as a tiny edition of Walden—Henry David Thoreau’s celebration not of travel but of staying put within a tight but philosophical community. “Our cultural roots mix indigenous Taino genes with the European, so we are both tolerant and arrogant,” Fernando explains. The father of one of my former students, who heads a local school of architecture in Ponce, invited me to visit his college, which is looking for advice on how to expand its curriculum with more design offerings. Last year his son Gonzalo Badilla MArch 15 took my Birds and Words elective. “At RISD I enjoyed learning to draw and use my hands to make things,” Gonzalo says, “while here we are proud mostly of the advantages of computer technology.” Between Wintersession and the start of spring semester, you need a bit of a break. The talents, thoughts and skills of our Puerto Rican alumni bring happiness, harmony and humanity to this place of promise. // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

SPARKING CHANGE IN THE FIELD

2 x 4 cofounders Susan Sellers 89 GD, Michael Rock MFA 84 GD and Georgianna Stout 89 GD are happy to have founded a new endowed scholarship at RISD. Their Vanishing Point wallpaper (top) for Prada and collateral for Pérez Art Museum Miami (right) are but two of the many inspiring projects they’ve contributed to the design world in recent years.

// who’s giving to risd + why

“RISD played a significant role not only in bringing us together, but in making us fearless in the pursuit of our shared vision and desire to advance the cause of design,” say the founding partners of 2 x 4, a multidisciplinary design studio based in New York. With that in mind, co-directors Michael Rock MFA 84 GD, Georgianna Stout 89 GD and Susan Sellers 89 GD hope to further contribute to the field by helping to make RISD accessible to a wider range of talented artists and designers through the newly established 2 x 4 Endowed Scholarship at RISD. Given that “the design industry is too uniform,” Rock explains, “we hope this scholarship will bring more diverse voices and perspectives to the table.” When 2 x 4 first coalesced in the early 1990s, Rock, Stout and Sellers set out to develop a different kind of design practice—one that questions cultural ideas through the lens of design. As Sellers explains, they created “a kind of laboratory where we could make theoretical ideas operational in the real world. We also wanted to work in commerce and culture simultaneously, to think globally and be media agnostic—to build a supermarket, not a boutique.” After 25 years, three studios and working with hundreds of designers on thousands of projects, 2 x 4 is still pursuing the same ideas but at a radically different scale—all while staying “true to our mission,” says Stout. “We work all over the world, have amazing, collaborative clients and continue to think about how our ideas can advance the cause of design.”

In February, when Rock returned to RISD to lead a weekend workshop for Graphic Design grad students, he discovered that “it was great to be back,” he says. “I found the students to be remarkably positive, engaged and talented.” During his visit, Rock also delivered a talk focused on the cultural evolution of the screen, tracing its development from the first storefront plate-glass windows through the big screens at movie theaters to the multiple small screens we all engage with today, which, he pointed out, end up filtering and framing our understanding of the world. He also spoke about 2 x 4’s incredible array of innovative projects with such clients as Prada, Nike and the Guggenheim Las Vegas, and noted that his own 2D design ideas often come to life at 2 x 4 as animated collages that form a kind of immersive, cinematic wallpaper. “I’m interested in looking from multiple directions and also playing with questions of scale,” he explains. Though it’s tough to imagine how they find time to do it all, the three 2 x 4 principals remain deeply engaged in and committed to their work beyond the studio. In addition to his writing practice—which includes regular contributions to The New York Times Magazine—Rock is also director of the Graphic Architecture Project at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Sellers teaches graphic design at Yale School of Art and is head of design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Our partnership provides each of us with the

top: photo by Ricky Zehavi

impact

Sweet Space for Great Work From the moment the ISB Paper Gallery opened last fall, the fourth-floor space in the newly renovated Illustration Studies Building has offered an inviting spot for students to pause and explore work on view in shows ranging from Telling Stories last fall to Major Arcana this spring. It also offers a quiet spot to sit and talk with faculty and friends. Thanks to Trustee Erica Di Bona, her husband Vin Di Bona and her daughter Jamie Goldstein 11 PT, who contributed the gallery in memory of the well-loved Foundation Professor Al DeCredico 66 PT, the space allows students in the most popular major on campus to share their work with each other and the entire RISD community.

“2 x 4 is a bit like RISD. We relish the combination of irreverence, humor and hubris that surfaces from our creative morass.” Michael Rock MFA 84 GD

top: photo by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH | far right: photos by Thad Russell MFA 06 PH

freedom to pursue personal interests inside and outside the studio,” notes Stout, who continues to collaborate with her husband David Weeks 90 PT (see page 72) on his own thriving 3D design studio and storefront in Tribeca. All three designers look back on their years at RISD as formative ones and the basis for their ongoing strategy of challenging expectations. “We have a large family of friends from RISD with whom we collaborate in different ways,” says Rock, adding that they love meeting and working with fellow alumni whenever possible. “2 x 4 is a bit like RISD,” he adds. “We relish the combination of irreverence, humor and hubris that surfaces from our creative morass.”

Valuable Connections RISD’s annual Scholarship Luncheon offers a great opportunity for students who benefit from scholarships and the donors who make those scholarships possible to actually meet in person. Conversations are lively and animated, and the appreciation on both sides is heartfelt. At this year’s event on May 6, scholarship recipients thanked the more than 60 contributors in attendance for their valuable support.

For more on this alumni-owned studio, go to 2x4.org.

// RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

looking back

// changes over time

TEST OF NERVES Though it’s unclear who actually cooked up the idea of requiring prospective students to submit drawings of bikes as part of the application process, a trail of typed “memorandum” docs from way back when offers a few clues. In 1955 the Admissions Committee bemoaned the fact that “our art aptitude test— the chair drawing” then in use was a “relatively unsatisfactory” means of “predicting performance in drawing or design courses.” By 1970 those deciding these things required “three defined but unproctored drawings” as part of the application process. By 1973 the Admissions Committee wanted “three pencil drawings with the subject matter of two specified—a ‘bicycle’ and ‘shoes’—and a third of optional subject matter.” To get into RISD you still need to submit original drawings made by hand—using a graphite pencil or any dry or water-based medium, or a combo of both—but you don’t necessarily need to draw a bike. The other option is this: “Create a drawing instrument or tool. Make a drawing with the instrument you have created.” Anyone interested in giving it a whirl for old times’ sake?

clockwise from above, bike drawings as submitted by Beth Humphrey 07 JM, Joann Huang 16 ID, Lawrence Quigley 89 PT, Laura Zuñiga Leyendecker 90 GD, Liz Eddins 00 GD, Oskar Kjörneberg 00 ID and Kate Register 89 PT

“I just found this when cleaning out my parents’ garage. It’s so bad that even the silverfish wouldn’t eat the paper it was drawn on.” Lawrence Quigley 89 PT

// RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

moving forward southpaw leftie a left-handed person

// undergraduate class notes

right

a left-handed person and/or a political liberal

the dominant hand for the majority of people (and oddly enough, the word for ‘correct ’ in English)

Emiko Davies 02 PR Florence

Jason McCloskey

Jenny Chou BArch 04 Catherine McMahon BArch 03 Ahti Westphal BArch 04 Beijing

MFA 12 FD

Denver Manny Flaherty 04 ID Maine

Saba Qizilbash MA 04

Dubai Sonny Liew 01 IL Singapore

Carol Anthony 66 PT Santa Fe

Pia Camil 03 PT Mexico City Patchi Dranoff 15 ID Ghana

“The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.” Jacob Bronowski, 20th-c British mathematician

opposable thumb one of the most essential tools an artist has

thumbs up

middle finger an equally important means of expression

horn fingers

fingers crossed a lovely sign of hope in the western world (but signifying ‘lady parts’ in Vietnam)

index + middle fingers

signals great/good work! for English speakers (but in Thailand, Bangladesh and elsewhere, it’s like sticking your tongue out)

rock on, man! (or in the Mediterranean: ‘cuckold! your wife’s cheating on you’)

= peace, baby (but started as the sign for ‘victory!’ during WWII + if the outside of the hand faces an Australian or British viewer, it = the middle finger)

47 nerves

27 bones

touch

the magic # that makes our fingertips so sensitive 62

the # that contributes to amazing dexterity in our hands

a sense that’s invaluable to makers

Eleanor Dixon Stecker 65 PT In April Eleanor (eleanordixon steckerart.com) exhibited work in a solo show at the Jewish Educational Alliance in Savannah, GA, near where she lives in Barnesville, GA. Over the course of her 50-year career, she has worked as a commercial illustrator, art director, teacher, graphic designer, painter, watercolorist and portrait artist. Eleanor’s most recent paintings focus on horses and the connection people feel to them.

1947 In a note sent from her “incredible retirement village” in Bedford, MA, Grace (Murray)

Stergis AD writes that after 25 years of making pastel paintings she’s enjoying the challenge of creating abstract work with acrylics. She shows her work regularly and is pleased that one of her pastels is permanently on view in the community’s library. “I loved every minute while at RISD,” she writes, and “do wish I could join events in Providence.”

1954 In addition to his professional practice as an attorney and architect emeritus, J. Norman Stark IA teaches and runs webinars on construction claims law. Based in Cleveland, OH, he also writes a regular

Elizabeth Ginsberg 64 TX A trip to the Loire Valley in France inspired the 6 x 6" handcolored digital prints Elizabeth (elizabethginsberg.com) made for 6x6x2016, a hugely popular international small works show and fundraiser to benefit the Rochester [NY] Contemporary Art Center. This year’s sales exhibition runs from June 4 through July 17. Elizabeth is based in West Orange, NJ.

column called Legally Speaking that appears on his site jnormanstark.com.

1955 Earlier this year, David Seccombe PT exhibited three wall-to-wall sculptural installations and 68 related paintings in a solo show at the new Westbeth Gallery and Project Room in NYC, where he lives.

1963 Helen Webber AE (Kentfield, CA) recently launched The Art

Randy (Halsey) Frost 59 GD Rocky Trail was among the 86 works selected from nearly 1,000 submissions for inclusion in Quilt National 15, a juried biennial exhibition on view for four months last spring and summer at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, OH. Randy lives in Dorset, VT. Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

for Peace Project as a platform for exploring all facets of peace—from environmental to social justice issues. Through the site she hopes to bring together art and artists for a series of traveling exhibitions.

1964 Though photography was prohibited on February 8 when the late Vincent “Buddy” Cianci lay in state in Providence City Hall, police allowed Elissa Della-Piana IL to make pen-and-ink drawings that captured the crowd of citizens and friends waiting to pay their respects to Providence’s notorious former mayor.

1966 50th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016 Carol Anthony PT (see page 9)

1967 Thread-on-fabric work by Vermont-based artist Deidre Scherer AE (dscherer.com) is included in a 34-panel book prototype she created with poet Christina Isobel and in the documentary film Holding Our Own: Embracing the End of Life. The latter features Deidre sketching at the bedside of hospice patients in Brattleboro, VT.

Karen Moss 66 PT Polka Dot Robot (2015, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 36") is among the paintings on canvas and mixed media collages included in What’s Next, Karen’s March solo show at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ MCLA Gallery 51 in North Adams, MA. In February she christened her new studio space (karenmoss.com) in Allston, MA with an open house and pop-up sale.

Last fall a one-man show of work by Alden Cole AP (consciousworldart.com) was on view at The Watermark in Philadelphia, where he lives. The exhibition featured recent landscape paintings and a retrospective of fashion illustrations from his career in NYC in the 1970s. Judy Kensley McKie PT + Todd McKie PT (see page 56) // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

George Delany 69 GD My Computer Life is among the acrylic-on-whiteboard pieces from the series My Life on view in the 2016 Invitational Exhibit, which ran in February and March at Imago Gallery in Warren, RI. George also exhibited large oil-on-canvas work and was pleased that one of his paintings sold at the opening. He lives in Rehoboth, MA.

Mary Curtis Ratcliff 67 AE Three Clouds (2016, pigmented inkjet print on milky acetate, steel monofilament, 27 x 42 x 16") was among the work on view in Full Circle, a solo show that ran earlier this spring at Mercury 20 in Oakland, CA. As an artist-member of the gallery, Mary also showed work in the Mercury 20 @10 anniversary exhibition earlier this year. In March she participated in Q+A sessions after screenings of Here Come the Videofreex, a new documentary about the experimental video collective she helped found in 1969. The documentary was shown for a week at the IFC Center in Manhattan and later in the month opened at the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco. It got great reviews in The New York Times, The Village Voice and The Wall Street Journal.

A quarter of the proceeds from work sold at Oil Paintings by Pamela R. Tarbell, a recent solo show at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, were donated to the hospital’s art program. Pam Tarbell AE (pamtarbell. com) lives in Concord, NH, where she has run the Mill Brook Gallery & Sculpture Garden for the past two decades. Her painting Marsh Kaleidioscope #1 won “Best in Show” in a recent show at Milton [MA] Art Center.

1968 Last fall Providence-based artist Kenn Speiser SC installed a colorful, contemporary, eight-foot-tall steel sculpture called Mother & Child on a site he selected near Women & Infants Hospital. Commissioned by the city of Providence as part of its I-195 64

// undergraduate class notes

redevelopment project, the piece is a reinterpretation of a series of wooden sculptures Kenn created more than 20 years ago—inspired in part by road construction iconography and kachina dolls found in the US Southwest.

In 2013 Seaver Leslie 69 PT/ MAT 70 and Dale Chihuly MFA 68 GL completed a project they had begun at RISD 39 years earlier: a series of glass cylinders with images. With the help of artists Flora C. Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick, Seaver’s fragile glass drawings inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses were affixed to Dale’s

glass vessels. The work was shown at Dublin Castle in Ireland during the summer of 2014 and premiered stateside last fall in an exhibition at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Judith Unger SC (judithunger. com) showed her ceramic works in the Arts Connect 2015 Juried Members Show at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, VT, where she lives.

Jennifer Davies 68 IL Cast Rocks (pigment on cast handmade paper, 26 x 29 x 5") is among the work Jennifer (Branford, CT) exhibited in Small Immensities, a March solo show at Cheshire [CT] Academy. Last fall she also exhibited bird netting dipped into pulp and handmade paper at Made/Aware, the Surface Design Association’s Craft and Concept Intensive conference at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN.

1969 Going to Sea, a solo show of paintings by Ed Baranosky PT, was on view in April at the Lucsculpture Gallery in Toronto, where he lives. Blue Smoke, a solo show of intimately scaled landscape images by John Dilg PT, ran at the Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee, WI from November to early January. A professor of painting and drawing at the University of Iowa, John lives in Iowa City. Last fall powerHouse Books published A Last Glance: Trading Posts of the Four

top left: photo by Dana Davis

1967 continued

Corners, a book by Ed Grazda PH (West Tisbury, MA) about Native American trading posts. It features his photographs from the 1970s along with work made in the past five years.

at the Corning [NY] Museum of Glass.

1974 Chris Frantz PT (see page 3)

Milo Winter 68 PT + Margery Fischer-Winter 69 PT A two-person exhibition running from June 8 – July 22 at ArtProv Gallery in Providence will feature Milo’s recent watercolors — like Heavy Water with Steps (above, 2016, watercolor, 12 x 16") — along with wall sculpture and paintings. Inspired in part by a career in knitting and her daily walks through Providence, Margery will show abstract constructions like this one, #5 Urban Landscape Bricolage (left, knitted, felted wool, techno-fibers, human and synthetic hair and acrylic paint, 42 x 72").

a solo show that ran at the Maine Jewish Museum in Portland from mid March to early May. Henry is based in Islesford, ME, but maintains a studio in Sharon, VT.

