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IFROM THE PRESIDENT
n a matter of days, the School of Visual Arts will reach another milestone when the College celebrates the achievements of its class of 2025 at our 50th annual commencement exercises, held again at Radio City Music Hall.
Though SVA was founded in 1947, as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, our first Bachelor of Fine Arts degree programs began 25 years later, in 1972. In 1983, 11 years after introducing our first BFA programs, SVA established its first graduate degree program, MFA Fine Arts. Today, graduate programs leading to the Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Fine Arts, and Master of Professional Studies degrees account for 18 of the 29 degrees granted by the College, and represent an array of art and design specializations.
On page 5, you will read about our new SVA Graduate Center, a shared space where our graduate students, faculty, and chairs can not only work and study as they might within their own departments, but also interact and collaborate across disciplines in new, unexpected ways. A spirit of experimentation and open inquiry has defined SVA since its earliest days; this latest initiative is a continuation of that philosophy and our commitment to cultivating an environment where breakthroughs, big ideas, and moments of creative serendipity can happen.
I hope you enjoy this issue of the Visual Arts Journal
president school of visual arts
PHOTO BY NIR ARIELI (BFA 2012 PHOTOGRAPHY)
MY SVA
Wenjing Yang
BFA 2022 Illustration wenjingart.com @wenjing_art
This issue’s MySVA artist, freelance illustrator Wenjing Yang, grew up in Xi’an, China, and lives and works in New Jersey.
In the few years since graduating from the School of Visual Arts, Yang has amassed an enviable list of clients: Her colorful, luminescent imagery— inspired, she says, by speculative fiction and interior and furniture design—has appeared in publications like The Washington Post and Wired UK, on products for Kiehl’s and Fly by Jing, and in special projects for Spotify and Meow Wolf. Her current projects include a monthly series of horoscope-themed artworks for the website Refinery29. She also creates animations and motion graphics and, as a hobby, felted sculptures.
For her MySVA assignment, Yang used the College’s initials as the basis for a composition in which varied organic forms are incorporated into the limbs of a partially crouched woman.
“In my opinion, SVA helps students become the creators they aspire to be,” she says.
“I depicted a person growing different body parts from various creatures—feathered wings, insect wings, and a fishtail—to symbolize how students can develop the skills and qualities they seek in this environment and thrive in their own unique way.”
News and events from around the College
CLOSE UP
Give ’em
Heller
➞ THE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS celebrates another milestone this year with its 50th annual commencement exercises, to be held on Thursday, May 15, 1:00pm, at Radio City Music Hall. Steven Heller, celebrated design author, educator, and co-founder of the College’s MFA Design program, will deliver the address and receive an honorary doctorate of fine arts. Heller has a long, consequential history with SVA and its design and illustration disciplines. He briefly attended the College in the 1960s as a young illustrator before leaving for the then-thriving world of underground and alternative newspapers. In 1974 he joined The New York Times, where he would spend more than 30 years as an art director and writer. He has authored, co-authored, or edited more than 200 books on design, illustration, and typography, and contributed to such publications as The Atlantic, Wired, and Print, for which he now serves as partner and editor at large. His honors include the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement, Smithsonian National Design Award, and SVA Masters Series Award and Exhibition, as well as honorary doctorates from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and University of West Bohemia in the Czech Republic. He is also a member of the Art Directors Club and One Club Educators halls of fame.
Continued on page 6 ➞
A NEW HUB
➞ LAST NOVEMBER, THE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS opened its latest facility, the SVA Graduate Center, on the ground floor of the College’s building at 136 West 21st Street.
The center was conceived last year by SVA President David Rhodes as a place for interdisciplinary exchange, while also providing additional space and resources for the students and faculty of the College’s 18 graduate departments. Terrence Masson, chair of MFA Computer Arts, was appointed as its inaugural director and led the effort among the graduate department chairs and staff and SVA Facilities to bring it online in time for the 2024–25 academic year.
The center currently comprises two large, flexible-use classrooms; a 48-seat screening room, which also hosts events for local film festivals and organizations; a pantry area and common spaces; several digital-film editing suites; and offices. Monitors facing the street-level windows play the latest work by SVA graduate students, and an exhibition of work by faculty from various programs, curated by MA Curatorial Practice Chair Steven Henry Madoff’s team, is installed
throughout the space. An inventory of digital cameras and other filmmaking gear is being prepared for faculty and student use, and in the coming months, Masson plans to add a conference room and, in a joint effort with the MFA Computer Arts Assistant Director for Innovation Technologies Rochele Gloor and Office of Learning Technologies Director Jennifer Phillips, a suite housing an AI software library and other experimental technology.
The SVA Graduate Center’s first event was an information session and portfolio review jointly hosted by the 18 graduate departments, and coincided with “Bold Outlines,” an exhibition of multidisciplinary work by students from each graduate program, on view at the SVA Flatiron Gallery.
Already, Masson says, the space has spurred on a greater sense of community among the graduate department chairs, who are now planning a retreat with SVA Provost Chris Cyphers to discuss opportunities for further collaboration, opening up their curriculums to encourage greater crossdisciplinary study, and co-teaching common courses. [Greg Herbowy]
Heller taught his first SVA class, on newspaper design, in the late ’60s and became a perennial faculty member in 1984. With Lita Talarico (MFA 2007 Art Criticism and Writing), he co-founded the MFA Design program in 1998, and was instrumental in the development of several other SVA degree programs, including MPS Branding and MFA Design Criticism (now MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism). He retired as MFA Design co-chair in 2024 though continues to teach at the College, while also serving as special assistant to SVA President David Rhodes.
“My over-45-year relationship with SVA colleagues, faculty, and students has offered an unmatched opportunity to find and grow my life’s eclectic and curious passions,” Heller says. “SVA is more than a college of visual arts; it is a cultural experiment and social laboratory where, over time and fluxes in fashions and technologies, values are measured by the unique consequences of contributions its makers put into the real world, for the real world.”
The 50th annual SVA commencement exercises will celebrate the achievements of some 1,151 degree candidates enrolled in the College’s 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. For more information, visit sva.edu/commencement. [Maeri Ferguson and GH]
Local Heroes
➞ THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM, New York City’s second-largest art museum, opened its 200th anniversary season last fall with the “Brooklyn Artists Exhibition,” a mammoth group show of artists who keep studios in the borough, including a dozen SVA alumni and one faculty member.
Sarra Hussein Idris (MFA 1998 Photography and Related Media); MFA Fine Arts graduates Kyung Tae Kim (2017), Alison Kuo (2014), Leo Tecosky (2011), Zac Thompson (2019), and Kit Warren (1986); Guadalupe Maravilla (BFA 2003 Photography); BFA Fine Arts graduates Chris Martin (1992) and
Rhesa Paul (2023); Josh Sucher (MFA 2016 Interaction Design); Cyle Warner (BFA 2023 Photography and Video); Jason Bard Yarmosky (BFA 2010 Illustration); and MFA Fine Arts faculty member Brad Kahlhamer all had work on view in the exhibition, which ran from October through January.
Additionally, Lizzy Itzkowitz (MFA 2024 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 2018 Cartooning) painted a mural and a Mystry Mart vending machine, which sells items made by local artists, for the museum’s “Birthday Bash” event, also in October. [GH]
Series Semiquincentennial
➞ MPS Digital Photography celebrated the 250th lecture in its popular i3: Images, Ideas, Inspiration series, established in 2011 to host talks by photographers, editors, curators, and other industry experts and currently curated and hosted by department faculty member Julie Grahame. As with most SVA events, the i3 lectures are free and open to the public. A video library of the lectures, available on YouTube and Vimeo as a resource for working photographers, enthusiasts, educators, and students around the world, has collectively garnered more than a million views.
For the 250th i3 lecture, photographer and MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media faculty member Elinor Carucci, the series’s first guest, returned to talk about her work, which has appeared in publications like The New Yorker and institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, New York. A reception followed Carucci’s talk, featuring an exhibition of posters advertising past lectures, autographed by the guest speakers. [GH]
A Good Egg
➞ IN FEBRUARY, the latest SVA poster, featuring art by designer Pablo Delcan (BFA 2012 Graphic Design), went up in subway stations around New York City. The image, a simple line drawing of an oval-shaped chick, comes from Delcan’s ongoing Prompt-Brush 1.0 project and website, through which people can submit open-ended illustration challenges for him to take on—in this case, the age-old koan, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
Delcan, who has also taught at SVA, conceived of Prompt-Brush 1.0 as “the first non-AI generative art model,” he wrote in a New York Times essay last year, and since launching the site in 2023, he has gotten “thousands of prompts from all over the world.” (A book collecting work from the project will be published by Chronicle Chroma in September.)
The spring 2025 SVA poster is Declan’s second for the College; his first, in 2018, featured pencils twisted to form the tagline, “Art Is!” Look out for a summer poster on subway platforms starting in June, featuring art by BFA Illustration faculty member Teresa Fasolino (1968 Illustration). [GH]
Heard at SVA
Notable
quotes from College events
➞ “GROWING UP IN BROOKLYN, I would go to these museums all around here with my brother. . . . And we would go so often. My earliest assumption of how you engage with a work of art was that you would go, you know, 25 times to see it. Even now, there are pieces that I visit annually.”
—KAMBUI OLUJIMI, artist. From a talk hosted by MA Curatorial Practice.
➞ “I THINK THAT DEMOCRACY is the greatest political idea that human beings have ever developed.”
—FRANCES FOX PIVEN, political scientist and activist. From a talk hosted by the SVA Honors Program and BFA Visual and Critical Studies.
New Digs
➞ LAST OCTOBER, THE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS cut the ribbon for a new College office and exhibition space in Seoul named after longtime faculty member and former Director of International Programs Andrew Chang (MFA 1987 Illustration as Visual Essay).
A delegation of SVA officials— including BFA Interior Design Chair Carol Bentel, SVA Board of Directors member Tak Hoon Kim (MFA 2005 Computer Art; BFA 1997 Animation), SVA Alumni Affairs and Development
Director Jane Nuzzo, and SVA Admissions and Student Affairs
Executive Director Javier Vega— attended. While in South Korea, the visiting representatives also engaged
in alumni outreach, met with area schools, and attended a Korea Alumni Association dinner honoring its current president, Kenny Kim (BFA 1994 Graphic Design).
SVA has kept a physical presence in Seoul for more than a decade to serve its Korea-based alumni and students, who have been an integral part of the College’s community since the 1970s. Its new location, in the city’s historic Jongno District, offers a prominent showcase for exhibitions of alumni work and other SVA events, and is staffed by Assistant Director of International Outreach Hee won Seo (MFA 2012 Fine Arts) and Regional Coordinator Chloe Choi (BFA 2022 Design). [GH]
Art of Activism
➞ THIS MARCH AND APRIL, the School of Visual Arts hosted a series of public events commemorating the tradition of art-based AIDS activism.
Coming Attractions
FOR MORE INFORMATION on SVA events, visit sva.edu/events.
➞ SVA SHOWS 2025
Screenings and exhibitions featuring work by graduating students in SVA degree programs. Online and various locations through September. Full schedule at sva.edu/svashows.
➞ SUMMER RESIDENCY PROGRAMS EXHIBITION
Featuring work by artists in SVA Continuing Education’s summer residencies.
Wednesday, May 30
– Saturday, June 7. SVA Flatiron Gallery, 133/141 West 21st Street
➞ ALL-STAFF ART SHOW
An annual exhibition of work by administrative staff at SVA.
Wednesday, June 11 –Wednesday, June 25
SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 East 23rd Street
➞ PRACTICE LECTURE SERIES
MFA Art Practice hosts talks by artists, writers and curators.
Tuesdays, June 24 –July 29, 5pm 335 West 16th Street, Room 501H
➞ 2025 SVA ALUMNI EXHIBITION
A juried exhibition of work by New York City-based alumni
from the classes of 2010 through 2020.
(See page 65.)
Tuesday, September 2
– Saturday, December 6
SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor
➞ AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL 2025
Screenings and talks with SVA alumni working in animation, film and television.
Week of September 15
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street
From March 20 through April 5, two complementary exhibitions were on view at the College’s 133/141 West 21st Street building. The SVA Flatiron Gallery presented “TO LOVE—TO DIE; TO FIGHT. TO LIVE: Art and Activism in the Time of AIDS,” organized by SVA Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost and curated by Academic Affairs Operations Manager Michael Severance (MFA 2013 Art Practice; BFA 2011 Fine Arts). The show included six panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the galvanizing community art project begun in 1987 and now totaling roughly 50,000 contributions and counting, and screenings of the documentaries How to Survive a Plague (2012) and United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2014). The SVA Flatiron Project Space concurrently presented “Witness,” an exhibition of art on queerness and AIDS by past and present SVA community members—including the late Keith Haring (1979 Fine Arts) and John Sex (1980 Fine Arts)—curated by faculty member Peter Hristoff (BFA 1981 Fine Arts).
On March 29 and 30, the David Wojnarowicz Foundation, New York City AIDS Memorial, New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, and Todd Oldham Studio co-sponsored a weekend of quilt-making workshops at the College, with fabrics donated by the Maharam textile company. The SVA Honors Program and BFA Visual and Critical Studies hosted a March 31 talk by David France, director of How to Survive a Plague, and the SVA Library hosted Jacs Rodriguez, community archivist at Visual AIDS, for an April 2 presentation on his work. [GH]
Recent Passings
➞ IN ADDITION TO ITS ALUMNI PASSINGS (see page 79), the School of Visual Arts lost three notable community members over the 2024–25 academic year. CARLA TSCHERNY, longtime executive assistant to the SVA chairman, died on September 14 at the age of 68; groundbreaking artist LORRAINE O’GRADY, a longtime SVA faculty member, died on December 13 at the age of 90; and artist and former faculty member MEL BOCHNER died on February 12 at the age of 84.