1970 Two new paintings by Andrew Stevovich PT (andrew stevovich.com) were included in The Manoogian Collection, Two Centuries of American Art, an exhibition on view at the Lighthouse ArtCenter Museum in Tequesta, FL from November to March. Based in Northborough, MA, Andrew is represented by Adelson Galleries and had work in the Director’s Selection show at Adelson’s Boston gallery in February.

1971 45th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016 In 2015 Viviane de Kosinsky IL (dekosinskyart.com) was elected a signature member of the Miniature Artists of America and earned an Award of Excellence from the World

Federation of Miniaturists. She lives in Falls Church, VA and maintains a thriving practice, working from her studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in nearby Alexandria. Earlier this spring, work by Gail Whitsitt-Lynch PH (whitsitt-lynch.com) was featured in Facets of Ourselves, a solo show at Imago Gallery in Warren, RI. Last September she joined curator Ron Potvin to discuss an exhibition at the historic John Nicholas Brown Center in Providence, which centered on her sculpture BitterSweet. They spoke about the intersection of art and history at WSPIC Arts in East Providence, where Gail lives.

Jonathan Kaplan CR has worked as a potter, university professor, ceramic designer, factory owner and mold and model maker. For the past nine years, he has run Plinth Gallery (plinthgallery.com) in Denver, where he lives. His studio practice focuses on slip-cast porcelain—notably teapots— and in 2015 he was elected to the International Academy of Ceramics.

Plein Air Abstractions, a show of work by C. Richard Kattman BLA (Holliston, MA), was on view from May 11 through June 3 at ArtSpace Gallery in Maynard, MA. In December Saatchi Art focused on his painting Magic Mountain as part of its online Artist of the Day series, which is shared widely via social media.

In 2015 Susan Griffin PT became a board member at Ed. Arts, a nonprofit that helps aspiring and emerging artists avoid or manage student loan debt and provides debt relief for established artists. Susan leads marketing efforts for global branding and marketing consultancy BrainJuicer and lives in NYC with her husband and daughter. William Pfahl PT (see next page)

Elizabeth Resnick 70 GD/MFA 94 Developing Citizen Designers (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), a new book Elizabeth edited to highlight best practices, is aimed at helping students, educators and designers practice in a socially responsible and ethical manner. A professor of graphic design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she lives in Chestnut Hill, MA.

Toots Zynsky GL, a Providence-based artist best known for her distinctive heat-formed filet de verre (glass thread) vessels, was the first of two 2016 Specialty Glass Artists-in-Residence

1973 Henry Isaacs PT (henryisaacs. com) showed a collection of new paintings in Gatherings,

Rosalyn Richards 69 PT Rosalyn’s etching Veiled (12 x 10") was included in the 2016 Delta National Small Prints Exhibition held in January and February at the Bradbury Art Museum in Jonesboro, AR. Three of her other recent prints were also included in the 18th North American Small Prints Exhibition, a winter show at the Purdue University Galleries in West Lafayette, IN. Rosalyn lives in Lewisburg, PA. Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

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David Hamsley 79 PH

William Pfahl 74 PT The Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington, PA hosted Bill Pfahl: A Retrospective last August after naming him one of its 2015 Artists of the Year. Based in Pittsburgh, Bill (bluecanvas.com/wpfahl) exhibited 20 years’ worth of plein air cityscapes, figures and portraits in pastel and oil, including Polish Hill and Millvale Sunset, August Humidty.

1975 Inspired by nature, folk art and patterning, Lisa Houck PR (lisahouck.com) continues to bring a wonderful sense of color and design to her prints, mosaics and ceramic works. Her work has been featured this

spring in a solo show that continues through July 1 at the Cambridge [MA] Arts Council’s Gallery 344 in City Hall. Both a watercolor and an encaustic painting by Rory Marcaccio 75 AE/MAE 79 (Vienna, VA) were selected for inclusion in the Potomac Valley Watercolorists Second Annual Exhibition, a juried members show last November at the Workhouse Art Center’s McGuireWoods Gallery in Lorton, VA.

digital prints at Nude Nite Tampa, a pop-up event held in a warehouse in Tampa, FL and showcasing nude-centered artwork along with body painters and burlesque performers. Using her RISD and MIT training, Shelley builds, choreographs, lights and renders electronic marionettes with state-of-the art technology that blurs the line between simulation and reality. She’s based in Winter Park, FL.

1976

1977

40th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016

In 2014 Ellie Baker SC co-created the book Crafting Conundrums: Puzzles and Patterns for the Bead Crochet Artist with her frequent collaborator Susan Goldstine. Published by CRC Press, the book incorporates high-level math problems and ideas into instructions for making intricate, colorful beaded jewelry. The artist and

In early March Shelley Lake IL (shelleylake.com) showed two

Rhonda (Schneider) Wall 78 PT Solar Panel Robot, Telephone City & IED Detection (detail, 2015, paint and collage on board, 36 x 96") is among the paintings shown in Everything Happens at the Same Time, Rhonda’s winter solo exhibition at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA. She lives in Easton, PA.

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computer science researcher lives in Lexington, MA. The Twin Cities PBS media service Next Avenue recognized Roz Chast PT (Ridgefield, CT) as one of its 50 2015 Influencers in Aging in the caregiving category, citing her bestselling graphic novel Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? for “[striking] a universal chord for anyone who has cared for an older adult.” Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs, a solo show that originated last year at the Norman Rockwell

To Disco, with Love (Flatiron Books, November 2015) uses album art to trace the evolution of disco from its roots in soul, Latin and jazz to its heyday in the late ’70s and early ’80s. David shines a spotlight on the musicians, performers, photographers and illustrators who made disco memorable. Now living in NYC, he says his memories of dancing with his RISD friends are some of the best of his life.

Museum, is on view through September 5 at the Museum of the City of New York on the Upper East Side. Sculpture by Carol Peligian IL was on view at the beginning of the year in Atopos, a solo show at LIFE Gallery in NYC, where she lives and works.

Missy Mohn Schwartz 75 SC Hope and Rest (wood panel, mixed media, torn papers and acrylic paint, 48 x 48 x 2" each) are part of a triptych AtlantiCare Hospitals commissioned for its newest building at the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Pomona, NJ. In creating the work, Missy (missymohnschwartz.com) focused on the idea of “healing through nature.”

DIALOGUE AROUND DISPLACEMENT Ana Flores 79 PT Every time Ana Flores 79 PT opens a can of Bustelo espresso, the aroma immediately takes her to another place, making her think of her Cuban abuela (grandmother). “When you lose something as sweeping as your country you grasp for remnants—old family photographs, a cracked tea cup, a piece of jewelry,” the Cuban refugee says. “All it takes is a good cup of cafe con leche or homemade black beans for the forgotten island to expand inside me. I close my eyes and see the royal palms dancing and smell the sea. The French have a word for this taste of a condensed ecology — they call it terroir.”

Sarah Haskell 76 TX Unhinged #3 (2015, hand-dyed/-woven linen, rayon, handspun paper, buttons, beads) is part of Sarah’s ongoing series aimed at comprehending the inevitability of impermanence and loss. In January she earned an Artist Resource Trust grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation to help support Well Used, Well Loved, a community art project that explores connections between age and beauty. More than 40 households from London to Oregon are participating in the six-month project.

1978 Paintings by Karen Hackenberg PT (Port Townsend, WA) were included in the traveling exhibition Environmental Impact, which wrapped up an eight-month tour in April, and in the online exhibition Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint, which launched on Earth Day. Her oil painting The Floating World was included in a fall group show at Willamette University’s Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem, OR. Genesis Tree, an installation Valerie Hird PT (valeriehird. com) made from crowdsourced origami birds, boxes and cubes, was on view from March through early May at Nohra Haime Gallery in NYC. Valerie lives in Burlington, VT. Karten Design, the firm headed by Stuart Karten ID (karten design.com), is partnering with the University of Southern California’s Center for Body Computing on its Virtual Care Clinic. The firm is focusing

on creating client-centric solutions for the clinic, which uses technology such as wearable and implanted sensors to provide on-demand access to healthcare. Stuart also led a panel discussion called Home Sweet Home: the Health Hub of the Future at SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX. Spence Kass BArch has made a significant impact on the built environment of his hometown of Philadelphia, PA in the 25 years since he formed his firm

Oren Sherman 78 IL A year in the making, Oren’s new carpet collection for Brintons hit the market in January. Called Blokwerk, the collection references the de Stijl movement and coordinates with a bedding collection for Standard Textiles and a wall covering collection for Koroseal Studio. Oren (orensherman. com) teaches at RISD and says that his color exploration in illustration led to his fascination with patterns in textile work.

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

Kass & Associates. Last fall a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer detailed his corporate and residential work as well as his emphasis on collaboration and preference for design based on local vernacular. Last fall Susan Osgood PT (Brattleboro, VT) showed a painting in Small Works 4, a group exhibition at the Jeffrey Leder Gallery in Long Island City, NY.

With the refugee crisis in Europe very much in the news and on her mind this past year, Ana says she has “been thinking a lot about the concept of terroir as a coping mechanism for displacement.” This primal connection between memory and the sense of smell inspired the Rhode Island-based artist to create Café Recuerdos (Memories Café), a handmade coffee cart being used in and around the Providence area as a means of inviting local Latinos to sit down over a cup of coffee and share stories about their individual homelands, heritage and cultures. Commissioned by Rhode Island Latino Arts, the project has garnered a number of awards and was included in this spring’s Latino Americans, an arts program sponsored by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. Recycled cans on the cart are painted with portraits and vignettes inspired by oral histories from Marta Martinez’s book Nuestros Raices. “Cafe Recuerdos is organized around the basic social rituals of making and drinking coffee,” Ana explains. “Coffee can be a memory catalyst for where we came from but drinking it together with others can also be an important ritual to help settle us into our new homes.” Noting that her traveling cart “creates a space for public engagement and celebrating Latin heritage,” she adds that even though she left Cuba decades ago, she continues to “find this public dialogue about what place means to displaced people to be very important.” // RISDXYZ

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Donald Friedlich 82 JM Donald’s jewelry has been added to the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He was one of just eight Americans invited to exhibit recent work—like Butter/Fly Brooch (2014, wood, paper, laser engraved pearl, 14k gold, 4¾ x 1¼ x 1½") and Celery Brooches (2014, glass, 14k gold findings, 6 x 1¼ x ¾") — in Schmuck 2016, an international jewelry exhibition in Munich, Germany. In addition to lecturing and exhibiting widely, this year Donald joined the Board of Directors of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund. He lives in Madison, WI.

1980 In 2014 Boston-based artist Bonny Katzman GD cofounded Black Lace Skin Jewelry (blacklaceskinjewelry.com) with jewelry designer Mary Anne Richman. Similar to tattoos, the American-made

line of temporary skin jewelry is made with elements like satin and Swarovski crystals and has garnered attention from online outlets like InStyle and The Grommet, a site dedicated to helping “undiscovered products” succeed.

In the winter show Metcalf+ Napolitano: If it’s not you, it’s me, Mara Metcalf PT exhibited work with her longtime partner, painter Maria Napolitano, at Rhode Island College’s Bannister Gallery in Providence, where she lives. Last summer she exhibited paintings and works on paper in a solo show at AS220 Project Space in Providence. Dan Sokol BArch (La Canada, CA) is taking on new and expanded responsibilities in his role as managing director and senior credit officer at Citi Private Bank, where he oversees the West Coast tailored loan portfolio for the bank’s ultra-high net worth clients.

1981 35th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016 Fred Lisaius IL (Bellevue, WA) showed acrylic on panel works in Search for Meaning, a February group exhibition that was part of a book festival by the same name at Seattle University. The show at the

university’s Vachon Gallery focused on art that probes the meaning of life.

1982 Though his primary medium is metalwork, Ricky Boscarino JM (lunaparc.com) exhibited ceramic work and paintings in shows at the Waterloo [IA] Center for the Arts last fall and at the Hal Bromm Gallery in NYC this spring. This summer he will host his first intern from RISD at Luna Parc, his wildly expressive home, studio space and nonprofit in Montague, NJ, where he offers workshops on making everything from tile mosaics to natural bread ovens.

From late February through March, a painting called Sisterface by Linda (Zigman) Kosoff PT (Woodland Hills, CA) was included in Hey Ladies, a group exhibition celebrating the one-year anniversary of Co-Lab Gallerie in LA. In January Frances Middendorf IL (Rome, Italy) showed perfume-inspired works in The Passion of Palladio: Scents and Sensuality of Venice at The Barn @Downing Yudain in Stamford, CT. In March her work was included in the annual members’ exhibition at the National Art Club in NYC.

1983 Animator and design director Orrin Zucker GD (Needham, MA) designed the animated visuals for Kelly Clarkson’s 2015 Piece By Piece Tour and Carrie Underwood’s 2016 Storyteller Tour. In the past he has created content for such artists as Nicki Minaj, Matchbox 20 and Peter Frampton. He currently works through Ebberts + Zucker and Ozone.

1984 Multidisciplinary artist Richard Goulis FAV, who has produced and directed more than 100 video profiles of RI artists for the NetWorks series, has earned a 2016 Merit Award

Edith Armstrong 81 JM In November Edith exhibited her Air-Frame collection of jewelry — elemental shapes rendered in 18-karat green gold and faceted black diamond beads — at the Philadelphia [PA] Museum of Art’s 2015 Contemporary Craft Show. She creates her custom designs at Folia (foliajewelry.com), her studio and shop in the Old Port section of Portland, ME, where she lives.

left: Anna earned the Cohn Family Trust Prize for Excellence in Glass at the Philadelphia [PA] Museum of Art’s 2015 Contemporary Craft Show. Earlier this year, she also exhibited recent work at The Barn @Downing Yudain in Stamford, CT and at Marshall Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. Anna (annaboothe.com) lives in Zieglersville, PA. 68

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top left: photo by Larry Sanders

Anna Boothe 81 SC

Lily Prince PT (see page 3)

Island in organic material collected there. Alexis also worked with hundreds of students from three nearby school districts, leading field studies that inspired paintings of their own. In December his work was also included in The Nature of Things, a three-person show at Salomon Contemporary in NYC.

Alexis Rockman: East End Field Drawings, a show of 93 drawings by Alexis Rockman IL*, ran from October through February at Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY. As an artist in residence at the museum, he rendered the flora and fauna of Eastern Long

In the two years since the publication of her wellreceived first novel, Annie Weatherwax SC (Roslindale, MA) has been enjoying life as a writer. This spring a film adaptation of her book, All We Had—edited by and starring Katie Holmes—

Steven Kenny 84 IL In January Steven accepted the 2016 Muse Visual Arts Award from the St. Petersburg [FL] Arts Alliance in recognition of his contributions to making the city an arts destination. The Lure (oil on panel, 16 x 12") was on view in the late winter beinArt Surreal Art Show at Copro Gallery in Los Angeles.

in New Media from the RI State Council on the Arts. The painting Still Life with Cookie Cutter (Hound) by Colleen Kiely PT (Medford, MA) is included in Breaking the Mold: Inspired by Innovation, a spring group show that runs through June 12 at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, MA.

Mia de Bethune 83 FAV Last spring Mia and four likeminded women came together in Catskill, NY to do a Catwalk Art Residency exploring the artistic, educational and therapeutic uses of environmental weaving. Their collective installation remained on view in the woods at the Catwalk Institute from May to September. Through the Kobbe Project, the women are now developing a therapeutic weaving curriculum based on their experience. Mia lives in Hastings-onHudson, NY.

premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC. Annie’s book was also a finalist in the Library of Congress’ Massachusetts Book Awards and she’s now writing a monthly guest column for Ploughshares on the connections between visual art and language.

1985 Poulin + Morris worked closely with Vassar College to develop a comprehensive environmental graphics, donor recognition and wayfinding program for its new 157,000-sf Integrated Science Center. Doug Morris GD is a principal of the NYCbased firm, which also won an award for Typographic

Lloyd Martin 80 PT Large Alloy (2013), a 92 x 130-inch oil on canvas triptych, anchored a monthlong solo show that closed on May 21 at CYNTHIAREEVES gallery at the MASS MoCA campus in North Adams, MA. Internationally known as a colorist, Lloyd makes rhythmically constructed paintings referencing the urban architectural surround of his Providence studio. Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

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Excellence from the Type Directors Club [TDC] for work completed for the Brooklynbased arts and media center BRIC House. Over the Hill and Around the World, a new book written and designed by Darby Roach GD, chronicles his ride of a lifetime—across three continents, through 19 countries and over 12,000 miles. In its first week, the book rose to #2 on Amazon’s cycling list. Jennifer Schab BArch (Santa Monica, CA) has been made a principal at Rios Clementi Hale Studios in Los Angeles, where she has worked since 1993. She now leads sustainable design efforts for the firm. In November and December Didi Suydam JM presented one-of-a-kind, hand-fabricated contemporary jewelry and digital imagery in Rock Collection, a solo show at the Jamestown [RI] Arts Center. She and her husband Peter Diepenbrock BID 84 continue to pursue their respective practices on the island of Jamestown. spring/ summer 2016

Johnny Li BArch 89 As cofounder and managing director of the multidisciplinary design studio Li&Co. in Hong Kong, Johnny is busy with projects related to architecture, interior architecture and luxury retail branding. Li&Co. recently unveiled a new look for L’ECOLE by Van Cleef & Arpels and developed its own line of furniture available from YILINE. Earlier this year Johnny’s first exhibition, The Dream of Making Gardens, was on view in Hong Kong.

Dick about crazed passion on a doomed 19th-century whaling ship.

award at the Boston Society of Architects’ annual gala for a plan for the Bamiyan Cultural Centre in Afghanistan, where the Taliban had destroyed two significant stone statues of Buddha in 2001. The firm also won a BSA Excellence in Craft award for the Rock Creek House, a private residence in Washington, DC, that called for an extraordinary level of technical expertise. Nader is dean of the Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union.

1987

Eric Meier 86 IL A series of positive reviews greeted the release of You Can’t Linger On (SoundCloud), the debut album from indie rock band Jets Can’t Land. Eric plays guitar, writes lyrics and sings lead vocals, lending the group its self-described “Sonic Pop Goodness.” By day he works at Bryant College in Smithfield, RI and after hours enjoys teaching through RISD | CE and spending time with his wife and two children.

1986 30th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016 Now represented by Aun Gallery in Tehran, NYC-based artist Farsad Labbauf ID (labbauf.com) is preparing for a solo exhibition there in 2017. Earlier this year he showed 70

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recent photographs in Blue Gold, a group show at Tehran’s Etemad Gallery, and was featured in a video interview on Le Film, an online art magazine. In January Nader Tehrani BArch and his firm NADAAA (nadaaa.com) accepted a 2015 Unbuilt Architecture & Design

In his fourth cover illustration for The New Yorker, Marcellus Hall IL (marcellushall.com) highlighted the unseasonably warm temperatures in and around his home turf in NYC over the holidays. The January 11 cover shows scantily clad

swimmers cavorting around an urban pool with a Christmas tree in the background. Eileen Ferara IL (eileenferara. com) showed her work in several exhibitions over the winter, including The Cure for Anything at Seton Hall University’s Walsh Gallery in South Orange, NJ, near her home in Jersey City. Featuring a mix of historical objects and contemporary art, the exhibition celebrated the 165th anniversary of the publication of the Melville classic Moby

Last fall Brooklyn-based photographer Melissa Zexter PH showed her work in Bold (Feminine), a group show at Marcia Wood Gallery: Midtown in Atlanta, GA. The show featured work by female photographers addressing the narrative of perception and representation of women in photographic imagery.

1988 In December Bruce Collins IL showed new paintings in Chapter 3: Inspired by Shakespeare, Dickens, and Poe: A Collection of Recent Work. The solo show took place at Maxine’s on Shine in Orlando, FL, where he lives. Monoprints by David Collins PT were featured in One of One, a late fall group show at Susan Eley Fine Art in NYC, where he

Erika Langley 89 PH A photojournalist based in Seattle, Erika wrote and photographed the cover story for the December 2015 issue of Washington Coast Magazine. The piece and her ongoing series focuses on a section of the state’s coastline presciently called Washaway Beach (washawaybeach.com), where the land is rapidly vanishing due to climate change.

lives. He was also one of four panelists to participate in Demystifying the Monotype, a discussion held in conjunction with the show. Anna (Atocha) Russell BArch is excited by her recent appointment as assistant manager of Yale University Properties in New Haven, CT, which manages the Ivy League university’s commercial sites as part of its Office of New Haven and State Affairs. LA-based artist Adam Silverman BArch is presenting a substantial body of new

Suzanne Laura Kammin 87 PT Suzanne (suzannekammin. com) has exhibited twice in NYC this year, showing Aftermath and other abstract self-portraits in the solo show I Am That at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts and participating in (Un)conditional Color, a group show at the Curator Gallery. She’s based in Newark, NJ.

Karen Harris 86 IL Through a residency at I-Park in East Haddam, CT, Karen rediscovered her love of painting last year. This spring she exhibited Away and other recent oil and watercolor paintings on view at both the BankRI Pitman Street Gallery and subsequently at its Turks Head Gallery, both in Providence. Karen works at RISD as a career counselor.

ceramic work that demonstrates a universe of signature forms and surface at Friedman Benda in Chelsea. The exhibition opened as part of the city-wide NYCxDesign events in May and continues through June 11.

1989 A 20-foot-long paper installation by Liz Jaff PT (Brooklyn) was included in I Will Go On..., a group show that ran from January through April at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA.

Georgie Stout GD (see page 58)

1990 The Moth and the Sun, a trilingual children’s book by

Philadelphia-based artist Gary Bernard IL, won a Gold Medal for best fable in the Readers’ Favorite 2015 International Book Awards, an online review platform. It was also a finalist in the Children’s Hardcover Picture Book category of USA Book News’ 2015 International Book Awards. This spring Boston-based artist Franklin Einspruch IL completed a two-month residency at the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts in New Berlin, NY. Last fall he showed paintings in the group show Abstracted at Uforge Gallery in Jamaica Plain, MA,

wrote pieces for The New Criterion and The Federalist, overhauled his website (einspruch.com) and contributed Ocean of Darkness to Ink Brick, a journal dedicated to comics poetry. Long interested in making durable, easy-to-assemble furniture, Rob Feinstein BArch doubled his workload a few years ago when he launched Soapbox (soapboxhome.com). Now, in addition to his work at Studio One Architects in Union City, NJ, he sells a range of tables, shelves and boxes that can be assembled in minutes without the need for tools.

Carolyn Eckert 86 GD In her visually rich new book Your Idea Starts Here: 77 MindExpanding Ways to Unleash Your Creativity (Storey Publishing, May 2016), Carolyn offers 75 specific questions, techniques and exercises to jump-start creative thinking. As an accomplished art director based in western Massachusetts, she’s passionate about type and designing books, magazines, logos and ads.

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

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spring/ summer 2016

GESTURAL MOVES

David Weeks 90 PT

David Weeks 90 PT celebrated the 20th anniversary of his NYC-based design studio this spring by moving from DUMBO to a new production facility in Bed-Stuy. In May he also introduced a fresh new lighting collection — his first product launch in roughly three years and his eighth line of sculptural lighting. space away from the scene in Brooklyn. Called Otto (eight in Italian), David’s “I want to be… seen on an international off-the-shelf designs for dimmable LED scale,” says the designer, who’s married pendants, fixtures and sconces push to fellow alum and designer Georgie his signature design language in a poetic direction. Despite their expanse — Stout 89 GD (see pages 58 – 59). Twenty years into it, David says it’s stretching as wide as 12 feet across — interesting to see how his business his suspended, tubular brass fixtures has grown, especially since there was feel light and gestural, as if they’ve been no “real plan” — other than to allow for sketched in midair. a “creativity-driven rather than salesDavid initially made his mark in the driven” evolution. design world with handcrafted furniture With Otto and his new production and jewelry, and larger-run products facility, he’s looking forward to having like his popular Cubebots. During a the opportunity “to make one-offs — 10-year “gallerist-artist kind of relationlike an artist’s proof.” At the same time, ship” with designer Ralph Pucci, the he hopes that his Tribeca store “will two created a strong collection of become more of an experimental laboralighting, upholstered furniture, side tory, where we can show an evolutionary tables and sculptural objects. line that would end with production But in 2013 David followed the urge pieces at reasonable prices.” to branch off, opening a showroom/ After all, he says, “design and art gallery of his own in the heart of Tribeca. “I used to live on Canal Street,” he points are just three inches apart from each other at this point anyway.” out, so returning to lower Manhattan to open a storefront was a way of circling For more on David’s work, go to back and giving himself some breathing davidweeksstudio.com .

Mariager: Shimmer (2015, watercolor and silkscreen on paper, 11 x 13½") was among the paintings shown earlier this year in My Scandinavia, Kamilla’s solo show at Trygve Lie Gallery in NYC. Last year she sailed on the Rylen—the same ship that her greatgrandfather, well-known nature painter Johannes Larsen, sailed on in the 1920s. Find more paintings inspired by her trip at kamilla talbot.com. Kamilla lives in Harpersfield, NY.

1990 continued Susannah Strong PT has earned a $25,000 Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation to support her work on Moth, a surreal graphic novel about twin girls separated at an early age. An assistant professor of art

Leah Oates 90 IL Leah’s photo series Transitory Space is included in Broad Strokes, a group show celebrating women artists that runs through June 5 at Pen and Brush Gallery in NYC. Last fall Leah helped raise funds for roughly 60,000 residents of homeless shelters in NYC through the 2nd annual LES Art Drive Benefitting The Bowery Mission at Station Independent Projects, the gallery she founded and directs. Katherine Daniels PT was among the artists who contributed work to the fundraiser.

at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI, the artist is “thrilled” to have won a vote of confidence in her work and the value of sequential art. In October Rizzoli published an eponymous, comprehensive monograph of the work of Eric White IL . Anthony HadenGuest, Robert Flynn Johnson, Daniel Rounds and Peter Coyote contributed text to the book about the Brooklyn-based painter, whose work is inspired by the golden age of Hollywood and obscure pop culture.

1991 25th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016 Brooklyn-based artist Rebecca Chamberlain AP (rebeccachamberlain.com) exhibited a series of paintings focused on the home as an asylum and place of healing in Homatorium, a December solo top left: photo by Robert Bean | far left: photos by Daniel Shea

Kamilla Talbot 90 GD

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Gabriel Kroiz BArch 91 Diamonds Light Baltimore, an outdoor installation commissioned by the city, was on view from March 28 to April 3 as Baltimore marked the one-year anniversary of the police killing of Freddie Gray. The large-scale LED structures changed from white to blue light at 10 pm, recalling last year’s citywide curfew and the blue light of police surveillance. Gabriel, who lives in Baltimore, created the piece with Mina Cheon.

and technology to make film and TV title sequences that stand out for exceptional quality and originality. Shine’s main title sequence for Turn:

Washington’s Spies was among the finalists in the Excellence in Title Design screening at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival in Austin.

Ilene Perlman 90 PH Kelly Booth 91 GD above: Last fall Kelly earned a First Place Artist of Distinction award in the 2015 Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP) Juried Art Exhibition, held at the 29 Palms Art Gallery in Twentynine Palms, CA. Based in Vallejo, CA, she created Spring Equalux, a 3-foot-square mixed-media print, to capture the equinox that occurred while she was an artist-in-residence at JTNP in 2013.

Last year Ilene traveled to Rwanda to document the coffee cooperatives in the Lake Kivu region of the country, focusing on a group of widows from the Rwandan genocide who had managed to expand 150 trees to 1,500 before a hailstorm wiped out half their crop. Late last fall the photojournalist showed highlights from her travels in Faces Behind Your Coffee at JP Licks in Jamaica Plain, MA, where she lives.

Rafael Attias 91 GD Raf’s new film My Emo Life premiered in March at the NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival in NYC. In the 48-minute piece, he sifts through his experience growing up in Venezuela in a family descended from both Sephardi Moroccans and Romanian Ashkenazi Jews. Raf teaches at RISD and has made his own family with Nikki Juen 90 GD, who also teaches and shares a design practice with him.

show at Galería Leyendecker in Tenerife, Spain. The lithography ink on fabric-wrapped board paintings are a result of splicing and combining photographs she took during visits to Richard Neutra’s VDL Research House in LA and other well-known sites. In January Liz Collins 91 TX/ MFA 99 (lizcollins.com) worked on a suspended painting and led a drawing project during Artist Studios at the Museum

of Arts and Design (MAD) in NYC. In March she transformed the MAD lobby and atrium into a knitting-and-weaving factory for Knitting Nation Phase 15: Weaving Walls. Liz also exhibited work in the recent shows FiberLicious at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Queer Threads (see page 46) at MICA in Baltimore. In March architect Bernard Khoury BArch, principal of DW5 in Beirut, Lebanon,

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

presented the Donghia Designer-in-Residency lecture at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Hosted by Otis College of Art and Design, the residency involves a one-week master class culminating in a public talk. In Praise of Planetary Time, a solo show of work by Mel Prest PT, was on view in February at b. sakata garo gallery in Sacramento, CA. She also exhibited in Project 9, a two-person show on the fallibility of the hand at c2c project space in San Francisco, where she lives. As the founder and creative director of the LA-based studio Shine, Michael Riley GD works at the crossroads of art, media // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

John Tabor Jacobson 94 PH After working for a year as an artist in residence at The Avenue Concept, a nonprofit in Providence dedicated to infusing the city with public art, John (JJ) presented the resulting body of work in Off & On the Wall, a spring solo show at the organization’s space in Providence. Ranging in size from 4 x 6 inches to 4 x 6 feet, his spray-painted pieces play with the idea of graffiti in progress outside the building and his own work on the gallery walls inside.

racism and excessive force in US law enforcement.

1993

1992 In April Richard Barlow PT (Oneonta, NY) discussed his work in conjunction with Elemental, the 64th Exhibition of Central New York Artists at Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute in Utica, NY. He made a 1,000-sf site-specific chalk drawing on blackboard paint for the exhibition.