Tscherny joined SVA in 1996 as executive assistant to the College’s co-founder and then-chairman Silas H. Rhodes, working with him on day-to-day activities; event planning, including commencement exercises and year-end gatherings; and projects with the Visual Arts Press, SVA’s in-house design studio. After Rhodes’s 2007 death, she worked with designer Milton Glaser, who served as acting chairman until his death, in 2020. In recent years, she worked closely with the Visual Arts Foundation, the nonprofit organization that manages and administers some of SVA’s scholarship funds. Tscherny was the daughter of designer George
Tscherny, an early SVA faculty member and creator of the College’s “flower” logo, who died in 2023.
O’Grady was an SVA Humanities and Sciences faculty member from 1974 to 2002. When O’Grady joined the College, she was working as a writer, filing music reviews for publications like Rolling Stone and The Village Voice, and had previously worked as a literary translator and research economist. She began making art in midlife, and over the next several decades built a body of work that encompassed collage, curation, installation, performance, photography, video, and writing, and dealt with such topics as gender, race, subjectivity, and the intersections of personal, political, and cultural histories. Her first museum retrospective, “Both/And,” was mounted by the Brooklyn Museum, in 2021, and her work is in the collections of more than 30 institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tate Modern, London.
Bochner was on the SVA faculty from 1965 to 1974. He grew up in
Pittsburgh, studied at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon), and was a young artist working as a museum guard when he was recruited by Dore Ashton, then SVA’s humanities chair, to teach at the College. In 1966, Bochner curated arguably the best-known show in SVA history, “Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to Be Viewed as Art,” a photocopied collection of drawings and other printed ephemera from a range of artists that was organized in binders. The idea partly arose out of necessity— the College did not have the budget to frame the work—but it was received enthusiastically. Today, “Working Drawings” is widely considered the first exhibition of conceptual art. Bochner’s work is in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Museum of Modern Art, New York, among other institutions. [GH]
Honoring an Ace
➞ LAST SUMMER, amid one of the most thrilling seasons in team history, the New York Mets mourned the loss of Marc Levine (BFA 1980 Photography), the organization’s chief photographer since 1989, who died in July at the age of 65. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie (BFA 1991 Photography), and daughter, Samantha.
Levine was the Mets’ longest-tenured photographer, documenting not only memorable plays but milestones like the retirement of legendary players’ numbers and the last game at Shea Stadium, where the team played from 1964 to 2008. In the days following his passing, the Mets celebrated Levine’s life and work with tributes online and at their home stadium of Citi Field, as well as dedicating the ballpark’s photo well in his memory. (Levine’s contributions will be recognized again in November, when he is posthumously inducted into the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame.)
This spring, the Mets unveiled another honor, the Marc Levine Mets Photography Internship, generously supported by the Amazin’ Mets Foundation. Arranged with the Visual Arts Foundation, the nonprofit that administers and manages some of the College’s scholarship funds, the 10-week paid summer internship will be available each year to a third- or fourth-year BFA Photography and Video student at SVA who has a strong interest in sports photojournalism. Recipients will work full-time with the Mets’ three-person photo team, covering home games, community events, and player programs, and be provided with a high-end camera body and lenses that will be theirs to keep.
“Marc was not only an amazing photographer, he was a kind person who made everyone feel special when he photographed them,” says Alex Cohen, Mets owner and president of the Amazin’ Mets Foundation. “We are proud to support the Marc Levine Photography Internship in his honor.” [GH]
An SVA Double Play
➞ THOUGH NO SVA ALUMNUS has been as integral to New York Mets history as the late Marc Levine (BFA 1980 Photography; see left), two other College graduates contributed to the team’s magical 2024 season, which ended with a National League Championship Series loss to the eventual World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On June 28, as part of the Mets’ Pride Night celebrations, actor and comedian Murray Hill (MFA 1997 Photography and Video) threw the ceremonial first pitch before the team’s game against the Houston Astros at Citi Field in Queens.
And on September 3, as part of the team’s inaugural Artist Series, in which limited-edition giveaways are created by notable contemporary artists, the first 15,000 attendees of the Mets’ home game against the Boston Red Sox received a ball cap featuring a design by Sarah Sze (MFA 1997 Fine Arts), who also threw that night’s ceremonial first pitch.
The Mets won both games by a score of 7 to 2. [GH]
Heard at SVA
➞ “KIDS AREN’T REALLY going to traditional platforms anymore—they’re going to YouTube. So everybody wants fast-to-market YouTube content. . . . I think there is a lot of disruption coming from smaller studios and independent creators, who are going to use AI in a way that allows them to [create] stuff really quickly.”
—JAN STEBBINS, executive producer and BFA Animation faculty member. From a panel discussion on AI in arts education between faculty from SVA and Chung-Ang University, Seoul, hosted by SVA’s Office of the Provost.
➞ “GROWING UP with a scientist [father] . . . science was a storytelling tool. It’s really a mythology. You think about the Big Bang, it’s a story. We have not proven the Big Bang.”
—ALICE WANG, artist. From a talk hosted by MFA Fine Arts.
Community Centered
➞ THE SVA DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION OFFICE kept a busy schedule throughout the 2024–25 academic year.
In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from mid-September to mid-October, the office hosted a Food Truck Friday event, offering free Argentinian food from Nuchas and Haitian food from Nao’s, to SVA students, faculty, and staff. A few weeks later, for LGBT History Month, SVA DEI welcomed author, artist, and drag queen Sasha Velour for a talk at the SVA Theatre.
In November, first-generation college students and graduates at SVA were spotlighted on SVA DEI’s Instagram, @sva_dei, and the office co-sponsored a Diwali party with the College’s Desi Culture Club, International Student Office, and VASA student government. A “Coffee and Donuts with DEI” event, offering community members a break during finals and other end-of-semester activities, took place in December.
The new year began with a January talk by criminal-justice advocate Kevin Richardson, a member of the Exonerated Five, a group of then-teenagers wrongly convicted of the 1989 assault of Trisha Meili, known as the “Central Park jogger.” In February, SVA DEI administered an anonymous, voluntary campus climate survey through the Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Consortium and, for Black History Month, presented a night of free soul food and movies at SVA Library West. And in March, for Women’s History Month, the office hosted TEDx SVA Women, comprising six presentations by SVA alumni, faculty, and staff on the intersections of art and gender, at the SVA Theatre. [GH]
WHAT’S IN STORE
The latest from SVA entrepreneurs: books, movies, products, and more
➞ SPAGHETTI MEG RYAN—a spicy pasta dish served at 21 Greenpoint, the Brooklyn restaurant owned and run by chef Homer Murray (BFA 2004 Photography)—is not really named after the actress. Murray has never met Ryan, although he grew up around the entertainment industry. (His father is actor Bill Murray.) The family dog was named Harry, he says. So when Murray got a dog of his own he named her “Meg Ryan” in his memory. “Sally,” he thought, was too corny.
Naming a popular menu item after your dog, who is named after an actress whose most famous role was opposite a character that shared a name with your late family dog, is just one idiosyncratic choice among many at the eight-year-old 21 Greenpoint, Murray’s first solo venture. The restaurant, housed in a former parking garage just a half-block from the East
River, is a place where fresh and local ingredients are prized, Murray’s SVA diploma hangs in a hallway, the wines are all organic and/or sustainable, and burrata and pork collar share menu space with a jalapeño-dressed hot dog and an ice-cream cone with rainbow sprinkles.
After spending a few years as a photo assistant after graduation, Murray joined classmate Dennis Spina (BFA 2004 Photography) in the kitchen of the Roebling Tea Room, a beloved spot in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood opened in 2005 by Sydney Silver, bassist of the punk band Lunachicks. Silver “was generous toward her chefs,” he says. “We got to make what we wanted.” That ambitious but freewheeling approach carried over to the trio’s next restaurant, River Styx, which operated from 2013 to 2016 at the location that is now 21 Greenpoint, and where what Murray describes as a serious, even “slightly unapproachable” menu was tempered with a crowd-pleasing take on chicken nachos that he offers to this day.
Since going on his own, Murray’s focus has been on cultivating a welcoming neighborhood fixture in Greenpoint, an ever-busier destination that is also home to two pizza restaurants owned by fellow alumnus Paulie Gee, a.k.a. Paul Giannone (1974 Photography). In 2018, 21 Greenpoint won the first of its many Michelin Bib Gourmand awards, for restaurants that provide exceptional quality at reasonable prices. Last spring, Murray took over the bar next door to 21 Greenpoint and reopened it as Banks Tavern; like the restaurant, it is available for hosting weddings, showers, and other celebrations.
“This was a neighborhood that didn’t need more restaurants, but I wanted to give it another one,” Murray said in a video interview after earning his first Bib Gourmand. “I wanted to do right by my neighborhood. I think I did.”
[Greg Herbowy]
➞ IN 2016,
ARTISTS
Marina Zurkow (BFA 1985 Fine Arts) and Sarah Rothberg formed their More&More collective with the aim of creating card games and interactive workshops that inspired participants to imagine a better world. Their “What If?” card deck, offering 55 hypothetical scenarios to ponder (“What if money expires after one day?”), was presented by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as part of its 2023–24 exhibition
“Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism.” The More&More decks and workshops provide mix-and-match premises in various categories— government, economy, and climate, to name a few—to serve as a starting point for envisioning future worlds. (More&More can also be played for free online at moreandmore.world.)
ABOVE 21 Greenpoint photos by Mackenzie Smith (pizza) and Gabi Porter (interiors). Homer Murray photo by Terry Matlin (BFA 2000 Advertising). Images courtesy of 21 Greenpoint.
SingleCut Beersmiths
➞ RICH BUCETA (1986 Advertising) was an art director and creative director in advertising for some 25 years, working with everyone from AT&T to Michelin, while nurturing a love of homebrewing in his free time. By 2009, burnt out and ready for a change, he found an entry-level job at a small brewery in New York City to learn hands-on how to turn his hobby into a new career.
“I started out cleaning kegs, and climbed the ranks to become a brewer,” he says. In 2012, he opened SingleCut, a brewery with an adjoining taproom and store in Astoria, Queens, the borough where he was born.
At the time, Buceta says, SingleCut was the only brewery in the borough—and, to his knowledge, the first to open in Queens since the end of Prohibition. (If the membership of the New York City Brewer’s Guild is any guide, there are now at least 10.) “We were just down the street from the Steinway piano factory, and they came to visit and were so happy we’d joined the neighborhood that they gifted us an upright piano.”
Today, SingleCut operates three taprooms across New York State: the original SingleCut Qns in Astoria; SingleCut Barn and Lodge, a beer garden
and indoor space in Manlius, near Syracuse; and SingleCut North in Clifton Park, near Albany. Clifton Park is also where brewing operations have largely relocated, to a 35,000-square-foot facility that turns out roughly 9,000 barrels—or 279,000 gallons—of an ever-changing selection of lagers, IPAs, pilsners, stouts, and more each year. Aside from the taprooms, SingleCut can be found in four- and 12-packs of 16-ounce cans in stores throughout the Northeast and in China, Japan, Scandinavia, and the UK.
Though the business’s success has lately kept Buceta from an active brewing role, he continues to formulate recipes and art-direct all of the graphics, ads, spaces, and merchandise for the brand. The overarching theme for everything is music, another of his loves: SingleCut is named for the signature style of a Les Paul guitar, Buceta’s favorite; all of the taprooms play vinyl and host live music; and all of the beer names double as music-world references. Late last year, the brewery introduced a new IPA, in partnership with the D’Addario musical instrument company, called Eddie Ate Dynamite (Good Bye Eddie), a mnemonic phrase for remembering the standard tuning of a six-string guitar. [GH]
19-33 37th Street, Queens 6 Fairchild Square, Clifton Park, NY 604 East Seneca Street, Manlius, NY singlecut.com
CRAFT BEERS AND TAPROOMS
Mazurkia Zinnia Art Packs
➞ EACH YEAR, THE HUDSON VALLEY Seed Company, based in upstate New York, partners with artists to offer specially designed “art packs” for a selection of their vegetable and flower seeds, as well as archival-quality prints of each artist’s contribution. In 2024, Elizabeth Castaldo (BFA 2007 Fine Arts) created an illustration for the company’s Mazurkia zinnia flower seeds. The composition references the flower’s namesake, a traditional Polish dance: Silhouettes of dancers are cut from a pattern of blooming zinnias and set against a sheet-music background. Castaldo’s print can be displayed as a standalone work or tiled to create a continuous, repeating image. [GH]
TUESDAY, JULY 8 – SATURDAY, JULY 12
The FLAG Art Foundation 545 West 25th Street, 9th floor zeroartfair.com @zeroartfairs
ABOVE The Zero Art Fair, which uses a “store-to-
Zero Art Fair
➞ ZERO ART FAIR—developed by artists Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida, who teaches in SVA’s MFA Fine Arts program— brings together people who want art in their lives but might normally be priced out of the market with artists who have more work that they want or can afford to keep in storage. After a successful debut last year as part of Upstate Art Weekend, an annual festival of exhibitions and other events in New York’s Catskills and Hudson Valley regions, the event will take place again this summer, this time as a standalone affair at the nonprofit FLAG Art Foundation gallery in Manhattan.
The planning for Zero Art Fair began in 2019, when Dalton and Powhida joined a meeting of FIPCA, a small artist–activist group they have worked with in the past, to discuss how to make art fairs more egalitarian and accessible. Everything on view at the fair may either be purchased directly from the artist, or acquired through a “store-to-own” agreement adapted from a contract that Powhida developed with New York University professor Amy Whitaker and artist–attorney Alfred Steiner, and which he has used in his own practice. Under the contract’s terms, new collectors agree to hold the work for a five-year vesting period, during which time the artist may still sell it or loan it for exhibitions. After five years, ownership fully transfers to the collector, who agrees to share the proceeds of any potential future sale with the artist.
Last year, the fair nearly ran out of art by the second day of its planned three-day run. Some 178 works by 83 artists were placed through the contract, including pieces by Alana Bograd (BFA 2004 Fine Arts), Karlos Carcamo (BFA 1997 Fine Arts), Lee Jensen (BFA 2010 Graphic Design), Lulu Luyao Chang (MFA 2024 Fine Arts), Jusun Jessie Seo (MFA 2024 Fine Arts), David Thonis (MFA 2015 Products of Design), Yin Ming Wong (MFA 2023 Fine Arts), and MFA Fine Arts Chair Mark Tribe, who is also on the Zero Art Fair advisory board.
This year, Dalton and Powhida are expanding the fair’s accessibility with a few changes, including priority access for visitors with lower incomes. They’re also planning related programming “to talk about the issues raised by the project and engage artists working with similar concerns,” they say, and, at the suggestion of FLAG founder Glenn Fuhrman, a post-fair reception so that artists and new collectors can meet. In the long run, the two hope to transform Zero into a more open-ended means of exchange, one “where artists and borrowers can find each other outside of the limitations that the physical fair poses.” [GH]
own” agreement to enable more people to live with art, debuted last year as part of Upstate Art Weekend, an annual festival in New York’s Catskills and Hudson Valley region. This year’s fair will take place at the nonprofit FLAG Art Foundation, in Manhattan.
FLOWER PRESERVATION ART
From $468 evergreenbotanicalstudio.com @evergreenbotanicalstudio
Christine Romanell Ceramics
CERAMIC VESSELS
$65 – $150 christineromanell.com/shop
➞ CHRISTINE ROMANELL (BFA
1992 Graphic Design) is busy. In addition to her fine-art practice, her service as board president at the East Orange, New Jersey–based
nonprofit Manufacturers Village Artists, and her work as the founder and organizer of Garden State Art Weekend, she maintains an online shop stocked with her original ceramic vessels. Each piece features an algorithmic design of stacked circular patterns and is cast and glazed by hand. [GH]
Evergreen Botanical Studio
JACKIE MURPHY-KAHN (BFA 2008
Graphic Design) started preserving flowers as a hobby four years ago, using blooms from her own garden in Garrison, New York. But she was dissatisfied with the results of the traditional flat-pressing technique. Through research and experimentation, she developed her own process for preserving flowers, one that maintained their color and three-dimensional form.
That work has since become a thriving business, Evergreen Botanical Studio, which creates framed, one-of-a-kind artworks out of bouquets from weddings, birthdays, and other occasions. For each commission, Murphy inspects, preserves, and, where necessary, color-corrects the provided flowers before arranging them in a unique composition that, once approved by the client, is affixed to a canvas backing board and housed within a custom shadowbox frame built by her husband. [GH]
WATCH LIST
The Featherweight
This fictional documentary by director and BFA Film faculty member Robert Kolodny (BFA 2010 Film and Video) follows real-life boxer Willie Pep’s try for a comeback in middle age. Sonia Foltarz (BFA 2017 Animation) was production designer and Bennett Elliott (BFA 2010 Film and Video) produced.
Scavengers Reign
Joe Bennett (BFA 2008 Fine Arts) co-created and Titmouse— the animation studio founded by spouses Chris (BFA 1994 Animation) and Shannon Prynoski (BFA 1994 Film and Video)— produced this critically acclaimed series about space travelers marooned on a hostile world, now on Netflix.
What a Feeling
The latest film by Kat Rohrer (BFA 2004 Film and Video) is this German-language comedy about a straitlaced doctor who, after her husband of 20 years suddenly leaves her, finds new love with a free-spirited woman. In addition to directing, Rohrer co-wrote the script.
Screen time with SVA alumni and faculty
Notice to Quit
Simon Hacker (BFA 2015 Film and Video) wrote and directed this comedic drama about a struggling real-estate agent and failed actor who is simultaneously dealing with the threat of eviction from his apartment and an unexpected visit from his estranged young daughter.
Find Me
A woman who was trafficked to the U.S. as a baby searches for her Taiwanese birth parents in this documentary short directed by Hsi Cheng (BFA 2024 Film). Find Me won the DOC NYC U award, for outstanding student film, at last year’s DOC NYC festival.
Common Side Effects
Along with Scavengers Reign (see center left) Joe Bennett also co-created this new Adult Swim series about two former high school lab partners who have discovered a mushroom with miraculous healing properties—a discovery that corporate and government powers want to suppress.
SHELF LINERS
ART/DESIGN/ PHOTOGRAPHY
As I Found It: My Mother’s House
Russell Hart
(faculty, MPS Digital Photography)
Kehrer Verlag
Hardcover, €48
The Cedar Lodge
Maya Meissner (BFA 2013 Photography)
Zatara Press
Hardcover/signed hardcover, $60/$65
Continuum
Marlena Buczek Smith (BFA 2002 Graphic Design)
Oro Editions
Hardcover, $45
Dustin Pittman: New York After Dark
Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha; photos by Dustin Pittman (1974 Film and Video)
Rizzoli
Hardcover, $75
Glendalis
Angela Cappetta (BFA 1992 Photography)
L’Artiere Edizione
Hardcover, €70
Limousine
Kathy Shorr (BFA 1988 Photography)
Lazy Dog
Hardcover, €32
Mother Goddess
Pinar Yolaçan (faculty, Art History)
Baron Books
Harcover, £45
Why Am I Sad
Dana Stirling (MFA 2016 Photography, Video, and Related Media)
Kehrer Verlag
Hardcover, €44
The Wizard of Awe
Kevin Cooley (MFA 2000 Photography and Related Media)
The Eriskay Connection
Hardcover/box set with C-print, T-shirt, and model rocket/ edition with large C-print, €45/€275/€450
CHILDREN’S/PICTURE/ YOUNG ADULT
Breaking the Chain:
The Guard Dog Story
Patrick McDonnell (BFA 1978 Media Arts)
Abrams ComicArts
Harcover/e-book, $22.99/$20.69
Mama’s Roti
Raakhee Mirchandani; illustrated by Shreya Gupta (MFA 2017 Illustration as Visual Essay)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Hardcover, $18.99
Planting Hope: A Portrait of Photographer Sebastião Salgado
Philip Hoezel; illustrated by Renato Alarcão (MFA 2001 Illustration as Visual Essay) Atheneum Books for Young Readers Hardcover/e-book, $18.99/$10.99
COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVEL/GRAPHIC MEMOIR
Amalgam: An Immigrant, His Labor Union, and His American Family in Brooklyn
Gerard Way (BFA 1999 Cartooning) and Shaun Simon; illustrated by Chris Weston Dark Horse Paperback, $19.99
NONFICTION
Kate Chopin in New Orleans
Rory O’Neill Schmitt (MPS 2007 Art Therapy) and Rosary O’Neill
The History Press Paperback, $24.99
The World Atlas of Honey
C. Marina Marchese (BFA 1988 Media Arts)
University of California Press Hardcover/e-book, $35
POETRY
In the Becoming: Poems on the Deirdre Story
Margaret McCarthy (BFA 1975 Fine Arts)
Broadstone Books Paperback, $22.50
P O R TF OL I O
KENNY
By DIANA M c CLURE
MAY NOT BE OBVIOUS, THERE IS A LOGIC TO THE ART OF KENNY RIVERO
(BFA 2006 FINE ARTS).
IT VACILLATES
at the edges of a unique form of narrative abstraction. His visual language, tuned into frequencies both material and metaphysical, excavates layers of meaning from his own daily life.
Though he is best known for his paintings, Rivero’s practice includes drawing, sculpture, and writing—snippets of which show up not only in his works’ titles but in the pictures themselves. “I always have a title,” he says. “I think about them as part of the material of the work and not strictly as a descriptor. I want them to add to making the viewer ask a question.”
Rivero is also a musician, and draws parallels between making music and the way he creates work—in groups, within which each piece may or may not be thematically related.
“I think about bodies of work like albums—the flow of an album. I think about intros, the middle, and outros. I think about them having a cadence and a flow.” Part of that structuring shows up in his use of and interest in scale: the varied means required to make large and small paintings, the exploration of monumentality within something small, and the location of intimacy within something large.
I Still Hoop (2020), a painting shown as part of a 2020 exhibition of the same name at the Charles Moffett Gallery in New York City, features the likeness of a friend who suffered from long COVID. Resilience is the theme: The title—in a literal sense, a claim to still having the stamina to play basketball, but more generally a statement of endurance— is echoed by the subject’s hoop earrings. She holds a rose that is dripping blood; in the exhibition, the work was hung across from Witness Revelator (2020), a painting depicting a figure holding a blood-spotted rag.
These visual echoes open up further layers of meaning around sacrifice and loss. The death of children, whether from sickness, police brutality, or war—and in particular the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin—is a recurring topic in Rivero’s work. His painting Walk Wit Me (2021), now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, “depicts an escort ushering the spirit of a child into the afterlife,” he says.
Rivero was born in Washington Heights, located near the northern tip of Manhattan, and his coming of age in the 1990s as a Dominican-American New Yorker forms the bedrock of
PREVIOUS Kenny Rivero, Church Lot , 2023, oil, colored pencil, and oil pastel on linen. Photo by Todd White.
Kenny Rivero portrait by Charlie Rubin.
ON THIS SPREAD Details (above and far right) and complete view (opposite) of Kenny Rivero, Being You Being Me (Peace! The charm’s wound up), 2025, oil, cement, glass shards, vintage wallpaper, and collage on canvas. Photos by Charles Benton.
Images courtesy of the artist and Charles Moffett.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Installation view of Kenny Rivero’s “I Still Hoop,” 2020, Charles Moffett, New York.
Kenny Rivero, I Still Hoop, 2020, oil on canvas.
Kenny Rivero, Walk Wit Me , 2021, oil on canvas stretched over panel.
Kenny Rivero, Bacon, Eggs and Jesus , 2018, oil on canvas.
Images courtesy of the artist and Charles Moffett.
much of his work. He cites the forms and traditions of salsa, hip-hop, house music, jazz, and merengue—as well as the religious practices of vodun and Santeria—as central to his approach in the studio.
“I grew up in a very mixed-faith household, thinking about spirituality in a variety of ways,” he says. Contemplating notions of possession and different ways of thinking about death or the presence of spirits were an active part of daily life. “A lot of my ideas around frequencies and energy come from thinking about spirits and ancestors, and how those presences are holding space with us. A lot of thinking about painting in the studio comes from managing those energies, managing those stories, and having those histories come forward.”
Materially speaking, Rivero works with a range of media: oil, oil pastel, colored pencil, acrylic, latex paint, graphite, chalk, Flashe, studio debris, vinyl record sleeves, and so on. Nothing is off limits, though he is careful to calibrate his approach. “I check in on myself and make sure that I’m not using a mix of materials as a crutch, as a way to disguise that I can’t use each one on its own,” he says.
His first foray into art was drawing. He was initially wary of painting, turned off by its elite stature and regarding it more illustrative and less metaphysical. Drawing, he says, is “your hand as vibration on paper,” with the markmaking medium often built into the tool—a pencil’s lead, a pen’s ink—and “something about that feels more immediate” than paint that’s been swabbed on a brush.
Over time, though, Rivero’s relationship with paint developed into an understanding of its objecthood. “It was studying with Jack Whitten at SVA that got me to think about the plasticity of paint, to think about paint as something that has weight or volume, and not just a material for depicting imagery,” he says.
“I started thinking about it as . . . this thing that contains history. It became this way of thinking about my presence in the studio, this thing that captured my time in space, my body, and ideas.” To some extent, the liminal space between painting and drawing is precisely where Rivero lives as an artist: his body and presence, now the mark-making instrument.
“WHEN
I’M PAINTING, I’M CHANNELING. I REALLY TRY TO STAY OPEN,” HE SAYS.
“I know I’m a receiver, but I also understand that I’m human. I’m biased, I’m selfish, and I have an ego. So, I interfere with that signal. There’s a conversation between that signal or frequency and myself—a push and pull. I feel like that’s where the paintings come out of—a sense of having that unfiltered signal combine with what I want to say.”
Rivero’s subject matter is rooted in a spiritual connection with life-force energy that he expresses with symbology. In a quasi-neo-expressionist style, his paintings range from the figurative to the abstract. They offer a relational sense of knowing, and encourage a spirit of inquiry or divination. His recurring visual motifs include flames, eyes, baseball caps, church windows, starlight, brick walls, concrete sidewalks or shapes, and the color black. Rivero fell in love with visual art through the comic book and record collections of his older brother and older brother’s friend, and his loose style of figuration is influenced by both.
“That’s where I started to learn how to draw,” he says. “From there, I started meeting my drawing friends in school and then we started going out and doing graffiti. That’s where my world in art began—drawing in the street, drawing from comic books.”
These figures and objects populate narratives that are based in large part on secrets: the mysteries of spiritual thought systems and practices, as well as the private armors and havens we build or find to protect ourselves. “I was picked on a lot,” Rivero says of his upbringing. “I always thought about my safety. I always felt like I was in danger, so I always found quiet pockets, secret parts of the city where I could be alone.” Rivero’s language of secrecy, quietness, privateness, and safety often reveals itself in staccato, building worlds for very small groups of people in the know. “A lot of the characters and figures in the work belong to small groups, small clubs, or small societies, and are not necessarily the popular people within those worlds.”