Bo Joseph PT (bojoseph.com) exhibited work in two simultaneous shows at the McClain Gallery in Houston last fall: Bo Joseph: Souvenirs from Nowhere, a solo show of drawings and paintings, and Warp & Riff: Unraveling Rugs as Raw Material, a group show that also featured work by Michael Oatman 86 PT and

their late RISD professor and mentor Al DeCredico 66 PT. In 2014 SEEDS (seedscreations. com), a feature-length psychological art house horror film directed and produced by husband-and-wife team Owen Long PH and Younny Long (Yun-Jung Suh) PH, was selected for IFP’s No Borders program and was one of 10 films internationally to participate in the 2015 labs. Denyse Schmidt GD, who runs Denyse Schmidt Quilts (dsquilts.com) in Bridgeport, CT, has created a new collection called Eastham for FreeSpirit Fabrics. The eight designs in three colorways are inspired by the time she spent at her grandmother’s cottage on Cape Cod as a child.

Ann (Shin) DeVito 93 GD A freelance illustrator and designer based in NYC, Ann is also a huge dog lover who has been drawing and sketching canines with — and to entertain — her kids for years. In February, Penguin Books released Dog Love, a small-format 160-page hardcover that devotes a spread apiece to her portraits of selected breeds (plus a few wonderful mutts), with short descriptions of key characteristics of the canine in question. 74

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Last fall NYC-based artist Sonya Sklaroff PT (sonya sklaroff.com) celebrated the North American release of her artist monograph Sonya Sklaroff with an installation of new paintings at the Sofitel New York. This spring her solo show New York Portraits, Part V was on view at Galerie Sparts in Paris. After studying ID at RISD and furniture design as a grad student at Virginia Commonwealth University, Derek Taylor ID has launched a “career in another area.” He now makes and sells furniture, clocks and tabletop items through his site Object Works (object.works) and has been taking classes at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and closer to home at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. This spring Daryl Wells PT (Los Angeles) collaborated with the LA-based Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) and its Durón Gallery to curate an exhibition of art and media commemorating 25 years since the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles. The April exhibition included performances, workshops and panel discussions highlighting the ongoing prevalence of

By day Edward Artinian FAV is supervising animator/ director at Titmouse Inc. in Hollywood. By night he collaborates with a storyboard artist to run The Model Drawing Collective, a figure drawing workshop aimed at fostering creativity and networking among professional, student and novice artists.

1994 Garland of Skulls, a solo show of work by Christina Burch PR (christinaburch.com), was on view earlier this year at Voltz Clarke Gallery in NYC. She lives in Ann Arbor, MI. Though she earned a Continuing Ed certificate in scientific and technical illustration, Wanda Edwards CEC (Dartmouth, MA) has developed a mixed media practice based on torn paper paintings, some of which are included in Incite 3: The Art of Storytelling (Northlight Books, 2015). Courtney Garvin ID, a senior designer at Son&Sons (sonandsons.com) in Atlanta, recently completed a branding project for will.i.am and Coca-Cola that informs consumers about goods made from recycled materials. Her EKOCYCLE logo now appears on products such as Levi’s jeans and iPhone cases. In February Alyce Santoro CEC (alycesantoro.com) exhibited works with auditory and visual components in

exhibition at ArtWorks Downtown in San Rafael, CA. The works featured reflect and comment on architecture as a practice and a part of human experience. Single-channel video, mixed media works and sculpture by Joel Kyack PR (Scottsdale, AZ) were included in DOT DOT DOT DASH, a group show that ran from November to January at the Workplace Gallery Gateshead in London.

Do Ho Suh 94 PT Passage, the first major survey of Do Ho’s architectureinspired work in the US, is on view through September at the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati in Ohio. Earlier this year, his work was also included in Pure Pulp, a group show at Hamilton College’s Wellin Museum of Art in Clinton, NY. Do Ho divides his time between NYC, London and Seoul.

Soundings, a solo show at Eugene Binder in Marfa, TX. As director of the PhotoNOLA Festival (photonola.org), Jennifer Shaw PH oversaw the curation of over 40 exhibitions in her hometown of New Orleans in mid December. The three-day event marked the 10th anniversary of the festivities.

during C-sections, Jules Sherman ID has been accepted as a PhD candidate at Stanford’s Center For Design Research (CDR). This spring she presented her research and product designs at the Human Factors & Ergonomic Symposium in San Diego (April) and the Nursing Research Symposium at Stanford (June). Jules’ company Maternal Life, LLC is currently running clinical pilot testing for Primo-Lacto, a lactation support system she has designed to help mothers with premature infants. As an artist’s estate consultant for the Lucien Aigner

Collection, Boston-based photographer Jennifer Uhrhane PH (detailphoto.com) spent more than two years facilitating the recent acquisition of the photo journalist’s archive by the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale’s Beinecke Library and Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. Five years ago she had curated an exhibition of Aigner’s vintage photographs at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA.

1995 Earlier this spring Barry Beach SC (barrybeach.com) showed work in Architecture, a juried

TV and film director/producer and king of off-color comedy Seth MacFarlane 95 FAV kicked off the Boston Pops’ 2016 season by singing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in early May. He performed selected 1940s and ’50s American classics from his third album, No One Ever Tells You, released last fall. On July 10 Seth will perform with the BSO at Tanglewood, its summer home in the Berkshires.

1996 20th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016 In late November, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal magazine followed lighting designer Lindsey Adelman ID from home to work and all around NYC for its series Tracked. The story also noted her company’s expansion to include a new LA-based studio.

Deborah Forman 92 FAV Deborah’s new book Color Lab for Mixed-Media Artists (Quarto Publishing Group, 2015) offers exercises for exploring color concepts through paint, collage, paper and more. Based in Providence, she teaches at Wheaton and through RISD | CE.

In early February, Bloomberg News visited the NYC studio and spoke with Lindsey and the team—many of whom are also RISD alums—about production, studio life and the inspiration behind her renowned lighting designs. Freecell Architecture, the firm run by Brooklynites Lauren Crahan BArch and John Hartmann 95 Arch*, escaped the winter weather in NYC by embarking on a residential project in Portland Parish, Jamaica and consulting with a nonprofit in Haiti to develop a spiritual and community space in La Gonâve, a community on an island 30 miles across the bay from Port-au-Prince.

After working with a clinical group at Stanford Medical School to design safer products and procedures for labor, delivery and operating rooms

top left: photo by Brian Fitzsimmons

Ihab Nayal BArch 96 As a principal designer at LA CASA Architects & Engineering Consultants (lacasa.ae) in Dubai, Ihab has been busy designing private villas, a primary school combining themes from Granada’s Alhambra Palace with Disneyland and an island for Dubai World. He’s also completing a huge project: a 2,300,000-sf mixed use development known as the Dubai Wharf. Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

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Nick Felton 99 GD left: In PhotoViz (Gestalten, 2016), a fascinating new book released in April, Nick “uses a sprinkle of data, a dab of inspiration from infographics and a hell of a lot of beautiful photography to visualize data in an unfailingly, instantly engaging way,” as DigitalArts describes it. Among the photos the NYC-based designer selected to help show the power of photography in visualizing data is Come Full Circle by Agustin Munoz and Visualization of the Flight Path of Birds by fellow alum Dennis Hlysnky 74 FAV, who heads RISD’s FAV department.

parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

1997 In February Mark Soltysiak BArch was promoted to associate at Stantec Architecture in Boston, where he has

worked since 2012. For the past couple of years, he has managed the construction of a 196-unit apartment building known as Olmsted Place in Boston’s Emerald Necklace, the system of nine interconnected

Erin Walrath 00 IL Alignment (2015, book covers, wooden cases, 18 x 13 x 2") was among the works on view last fall in Erin Walrath: New Narrative at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson, NY. Erin chops and slices discarded book covers and combines them with wood and various other media to create her sculptural pieces. She lives in Roxbury, CT.

Last fall Matthew Szosz BID/MFA 07 GL (Oakland, CA) earned the third annual Irvin Borowsky Prize in Glass Arts from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, awarded to an artist whose work advances the field of contemporary glass art. In addition to a $5,000 award, it involves a residency and lecture at the university. Marilyn Yu SC (San Francisco) has created a new line of fashionable and functional motorcycle gear for women. Born out of her own dissatisfaction with unflattering motorcycle jackets of mediocre quality, Plutonium MOTO (plutoniumclothing.com) offers good-looking alternatives that allows riders to zip

Joseph Hart 99 IL Earlier this spring, Joseph exhibited recent work in a solo show at Romer Young Gallery in San Francisco, which represents him. SOHO House in NYC recently added his untitled graphite and oil crayon on paper piece (shown to the right) to its permanent collection. Based in Brooklyn, Joseph also teaches at RISD.

around safely and remove the armor from the lining when they arrive at their destination or need to pack their jackets for travel.

1998 Last fall Michael DiTullo ID, chief design officer at Sound United in Encinitas, CA, gave the keynote at the Thought At Work conference in Rochester, NY. He spoke about his own journey as a designer and what it means to shepherd radical organizational change in an industry ripe for transformation. In January AdForum lauded the new creative photo studio and media lab launched by DTE Studio (dtestudio.com), the firm Melissa Jones GD directs. The new 3,000-sf space in Manhattan’s Herald Square district will enable DTE to produce content for clients like luxury shoe designer Aquatalia and makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin.

1999 Earlier this year a single-channel video projection by Glen 76

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Baldridge PR was on view at The Annex at NYC’s Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, which represents him. For the piece, called Seer, the Brooklyn-based artist assembled still images

Takeshi Murata 97 FAV Last fall Halsey McKay Gallery in Easthampton, NY presented a series of Takeshi’s silkscreened drawings in a two-person show that was reviewed in ArtForum and featured by Observer Arts as one of 10 Things to Do in New York’s Art World. Based in Saugerties, NY, the artist continues to be influenced by the confluence of technology and nature that surrounds him every day.

Megan Biddle 00 GL Megan was one of four glass artists to exhibit in Hush, a visually and conceptually diverse show that ran from January 28 – April 24 at the Philadelphia [PA] Art Alliance. As glass faculty members at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, they began with a collective desire to see past the hyper stimulation of the digital age and focus on the analogue in their work, capturing the power of memory and reflection in particular. Glass alum Daniel Clayman 86 GL moderated a related panel discussion among the featured artists, including Sharyn O’Mara MFA 92 GD.

Smithsonian Design Museum in NYC.

Luis Recoder—was on view in February at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. In mid March they performed Dark Chamber Disclosure at REDCAT in LA.

Summer 2015 issue of this magazine). Tellart will accept the award at a gala event in October at the Cooper Hewitt,

The News & Observer in Raleigh, NC recently recognized Sarah Powers CR, the executive director of the city’s Visual Art Exchange, as among the new generation of leaders in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area known as the Triangle. Cited for her success as both a business leader and an artist, Sarah is credited with giving the VAE “unprecedented credibility in both political and artistic circles.”

2000 Tellart, the studio Matt Cottam BID and Nick Scappaticci ID founded in Providence 16 years ago, has earned the 2016 National Design Award in Interaction Design. With additional offices in Amsterdam, NYC and San Francisco, the team now includes a dozen alumni who love working together to create interactive products, installations and exhibitions for clients worldwide (see the feature story in the Spring/

Leah Tinari 98 PT Drawing inspiration from her own life in NYC, Leah combines trompe l’oeil, cartoon elements and hand-drawn text to bring to life a story by bestselling author Harlan Coben. Aimed at 4 – 8-year-olds, The Magical Fantastical Fridge (2016, PenguinRandom House) is the painter’s first children’s book and is partially inspired by the joy and chaos she’s experiencing as the mother of a young son.

shot with a motion-activated camera to make a “contemplative and fixating montage” of time-lapse animation.

Stations of Light, a solo show of work by Gibson + Recoder— aka NYC-based artists Sandra Lea Gibson FAV and

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

Nathan Miner 99 SC Earlier this year Nathan’s paintings and objects were on view in Decade, a solo show at Rafius Fane Gallery in Boston, where he lives. Concurrently, his painting Entanglement was featured in Groundswell, a group exhibition at the Museum of Art at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. // RISDXYZ

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Kristofer Henry 02 ID As owner of 44 Bikes (44bikes. com) in Lyndeborough, NH, Kristofer made this fat bike on commission for Whisky Parts Co. to showcase their 2016 product line at Frostbike, an annual industry gathering. The designer, welder and bike builder and connoisseur also does graphic and product design through his studio Department of Shred.

A story in the Sunday New York Times (3.5.16) focused on The City, a 6 x 30-foot painting Vincent Valdez IL is working on in his studio in San Antonio, TX. The Times calls the haunting piece, which depicts contemporary Klansmen, “a selfie for 21st-century America.” Vincent is working to finish the four-panel painting for his upcoming solo show, The Beginning is Near, which is due to open on September 9 at David Shelton Gallery in Houston.

2001 15th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016 In addition to welcoming a baby boy, Florian Bressner, with partner Tony Kaminski in 2014, Jenine Bressner GL (jenine.net) spent a good part of that year making glass chain necklaces and belts for Calvin Klein’s fall 2014

runway shows. Last fall she also had a solo show, I Can’t Tell Where to Begin or End, at AS220’s Project Space in Providence, where she lives. Alex Dodge PT (see page 8) Sonny Liew IL (see page 49) Sculpture, 2D work and a site-specific installation by Adam Marnie PT were

included in Rongwrong, a two-person exhibition this spring at Halsey McKay Gallery’s Elaine de Kooning House and Studio in East Hampton, NY. Based in Los Angeles, he edits and publishes F Magazine and recently organized the group exhibitions Fictions at Derek Eller Gallery in NYC and Sylvia Bataille at JOAN in LA.

Earlier this spring Remi Thornton PH (Boston) exhibited a new series of photographs in JCC Ranch, a solo show at Miller Yezerski Gallery in North Allston, MA. Returning to a summer camp in Colorado that he used to go to as a kid, he photographed the buildings in the middle of the night—as he remembers them best since he was often awake due to insomnia.

2002 After first meeting designer Michael Singer when they took his Innovation Studio as students at RISD, Jason Bregman BLA (Delray Beach, FL) and Jonathan Fogelson ID (Florence, MA) have worked at Michael Singer Studio since 2000 and 2005, respectively. They both served as project managers on his new piece Uplifted Ground at Bergstrom International Airport in Austin, the largest public art project ever commissioned by the city of Austin. In February traditional landscape paintings by Erik Koeppel IL (erikkoeppel. blogspot.com) were on view in Kindred Spirits, a two-person show with his partner Lauren

Jonathan Clarren 02 SC Jonathan and his wife Katie welcomed their first child, Livian Pearl Clarren, on January 15 of this year. A couple of months later, the Seattle-based artist oversaw the installation of his largest sculptural commission to date: the Kress Spheres project in the theater district in downtown Tacoma, WA. First proposed last spring, the project developed over a similar gestational period as his daughter. 78

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CREATIVITY IN THE KITCHEN Emiko Davies 02 PR When Emiko Davies 02 PR

Maegan Fee Gaffey 01 TX Maegan and her husband Josh welcomed their new daughter Esme Vivienne Gaffey to the world on July 16, 2015. Better known as Evie, she’s named after Maegan’s late mother and is in awe of her Weimaraner pal Zara. The family lives in Boston.