Contrary to form, Rivero says his most recent exhibition, “Posthumously Speaking: Dear Dear Summer Some Art” (on view at Morán Morán in Los Angeles earlier this year), was, in his view, the most straightforward work he has ever made. “It’s not ambiguous at all. It’s not open to interpretation.” Both painting and sculpture were on view, also an unusual occurrence for him.
“The sculpture is very similar to the drawing. I would say it’s even rarer that it comes out into the world,” he says.
As a sculptor, Rivero is less of a fabricator and more of a collector of objects that have meaning and history, and may or may not show up later as material. “They have to have a life already,” he says. Paper, books, clothing, and something he calls “sweep piles,” which consist of leftover detritus from his studio, all index moments in his life.
“Posthumously Speaking” included 94-08, a sculpture of three baseballs made from Rivero’s high-school leather jackets. The hand-stitched, black- and brown-leather baseballs, embellished with text and cowrie shells, are a tender piece of work made for what Rivero says is the hardest show he has ever had to present, one in which his familiar themes— death, grief, and a presence beyond materiality—were tied to
the deeply personal. Most of the pieces on view were informed by a miscarriage that Rivero and his partner went through, the spirit of that child, and the dreams that might have been— including a first set of baseballs.
Despite the uniquely sensitive nature of “Posthumously Speaking,” getting back into the studio after the conclusion of an exhibition cycle is always emotional for Rivero. “It’s like going on a date! I just had a show in LA, and my studio is empty right now,” he says. “I’m terrified. I’m avoiding it. I’m doing everything I can to not go there.”
But the thrill of discovery outweighs any fear. “It feels exciting. It’s exhilarating. I think the fear makes room for a unique kind of emotion that comes from surprise, being so glad I waited for that serendipitous feeling of finding it versus forcing it.”
In addition to his SVA degree, Rivero is a graduate of Yale University’s MFA program in painting and printmaking. He is an assistant professor at Columbia University, and has work in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Pérez Art Museum Miami, among others. He is represented by Charles Moffett in New York and London, and Morán Morán in Los Angeles and Mexico City. ◆
Diana McClure is a writer and photographer based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Art Basel magazine, Art21, Cultured, catalogs, monographs, and other publications.
PREVIOUS, FROM LEFT Kenny Rivero, A Midsummer’s Day Lurk , 2024, oil on canvas.
Kenny Rivero, Announcements , 2024, oil on canvas.
Images courtesy of the artist and Morán Morán.
ABOVE LEFT Kenny Rivero, 8 Diagrams [Today’s Math (Liro Falla)] , 2020, oil, acrylic, pastel, and Flashe on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist and Charles Moffett.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Installation view of Kenny Rivero’s “Posthumously Speaking: Dear Dear Summer Some Are,” 2024, Morán Morán, Los Angeles.
Kenny Rivero, Guessing Game , 2021–23, graphite on salvaged book cover.
Kenny Rivero, 94-08 , 2024, oil on salvaged cowhide, waxed thread, enamel, cowrie shells, cork, wood, rubber, and paper.
Images courtesy of the artist and Morán Morán.
ON THIS SPREAD
Details (opposite and below) and full view (left) of Kenny Rivero, The Very Large Array (This Is the Rhythm of the Night), 2023, oil on canvas.
Photos by Todd White. Images courtesy of the artist and Charles Moffett.
S K E T C H ART
SVA alumni who have helped makeNightSaturday Live run
By Maeri Ferguson
Ever since its debut 50 years ago as of this October, Saturday Night Live (1975 – ), the late-night sketch comedy show filmed live before a studio audience at NBC headquarters in 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, has been one of the most influential forces in American culture. From its earliest days, SNL has minted dozens of stars and innumerable viral moments, clips, and catchphrases. And, particularly in the past quarter-century, the show has employed its fair share of SVA alumni, whether as editors, post-production experts, set decorators, interns, photographers, or even one of its most beloved and longest-tenured cast members.
For Fred Armisen (1987 Film and Video), the road from SVA to SNL was particularly nonlinear. Armisen came to the College in the late 1980s from Long Island, where he grew up dreaming of being a musician like his hardcore punk
heroes. Art school seemed like a good place to meet kindred spirits, he says.
“I wanted to go to an arts school because all my favorite bands met at art school. I majored in film and really wanted to be like John Waters. . . . So, it was a mix of wanting to be like Talking Heads and John Waters.”
Armisen met Damon Locks (1988 Fine Arts) in an art history class, and eventually followed his friend to the Art Institute of Chicago to keep the band they’d started together. Chicago led him to Los Angeles, where he started doing sketch comedy and fortuitously met Bob Odenkirk, who was a writer at SNL at the time, leading to an audition that would make New York City his home again for the first time since attending SVA.
“It was great to return to the city and do it from a different angle—from art student to working comedian was a big difference,” he says, although the city had changed, too, and
From left: Bill Hader, Kate McKinnon, and Fred Armisen (1987 Film and Video) in a 2018
“The Californians” sketch on Saturday Night Live
Photograph by Will Heath/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank.
many of his favorite clubs, like the storied Danceteria and the Peppermint Lounge, had closed. He went on to star in the show from 2002 through 2013, creating memorable characters and impressions, including the unruly houseguest Regine, talk show host Lawrence Welk, Garth (half a duo with Kristen Wiig’s Kat), Venezuelan nightclub act Fericito, and even Ian Rubbish, a silly sendup of some of his favorite punk musicians.
“I have always loved SNL and I’m just amazed that I got to do it,” he says. “Every time I go back it feels exciting and electric, and it just seems like there’s plenty more to go.”
Matt Yonks (BFA 2001 Film and Video), now SNL’s post-production supervisor, has worked for the show for over 25 years—he remembers Armisen’s audition. Yonks started his own SNL career in the late 1990s with an internship in the talent department he found through SVA Career Development, which led to another in show creator Lorne Michaels’s office, organizing and digitizing the archives as the show inched toward a new age of technology. Also having paid his dues as a page for Late Night with Conan O’Brien (1993 – 2009), which was produced just a few floors away, Yonks quickly familiarized himself with the NBC microcosm and especially with SNL’s history.
“I was prepping for the 25th anniversary and pulling all these old scripts and memos and letters, and the phone calls that would come through that office,” he says. “I just learned so much about everything. What works at the show and who to learn from, who the department heads are, and how to be able to work for them when they need somebody.”
Yonks was an older student at SVA, having matriculated from the College’s Continuing Education program, but distinctly remembers the excitement of being a film student, having a camera placed in his hands and sent to the streets to shoot. “SVA was very good about learning and getting your hands dirty,” he says. “From the start, you’re working, solving problems, and learning to adapt in real time. This hands-on approach directly prepared me for the fast-paced environment at SNL, where each week brings a new set of challenges. Every episode is different, and you have to think on your feet and move quickly. SVA’s immersive style was the perfect training.”
Today, Yonks works with a staff of about 30 audio mixers, color graders, VFX artists, editors and assistant
editors, and other on-set and office workers for each week’s multiple pre-taped segments and interstitials. He has earned five Emmy nominations and one win, in 2019, for his work on behind-the-scenes documentary shorts for the show. He was there at the dawn of SNL’s digital shorts, pulling long hours on set and in post-production with The Lonely Island—the writing and performing team of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer, known for early aughts classics like “Lazy Sunday” and “I’m on a Boat”—and their successors Good Neighbor, comprising Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, Nick Rutherford, and Dave McCary. And he was there when the show’s postproduction team was making their first foray into software like Final Cut. In true early 2000s fashion, Yonks found
Film) and Yonks’s former SVA roommate Yanni Feder (BFA 2002 Film and Video), now a longtime editor at SNL who also found himself at the uniquely specific analog and digital crossroads.
Like Yonks, Feder also carved out a niche as someone who was capable of handling the newest software and converting the show’s catalog of episodes from tape into slightly abbreviated digital versions for syndication. He began his SVA–to–SNL journey while still a student, as a production assistant in the film unit responsible for the show’s pre-taped pieces, and wound his way through numerous roles to finally land in the editing bay. Before SNL was equipped to bring all of their postproduction in-house and before Feder began his stint editing the live shows, he worked at Crew Cuts, a now-shuttered
I think I set a record number of detentions in high school for cutting class to watch SNL reruns on Comedy Central, and my principal told me that I would never get a job cutting classes to watch SNL .
And that’s literally my job, watching SNL from all different angles.”
someone on Craigslist to pull an all-nighter and teach him the program after he’d boldly volunteered himself to try editing with it the day before.
“A lot of things have to go wrong sometimes for things to go right, and there are a lot of steps backwards and diagonal that bring you back to where you once were. I happened to be just in that right place at that right time,” he says. “I think I set a record number of detentions in high school for cutting class to watch SNL reruns on Comedy Central, and my principal told me that I would never get a job cutting classes to watch SNL. And that’s literally my job, watching SNL from all different angles.”
Yonks has shepherded a handful of fellow SVA alumni through the doors of 30 Rock, including current editing room assistant Jonathan Lamonte (BFA 2016
post-production house, just a few blocks south of Rockefeller Center alongside another SVA alumnus, the late Alex Serpico (BFA 2002 Film and Video), who also handled editing jobs for the show. And One Route, the creativeservices company Feder co-founded in 2006, provided production support to SNL for many years.
“I don’t know if this is maybe just being at SNL, but a lot of it’s just like, ‘We think you can do it. We’re going to throw you in the fire and you better swim the first time’ kind of thing,” Feder says. “I think a lot of the hands-on experience I had at SVA, just literally being able to work with the cameras in class, and also working in the industry while you’re there, kind of prepared me, so when I got there I was ready to go in full-on.”
CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT Saturday Night Live cast members Will Forte and Fred Armisen (1987 Film and Video) photographed backstage by Chris Polinsky (BFA 2001 Photography), a former SNL photo staffer.
Menna Olvera and Yanni Feder (BFA 2002 Film and Video) at a remote shoot for SNL in 2013. Feder and Olvera’s company, One Route, provided production services for SNL for many years; Feder is now an editor at the show. Image courtesy of Yanni Feder.
SNL post-production supervisor Matt Yonks (BFA 2001 Film and Video) on the set of a promo for the 2017 episode hosted by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story actress Felicity Jones. Image courtesy of Matt Yonks.
Enid Alvarez (BFA 2002 Photography), an SNL intern from 2001 to 2003, with cast member Will Ferrell at NBC’s 75th anniversary celebration in 2002. Image courtesy of Enid Alvarez.
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT
Michael Sheinkopf (MFA 2020 Visual Narrative), Saturday Night Live production assistant from 2019 to 2021, poses on set.
Photo by Carol Silverman (MFA 2020 Visual Narrative).
SNL cast member Maya Rudolph photographed backstage by Chris Polinsky (BFA 2001 Photography), a former SNL photo staffer.
Carol Silverman, an SNL set decorator from 2017 to 2021, poses on set. Image courtesy of Carol Silverman.
SNL post-production supervisor Matt Yonks (BFA 2001 Film and Video) on location for a remote shoot. Image courtesy of Matt Yonks.
From left: Jason Sudeikis as President George W. Bush, Fred Armisen (1987 Film and Video) as Congressman Barney Frank, and Kristen Wiig as Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi in a 2008 SNL sketch. Photo by Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank.
Even a casual SNL viewer is familiar with the portraits of each week’s guest host and featured musical act used to segue between the show and its commercial breaks, and since 1999 have been the work of head photographer Mary Ellen Matthews. Several BFA Photography alumni— including Enid Alvarez (2002), Monica Palombo (2011), and Signe Pierce (2011)—have logged time as interns on Matthews’s team, and Chris Polinsky (2001) spent three seasons on the staff, working on everything from lighting to printing, scanning, and (naturally) photography.
“Being on set and witnessing the creative process firsthand felt surreal—like being a part of history every week,” Polinsky says. Working on guest portraits meant brushes with notables like Paul McCartney, Derek Jeter, and Betty White. Even other stars were dazzled. Among Polinsky’s backstage photos is a 2002 shot of Conan O’Brien with the White Stripes; the SNL writer–turned–talk-show host stopped by the studio as a fan of the band.
Set decorator Carol Silverman (MFA 2020 Visual Narrative) enrolled at SVA while already in the midst of a career that includes work on shows like Boardwalk Empire (2010–14), And Just Like That (2021 – ), and, overlapping with her time at the College, SNL. Silverman worked on the show from 2017 through 2021, moonlighting as a student in the latter half of that time. MFA Visual Narrative’s summer–semester schedule fit perfectly with SNL’s hiatuses and, like Yonks, she used her SVA connection to recruit for the show, bringing on her classmate Michael Sheinkopf (MFA 2020 Visual Narrative) as a production assistant. (Another MFA Visual Narrative alumnus, Emily Hughston Hoffman, from the class of 2019, worked as a research intern and art department coordinator on the show from 2011 through 2015.)
Over the years, once in a while someone will mention to me that they went to SVA, and it’s really fun and funny when that happens, because it’s rare enough that all of a sudden, I feel very connected to that person.”
— FRED ARMISEN
At SNL, Silverman was mainly responsible for set-decorating pre-taped segments—spoofs of shows like Chopped (2009 – ) and Love Island (2015 – ), and the 2017 R&B music video parody “Come Back, Barack.” Her last years on the show were defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, when she had a front-row seat to some major changes.
“When I started, our office was on the same floor as the writers’ office,” she says. Eventually, the production operation moved to a Brooklyn warehouse to allow for more space and safe distancing.
Whether their experience can be measured in semesters or decades, every SVA alumnus who logged time on SNL is a part of its history, contributing to everything from the way the show looks to how it runs. “It’s super fun to work with so many others who have also gone to SVA,” Yonks says. “I have such a deep admiration for the show and everyone who helps bring it to life. Working at SNL has truly been the experience of a lifetime.”
“It was just fun meeting all the other—I suppose I would call them ‘weirdos’—from high schools around the country and that we were all in this one place. It felt like destiny. I think that the experience of being an art student, there’s something about it that I sort of still identify with,” Armisen says. “Over the years, once in a while someone will mention to me that they went to SVA, and it’s really fun and funny when that happens, because it’s rare enough that all of a sudden, I feel very connected to that person.” ◆
Maeri Ferguson is the assistant director of media relations at SVA. Her writing has appeared in No Depression, Glide Magazine, and The Bluegrass Situation.
Second Nature
GREG HERBOWY
SVA alumnus Jade Doskow captures Freshkills Park’s complicated beauty BY
PREVIOUS
Jade Doskow, Newly Formed Landscapes with Geotextile, West Mound, 2022.
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE Jade Doskow, The Storm, 2022.
n 2018, artist Jade Doskow (MFA 2008 Photography, Video, and Related Media) took her SVA Continuing Education students on a visit to Staten Island’s Freshkills Park, formerly known as Fresh Kills, one of the world’s largest landfills. Doskow, who now teaches in the College’s BFA Photography and Video program, had built the class around photographing “liminal green spaces,” an interest derived from her own practice. After graduating with a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School, she moved to Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, a former shipping hub, to photograph its “poetic and eerie atmosphere,” she says. “It was a dreamy and surreal place for a young photographer.” Her thesis project at SVA—which later became a book, Lost Utopias (2016), and the subject of a 2021 documentary by filmmaker Philip Shane—visually chronicled former World’s Fair sites, often abandoned and incongruous, throughout North America and Europe.
“I’m continually drawn to urban spaces that don’t exactly make sense,” she says. “Places that are in a ‘limbo’ state of existence.”
At the time of her class’s visit, the park’s 2,200 acres— about three times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park—were closed to the public, save for a few adjacent
playgrounds and fields, and under the joint management of New York City’s Sanitation and Parks departments. All but one of the landfill’s four large trash mounds had been covered by grassland at that point, Doskow says, but the vast landscape was still uncanny and engineered: “this infinite expanse of unnatural hills covered with shimmering, tall meadow grasses and punctuated with methane-collection pipes.”
Mesmerized by what she saw in 2018, Doskow connected with Mariel Villeré, then the manager for programs, arts, and grants at Freshkills, and submitted a proposal for a decade-long documentation of the site before its anticipated 2036 full opening to the public. Four months later, her proposal was accepted. Last year, after five years of exploring the site and its operations with escorts, she was given independent access to the grounds and the title of photographer-in-residence. Once a week, she packs her large- and medium-format cameras and slowly drives the park’s roads, “with all the windows down and my sunroof open,” looking for anything—unexpected topography, Sanitation staff members’ activity, even an incoming weather system—that catches her eye.
New York City opened the Fresh Kills landfill, located on a stretch of marshland along the western shore of Staten
“It feels epic when you’re out there. It’s this siteshape-shifting that does not feel like New York.”
Island, in 1948. Its darkly appropriate name is a false cognate: Kill derives from a Dutch word for creek or stream, and the area is home to a freshwater estuary, a complex, dynamic natural habitat for fish and migratory birds. Staten Islanders were promised that the landfill would be a temporary solution to the city’s growing waste problem. Instead, Fresh Kills’s heaps grew for decades. When the site finally closed for good in 2001, after accepting the wreckage from the September 11 World Trade Center attacks, it held an estimated 150 million pounds of refuse that generated mass quantities of leachate and landfill gas, the latter of which was collected, refined into methane, and sold to the local utility. For the past 24 years, the city has undertaken the considerable task of transforming Fresh Kills landfill, long regarded by the borough’s communities as a toxic blight, into Freshkills Park.
The endeavor, as Doskow explains it, is part massive land-art project, part scientific marvel. The park’s design is by the Field Operations landscape architecture firm, which worked on Manhattan’s High Line and Brooklyn’s Domino Park. Freshkills evokes an airy, largely untouched wilderness, albeit one with a sophisticated drainage system and active leachate treatment plant. The landfill’s mounds— North, East, South, and West—have been transformed by layers of protective barrier, soil, and grasses that can grow up to eight feet tall, but remain idiosyncratic.
“Each has its own topography,” she says. “For example, East Mound was not filled to capacity, so it’s long and low and has a bowl-like form. They all have their own personalities.”
The grasses are native to the region, though Freshkills is not a native grassland—it was built on marshland. And though they look pleasingly unmanicured, the grounds of the park must be sporadically mowed to keep most of the acreage tree-free, as trees’ weight and roots could compromise the subsoil barriers.
Still, wildlife has returned. Two years ago, a 21-acre section of the park, less than 1 percent of its total eventual size, finally opened to the public, and a New York Times story, featuring Doskow’s photographs, reported sightings of threatened sedge wrens, among other birds. While wandering the areas still closed to the public, Doskow has encountered curious foxes and deer.
“Twenty-two hundred acres isn’t large by the standards of the American West, but in land-poor New York City it is a lot of space,” she says. “It feels epic when you’re out there. It’s this shape-shifting site that does not feel like New York.”
Doskow’s Freshkills work has been featured in many group and solo exhibitions and publications, and she has spoken about the project in lectures and panel discussions at institutions like the International Center for Photography and Cornell University. She is
working on her first book of photographs from the project, with contributions from several writers. In January, “Breakdown: The Promise of Decay,” the latest group exhibition to feature the work, opened at the Staten Island Museum, and is on view through September. Doskow’s contributions include a new 20-minute video, Freshkills (2024), in which her visuals are accompanied by electronic soundscapes and field recordings by her friend, composer Heather Campanelli, who has been joining Doskow on site.
Doskow says she has always been a cross-disciplinary thinker—as an undergraduate, she built her own major on the philosophy of art and music—and cites Philip Glass’s etudes and author Karl Ove Knausgaard’s descriptions of winter landscapes among her current sources of inspiration and research.
“What I’m reading and what I’m playing on the piano are affected by my work at Freshkills, and vice versa,” she says. “A complex and ultimately rather metaphorical site like Freshkills requires a cross-disciplinary, philosophical approach.”
In addition to “Breakdown,” Doskow is part of another group exhibition this spring, “ABC No Rio: 45 Years,” at the Emily Harvey Foundation, New York, to which she’s contributed photographs of the original Lower East Side home of the nonprofit arts organization ABC No Rio (see page 57). She is represented by the Tracey Morgan Gallery, in Asheville, North Carolina. ◆
PREVIOUS Jade Doskow, Interior Road Encircling South Mound, Early Winter, Freshkills , 2019.
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE
Jade Doskow, Fox Den, East Mound, 2021.
Jade Doskow, Methane Flare Station with Migrating Geese , 2023.
Jade Doskow, The New Wilderness, Freshkills , 2019.
Jade Doskow, New Roads and Stormwater Structure, West Mound, 2021.
Images courtesy of the artist.
Best Made
Swings Back
THE LIFESTYLE BRAND IS REUNITED WITH ITS FOUNDER, SVA ALUMNUS PETER BUCHANAN-SMITH, AND SHARPER THAN EVER
BY JOYCE RUTTER KAYE
eter Buchanan-Smith (MFA 2001 Design) knows about the power of a well-timed cold call; two in recent years altered the trajectory of his life and work. The first came in July 2023, when workwear supplier Duluth Trading Company unexpectedly reached out to the designer with an offer: Did he want to buy back Best Made Company, the outdoor goods and apparel brand he had founded 14 years earlier?
“It completely stopped me in my tracks,” Buchanan-Smith recalls. The idea of restarting the company was daunting, given how far Best Made had grown before he stepped away in 2019. But the opportunity to rebuild it from the ground up was irresistible.
ORIGIN STORY
Best Made began in 2009 with a simple and distinctive product: axes with hickory handles painted in bold colors and patterns. The whimsical yet functional tools captivated outdoor enthusiasts and design aficionados alike. The brand embraced an understated design with an iconic “X” logo, pops of scarlet, and a philosophy rooted in optimism and integrity. Its product line expanded swiftly to include blanket-lined coats, wool base layers, canvas totes, and enamelware dishes. Before long, Best Made was a full-fledged modern-day outfitter with stores in New York and Los Angeles, a growing team of investors, and a devoted following.
From the jump, Best Made exuded the vision and lived experience of the founder himself. A lifelong outdoorsman, Buchanan-Smith grew up on a farm in Ontario and spent summers camping in Algonquin Provincial Park, developing a deep appreciation for nature and the well-crafted tools needed to thrive in it.
Buchanan-Smith credits his SVA years for igniting and fostering his entrepreneurial acumen. He was a member of the inaugural class of the MFA Design program, co-founded and co-chaired by Steven Heller (see page 4) and Lita Talarico (MFA 2007 Art Criticism and Writing). Following graduation, he was recognized for his graphic design work in editorial, art, and fashion, through graphic and product design firm M&Co., as art director for the Op-Ed page at The New York Times and design director of Paper magazine, and, through his own studio, Buchanan-Smith, LLC, as design director for Isaac Mizrahi and designer for musicians including David Byrne, Philip Glass, and Brian Eno. His packaging for the Wilco album A Ghost is Born (2004) won him a Grammy.
“I think about what I learned at SVA all the time,” he says. “As a designer, I feel like I have such an advantage. . . . I build worlds and experiences and I think that’s something other entrepreneurs have to rely on designers for. I’m lucky I can kind of do that on my own.”
As Best Made matured, Buchanan-Smith, hoping to bring his company into an innovative, sustainable space, found a compelling partner in Bolt Threads, a tech company producing manmade silk fibers. He sold his brand to them in 2016, and stayed on under a three-year contract. However, their accelerated growth model for the company wasn’t a good fit, and he departed in 2019. A year later, Best Made changed hands again, this time to Duluth Trading Company as a sub-brand, but during the ensuing pandemic years, things faltered. In 2020, the retail stores abruptly shuttered, staff were laid off, the @bestmadeco Instagram feed froze, and inventory dwindled. Longtime fans expressed their dismay in the review section on product pages and on social media.
A RETURN TO CRAFT
By then, Buchanan-Smith had moved on. In 2019 he and his girlfriend decamped permanently to a property in the Catskill Mountains, where he was “keeping Best Made in the rearview mirror and moving forward,” he says. He focused on writing and designing Buchanan-Smith’s Axe Handbook (2021), a guide to buying, using, and maintaining the tools; the history of axes; and the Best Made backstory. He taught himself to sew and designed a canvas work vest to be released under a new label, PB-S.
Then came the phone call from Duluth that gave him pause. Eventually, he realized that starting from scratch could be a liberating opportunity. He envisioned a company built at his own pace and with a small staff. “I came to terms with the notion that the mission of Best Made—this dedication to quality—was the mantle that needed to be carried forward and that I didn’t need everything from the past to accomplish that. So much of that was—is—in me, you know?”
THE SECOND CALL
In November 2023, Buchanan-Smith announced the news about the relaunch of Best Made in an Instagram post. The response was overwhelming, with
11,000 likes and a flurry of positive comments. He assembled a small team of former collaborators. Soon after, another cold call came in, this one from a blacksmith named Nathan Brandt, owner of a forge in Anderson, Indiana, offering to make an exclusive axe for Best Made. While Buchanan-Smith hadn’t yet considered releasing a new axe, the two clicked immediately. The collaboration yielded the “new” Best Made’s initial release a year later, an axe based on a mid-19th-century design known as the Rockaway and named Old Gold No. 1 for its radiant golden tip. Created in a limited edition of 100 for $450 apiece, Old Gold quickly sold out and a follow-up, the silver Phantom, launched for pre-order soon after.
“I REALIZED I HAD BEEN SPEAKING THIS WEIRD LANGUAGE AND NOW I’VE FOUND SOMEONE [ON THE SAME WAVELENGTH],” HE SAYS. “IT’S QUITE POWERFUL WHEN YOU FIND AN INCREDIBLE MAKER.”
The new relationship forged from kismet spoke to what Buchanan-Smith wished for Best Made going forward—a path allowing for more discoveries, exploration, and a greater focus on the stories behind the products. “It’s about how the product is made, and educating and romancing [that] to some extent . . . giving people an appreciation for the things they surround themselves with.” Moreover, in an age of planned obsolescence, as Best Made asserts on its website, buying, using, and properly maintaining quality products is the right and responsible choice—one that brings a deep sense of satisfaction.
NEW BUSINESS, NEW STORIES
Buchanan-Smith’s passion for storytelling was influenced by artist and illustrator Maira Kalman, his MFA Design thesis advisor. His thesis, Speck: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things—published in 2001 by Princeton Architectural Press—explores the deep connections between people and objects. “She really helped instill this love of objects, and unleashed in me this understanding of the power of objects and the stories that are embedded in them,” he says.
Best Made’s current approach to storytelling includes work-in-progress videos on social media and provenance
ABOVE: Best Made founder Peter Buchanan-Smith (MFA 2001 Design). Photo by Christian Harder, courtesy of Best Made.
stories for each product on its website. On Instagram, a slo-mo video of a molten Old Gold axe quenched in an oil bath makes for a literal sizzle reel, while another shows yarns sourced from France and Texas being woven into a twill denim on a vintage Draper loom at a mill in Pennsylvania.