Sansaricq at the Union League Club in NYC. Erik lives in Jackson, NH. Melissa Rivera Torres ID/MAT 05 (Pleasant Hill, CA) was one

of three RISD people selected to compete on the second season of Ellen’s Design Challenge, a televised furniture

first visited Florence, she was still a junior at RISD. Even then, she found the local cuisine to be extraordinary — as remarkable as the art. Once she returned to the region after graduation, her passion for the food of Tuscany only accelerated. Of course, it didn’t hurt that she also fell in love with a local sommelier. And when Emiko first made him her version of Orecchiette con broccoli — a simple dish from Puglia — it sealed the deal. “When I handed Marco the plate,” she notes on her popular food blog, “he took a bite, looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to marry you.’ And then he promptly finished off the whole thing.”

design competition that aired on HGTV from January–March. While she got “sent home” midway through the show, she did well working under intense pressure to ace a series of tightly controlled design challenges and win the judges’ approval, along with helpful national exposure.

Now Emiko, Marco and their daughter live in Florence, where he’s the head sommelier at the celebrated restaurant Il Pellicano and she continues to offer workshops and write about local cuisine and culture. “The Italian language is fascinating and beautiful, but even more so for a food lover,” she notes in one post. “Dialects and slang all add to the mix, making it even richer.” Since Emiko’s first cookbook Florentine: The True Cuisine of Florence (Hardie Grant Books) was released in March, it has been attracting favorable reviews. Real Living calls it “part travel guide, part cookbook, part photo essay” and proclaims that overall, it’s a real “keeper.” “Emiko Davies’ work is not a casual appreciation of Italian cooking,” writes the executive editor of Food52. “To see — and cook — Florence’s food traditions through [her] recipes, research and immersive photography is to gain a deeper understanding of the city than you’re likely to get in years of visits.”

Dan O’Neill 01 PT

far right: photos by Lauren Bramford

Galactic Whispers, an interactive exhibition reflecting on humanity as viewed from deep space, was on view in February at Long Island University in Brooklyn. Dan (danoneillart.com) collaborated with Jimi Pantalon and Laura Bernstein 11 SC (NYC) on the show, which explored transmission and transmutation through sculpture, video and sound. The Providence-based artist also recently showed the video installation Bodies Take to Light at Millbrook [NY] School’s Warner Gallery.

Find Emiko’s wonderful recipes and blog at emikodavies.com . Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

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the Arts is helping Meredith Younger CR further her work in a variety of sculptural media, with a focus on the ceramic figure.

2004 When President Obama visited Cuba in March, Airbnb cofounder Brian Chesky ID (San Francisco) was there with him as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE). Brian spoke about the positive impact Airbnb’s decision to expand into Cuba last year has already had on both local hosts and American visitors. When Obama took the mic, he said, “I just wanna brag on Brian for one second…. He’s one of our outstanding young entrepreneurs who had an idea and acted on it.” The president then reminded Cubans that “in this global economy, if it’s a good idea and is well executed, it can take off.” Jenny Chou BArch (see pages 36–41)

Liz Lanphear 04 FAV On March 10, 2016 Liz and her husband Kory welcomed Orson Lanphear to the world. The co-leader of the RISD/LA alumni club thanks RISD for preparing her well for the sleepless nights of parenthood.

Lizzie Fitch SC (see page 48) Manny Flaherty ID (see pages 26–35) In Electrum, a November solo show at THE SUB-MISSION project space in Chicago, Regina Mamou PH shared her investigation of the use of

Eleanor (Fowler) Langton 03 PT

Caroline Z. Hurley 04 PT Late last fall Caroline opened a new storefront and studio space in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn and in February launched a new 100% linen bedding collection for WRIGHT. Her studio (carolinezhurley.com) makes and sells work ranging from quilts and throws to ceramics and paintings.

Project presents life-size renditions of 270 bird species on the largest wall in the lab’s visitor center and forms the basis of an interactive website on the evolution and diversity of birds.

2003

Catherine McMahon BArch (see pages 36–41)

As cofounders of Noon Design (noondesignshop.com), which now has locations in San Diego and New Jersey, Nora Alexander ID and Maie Webb GD are pleased to have opened a new studio/storefront this spring at 18 Post Road in Pawtuxet Village in Warwick, RI. Pia Camil PT (see page 11) Work by Jessica Hess IL (San Francisco) was included in group shows at Paradigm 80

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Gallery in Philadelphia in February and at Plastic Murs Gallery in Valencia, Spain in March. Last July the French magazine Graffiti Art ran a story on her, as did the Danish magazine Le Petit Voyeur in February. In December San Franciscobased artist Jane Kim PR (inkdwell.com) completed From So Simple a Beginning, a 70 x 40-foot mural at Cornell [NY] University’s Lab of Ornithology. Her Wall of Birds

Sara Vanderbeek PR (Austin, TX) is part of ICOSA, a new artists’ collective that plans to pursue cooperative exhibition opportunities in nontraditional art venues. Fellow alum Jonas Criscoe MFA 08 PT is also part of the collective, which held its inaugural exhibition in November during the East Austin Studio Tour. A 2016 Merit Award in 3D Art from the RI State Council on

far left: bedding photo by Nathan Legiehn and Elena Mari

Our First Table (gouache and watercolor on wood panel, 15 x 20") was on view in March in the Royal Watercolour Society’s Contemporary Watercolour Competition exhibition at the Bankside Gallery in London. In winning the RWS Publicity Prize, the painting was also used for all promotional materials related to the show. Eleanor (eleanorlangton.com) lives and works in London.

electropsychometers (or e-meters) in Scientology and similar organizations. In addition, she’s happy to be working in a new studio in downtown Los Angeles, where she lives. Continuing a four-year tradition, photographer Michael Neff PH rounded up leftover Christmas trees after the holidays to create Suspended Forest, an installation that was on view for the month of January at Knockdown Center, a 50,000-sf former factory in Queens. Robby Rose PT (robbyrose. com) had a solo show called Pain Free, “a mix of paintings and drawings that blend mournful and celebratory images,” in November at The Java Project in Brooklyn, where he lives. As an avid skateboarder, he says, “The mentality of skating also applies to my painting process.

Noah Breuer 04 PR Last September Noah began teaching drawing and printmaking as a full-time lecturer at the University of California/ Davis, shortly after the release of his artist’s book Team Set (Small Editions). The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library was among the first to snap it up for its permanent collection, with the Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney both following suit this spring. The journal Art in Print also reviewed Noah’s book in the March – April 2016 issue (which features work by Nicole Eisenman 89 PT on the cover).

Allison Maletz 03 PH Earlier this spring Allison exhibited Game, a series of watercolor paintings of life-sized animals that examine interspecies relationships. The show was at Calico Brooklyn, a small art venue in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, where she lives.

My current work is photorealistic and often tedious [which] is where the single-minded focus of not giving up comes into play.” Ryan Trecartin FAV (see page 48) Ahti Westphal BArch (see pages 36–41) Painter, poet and digital media artist Afton Wilky PT (aftonwilky.com) co-edits The Volta, a multimedia site of poetry, criticism, poetics, video, conversation and interviews. Based in Baton Rouge, LA, she’s also the author of Clarity Speaks of a Crystal Sea (2014, Flim Forum Press).

2005 In December Lindsay Chandler PT (Philadelphia), Liam Thomas Holding 11 PT (Francestown, NH) and Cameron Masters 11 PT (Puntarenas, Costa Rica) took over a room at the repurposed Ocean Terrace Hotel in Miami Beach to show Pool Rules. The installation, which simulates the environment surrounding a pool, referenced a 2013 show by the same name at Philadelphia’s FJORD gallery.

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

Kevin Cunningham BArch, founder of Spirare surfboards in Providence, has won a 2016 Design Innovation grant from the RI State Council on the Arts. He also won a 2016 Providence Design Catalyst grant to help further his surfboard business, which he has been building for the past decade.

After a stint working at Martha Stewart, Erica Dagley Galea GD is excited to have started a new position as associate director of Project Management in the Creative Services department at Pratt in NYC. Joe Gebbia GD/ID, cofounder of Airbnb and a RISD trustee,

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has been getting positive feedback on the TED talk he gave in February about the importance of trust and using design and technology to “foster community and connection instead of isolation and separation.” You can find the talk on the ted.com site.

spring/ summer 2016

KEY CURRENT MAJORS Apparel Design

Arch Architecture CR Ceramics Digital + Media

FAV Film/Animation/ Video FD

Furniture Design

Graphic Design

GL Glass IA

Interior Architecture

Industrial Design

IL Illustration JM Jewelry + Metalsmithing PH Photography PT Painting PR Printmaking SC Sculpture TX Textiles

5 T H -Y E A R D E G R E E BArch Architecture MASTER’S DEGREES

MArch Architecture MAT Teaching MDes Design in Interior Studies MFA

Fine Arts

MID

Industrial Design

MIA

Interior Architecture

MLA Landscape Architecture FORMER MAJORS Advertising Design

AE Art + Design Education LA Landscape Architecture MD

Machine Design

Textile Chemistry

Textile Engineering

F O R M E R 5 T H -Y E A R DEGREES BGD

Graphic Design

BID

Industrial Design

BIA Interior Architecture BLA Landscape Architecture OTHER BRDD Brown/RISD Dual Degree CEC Continuing Education Certificate enrolled for Foundation Studies only

* attended RISD, but no degree awarded

Keri and Sara both live in Providence and work in oil, acrylic and gouache to make paintings centered on themes called out in the title of their recent show, Memories, Myths and Sacred Objects. Keri’s 3-foot-square acrylic on canvas Last Rites of Summer (above left) and Sara’s 12 x 12-inch oil on canvas Home (above right) were among the work featured in the four-woman exhibition on view from November through March at the Gallery @Providence City Hall.

Art Education (formerly MAE)

Keri King 05 IL + Sara Argue 05 IL

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2005 continued In February Joan Wyand GD was among the artists who paired off according to the results of Myers-Briggs personality tests to make collaborative artworks for the MBTI Matchup exhibition at the Drawing Room in Providence, where she lives. Joan worked with Antonio Forte to create a sound sculpture installation from reclaimed shoreline styrofoam.

2006 10th Reunion October 7 – 9, 2016 Buck Hastings PT (see page 15) Earlier this spring, NYC-based artist and cartoonist Brendan Loper PT (loperbrothers.com) was excited to see his first cartoon published in The New Yorker (3.28.16). Rich Brilliant Willing, the NYC-based company founded by Theo Richardson FD, Charles Brill FD and Alexander Williams FD, was all over France in the fall, with a feature in Architectural Digest France, representation in Paris by the gallery Triode and

appearances in the publications Prima Maison and AD Hors-Serie. This spring they also moved to a new Brooklyn studio in Sunset Park’s Industry City, which offers three times the amount of space they had and will allow for an expansion of in-house capabilities. In conjunction with two shows at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Julia Sherman PH (NYC) planted and helped tend the Getty Salad Garden, which was open from October through mid January. As with a similar project on the rooftop at MoMA’s PS1 in 2014, she invited a series of artists to make salads from more than 50 heirloom herbs, vegetables

Matthew Mosher 06 FD Matthew’s large steel sculpture Standpipe is on view through November 2017 in the Arizona Outdoor Sculpture Showcase, a group exhibition at Shemer Art Center in Phoenix. Last fall he joined the University of Central Florida’s School of Visual Art and Design as a tenure-track assistant professor of digital media, where he specializes in interaction design and tangible interfaces.

and edible flowers grown on site. “I even made a salad with Robert Irwin and Larry Bell!” she exclaims. In December and January, Max Springer GD and his collaborator Lauren Cherry (laurencherrymaxspringer. com) exhibited No. 7 at VACANCY in Los Angeles, where they live. Part of a series of shows revolving around

artist couples, No. 7 revealed the duo’s “small-image lateral thinking.” Kale Halperin Williams IL has launched Kale Williams Studio (kalewilliamsstudio.com), a design studio in Brooklyn that provides original paintings and drawings for printed textiles used in the apparel industry. She creates her seasonal collections by hand.

2007 Brit Kleinman ID (see page 12)

2008 Cara Collins GD married William Buzzell, an artist who graduated from Parsons, on September 6, 2015 in Newport, RI. The newlyweds live in Providence, where she works as a graphic designer at Malcolm Grear Designers and he works at the Brown library while also continuing to make and exhibit work. Last year Emily Collins FAV and Jess Peterson cofounded Mighty Oak, an animation and documentary film studio in Brooklyn, “to encourage women to be leaders in an industry where we don’t hear enough women’s voices.” The team of four also includes Director of Commercial Projects Michaela Olsen 09 FAV. In November Elizabeth Grammaticas PT (Brooklyn) delivered a multimedia presentation on Trauma and the Kardashians at Brunel University London’s Kimposium! The “symposium about all things Kardashian”

attracted attention from the Guardian, the Daily Mail and the BBC. Nora Hamerman GD has transformed a passion for raw chocolate into a successful business in Austin called Great Bean Chocolate (greatbeanchocolate.com). She develops the recipes, sources the ingredients and designs the sustainable, compostable packaging. Zagat’s Austin has named her one of the 2015 30 Under 30 Rock Stars Redefining the Industry. Brooklyn-based furniture designer Asher Israelow BArch and his wife Jamie are delighted with the arrival of their first child, Anais Hart Israelow, who was born on February 23, 2016. Daddy Don’t Go, a documentary feature produced by Keryn Thompson FAV (Ocean Township, NJ), premiered in November at the 2015 DOC NYC Film Festival. The film follows the stories of four diverse, disadvantaged men struggling to be good fathers. In their latest social experiment, NYC-based designers

Rawan Rihani 05 AP The character Marnie on the HBO show Girls recently wore this flower crown Rawan made through her Brooklyn-based company Aurora Botanica, which she founded last year. She works with flowers and natural dyes to design weddings and parties and make crowns, arrangements and hanging garlands “with a dreamy, serene and wild aesthetic.” When Rawan gets married herself this year, she’ll design her own gown, veil and flower decor.

and friends Timothy Goodman and Jessica Walsh GD adhered to a year-long resolution to become “kinder, more empathetic people” through a 12-step experiment they cooked up and carried out themselves. Their site 12kindsofkindness.com and accompanying YouTube videos document how they systematically opened their hearts by doing such things as going around NYC offering to help people, giving away cash and smiling at strangers. Meg Turner PR (see page 11)

2009 A project manager at architectural firm Yapan Ticaret in Istanbul, Melisa Ekemen IA (melisaekemen.com) also maintains a home studio practice. Last fall, at Design Junction in London, she exhibited a Bauhaus-inspired door handle that she originally created at RISD—in a studio taught by the late Henry Dietrich Fernandez. A tribute to the memory of her most cherished teacher, the fixture is called the HDF and has multiple uses, from hotel door handle to drapery rack. Melisa is producing the fixture in stainless steel, but may also extend options to include wood and brass. Vermont-based illustrator Sarah Adelaide Hewitt PT (sarahadelaide.com) recently teamed up with her mother, writer Kim Hotchkiss Hewitt, to create the children’s book Do Da Ditty Dum, which follows a seven-year-old to a secret island full of outlandish creatures. Published in August 2015, the book is the first in a series planned by the mother-daughter duo. As educational director at MIT’s Open Style Lab, Grace Jun GD (Great Neck, NY) is leading a 10-week research program in Boston this summer that involves a small group of designers, engineers and occupational therapists. Called Fashionable Technology, the project will build on Grace’s ongoing experiments with wearable tech and will focus on creating smart new wearables for people with disabilities.