“We released two jackets this year, and for the first time, we could really trace the fiber back to its source,” he says. “That’s exciting because it allows us to tell stories about farming, geography, and craftsmanship.” He feels that high-production messaging has long gone by the wayside. “People love these videos because they’re real and personal—that’s incredibly valuable.” A
weekly newsletter, Small Big Things, also promises to provide “latest releases, updates, schemes, and dreams.”
Best Made keeps things lean on the product side by focusing on the efficiency of controlled inventory. Products are organized into “New,” “Short Supply,” and “Long Supply” categories, while “The Archive” section pays homage to the brand’s history. Customer interest could lead to the reissue of archived pieces—Buchanan-Smith hints that some favorite apparel from the past could be re-released in the near future.
LOOKING FORWARD
This February, Best Made released another new product: a handmade enamel
sign from Poland bearing a simple yet powerful adage perfectly encapsulating Buchanan-Smith’s new approach to Best Made and welcome advice to anyone seeking a saner pace during chaotic times. Photographed against a background of seasoned wood beams and well-worn woodworking tools, it reads: “Go Slow and Make Things.”
After a nonstop year of rebuilding, Buchanan-Smith feels reinvigorated. “I’m excited to be more strategic and creative. That’s my background from SVA—creating and communicating in compelling ways. Until now, it’s just been about getting the company back on its feet. But going into next year, I’m excited to focus on my craft.” ◆
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE LEFT Best Made’s Type 6 strongbox, blanket-lined Cruiser jacket, PB-S’s Utility vest; Test-24 bandana, and “Go Slow” enamel steel sign; Speck: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things , Peter Buchanan-Smith’s SVA thesis project, published in 2001 by Princeton Architectural Press. Best Made images courtesy of Best Made.
“It’s hard work to be a full-time artist for all of your life,” says Kembra Pfahler (1982 Fine Arts). By her own admission, she has not made it easy on herself. Pfahler was still a student at SVA when she coined the term “availabism”—meaning the use of whatever is readily at hand, whether household objects or one’s own body, as creative material—and it continues to be the guiding principle of her sprawling, DIY, commercially indifferent practice.
By GREG HERBOWY
Pfahler grew up in coastal Southern California with a surfer father, an artistic mother, and, after her parents’ split, a lawyer stepfather whose clients included musicians like Parliament-Funkadelic. In 1983, just a few years after moving to New York City, she organized “The Extremist Show”—a nine-day event at the collectively run ABC No Rio arts space that combined outré performances with paintings, writings, and other works by herself and others, including her friend and classmate, the late Gordon Kurtti (1981 Fine Arts). “The Extremist Show” was representative of her now-decades-long career, an unyielding but welcoming rebellion against conventional ideas of beauty, morality, and sexuality that freely mixes performance and music with drawings, paintings, and sculpture.
For all her individuality, Pfahler is also a collaborator and peer who peppers her conversation with tributes to her friends and forebears. In the ’80s and ’90s she was an integral performer in the Cinema of Transgression, a loosely affiliated group of filmmakers that made no-budget, taboo-busting work. In 1990, she and her husband at the time, Samoa Moriki, founded the Voluptuous Horror of Karen
OPPOSITE Kembra Pfahler, Butt Print Brussells III (black, red, blue), 2018, acrylic body paint on Steinbach paper.
ABOVE Richard Kern and Kembra Pfahler, Kembra with Bowling Balls , 1995, color c-print.
Images courtesy of the artists and Emalin, London.
OPPPOSITE, FROM TOP
Performance views of Kembra Pfahler’s On the Record / Off the Record: Volume Two, Pioneer Works, New York, 2022.
Installation view of Kembra Pfahler’s On the Record / Off the Record: Sound Off, Emalin, London, 2022. Photo by Stephen James, courtesy of the artist and Emalin, London.
Black, a punk band/troupe named for the cult actress, one of Pfahler’s favorites. The act spent several years playing venues throughout the U.S. and established Pfahler’s reputation as a singular frontwoman, her presence made unshakably alien with blackened teeth, full body paint, and massive wigs. And in 2014, Pfahler, with fellow artists and musicians Anohni, CocoRosie, and Johanna Constantine, co-curated the influential “Future Feminism” show at the Hole gallery on Manhattan’s Bowery, which included a 13-night performance and lecture series featuring artists like Laurie Anderson, Kiki Smith, and one of Pfahler’s former SVA teachers, Lorraine O’Grady (see page 11).
Last December, Pfahler met with the Visual Arts Journal at a diner near her Lower East Side home to talk about her early days in New York, her influences, and her advice for younger artists. Her past year had been a typically busy one: She was working with an editor to finish a monograph of her work, to be published by Rizzoli this fall. She and Moriki were rehearsing and fundraising
for their band’s next album. (Earlier this year, the pair launched a Patreon account, offering concert footage, interviews, and other exclusive behindthe-scenes material.) In September, Pfahler—who has been a muse and model for designers like Rick Owens and Helmut Lang—traveled to Paris Fashion Week as a guest of Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele. Last spring, she spent three months in London for a residency with the art platform CIRCA (Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Arts), producing “The Manual of Action,” a 12-week program of videos and performances illustrating her creative philosophies and intended to inspire others to pursue their own individual artistic paths.
“I think [CIRCA founder] Josef O’Connor liked that I have a lot of community going on,” she says. “Not a lot of people work the way I do. I don’t have a team. I don’t have a publicist. I have a lot of community. And I found a community there right away. It’s not difficult—it happens when you invite. That’s all it is, really. Include and invite.”
Photos by Steven Harwick, courtesy of the artist and Pioneer Works, New York.
It sounds like your childhood was pretty bohemian. Do you remember how you found your way to transgressive or underground art? What made you decide to go to SVA? I had to go to this school that was basically just surfers and the 1 percent. I was very angry there and very, very, very bored. I had such intense dyslexia that I couldn’t find any of my classrooms or lockers, or remember the combinations on my locks. I wasn’t given the tools that I have now to deal with dyslexia and I got punished for it. I drew and painted all the time, but that seemed like it was a bad thing to do. I just thought, “Man, I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
This was in the ’70s, the first wave of Los Angeles punk, so I was able to go out and see performances by Diamanda Galas or Johanna Went. X was around, Exene Cervenka and John Doe, they were always doing concerts in Venice. It was so stimulating. LA punk fashion was so different from New York’s. New York was all about women being very femme—they would wear black straight dresses, high heels—and I hated the idea of being sexualized. I thought it was creepy.
And in 11th grade there was a compassionate truant officer who sensed that I was having a hard time. He transferred me to Santa Monica High School with all As instead of Fs, which is what I really had. And that encouraged me and made me think that I could apply to college, and I applied to SVA.
Where did you live when you first moved to New York?
My mom was friends with a horror actor named Gary. He was in movies with Karen Black. He had a haunted apartment on the Upper West Side, where I stayed. It was terrifying, dark, and covered with tapestries, and all the books had matching covers. Oh, god
I had no idea what I was doing my first year here. I was 17 and didn’t know anyone. I thought that when you were young, you needed a roommate, so I got one. He was a ballet dancer. So I got to have a buddy my first summer, who hated me, because I would always do things like eat his breakfast. I went to a lot of ballet and hung out at the Lincoln Center every night, throwing rocks and drawing on everything. There was a nightclub on the Upper West Side,
Hurrah, where I saw some of the best artwork I’d ever seen.
But I wanted to be around younger people and closer to school. I was a punk-looking kid, with no eyebrows and dyed black hair, the same as I look now, pretty much, but worse. So I moved. First I had an office loft on 14th Street in Union Square, right near where Warhol shot Empire [1965]. Then I started living down here, Avenue C, Avenue D. I was the only person that I knew that was like me down here in ’79. One person I knew was [artist and musician] Ron Dumas, and we became friends and started a band together.
You’ve talked in interviews about how important former SVA faculty Mary Heilmann and Lorraine O’Grady were for your development as an artist.
I also took sculpture with [current faculty member] Alice Aycock! Can you imagine how mind-blowing that was?
What was it about teachers like Aycock and Heilmann and O’Grady that stuck with you?
What I got from them was courage and support for the first time in my entire life.
I got to work for Mary, which was amazing—for her to welcome me into her studio to see what it was like, to see someone’s studio. And Lorraine O’Grady was really one of the first people that encouraged me to go as severe as I possibly could with my experimentation. She created an atmosphere that was so supportive and respectful, I felt like I could really try to work toward becoming myself without feeling shame or censorship. And Lorraine did that by explaining the history of art, as well. Lowell Bodger was another teacher that really lifted me. His prompts were incredible. One of his assignments was to make a work that juxtaposed two things to suggest a narrative. I collected all these broken eggshells from a diner and put red paint on them so it looked like they were bleeding, and brought those in with a big doily and a bowling ball and set them up on the floor. And Lowell said, “This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.” That was the first time I’d ever had the experience where the teacher was like, “Whoa.” It makes me emotional to talk about it, because he’s since died.
I started doing stuff at ABC No Rio while I was still at SVA, and I remember asking Lowell to come and see this work I was doing on my own, and he didn’t like it. He said, “This is rough. Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Because I was trying to find a vocabulary of images to create my own identity, and it was a mess. I think that a lot of times for artists, your first decade is not the easiest.
You’ve said that the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black was consistently on the road for something like 11 years. How do you organize an effort like that? Did you have a manager? We did it all on our own. We learned from being part of the punk scene and we were passionate about what we were doing. The ’80s and ’90s were all about making posters and wheatpasting them everywhere. There are books you can get now on do-it-yourself touring. It’s still very doable. I highly recommend it. I don’t work with any companies like Live Nation or Ticketmaster, and I don’t like having a ticket that costs anything over $25. It seems creepy. Fortunately, I can do that and still afford to live, because that attitude is something not
everyone can say “no” to. But I highly recommend continuing to push back on things that are terrible. Maybe someone reading this can start a company that will knock Ticketmaster off its pedestal.
There’s a confrontational aspect to your work embodied in your self-presentation: the body paint, the blackened teeth. What sort of reception did you get at your shows? There wasn’t any love at all. But I thought that was important. I knew that if we went to Europe, we would be loved and accepted. I didn’t want to go to Europe. I thought, “Why do we as a band want to go where we’re wanted?”
ABOVE, FROM LEFT Kembra Pfahler, Death of a Straight Line , 2021, body paint, glitter, pencil, pen, razor blade, and mixed-media collage on paper.
Kembra Pfahler, Aplomb; Flying Girls of Karen Black , 2020, body paint, Sharpie, pen and ink, and collage on paper.
Kembra Pfahler, Aplomb with Scissors; Flying Girls of Karen Black , 2020, body paint, pencil, pen, and collage on paper. Photo by Reinis Lismanis. Images courtesy of the artist and Emalin, London.
Photo by Reinis Lismanis.
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Kembra Pfahler, Black Dat e, 1998, photographs, fabric, guitar pick, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black set list, ballpoint pen, correction fluid.
Kembra Pfahler, Butt Print Brussells VI (black, red, black), 2018, acrylic body paint on Steinbach paper.
Kembra Pfahler, Karen Black Flag 1 , 2022, textile on found flag. Photo by Reinis Lismanis.
Performance view of Kembra Pfahler’s On the Record / Off the Record: Volume Two, Pioneer Works, New York, 2022. Photo by Steven Harwick, courtesy of the
All other images courtesy of the
artist and Pioneer Works, New York.
artist and Emalin, London.
That also has to do with being young and is something I wouldn’t necessarily suggest to young people today. I wouldn’t say, “Go where it’s dangerous, where people are going to chase you down the street and throw bottles at you.”
Was it really that antagonistic?
We got pulled over in a couple of states by some really bad people. They were terrifying. And that was in the ’90s. Now, I wouldn’t step into any state unless I knew where I was going and I had community support. I’d be so much more careful, and I was careful back then. None of us drank or used drugs of any kind—I’d fire anyone who did. So we didn’t have that extra burden of being in fear because we were intoxicated. Had we had anything on us, we’d be in jail today.
And that’s something that I would suggest for artists: If you’re going to take your show on the road, try to eliminate any distractors that can put you in harm’s way. And make sure when you’re forming your community that trust is earned, not immediate.
Throughout this interview, you’ve offered a lot of lessons drawn from your own experiences, and teaching seems to be a big part of what you do—aside from the recent “Manual of Action,” you’ve taught at places like Bard and the Pioneer Works art center. Are you teaching anywhere now?
Not formally, but I have about five young artists who are like my adopted children, and we’re in constant class together. We do “morning pages,” like that lady Julia Cameron wrote about in The Artist’s Way [1992]. The book is
stupid, it’s a new-age joke, but the morning pages I find to be very helpful. It’s three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing a day.
I wouldn’t wish my life on anyone, and not because my life is bad, but because I wish for everyone to be themselves the best they can possibly be. Don’t worry about comparing—artists’ lives can’t be compared. We all are our very own selves, and that’s cool. And that’s something that I teach. I’m not gonna teach you how to do my work. Let’s teach you how to do your work. Lorraine and Mary both helped me with that.
In that spirit, is there any other advice you’d like to give to this article’s readers?
One thing I highly recommend is that if any artist you have interest in is alive, seek them out. I do it all the time. It doesn’t matter if you’re a smelly, beat-up kid or an adult working in an office, if you’re a mom or dad, if you’re transitioning, or if you’re from another country. Especially in New York. New York is so fertile with artists. We are here, still.
I got to be in the 2008 Whitney Biennial with Mary, and she would say to me, “Why aren’t you going to any of these dinners? Why aren’t you doing any of these events?” It took me until 2000 to start doing stuff in museums, and I just didn’t want to do the social part. I love people, but I don’t like decorating rich people’s houses. And I guess that’s a little bit of a sabotage maneuver that I don’t suggest young people emulate. It’s part of being an artist to be able to show up a little bit for those dinners, it’s just part of the celebration, and I had to learn that the hard way.