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

DRAWING ATTENTION Leah Shore 09 FAV

Building on a spate of good news, Brooklyn-based director and animator Leah Shore 09 FAV returned to the SXSW Film Festival in Austin earlier this year — as a judge this time. Her own work has stood out at SXSW ever since she screened her RISD thesis film Meatwaffle there in 2010. When Leah released her critically acclaimed animated short Old Man (still above) online last fall, the disturbing film voiced by imprisoned serial killer Charles Manson led to stories in VICE, The Atlantic, Cartoon Brew, Filmmaker Magazine and more. Old Man is a Vimeo Staff Pick and in February the international film magazine Sight & Sound proclaimed it Toon of the Month. The Manson short actually stems from Leah’s first screening at SXSW, where a producer approached her about making an animated film based on unreleased phone interviews from 2010. The conversations were between the inmate and Canadian author Marlin Marynick, who subsequently published the book Charles Manson Now. Jumping on the opportunity, Leah spent months editing hours of recordings down to five minutes and then devoted another two years to animating her hand-drawn images. “Old Man doesn’t explain Manson, or the reasons we are fascinated by him,” notes Jason Sondhi in a review on Short of the Week. “But as a window into a mindset — into the madness — it is perversely attractive, and that, in itself, is unsettling.”

On an entirely different note, Leah recently rose to the challenge of creating an animated public service ad for Budweiser about safe driving by drawing on individual napkins (above). Since she had another awesome jurying gig — at the Ottawa International Animation Festival — around the same time, she worked with an “amazing” stop-motion animator to get the project done on time. Now she’s itching to make “other fine-art oriented stuff” this year. Find more about Leah’s work at leahshore.com.

// RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

FORBES VALUES THE HAND AT WORK Ten recent RISD graduates account for a third of Forbes’ 2016 list of 30 Under 30 young artists and designers to watch. Fashion design partners Mike Eckhaus 10 SC and Zoe Latta 10 TX of Eckhaus Latta are cited for their “youthful, edgy and sexy” designs. Brooklyn-based graphic-designerturned-ceramist Natalie Herrera 09 GD, who founded High Gloss in 2013, uses unconventional tools like compasses, X-acto knives and drafting triangles to alter her thrown pieces with geometric forms (see right). Jewelry artist Wing Yau 09 SC creates what Forbes describes as “light, airy twists on traditional pieces” (like the ring shown below). Based in New York, her brand WWAKE is sold through high-end retail establishments around the world.

Jonah Willcox-Healey 13 ID and Alec Babala 14 ID of Greycork with

their product line at ICFF in May.

// undergraduate class notes

Oklahoma-born quilt designer Meg Callahan 11 FD (see also page 12) takes inspiration for her intricate geometric patterns from the “big skies of the American West.” The four founding members of the Providence-based furniture design company Greycork (including RISD grads Jonah Willcox-Healey 13 ID, Bruce Kim 13 FD and Alec Babala 14 ID ) are noted for providing an alternative to IKEA, “producing simple, elegant furniture that can be assembled in minutes with no tools.” Their affordable living room set has really taken off, allowing the company to expand rapidly. And Forbes applauds industrial design partners Joseph Guerra 12 FD and Sina Sohrab 12 FD, who founded the studio Visibility in 2012, for making “simple, functional products that have been improved with small but important modifications.”

2010 Longtime buddies Angelo Balassone FAV, Michael Fails FAV and Kat Tedesco FAV have launched Sisters Weekend (sistersweekendfilm.com) in NYC to co-create, direct and produce film and video content “ranging from head-scratch funny shorts to very cool cinematic music videos.” Since getting going last year, Sisters Weekend has produced an exclusive campaign video for fashion label Nicopanda that was featured on out.com, InHype.com and in Bullet Magazine. The trio also works closely with Alex Waterston FAV, Misha Townsend FAV and Sarah Nikdel GD. In December a story on the style blog Refinery 29 focused on Jenny Lai AP (Cupertino, CA) and her interest in the physical movements involved

Erica Ehrenbard 12 SC Earlier this year, Philly-based artist Erica (ericaehrenbard. com) showed a welded steel piece called Portrait of Crow in process: METAL IV, a group exhibition at the Philadelphia [PA] Sculpture Gym.

in getting dressed in the morning. Through her clothing brand NOT (notaligne.com), she often designs clothing that takes such movements into account.

2011 Meg Callahan FD (see page 13) Miles Endo ID (see pages 26–35) Misha Kahn FD (see page 10) Based on the strength of her work, Talia Levitt IL has earned a 2016 Fellowship in Painting from the RI State Council on the Arts. Work by Andrew Molleur CR (andrewmolleur.com) is included in Made for You: New Directions in Contemporary Design, which continues through July 10 at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY/ New Paltz. The exhibition considers how contemporary design objects are customized for the individual, from the one-of-a-kind objects made by craft techniques to the possibilities inherent in 3D printing. Andrew lives in Coventry, CT.

Hannah Woodard 11 JM In addition to making contemporary art jewelry, Hannah recently launched the brand Adacus (adacus.co), a line of cast bronze and silver jewelry. Her work has been featured in recent issues of Malibu Magazine and paired with Burberry and Creatures of Comfort apparel. She’s based in Calais, VT.

buyers to view and exchange opportunities online. Based in San Francisco, she hopes to help artists find “project-based and long-term gigs” and give buyers the ability to “browse and filter maker profiles with ease,” while eliminating extraneous fees. Fervor, the lead song on a newly released album by Novelty Daughter (aka Faith Harding). In reviewing the video, Stereogum notes that it “captures all the weirdness and wonder that is [Novelty Daughter’s] take on pop.” Dennis lives in NYC, where he does a lot of commercial animation work with his roommate Tyler DiBiasio FAV. Though a lot of people think that “2D animation is… dying or dead,” he writes, “we have found a lot of really diverse work in advertising and music video production that uses 2D animation.” Madeline (Midge) Wattles PH has earned a Fulbright to research the history of photography in Sicily during the 2016/17 academic year.

2013 Courtney Sennish 13 PR Courtney’s paintings and sculptures were on view from January to March in Guide Me – Paradise, a solo show at Johansson Projects in Oakland, CA that focused on the “heavily fabricated and dictated” experience of urban living. She earned an MFA from CCA last spring and lives in San Francisco.

Malvika Vaswani ID (malvika vaswani.com) is gaining attention in India for her eponymous cross-disciplinary design house. She is a member of the Fashion Design Council of India and has won awards

for both her jewelry and apparel designs, including the Grazia Young Fashion Award for jewelry in 2015. Malvika’s latest collection was showcased at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai, where she lives.

2012 Topher Gent FD has received a 2016 Fellowship in Crafts from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, which will help strengthen his new furniture studio, Gent Design Company, in Providence. At last fall’s London Design Festival, Rezzan Hasoglu ID

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

(rezzanhasoglu.com) demonstrated her reinterpretation of a traditional glassblowing technique known as Çesm-i Bülbül. Artisans in the Ottoman Empire adapted the traditional Venetian filigree glass technique during the 18th century. It’s now at the center of Rezzan’s master’s degree research project, Artisans in Istanbul (artisansinistanbul.com). She’s currently working towards an MA in Design Products at the Royal College of Art in London.

Haley Davis SC has launched Makeplease (makeplease.com), a site that allows makers and

Kait Schoeck ID, an industrial designer at Microsoft, was a member of the team that created the new Surface Book, the company’s latest attempt to create “the ultimate laptop.” In October she told a reporter for Wired about the “magical moment” of seeing their invention, a reimagining of the laptop as a kind of electronic clipboard, for the first time.

Claire Lordon 12 IL Claire’s first picture book Lorenzo, the Pizza-Loving Lobster (Little Bee Books) is new on the shelves this summer. The idea of a lobster who loves pizza developed after she bought her boyfriend a stuffed animal lobster when they were both at RISD and they started playing around with it. Through her Brooklynbased studio, Claire also creates surface designs, murals and greeting cards for a wide range of clients.

Last summer Dennis Moran IL (dennismoran.xyz) directed his first music video: Day of Inner // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

Stella Diming Zhong 15 GL

FREEING THE HAND

Earlier this spring, Stella exhibited Pillar and other work in Nigh, her first solo show, at Peninsula Art Space in Brooklyn, where she lives.

Patricia (Patchi) Dranoff 15 ID

but a shared commitment to working by hand. The show was on view at Paloma Street Studio in Los Angeles, where she lives. Otis Gray SC (Philadelphia, PA) is building on his ”insatiable hunger for stories” and a natural love of food to create a podcast called Hungry (hungryradio.org), which he describes as “a raw look at food and the stories behind it.”

Last year at this time, Patricia (Patchi) Dranoff 15 ID landed a post-graduation opportunity she couldn’t refuse — working as a design fellow at a company called Burro in Ghana, West Africa. In 2011 American businessman Whit Alexander founded the company to distribute products like solar-powered generators, cell phone chargers and foot-powered irrigation systems via local middlemen. More recently Burro began working to develop products designed specifically for local use. “It’s important to develop and test products in context and to speed up the iterative design process by building prototypes on site,” says Patchi, a native of Brazil who is committed to using design for the greater good. In West Africa, funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and social innovation NGO Catapult Design made it possible for her to help build an R&D lab and maker space for fabricating prototypes on site in Koforidua, Ghana. During her seven-month fellowship, one of the first products Patchi focused on is a tool for roasting cassava. In West Africa, “women roast cassava to make gari flour, a really important part of their diet,” she explains. “The traditional method involves lots

A woman in Ghana cupping the cassava tubers used to make gari flour. Patchi worked to develop a new tool to help make the work of processing the local staple go smoother.

// undergraduate class notes

of steps — peeling, washing, grating, fermenting, drying and then roasting the cassava in big cast-aluminum pans over a wood-burning mud stove.” In addition to being labor intensive, she says, the process involves breathing in a lot of smoke, and women are only able to produce a small amount of flour after working all day. Patchi helped design a foot-powered mechanism to facilitate hands-free roasting, make the process more efficient and send the smoke out a chimney. When working across cultures, it’s especially important to show a working prototype and clearly communicate the thinking behind it, the socially conscious designer explains. “It’s all about letting go of your preconceived notions, understanding the problem holistically and thinking about the user first and foremost.”

NYC-based freelance animator Lena Greene FAV (lenagreene. com) created, directed and animated three music videos for Tommy Trash and has produced and directed a web series called RIP. In addition to doing work for clients such

Hilary Wang 14 GL

2014 This spring Kimberly Corday IL curated and showed in a pop-up exhibition called Borderlands, which featured work by eight artists with radically different backgrounds

During the Arctic Circle Residency Program last fall, Hilary (hilarywang.com) joined artists and others on a tall ship sailing expedition along the coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Her mapping project entailed floating porcelain cast buoys outfitted with a GPS chip to collect raw data such as coordinates and speed. She’s now continuing her studio work in Providence.

as J Crew and American Express, she teaches animation at Queens College. Under the Same Stars, a solo show of photographs by Acacia Johnson PH, was on view from November through late January at the Embassy of Canada Art Gallery in Washington, DC. The exhibition showcased work she made during a 2014–15

Chaz Aracil 15 AP As part of New York Fashion Week in February, Chaz presented Spectral Cell, a collection inspired by nature and based on ideas of growth and regeneration. The Providence-based designer also showed vibrant rubber pieces he made last spring as part of his senior thesis at RISD, collaborating with Sculpture major Zoe Lohmann 16 SC .

Fulbright-funded residency on the north shore of Baffin Island.

2015 Pamela Chavez IL is one of 11 filmmakers to win funding from Latino Public Broadcasting to make Caracol Cruzando, an animated film about a Costa Rican-American girl whose journey across the US/Mexican border reveals the tension and risks of immigration for her undocumented family. Based near San Francisco, Pamela expects to complete her short film in 2017. Recent alums Garcia Sinclair SC and Nafis White SC are among the 11 artists featured in

Deaths Clara (Martin) Stewart 38 AE of Media, PA on 10.25.15 Barbara (Roffee) McCrillis 39 PT of Branford, CT on 12.1.15 Jane (Higgins) Pierce 39 IA* of Little Compton, RI on 2.23.15 Shirley (Hawkins) Farnell 42 AP* of Manchester, CT on 12.12.15 Grace (Edman) Stewart 42 of Westport, MA on 11.7.15 Elizabeth (Coleman) Crowell 43 AP* of Plymouth, MA on 3.7.16

Julia Wright 16 TX Julia won the 2016 Dorothy Waxman International Textile Design Prize for this piece, called I am My Mother’s Only One. Her complex cotton, wool and mohair jacquard-woven double weave was shown at WantedDesign in Brooklyn during NYCxDesign in May.

Female Forces/Women in RI Art, a documentary that premiered at RISD on April 21 as part of Gallery Night Providence. RISD President Rosanne Somerson 76 ID and Ana Flores 79 PT are also among the multigenerational group of women featured in the film, which was made as part of the RI Art Archive Project.

Jane (Hoyt) Crittenden 49 PT* of Albuquerque, NM on 9.29.15 William Dittrich 49 MD of Center Barnstead, NH on 2.16.16

Milton Hannah 49 ID of Providence, RI on 2.23.16

Sandra (Stroud) Snow 59 TX* of West Roxbury, MA on 3.26.16

Lawrence Tyson 79 IL of Ross, CA on 3.7.16

Paul Storin 49 PT* of Eugene, OR on 1.19.16

Sandra Dryden 61 TX of San Francisco, CA on 6.19.13

Myron Boyko 50 TX of Avondale Estates, GA on 2.26.16

Steve Chapin 65 SC of New York, NY on 11.6.15

Kay Whitcomb 43 JM* of Rockport, MA on 9.19.15

Rene Villeneuve 50 AE of Montreal, Canada on 11.29.15

Alice Brennan Bray 48 TX of Cumberland, RI on 5.10.15

Emanuel Goldstein 52 TX of Birmingham, AL on 1.15.16

Jeanne (Mellin) Herrick 48 PT of Hamilton, NY on 11.21.15

Pamela (Huse) Wallace 52 CR of Naples, FL on 10.7.15

Claire (Bettez) Archambault 49 AP* of Coventry, RI on 2.20. 16 Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

Thomas King MAT 77 PT of Jupiter, FL on 3.31.16 Lisa Sparling 77 PT of Portland, ME on 1.8.15

Wallace McTammany 43 GD* of Quitman, GA on 10.12.15

Mary (Habershaw) McRae 48 PT* of Portsmouth, RI on 11.25.15

Robert Ayotte 58 ID (husband of Roberta Ayotte 58 TX) of Sun City, AZ on 11.13.15

Juan Lins-Morstadt 76 PT of North Kingstown, RI on 12.23.15

Russell Harrison 58 MD of Yalesville, CT on 12.7.15

Mildred (Thomae) Ewing 49 GD of Berlin, MA on 4.21.14

Oliver Watson Greene III 50 ID (husband of Elizabeth Boyd Greene 51 IL) of West Kingston, RI on 4.18.16

Nancy (Minard) Johnson 48 AP* of Dover Foxcroft, ME on 12.21.15

Mary (Pfaff) Werder 57 AE of Bridgeton, NJ on 11.13.15

Elinor (May) Magowan 54 GD of North Woods Beach, WI on 11.7.15 Anne (Northrop) Ott 56 ID* of Charleston, SC on 11.23.15 Robert Barry 57 GD of Cohasset, MA on 12.7.15 Rogers Oglesby 57 IL of Palm Beach, FL on 12.21.15

Susanna (Barlow) Leigh 65 IL of Little Deer Island, ME on 4.21.13 Willoughby Elliott MFA 67 PT of Fairhaven, MA on 4.12.16 Mary (Berger) Kelly MAE 68 of Hilton Head Island, SC on 3.16.16 David Anderson 69 PT of Worcester, MA on 3.28.16 Vickie (Timberlake) Gailitis 72 AP of Newbury Park, CA on 8.27.15 John Fogg BArch 73 of Whitinsville, MA on 9.2.15 James Billa 75 IL of Waltham, MA on 3.7.16 Susan (Bane) Holland Reed 76 GL/MFA 94 of Everett, WA on 11.24.15 // RISDXYZ

Robert de Michiell 80 IL of New York, NY on 10.12.15 Gaylord Horn 81 LA* of New Hartford, CT on 1.18.16 Robert Quagan BArch 84 of Rockport, MA on 2.25.16 Ricardo Accorsi BArch 85 of Los Angeles, CA on 8.16.15 Stacy Lent 87 TX of Riverbank, CA on 11.5.15 Lauren Beebe 89 CR of Killingworth, CT on 11.25.15 Martin Brown 91 IL of Amherst, NH on 12.15.15 Bridget Husted BArch 96 of Washington, DC on 11.1.15 Samuel Thomas 97 IL of Shorewood, WI on 10.6.15 Violet Wilkinson CEC 01 of Rockport, MA on 12.19.15 Megan Maguire MFA 05 PT of Eriton, NJ on 11.16.15 Jacob Riley Wasserman 12 FD of Bridgeton, PA on 1.26.16 spring/ summer 2016

moving forward

Alan Stecker MFA 65 PT After working in TV and film production for 45 years, Alan has been creating digital art like this 24 x 30" piece, which was among the work on view in an April solo show at the Jewish Educational Alliance in Savannah, GA. He and his wife Eleanor Dixon Stecker 65 PT met at RISD, live in Barnesville, GA and have both been making art for more than half a century. Alan also won first place American Art Awards in Digital Abstraction in both 2014 and 2015.

1972 Last November and December, paintings and encaustic works by Muriel (Breen) Angelil MAE were on view in the gallery at the Provident Bank in Amesbury, MA, where she lives.

1974 Susan Goetz Zwirn MAT (NYC) has been promoted to full professor of art education at Hofstra University in NYC. She also teaches a doctoral course on the implications of brain research for learning and teaching, and in 2015 published articles on art, neuron theory and creativity in the Journal of Aesthetic Education and the Journal of Creative Behavior. 88

In April she presented on Eastern and Western concepts of creativity at a symposium at Hofstra.

1978 Retiring from college teaching continues to create new opportunities for Rebecca Kamen MFA SC (rebeccakamen.com) to contribute to the STEAM dialogue both nationally and internationally. She returned to RISD in April to speak at the Design Science STEAM Intelligence symposium. Last fall the Arts Council of Fairfax County, VA—where she lives— presented her with an Arts Achievement Award for her ongoing STEAM work. In addition, this spring Rebecca served as an artist in residence at an independent girls’ school in Sydney, Australia, where she explored the relationship of art, science and Aboriginal views of the earth. Following the success of her 2015 survey exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Arlene Shechet MFA CR (Woodstock, NY) exhibited her ceramic sculptures in Urgent Matter, a winter solo show at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, MO.

In February she accepted the 2016 Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work at the College Art Association conference annual conference in Washington, DC. Arlene’s work is also on view through July 24 at the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, MO.

1979 Paul Mindell MAE (NYC) has launched CowDivine.com, a site that features four of his cow-themed paintings on tumbled marble coasters. He plans to expand his stock to include greeting cards, mugs and calendars.

1980 In November Stephen Petegorsky MFA PH (spphoto. com) exhibited cleared, stained and altered images of animal specimens against manipulated natural backgrounds in a solo show at A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton, MA. Stephen lives in Florence, MA.

1981 From January to May, Mary Dondero MAT (Warren, RI) exhibited complex pastels in Small Points in Time, a solo show at the Newport [RI] Art Museum.

// graduate class notes

Late last fall Maine-based artist Maryjean Viano Crowe MFA PH (mjvianocrowe.net) exhibited work in Down to Earth: Responding to Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change at Stonehill College’s Calo Gallery in North Easton, MA. The group show was both a call to action and a view of the deteriorating relationship between the earth and its inhabitants.

1982 The Revolution Will Be Painted, the latest body of work by Anne Sherwood Pundyk MFA PT, was featured in two solo exhibitions in March and April. She showed oils, acrylics and works on paper at the Adah

Karen Bell MFA 83 PH Earlier this spring Karen (karenbellphoto.com) exhibited Spider (archival inkjet print, 13 x 19") and other recent photographs in Flotsam & Jetsam, a solo show at Davis/ Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY. Based in NYC, she will again co-direct the Plein Air Portugal retreat/workshop this summer with her friend Dale Emmart MFA 83 PT.

Rose Gallery in Kensington, MD and a suite of six wallsized abstract canvas works at the Christopher Stout Gallery in Brooklyn, where she lives. Her work was also included in Army of Lovers, a winter show at Christopher Stout.

Alan Metnick MFA 73 PH Shot during repeated visits to Poland since 2004, Alan’s 61 blackand-white photographs in his new book Captured in Memory: Photographs and Thoughts on Poland explore the country’s complex relationship with Judaism. This spring he showed photos from the series in exhibitions at Temple Emanu-el and Gallery Z, both in Providence, where he lives. Alan will also exhibit recent photography, drawings, glass and textile work from mid September through mid October at Candita Clayton Gallery in Pawtucket, RI.

Martha (Collins) Armstrong 63 AE Early last fall Martha (Hatfield, MA) showed recent paintings in East to West, a solo show at the Bowery Gallery in NYC. In a September 24 New York Times review praising the “inspiring” show, art critic Roberta Smith called Martha a “suave disciplinarian of a muscular style” whose paintings “explode toward the eye, like nature on first sight, at its most welcoming and irrepressible.” Earlier this year Martha also had a solo show at Five Points Gallery in Torrington, CT.

in Philadelphia, where she’s wrapping up an artist’s residency. Called Ally, her multidisciplinary project includes installations and sculptures that take up four floors of the museum. It remains on view through July 31 and will then morph into a book.

1992 Judy Gelles MFA 91 PH Work from Judy’s series Sunrise to Sunset: Beach Huts from Bournemouth, England was on view this spring in a solo show at Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, where she lives. In awarding her second place in the Curator’s Choice category of the 2016 CENTER Awards, an annual competition sponsored by a photography organization by the same name in Santa Fe, jurors cited her photographic portraits of fourth-graders around the world as “a salutary celebration of things as they are. […] The clarity of [her] project is beguiling.” This spring Judy also spoke about her fourth-grade series at Otis College of Art in LA.

1983 Five years ago Dale Emmart MFA PT (NYC) launched Plein Air Portugal (pleinairportugal. com), a summer retreat/ workshop based in the rural northwestern town of Travanca do Monte. This year’s retreat, which Karen Bell MFA PH will again co-direct, runs from July 23–August 3. This spring Dale showed large drawings and small panel paintings in Dale Emmart/Shape Shifter at the Alliance Gallery in Narrowsburg, NY.

1984 Over the winter, Jim Kociuba MAE showed acrylic paintings

in Weavers, a group show at the Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville, MA, and in Winter Break at the Cambridge Art Association. Jim lives in Cambridge, MA and is online at jimkociuba.com.

1986 Jennifer (Curtis) Burke MFA GD, principal of the San Francisco design firm Industry (industrious.com), created the exhibition identity and interpretive materials for the California debut of Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet. A reworking of Thomas Tallis’ 16th-century composition Spem in Alium, the sound installation was open

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

through mid January and was co-presented by Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture and SF MoMA.

Roughly 25 photographs by Dana Matthews MFA PH are included in Landmarks, a three-person show on view through September 6 at Albany [NY] International Airport.

Her work highlights the beauty of farmland and landscapes in New York state. In early March an installation by Anne Morgan Spalter MFA PT was on view in the Spring/Break Art Show at Skylight at Moynihan Station in Manhattan. The Providencebased artist cites “influences as diverse as Buddhist art, pure mathematics, Futurism and Action Painting” in describing her work, which she bases on “both representational and algorithmic structures.”

1989 Working with choreographer Stephen Petronio and the 95-year-old postmodern dancer Anna Halprin, Janine Antoni MFA SC has been presenting a series of performances this spring at the Fabric Workshop and Museum

Sharyn O’Mara MFA 92 GD Sharyn and three other glass faculty members at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art (including Megan Biddle 00 GL ) exhibited recent work in Hush, a show meant to serve as an antidote to the hyper stimulation of the digital age through an analogue focus on the power of memory and reflection in particular. Sponsored by the Philadelphia [PA] Art Alliance, the exhibition ran from January 28 – April 24 and included a public discussion moderated by fellow alum Daniel Clayman 86 GL . // RISDXYZ

spring/ summer 2016

CROSSCULTURAL MAKING Chris Martin MFA 94 FD

Dominic Montwori MFA 05 CR This Could Be Home 1 (collaged screenprint on paper, 26 x 34") was on view from February through mid April in Vanishing Point at Art House Productions gallery in Jersey City, NJ. Dominic lives in Brooklyn.

1993

“I create because I have to,” notes furniture maker Chris Martin MFA 94 FD. “It’s as essential to my being as the food I eat and the air I breathe.” Now that he has landed a 2016 Fulbright, the associate professor at Iowa State University is headed to Ahmedabad, India for the second half of the year, where he’ll study traditional craft forms at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University. After working in Ghana from 2008–10 as a Peace Corps volunteer, Chris has been especially interested in “traditional indigenous arts” and in helping artisans to make a sustainable living while adhering to their craft

traditions. His and his wife’s experiences in West Africa inspired an ongoing body of work that reflects “the concerns, frustrations, joys and beauty we encountered on a daily basis,” the artist says, “as well as the new perspective I have gained of my own culture.” In India Chris is looking forward to collaborating with colleagues at CEPT’s Design Innovation Craft Resource Centre, where he’ll research the history, processes, materials and meaning of such traditional crafts as hand-hammered copper dinnerware, dyed silk garlands and block-printed textiles. Chris will also teach a furniture design workshop at CEPT to emphasize the importance of collaboration in helping traditional artisans to integrate their work in contemporary contexts. He hopes to develop a line of furniture inspired by the makers he meets when he returns to the US in December.

Find out more at chrismartinfurnture.com.

// graduate class notes

Matthew Kolodziej MFA PT won the 2015 Southeastern College Art Association (SECAC) Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement, given to “recognize, encourage and reward” creative individuals. A professor of art at the University of Akron [OH], he has run Synapse, a series of lectures, workshops, exhibitions and conversations about the intersection of science in art since 2007. In 2012 Matthew joined forces with colleagues in polymer science, engineering and biology on a new initiative at the University of Akron to

develop the Biomimicry Research Innovation Center.

1994 Shahzia Sikander: Apparatus of Power, the first major solo show NYC-based artist Shahzia Sikander MFA PT/PR has had in Hong Kong, is on view through June 5 at the Asia Society’s Hong Kong Center. A satellite show is running concurrently at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. In a story in the Middle East edition of Newsweek, Shahzia points out that Hong Kong is an ideal setting for showing her work since it’s wrestling with the

Saba Qizilbash MA 04 Saba and fellow RISD grad Sophia Khwaja 07 PR were among a group of UAE residents invited to participate in a playful project at Art Dubai, an annual international art fair that took place in mid March. Called Universal Post, the project prompted participants to imagine utopian nations and create postage stamps reflecting their ideals. Saba and another artist proposed the tiny, remote nation of Zanzaristan, nestled between the mountains and the SawGaz Sea and made up almost entirely of women, who appear on all government documents. Sophia’s group, in contrast, imagined the nation of Kitchenistan (population 4), which centers on cooking and eating.

Kevin Hughes MFA 08 JM

Christina Ruhaak MFA 03 TX Through their new company CHo¯ CHo¯ (chochomylove.com) in Madison, WI, Christina and her design partner Kristin Rehberg create handmade knitwear for babies and children. Her plaited knits incorporate luminous color using a technique she learned at RISD.

transition from British to Chinese rule and questioning issues of independence versus authority, as she does in her own work.

1997 Work by Gayle Wells Mandle MFA PT/PR (South Dartmouth, MA) is featured in Seats of Power, a two-person show of both individual work and collaborative pieces made with her daughter Julia Mandle. The exhibition focuses on the ongoing and often bitter struggle for greater equality in the world and continues

through June 18 at the Greater Reston [VA] Arts Center.

2002 Karen Ernst MFA FD (Edinboro, PA) exhibited furniture and wooden sculpture in Land, Sea, and Sky: Details from Nature, a solo show that ran at the Erie [PA] Art Museum from September to mid January. Jane Hesser MFA PH is participating in Artful Medicine, a collaborative program between the RISD Museum and Dr. Jay Baruch, head of the medical humanities concentration at

Brown University. The program focuses on using art experiences to develop and encourage “thinking about thinking” during clinical practice. Portland-based artist Aaron McConnell MFA PT collaborated with author Jonathan Hennessey on The Comic Book Story of Beer: The World’s Favorite Beverage from 7000 BC to Today’s Craft Brewing Revolution (Ten Speed Press, 2015), which has become a New York Times bestseller since its release last fall. In the past, the two have worked together on such graphic novels as The US Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation and The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation. Chris Taylor MFA GL has earned a 2016 Fellowship Merit Award in Crafts from the RI State Council on the Arts. This spring he was busy preparing work for Explode the Everyday, a group show on the “phenomena of wonder” that opened in May at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA.

Arthur Huang

2004 From December to April Ghost of a Dream (ghostofadream. com), aka Lauren Was MFA SC and Adam Eckstrom MFA 05 PT, worked on new collages at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, with sponsorship from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. They also exhibited widely over the winter and are among the artists in State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, a traveling show that opened in February at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Telfair Museums Jepson Center in Savannah, GA. It will be on view in Georgia until early September.

2005 Tanya Aguiñiga MFA FD (see page 13) Della Reams MFA TX is developing the new Interdisci-

Earlier this spring Kevin showed jewelry in The Good Old Boys, a solo exhibition at Gallery Four in Gothenburg, Sweden. On April 8 he also presented a talk in conjunction with the show at HDK, the Högskolan för design och konsthantverk at the University of Gothenburg. The artist is based in Providence.

plinary Fashion Program at Miami University in Oxford, OH, expanding the current fashion minor into a major with tracks in design, entrepreneurship and business. A visiting assistant professor at UO, she is also developing an exhibition of one-of-a-kind draped dresses from original digitally printed fabrics, working in collaboration with NYC-based painter Larry Rushing and fashion designer Hisham Dawoud.

2006 Thad Russell MFA PH has earned a 2016 Merit Award in Photography from the RI State Council on the Arts. He teaches at RISD and makes work that “examines the contemporary American landscape in all of its beauty, perversity and pathos.”