You mentioned Alice Aycock as an inspirational teacher. When she was interviewed for this magazine, she talked about how exciting it is to witness a promising student’s progress. What do you think it is that draws you to teaching?
One of my friends once sarcastically asked me if I had an addiction to young people. But I’m not ageist and I remember the feeling of being devalued and looked down upon when I was in my serious 20s, when I was always working, and studied a lot harder than I do now. I remember the meanspiritedness of that and will never forget how horrible it felt. Any person from the age of 18 to 30—we don’t know if they’re the next Roosevelt or Hemingway.
I really believe that we don’t know who’s going to save the world. It could be the person who is in the cartoon class, the person who is on the computer all day who no one ever talks to, or the person in the sculpture class who’s doing really shitty sculpture. We don’t know who’s going to save the world, and it has to happen. Because it’s pretty nice here, right? It’s pretty nice. ◆
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School of Visual Arts Alumni group
For complete details and up-to-date information, visit sva.edu/alumni. Questions? Contact SVA Alumni A airs at 212.592.2300 or alumni@sva.edu
Photo by M.J. O'Toole (MPS 2020 Digital Photography)
ALUMNI AFFAIRS
CALL AND RESPONSE:
Announcing the 2025 SVA Alumni Exhibition
A MESSAGE FROM
JANE NUZZO, DIRECTOR OF SVA ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND DEVELOPMENT
As you have likely read about in SVA Alumni Affairs’ monthly newsletter and social-media feeds, earlier this year we accepted submissions for what will be our first open-call juried exhibition, produced in collaboration with SVA Galleries and scheduled to run from September 2 to December 6, with a reception on September 4. The show will feature work by New York City–based, early-career alumni artists from the classes of 2010 to 2020, presenting an array of voices
and perspectives from throughout the five boroughs.
Alumni exhibitions have a long history at SVA, and we are thrilled to be resuming the tradition with the College’s first since 2019. Over the past decade alone, SVA has hosted “The Sports Show” (2015), “Street Smart: The Intersection of Art and Design in the City” (2017), and “American Truth” (2019), imaginative and interdisciplinary shows that featured inspiring work from artists, designers, filmmakers, photographers, and other creative professionals across the College’s undergraduate and graduate programs.
By making this upcoming exhibition’s call for entries exclusive to artists who have never had commercial gallery representation or shown their work in a museum exhibition, we aim to provide emerging talents a platform to showcase their work at a pivotal stage in their careers. As I write this, the submission process has concluded and a panel of distinguished alumni jurors is reviewing the applications with an eye toward curating a selection that embodies the creativity, diversity, and innovation of our alumni community.
On behalf of my colleagues in SVA Alumni Affairs and SVA Galleries, I would like to thank
all of the exceptional applicants. We look forward to welcoming everyone to the SVA Chelsea Gallery in September to celebrate their extraordinary achievements.
For more information about SVA Galleries and their offerings, visit sva.edu/ galleries. For more information about staying current and connected and for a complete list of alumni benefits, visit sva.edu/alumni. Questions? Call 212.592.2300 or email alumni@sva.edu. ◆
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
Past
SVA alumni exhibitions “Street Smart: The Intersection of Art and Design in the City” (2017), “American Truth” (2019), and “The Sports Show” (2015), SVA Chelsea Gallery. Photos by Jacqueline Iannacone (BFA 2012 Photography).
ALUMNI AWARDS
2025 Alumni Scholarship Awards
Thanks to generous contributions from alumni and supporters, the SVA Alumni Society was able to grant a total of $63,000 in awards to these students in support of their thesis projects.
To support the SVA Alumni Society Awards, visit sva.edu/give.
727 AWARD
Dakshita Dehalwar, BFA Illustration
Brittney Mallon, BFA Illustration
Xiaoyan Sun, BFA Illustration
Hanbit Yang, BFA Illustration
ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Aubrey Azmar, BFA Animation
Schantelle Alonzo, BFA Animation
Andrea Ang, MPS Digital Photography
Derek Bolz, BFA Animation
Erin Carr, MPS Art Therapy
Jingyu Chen, MFA Computer Arts
Rosa Chen with thesis partner Tania Luo, MFA Computer Arts
Jieun Cheon, MFA Fine Arts
Ailla Crossman with thesis partner Jen Sun, BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects
Zhen Zhen Ding with thesis partner Hazel Jin, BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects
Andi Dong, BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects
Gracie Eastridge, BFA Animation
Dina El-Aziz, MFA Visual Narrative
Joshua Evans, MFA Fine Arts
Sam Fan, MFA Computer Arts
Shaohan Fang, MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media
Indra Fonseca, MFA Visual Narrative
Zhenyu Fu with thesis partner Shane Zhang, BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects
Addison Fujimoto, BFA Animation
Mingyi Gan, BFA Illustration
Miranda Go, BFA Animation
Alexia Haick, BFA
Photography and Video
Soleil Hu, MFA Computer Arts
Ruoxi Hua, MFA Fine Arts
Paris Jerome, MFA Visual Narrative
Ausar Johnson with thesis partners Anshul Katkar and Sarah Terceros, BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects
Jordan Knisely, BFA Illustration
Tom Koren, MA Curatorial Practice
Arnesh Kundu, MFA Computer Arts
Justin Lam, BFA Animation
Alex Lee, MFA Visual Narrative
Lucie Lee with thesis partner
Joowon Lee, BFA 3D
Animation and Visual Effects
Yeijin Lee, BFA Illustration
Ktong Li, BFA Photography and Video
Qinglan Li with thesis partners Kaiwen Yu and Xintong Zhang, MFA Computer Arts
Anqi Lin, MFA Computer Arts
Jiawen Liu, BFA Illustration
Christa Majoras, MFA Computer Arts
Edwin Mauricio Olivera, MFA Design for Social Innovation
Sammi Molinelli, BFA Photography and Video
Grace Ann Perry, MFA Design
Anjali Pulim, BFA Animation
Anna Riva with thesis partner
Lesley Marroquin, BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects
Héctor Ruiz, MFA Design for Social Innovation
Simran Shah, MFA Design
Zai Thakoor, MFA Products of Design
Aristides Ulloa, BFA Comics
Audrey Vega, BFA Animation
Susanti Prithika Vijaykumar, MFA Design for Social Innovation
Jianan Wang, MFA Computer Arts
Michelle (Zichun) Wang, BFA Photography and Video
Wujian Wang, MAT Art Education
Angela Wei, BFA Illustration
Austin Willis, MFA Fine Arts
Hyunjun Yang, MFA Fine Arts
Yiqi Yang with thesis partners Long Lin, Jiake Yin, and Risale Zou, MFA Computer Arts
Zixin Yang, MFA Computer Arts
Elena Yi, BFA Illustration
Mengzhen Yu, MFA Computer Arts
Yunchang Zhang, MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media
Bing Zhao with thesis partner
Iris Li, BFA Animation
Ash Zheng, MPS Film Directing
Wyan Zhu, MPS Film Directing
DW Zinsser, MFA Art Practice
AMELIA GEOCOS MEMORIAL AWARD
Olympe Gautier, BFA Fine Arts
BFA ILLUSTRATION AND COMICS AWARD
Devon DelCastillo, BFA Illustration
Kuhoo Mitra, BFA Illustration
Ada Zejun Shen, BFA Illustration
Betty Zhang, BFA Illustration
BOB GUGLIELMO
MEMORIAL AWARD
Jake Breiter, BFA Comics
JACK ENDEWELT MEMORIAL AWARD
Elle Liu, BFA Illustration
Seungyeon Nam, BFA Illustration
JAMES RICHARD JANOWSKY AWARD
Phoenix Logan, BFA Film
LAWRENCE P. MOODY
MEMORIAL AWARD
Valmik Puri, BFA Film
MFA ILLUSTRATION
AS VISUAL ESSAY AWARD
Caitlin Du, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay
Mary Murphy, MFA
Illustration as Visual Essay
Lydia Pinkhassik, MFA
Illustration as Visual Essay
Laura Sandoval Herrera, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay
Xinyi Yang, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay
MICHAEL HALSBAND AWARD
Yeeun Joo, BFA Photography and Video
ROBERT I. BLUMENTHAL
MEMORIAL AWARD
Alan Chen, BFA Design
Eve Chen with thesis partners
Mino Li, Candy Lu, and James Qi, BFA Design
SYLVIA LIPSON
ALLEN MEMORIAL AWARD
Emily Hwang, BFA Fine Arts
Geena Kim, BFA Fine Arts
Aya Lam, BFA Fine Arts
Kylie Rah, BFA Fine Arts
THOMAS REISS
MEMORIAL AWARD
Jiaqi Mao, MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media
WILLIAM C. ARKELL
MEMORIAL AWARD
Emilie Gateau, BFA Film
1. Xiaoyan Sun (BFA Illustration), Nyctophobia, 2024, digital. 2. Yeeun Joo (BFA Photography and Video), da-Do, 2024–25, video installation.
3. Xinyi Yang (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay), Untitled, 2025, acrylic gouache. 4. Lucie Lee and Joowon Lee (BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects), still from Beyond the Journey, 2024, 3D animation. 5. Jake Breiter (BFA Comics), Rhapsody Cool Cruise: The Royal Soda Fair, digital. 6. Andrea Ang (MPS Digital Photography), Bonifacio and Family, 2024, digital photograph.
7. Wujian Wang (MAT Art Education), still from An Unexpected Journey in the World of AI, AI-generated short film with original text prompt. 8. DW Zinsser (MFA Art Practice), kin’ IV, 2024, pen and acrylic on paper on panel. 9. Alex Lee (MFA Visual Narrative), Road Trip to the End of the World, 2025, narrative game.
10. Olympe Gautier (BFA Fine Arts), Veni Vidi Pipi, 2025, photographic installation.
DONORS
Kim Ablondi
BFA 1984 Photography
William Abranowicz BFA 1980 Photography
Arthur Ackermann BFA 1982 Media Arts
Smruti Channakeshav Adya MFA 2018 Products of Design
Everett Aison 1959 Graphic Design
Evelyn M. Alfaro BFA 1985 Media Arts
Juan Alfonso 1982
Adam P. Ames
MFA 1997 Photography and Related Media
Gail Anderson
BFA 1984 Media Arts
Anonymous (10)
Heidi Antman
BFA 1986 Media Arts
John V. Apczynski
BFA 1996 Photography
Ronald Bacsa 1965 Advertising
Sara Bailin
MPS 2011 Live Action Short Film
Gina Barbusci BFA 1984 Media Arts
Anthony Michael Barrese BFA 2006 Film and Video
David and Ruth Bath Both BFA 1985 Fine Arts
William Baughman BFA 2005 Photography
Leroy Biles
BFA 1988 Photography
Nancy Boecker Oates 1980 Media Arts
Charles Boyd
1969
Gary Brinson
BFA 1985 Media Arts
Elissa L. Bromberg
BFA 1978 Fine Arts
Alan Brooks BFA 1977 Media Arts
Laura Brown
MFA 2022 Visual
Narrative; BFA 1986 Media Arts
Abbie Buhr BFA 2004 Photography
Sharon Burris-Brown BFA 1984 Media Arts
Donald Carboni 1960
Paul K. Caullett
BFA 2000 Graphic Design
Jeff Chabot MFA 1997 Photography and Related Media
Andrew Chang
MFA 1987 Illustration as Visual Essay
Anthony Chibbaro 1979
John Coyne BFA 1980 Film and Video
Phil and Julia Coyne
BFA 1986 Media Arts BFA 1988 Media Arts
Diane Cuddy BFA 1988 Media Arts
Therese Curtin BFA 1980 Media Arts
Peter S. Deak BFA 1990 Film and Video
Cat Del Buono
MFA 2008 Photography, Video, and Related Media
Candace* and Jeff Dobro MPS 2010 Digital Photography
Baron Drumm BFA 2010 Photography
Yvonne Ericson 1973
Gilda Everett BFA 1979 Media Arts
The SVA Alumni Society gratefully acknowledges these alumni who gave to the society from July 1 through December 31, 2024.