Michael Rousseau 97 IL/MAT 02 My Country, ’Tis of Thee, a solo show of oil paintings of guns painted at actual size, is on view through June 30 at Dottie’s Coffee Lounge Gallery in Pittsfield, MA, near where Michael lives. He says the new series of paintings is his “way of addressing things that frighten or intrigue [him] — in this case, both.”

MFA 01 PT/PR Memory Walks — Is This The Way I Went?, a solo show of Arthur’s work (arthurjhuang. com), is on view through June 5 at Hagiso gallery in Tokyo. The exhibition of new work explores the nature of our ever-changing memories and includes an installation of eggshells that suggest fragility of the human brain, where memories of everyday walks become fractured, confused and forgotten over time. Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

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Helen Lee MFA 06 GL Helen Lee: BeCloud was featured last fall at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. Using letterforms and Chinese characters as sculptural material, Helen explores the relationship between language, text and cultural identity. She teaches as an assistant professor and heads the glass program at the University of Wisconsin/ Madison.

2007 Wings, a solo show of work by Fitzhugh Karol MFA CR , was on view this spring at A+E Studios in Tribeca. The Brooklyn-based artist showed whimsical wood carvings and three-dimensional steel maquettes. This spring Stephanie Williams MFA SC completed her first sculptural costuming commission—a totally crazy body suit for the Theatre Du Jour production of Antonin Artaud’s 1947 radio play, To Have Done with the Judgment of God. The production ran from April 15 through May 7 at the DC Arts Center in Washington, DC. Stephanie teaches as an assistant professor of art at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.

2008 After a two-person show last fall at GrayDUCK Gallery in Austin, TX, Jonas Criscoe MFA PT (jonascriscoe.com) exhibited work in two winter

group shows: The Oil & Gas Show at Level Gallery in Dallas and Print.Printer.Printing at The Gallery at LewisCarnegie in Austin, where he lives. In January the latest short by Jeanne Jo MFA DM (jjo.com) was screened at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, UT. Called Tampoon, the seven-minute film about a killer tampon won Best US Short at last fall’s Another Hole

in the Head Festival, a subset of the San Francisco Indie Fest. This year the Cleveland [OH] Museum of Art acquired Swan Point #2 (named after the cemetery in Providence) by Michael Radyk MFA TX (michaelradyk.com), one of his Jacquard woven textiles that are cut and manipulated after removal from the loom. Last fall he exhibited work in the juried exhibition

Somewhere Between Black & White at the Harry Wood Gallery at Arizona State University in Tempe, showed pieces at SOFA in Chicago and lectured at the Cleveland Museum. He heads the Textiles and Crafts program at Kutztown [PA] University.

2009 Kelli Rae Adams MFA CR , who teaches at RISD, has earned a 2016 Fellowship in New Genres from the RI State Council on the Arts. Based on the strength of his work, Johnny Adimando MFA PR has earned a 2016

Breanne Trammell MFA 08 PR Last fall Breanne and Jenny Harp activated overlooked sites in Santa Rosa, CA with a variety of silkscreen-printed hyper-color gradients. Called Double Double Rainbow Rainbow, their public art project was part of the city’s Downtown Connect program. Last year the duo installed prints in Knoxville, TN as part of the Prints in Peculiar Places outdoor program at the Southern Graphics Council International conference. 92

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Fellowship in Drawing and Printmaking from the RI State Council on the Arts. He teaches in the Painting department at RISD. Noel O’Connell MFA CR (see page 13)

2011 After winning a 2015–16 Fulbright for study abroad, Alexander McCargar BArch spent this academic year in Vienna, Austria researching the city’s opera tradition. Stone-Faced Ghosts of the Confederacy, a piece in The New York Times Magazine (10.16.15), focused on the work of photographer Michael Mergen MFA PH, an assistant professor of photography at Longwood University in Farmville, VA. In the wake of last year’s church shooting in Charlestown, SC, Michael traveled around the South photographing depictions of the iconic Johnny Reb, an ongoing reminder of Klan terrorism, Jim Crow laws, redlining, voting rights restrictions and other traumas that lingered long after the Civil War.

Kelly Knapp MLA 10 Kelly created this custom gold bodice from fabric and paper scales layered with gold, copper and silver paints for Kryolan Professional Make-up’s Persephone’s Rise campaign. The piece appeared on the cover and an interior spread of Make-Up International magazine as well as in the 2016 Kryolan calendar. Kelly, who lives in Sleepy Hollow, NY, has focused on installation work, set design, creative direction, styling and displays since graduating.

Ian Quate MLA of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects in Charlottesville, VA was part of a cross-disciplinary team that took first prize in Gowanus by Design’s international Axis Civitas design competition in Brooklyn. His team won the contest, which asked designers to speculate on the potential of the Gowanus Canal, with its plans for the BK BioReactor,

a mobile research library that will enable them to study the microbiology of the toxic, EPAdesignated superfund site.

Resistance, a solo exhibition of work by Laura Swanson MFA DM , was on view this spring at the JCC Manhattan’s Tisch Gallery in NYC, where she lives. The show featured work from her series Uniforms and Anti-Self-Portraits.

Katie Bell MFA 11 PT For her site-specific installation Casualties, Katie scavenged from the “detritus” of people around her to make what she calls “future ruins” — short-lived time capsules that she eventually deconstructs. Her piece was part of Faulted Valley Fog, a small group show on view in late winter at Transmitter in Brooklyn, where she lives.

Bundith Phunsombatlert MFA 10 DM below: Last fall Bundith (bundithphunsombatlert.com) exhibited recent work in Memory, Market, and Migratory Transition, a solo show at Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space in NYC, where he lives. The multimedia exhibition included moving images in the form of a 3D View-Master reel built of small TV monitors.

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

CRYSTAL CLEAR Anjali Srinivasan MFA 07 GL

When Indian artist and entrepreneur Anjali Srinivasan MFA 07 GL first started working with molten glass, she “fell head over heels for its glow and movement.” Twenty years later, she’s still fascinated with pushing the possibilities of the material. After earning her MFA at RISD, Anjali worked and taught in Scandinavia and Australia before establishing her own practice in the UAE, where she now works as creative director of ChoChoMa Studios in Dubai. There, a close-knit team of artists, designers, engineers, curators and craftspeople from around the world work on the vanguard of conceptual and technological product design, assimilating ideas from multiple disciplines. “We conceive and produce one-of-a-kind handmade works in glass that are not available anywhere else,” Anjali explains, adding that she’s especially interested in developing new ways to use glass in combination with emerging technologies to create interactive, ephemeral sculptures, installations and performance pieces. The team also taps into local cultures to create “location-specific installations and captivating glass works” that connect to place. After earning a 2016 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award, this spring Anjali has focused on developing new work using crystals. She traveled to Swarovski’s headquarters in Austria to study crystal manufacturing techniques before designing and creating work slated for exhibition at Design Miami/ Basel in June. “Crystal is a highly engaging material because it’s a solid object that creates visual effects you cannot touch,” Anjali notes. Honored to have won the Swarovski award, she’s pleased to have had the opportunity to make “work that explores this crossroads between physical and optical phenomena.”

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Sui Park MDes 13 Earlier this year Sui (suipark. com) exhibited her evocative installations and 100 new drawings in Garden of Humans, a solo show at the Art Gallery at CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, where she lives. Playing with Perception, a second solo show featuring her new Wiggling series and other recent sculptures, ran from mid April to May 28 at Denise Bibro Fine Art Gallery in Chelsea.

Challenge for his film The Mountain. In Photo District News, a co-sponsor of the competition, Evan describes the work as “two weeks of [his] life condensed into five minutes.” Tim O’Keefe MFA DM (Brooklyn) and James Franco MFA DM (Burbank, CA), who met and formed the band Daddy when they were both graduate students, released the album Let Me Get What I Want in March. Singles from the album, which is based on poems James wrote in response to songs by The Smiths, have gotten positive reviews in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and other music-focused platforms.

2013 Sophie Barbasch MFA PH and Lindsay Carone MFA SC studied abroad this year after winning 2015–16 Fulbright US Student Program awards. Sophie focused on photographing the Transnordestina railroad in Brazil, while

2012 Work by Anthony Giannini MFA PT is included in Flat Foldability, a group show that runs through June 11 at Harmony Murphy Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition centers on mathematical concepts most often applied to origami and other paper folding techniques, but extends the conceptual boundaries to include folds, tucks, cuts and sequences—along with multiple layers of subtext— compressed into a single work. In February and March Tamara Johnson MFA SC (tamara johnsonstudio.com) had her first solo exhibition in New 94

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York at the CUE Art Foundation. Based in Ridgewood, NY, she works “to tease out potent meaning from overlooked fragments of the home, ordinary nuances of exterior architecture and un-monumental mishaps of a place.”

Last fall Evan Mann MFA PR , director of Otherworldly Productions (otherworldly productions.com) in Denver won the $2,500 grand prize in the Samsung 4K Filmmaking

Rachel Klinghoffer MFA PT (Brooklyn) and Bayne Peterson MFA 13 SC, who teaches at RISD, exhibited work in Future Past Perfect, a late winter show at Ms Barbers in Los Angeles. The show was inspired by the Philip K. Dick novel The Man in the High Castle and the objects that become valuable relics of the book’s paranoid society.

Christina Poblador MFA 15 GL Christina—better known as Goldie—made her NYC debut this spring with Venus Freed, a solo show of glass and scent pieces at the Philippine Center Gallery. Her latest collection of interactive blown glass objects, flowers and found materials are inspired by the Filipino myth of the ylang ylang, a flower indigenous to the Philippines, her native country.

Lindsay explored traditional craft in India as a means of repurposing trash. In February the Printed Matter table at the Los Angeles Art Book Fair featured two books by Rob MacInnis MFA PH: An Atlas of the Earth and Bob & Joan in NYC. In March the animal portraits in his series The Dog and Pony Show (see pages 40–42 and the back cover of the last issue of this magazine) were featured in a two-page spread in Juxtapoz. Fellow alum Canbra Hodsdon 09 PH interviewed him for the latter. Christopher Ross MArch, who has been living with cystic fibrosis for years, is planning to sail across the Atlantic this summer to raise awareness of the disease. The Vermontbased furniture maker also sees his adventures at sea as a way of honoring the memory of his brother Michael, who died from CF complications last fall. Thanks to a GoFundMe campaign, Christopher was able to take a 14-week sailing program to help him go pro and prepare for the challenge.

2014 In late December Maquis Projects in Izmir, Turkey hosted Centuries, an exhibition of work by Sameer Farooq MFA GD (sameerfarooq.com) that functions as “a conversation between the Ottoman Empire and the current refugee crisis.” In the show a 16thcentury Ottoman court painter

Julie Gautier-Downes MFA 14 PH This spring Julie (juliegautierdownes.com) showed digital composite images made with her sister Kristen in the 2nd Artist Collaboration Show at the Hatch Gallery in Spokane Valley, WA. Her work was also shown in recent exhibitions at Spokane Falls Community College and MINT Gallery in Atlanta, GA. Photographs from her At a Loss series appeared in the April issue of The HAND magazine and other images from her Human Traces series ran in the Italian online magazine Phosmag. Based in Santa Barbara, CA, Julie recently began a new photo series called Mobile Homes that captures campers and trailers in varying states of abandonment.

named Matrakçı Nasuh wanders east to cross paths with tens of thousands of 21st-century refugees moving westward though Turkey. Sameer, who is based in Toronto, also won a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council to fund six months of research on the mechanisms of display in ethnographic museums. In March Gerardo Gandy MArch (Austin) discussed how architecture and design can cultivate community and create vibrant, healthy urban spaces as part of SxSW Eco’s Impact Design Night. Gensler Austin, the architectural firm where he works, hosted the gathering. Gerardo is also the founding chairman of the ACE Mentor Program of Austin, an afterschool program for high school students interested in careers in architecture, construction and engineering. Biome Arts, a collective of artists, designers and activists that includes David Kim MFA DM (Providence), Nupur Mathur MFA DM (Brooklyn),

Lucia Monge MFA 15 SC (Providence) and Hyo Jin Yoo MFA DM (Seoul), will collaborate with ecological installation artist Mary Mattingly on Swale, a floating food forest launching this summer on the Hudson River in NYC. For their contribution, Eco_Hack 2016, the Biome artists have designed visualizations and projections of the biometric data generated by the food forest’s plants. After a fall solo show at GRIN in Providence, Steven Pestana MFA DM participated in the winter show Brink v. 2 at Mills Gallery in Boston. The biennial highlighted work by emerging artists in the northeast, including fellow Providencebased artist Johnny Adimando MFA 09 PR (see page 92). Robert Christian Poules MArch created a concept called Le Caveaum (The Cave) for the 17th edition of the International Garden Festival in Quebec, which is held each year in the Reford Gardens in Grand-Métis. An architect and landscape architect who lives in Basel, Switzerland, he won

Please email class notes submissions to: risdxyz@risd.edu.

one of just five awards in this international competition. Le Caveaum features a foursided room framed in steel and filled with stones known as gabions.

2015 This fall Soe Yu Nwe MFA CR will do a residency in Indonesia as part of the Jakarta Contemporary Ceramics Biennale. She has also showed work in several exhibitions this year, including The Tree of Life: 4th Southeast Asian Ceramics Exhibition, where she represented her home country of Myanmar, and The Self, Reconfigured, a solo show at Albion [MI] College, where she earned her undergraduate degree and now lives. Setting Out, a mixed-media exhibition curated in part by Digital + Media faculty member Alyson Ogasian MFA DM, ran at apexart in NYC from January to early March. Investigating our preoccupation with the frontier, the show featured work by a wide range of artists, including alums Vivian Charlesworth MFA DM, Yun Hong MFA 16 DM, Drew Ludwig MFA PH, Claudia O’Steen MFA DM and Tim Wang MFA 16 DM.

Rob McKirdie MFA 14 SC This spring Rob exhibited recent sculpture in Eminent Collapse, a two-person show at Spokane Falls Community College in Spokane, WA, where he lives. // RISDXYZ

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sketchbook

// sketches, doodles, ideas in progress

SNIFFING OUT WHAT MATTERS by Sally Mara Sturman 76 PR

For the third year running, I had the opportunity to spend some blissful time painting in France this spring. My most recent exploits began in March—in Marseille. By foot, bus, train and boat—and with copious amounts of café—I spent a week wandering through Provence. Not having too particular an agenda, I sort of followed my nose at each spot I stopped at, which led me to—among other things—islands, bullfights, harbors, a whole lot of wisteria, villas and flamingos in the salt pans. I also spent a lot of time on or near the Mediterranean and was very affected by the light

and colors of the various villages and how different each one was. Once I landed at my artist residency in Vallauris, I started painting my impressions of these places and things. As a complement to working from my imagination, I started traveling a couple of times a week to Île Saint Honorat, a short boat ride from Cannes. There I found in the luminous water, cobalt skies and razor-like rocks perfect subject matter for a continuation of my What is Jazz series of plein air watercolors I had begun over the winter in California.

These watercolor sketches capture the light and feeling of what I observe on site, painting outdoors. In January I began my What is Jazz series (directly above) while visiting family in California and then built on it with a new series of paintings made while traveling in France this spring.

Please submit sample pages from your own sketchbooks. Our favorites will appear in XYZmail and/or the next issue of the magazine. Questions? Email risdxyz@risd.edu.

See more of Sallyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work at sallymaraart.blogspot.com.

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