Carol Fabricatore
MFA 1992 Illustration as Visual Essay
Jennifer Fahey BFA 2021 Computer Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects
Kevin J. Farley BFA 1977 Photography
Michelina Ferrara MFA 2022 Design for Social Innovation
Julianna Ferriter-Bruce BFA 1986 Fine Arts
Diane Fienemann BFA 1984 Photography
Jaxon Flores BFA 1997 Fine Arts
Martin Friedman 1969
Neil Gallo BFA 1977 Media Arts
Rita Genet BFA 1974 Fine Arts
Andrea Golden 1985
Alyce Gottesman MFA 1988 Fine Arts
Jelani Gould-Bailey MFA 2009 Computer Art
Margaret Graham MFA 2012 Art Criticism and Writing
Meghan Day Healey BFA 1993 Graphic Design
Joseph Herzfeld BFA 1991 Fine Arts
Jared A. Hirsch BFA 1999 Graphic Design
William Hogan 1962 Graphic Design
Barbara Huhn Holt BFA 1983 Fine Arts
Lynda M. Hughes BFA 1981 Photography
Patricia Jacobsen-Brady 1976
Nanette Mahlab Jiji BFA 1981 Media Arts
Gary J. Joaquin BFA 1981 Media Arts
Catherine A. Jones BFA 1979 Media Arts
Patrice Kaplan BFA 1988 Media Arts
Linda Kepke 1973
Noelle King MFA 2013 Art Practice
Sardi Klein 1970 Photography
Alexander Knowlton BFA 1987 Media Arts
Robert Kohr BFA 2003 Animation
Barbara Kolo BFA 1981 Media Arts
John Lefteratos BFA 1988 Media Arts
Michael Lehmann BFA 1983 Media Arts
Elizabeth Clark Libert MFA 2010 Photography, Video, and Related Media
Allan Longo 1968 Advertising
Laura Maley BFA 1978 Fine Arts
Jesse Meikle MFA 2016 Computer Art
Wyatt Mills BFA 2013 Fine Arts
Gina Minichino BFA 1990 Media Arts
Robert Morales BFA 1988 Film and Video
Jenny Moradfar Meyer BFA 1980 Media Arts
Erik Murphy BFA 1980 Media Arts
Brittany Neff/Rise Again
Productions BFA 2012 Film and Video
Romaine Orthwein
MFA 2003 Photography and Related Media
Peter Papulis
BFA 1977 Fine Arts
Searfino Patti
BFA 1992 Fine Arts
Alexander Payson
BFA 2017
Photography and Video
Gary Petrini
1979 Media Arts
Sal Petrosino BFA 1983 Film and Video
Todd L. Radom
BFA 1986 Media Arts
Paul Rappaport 1963 Fine Arts
Bob Ratynski
BFA 1984 Photography
Kate Renner
BFA 2008 Graphic Design
Airene Resurreccion BFA 2009 Graphic Design
Lisa Rettig-Falcone BFA 1983 Media Arts
Barbara Rietschel BFA 1976 Media Arts
Frank Riley BFA 2003 Illustration
Sandro Rodorigo BFA 1989 Media Arts
Jorge Luis Rodriguez BFA 1976 Fine Arts
Anthony Rotolo 1986
Joseph M. Rutt
BFA 1985 Media Arts
Joel Scharf
BFA 1983 Media Arts
Rael Jean Schwab BFA 1990 Media Arts
Anthony Seminara
BFA 1974 Media Arts
Ira Shuman 1973 Animation
Stanley Sisson
1970 Illustration
Brigitte Sleiertin-Linden
BFA 1987 Media Arts
Brian E. Smith
MFA 2006 Design
Rosemarie Sohmer Turk
BFA 1980 Media Arts
Homestead Productions, Inc./ Daniel Staedler
BFA 1986 Film and Video
Art Stiefel
BFA 1987 Media Arts
Philip Sugden BFA 1977 Fine Arts
Retsu Takahashi
MFA 2002 Illustration as Visual Essay
Eva Tom BFA 1987 Media Arts
Bonnie Sue Kaplan Valentino 1971 Advertising
Charlotte VanCott 1971 Media Arts
Maria Vicareo BFA 1989 Media Arts
Tom Wai-Shek
1970 Advertising
Lindsay Ward 1976 Graphic Design
Bill Weber BFA 1985 Film and Video
Dennis Wierl BFA 1996 Photography
Judith* and Richard Wilde
MFA 1994 Illustration as Visual
Essay; BFA 1979 Fine Arts
Mark Willis
BFA 1998 Illustration
Elizabeth Wong BFA 2023 Animation
Ace-Atlas Corporation
Ainsworth, Inc.
Anonymous (10)
Suzanne M. Aquilone
Joseph Baron
Benefit Management Solutions
Dr. Carol Bentel
Neil Berman
Joni Blackburn and David Sandlin
Bright Funds Foundation
Richard Buntzen
Thomas and Georgeann Carnevali
Valerie Carrillo
Centennial
Elevator Industries, Inc.
Cogent Waste Solutions
The Family of Elle Crotty
Paul and Sue Cryan
Joseph and Esther DeRosa
The DiLillo family, in memory of Cynthia Duffy
Exclusive Contracting
Katherine Fahey
Gabriel Falsetta
James Farek
Jon and Joya Favreau
Joanna Fink
Noreen, Rich, and Brendan Gaschke
General Plumbing Corporation
Michelle Gigante
Susan Ginsburg
Todd Glidden
Grant Thornton
Greene Family
Tabatha Greene
Edith Gross and Yoseph Feit
Helen E. and John G. Guglielmo
Ms. Maryhelen Hendricks and Mr. Robert Lewis
Dr. J. Isenberg
Dianne Ito Arisman
Mark S. Johnson
Caitlin Kilgallen
KTM Electronics, Inc.
LDI Connect
Edward Lefferman
Karen and Michael Lefkowitz
John and Niki Madias
Albert and Veronica Martella
William McAllister
Lynn and Jim McNulty
S. A. Modenstein
Eric Montes de Oca
Margrit Morley
Mark L. Perry
Clint Powell
Proskauer
Provident Bank
Ned and Ellin Purdom
Rosenwach Tank Co., LLC
Safety Facility Services
SAS Technologies Corp.
SCS Agency, Inc.
Maureen and Gary Shillet
Lynn Staley and Marty Linsky
Milton Strauss
Victor Stryszko
Laura Thomas
Jamie A. Thornton
Loraine and Michael Ungano, Sr.
Charles R. Vermilyea, Jr.
W.B. Mason
Scott Weaver
Margaret Whitlock
Laura Williams
Michele Zackheim
ALUMNI NOTES & EXHIBITIONS
ABOVE
SVA alumni achievements from June 1 through November 30, 2024.
JOE FIG (MFA 2002 Fine Arts; BFA 1991 Fine Arts), Vermeer: Girl with a Pearl Earring/ Mauritshuis , 2023, oil on linen mounted on MDF. Courtesy of the artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery. On view at “Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer,” Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, FL, 11/17/24 – 4/13/25.
Installation view of “The Fortune Society: Future Freedoms,” featuring work by LAURA CERÓN MELO (MFA 2021 Design for Social Innovation) and JENNY POLAK (MFA 1992 Fine Arts), MoMA PS1, NYC, 11/14/24 – 3/24/25. Photo by Steven Paneccasio.
GROUP EFFORTS
Several SVA alumni worked on films that screened at Tribeca Film Festival, NYC, 6/4 – 6/15/24: Sam Brown (BFA 2004 Film and Video), Zach Cregger (BFA 2004 Computer Art), and the late Trevor Moore (BFA 2003 Film and Video) wrote and starred in Mars ; and Mickey Duzyj (BFA 2004 Illustration) wrote and directed Confessions of a Jumbotron Addict
Justine Kurland (BFA 1996 Photography) and Yamini Nayar (MFA 2005 Photography, Video, and Related Media) gave a talk, “Yamini Nayar in Dialogue with Justine Kurland,” Thomas Erben Gallery, NYC, 6/6/24.
Alina Bliumis (BFA 1999 Computer Art) and Lisa Saeboe (BFA 2015 Visual and Critical Studies) had work in the group exhibition “Vapours of Delphi,” Whaam!, NYC, 6/6 – 6/29/24.
Many SVA alumni won 2024 Print Awards, 6/11/24: BFA Advertising graduates NaRe Hong (2023), Hongjin Li (2023), and Elyza Nachimson (2024); and BFA Design graduates Vasavi Bubna (2024), Tingjui Chang (2023), Ariana Gupta (2023), Rabiya Gupta (2023), Seo Jin Lee (2023), Jia Li (2023), Chuanyuan Lin (2023), Brittany Liu (2024), Doyeon Kim (2024), Jung Youn Kim (2024), Yoon Seo Kim (2024), Don Park (2024), Mina Son (2024), Audrey Whang (2024), Jingxin Xu (2023), and Jiawen Zhang (2023).
John Arsenault (BFA 1999 Photography), Pacifico Silano (MFA 2012 Photography, Video, and Related Media), George Towne (MFA 1997 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 1990 Media Arts), and Shen Wei (MFA 2006 Photography, Video, and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Gorgeousness: A Summer Pride Show,” Benrubi Gallery, NYC, 6/20 – 9/17/24.
BFA Fine Arts alumni Ashley Garrett (2008) and Grace Qian (2024) had work in the group exhibition “It’s Time to Slow Down,” Visionary Projects and Anderson Contemporary, NYC, 6/20 – 8/14/24.
Justine Kurland (BFA 1996 Photography) and Adrian Piper (1969 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Self-Pleasure,” Thomas Erben Gallery, NYC, 6/27 – 7/26/24. Carolina Paz (MFA 2021 Fine Arts) co-curated and Erika Choe (MFA 2023
winners: Emily Zullo (2023), for In the Interim, and Jiamu Tao (2021), for In This Together. Silver winners: Brooke Burnett (2023), for The Spellening , and Mia Incantalupo (2023), for Slumber Party Several BFA Animation alumni were jurors at the awards: Ian Jones-Quartey (2006), Natalie Labarre (2013), Michael Ruocco (2011), and Phil Rynda (2003). Leah Dixon (MFA 2014 Fine Arts), Alexandra Hammond (MFA 2015 Art Practice), Alina
showed work with David Zwirner Gallery, Frieze Seoul, Coex Convention Center, Seoul, 9/4 – 9/7/24.
Abbey Gilbert (BFA 2021 Photography and Video) and Bitna Jung (MFA 2024 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Touching/Feeling,” Hal Bromm Gallery, NYC, 9/6 – 11/2/24.
Several alumni participated in New York Textile Month, NYC: MFA Fine Arts alumni
Products of Design) and Isabel Llaguno (MFA 2018 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “At Different Speeds,” Uncool Gallery, NYC, 6/27 – 7/27/24.
MFA 2023 Fine Arts alumni Katinka Huang and Nianxin Li had work in the group exhibition “The Imaginary Made Real,” Berry Campbell, NYC, 6/27 – 8/16/24.
Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.) (1995 Fine Arts) and Andrew Brischler (MFA 2012 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Flaming June,” Gavlak at Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, NY, 6/28 – 7/7/24.
As part of a NYC Health + Hospitals initiative, Fitgi Saint-Louis (BFA 2011 Graphic Design) created a mural, We Gon’ Be Alright, for Kings County Hospital Center, 8/6/24, and Sophia Victor (MPS 2024 Art Therapy; BFA 2010 Fine Arts) created a mural, Waves of Healing , for North Central Bronx Hospital, 7/1/24.
MPS 2024 Branding alumni Vidisha Agarwal , Dan Baron , Leyi Duan , Jackson Dunn , Olivia Grant , Connor Gravelle , Marisa Goldberg , Zerlina Tara Lim , John Lytle , Natalie Marques , Vidan Ristović , Arturo Siguenza Kim , Stuti Sukhani, Anselm Wiethoff, Zhuxin Xiao, Hyunna Yoo, Min Sun Yoo, and Zihao (Bruce) Zhang were featured in the SVA Branding: 100 Days series, Print, 7/1 – 7/25/24.
BFA Photography alumni Bobby Doherty (2011), David Brandon Geeting (2011), Molly Matalon (2014), Corey Olsen (2014), and Caroline Tompkins (2014), and Christine Sun Kim (MFA 2006 Fine Arts) were featured in “Wallpaper* USA 400: meet the people shaping Creative America in 2024,” Wallpaper*, 7/5/24.
Noa Charuvi (MFA 2009 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Cover Band,” Asya Geisberg Gallery, run by Asya Geisberg (MFA 1999 Fine Arts), NYC, 7/11 – 8/16/24.
Willie Cole (BFA 1976 Media Arts) and Jamele Wright, Sr. (MFA 2018 Fine Arts), had work in the group exhibition “RAW,” Eric Firestone Gallery, NYC, 7/18 – 8/30/24.
BFA Photography alumni Justine Kurland (1996) and Antonio Pulgarin (2013) had work in the group exhibition “Sharp Cuts: Queer Collage,” Clamp, NYC, 7/18 – 8/29/24.
Several BFA Animation alumni were winners at the Collision Awards, NYC, 7/23/24. Gold
Installation view of “Who Wants to Die for Glamour,” a solo exhibition of work by JASMINE GREGORY (BFA 2009 Photography), MoMA PS1, NYC, 10/10/24 – 2/17/25. Photo: Steven Panecassio.
Tenser (BFA 2003 Fine Arts), and Trish Tillman (MFA 2009 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Summer Reading,” Shelter Gallery, NYC, 7/24 – 8/17/24.
MFA Fine Arts alumni Camila Varon Jaramillo (2023) and Yirui Jia (2022) had work in the group exhibition “Wild Range,” The Pit, Los Angeles, 8/10 – 9/14/24. Several SVA alumni received NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships, with support from New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts, 8/13/24: Xin Fang (MFA 2019 Social Documentary Film), for Video/Film, Hai-Hsin Huang (MFA 2009 Fine Arts), for Painting, and Alexander Si (MFA 2021 Fine Arts), for Interdisciplinary Work.
MFA 2024 Fine Arts alumni Bitna Jung and Xiaoxiao Wu had work in the group exhibition “Absence,” part of the series “Echoes of Presence: Emerging Asian Artists in New York,” Paris Koh Fine Arts, Fort Lee, NJ, 8/20 – 8/31/24.
Delano Dunn (MFA 2016 Fine Arts) created a mural, The Scene Is Set for Dreaming , for the P.S. 108 Addition, Bronx, and Kirsten Kay Thoen (MFA 2009 Photography, Video, and Related Media) created a mural, Undulating Wave Wall, for the Francis Lewis High School Annex, Queens; Public Art for Public Schools and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC, 9/4/24.
Dan Halm (MFA 2001 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 1994 Illustration) curated “Out West,” and Christine Romanell (BFA 1992 Graphic Design) exhibited work at SPRING/ BREAK Art Show, NYC, 9/4 – 9/9/24.
Katherine Bernhardt (MFA 2000 Fine Arts) and Elizabeth Peyton (BFA 1987 Fine Arts)
Rina AC Dweck (2018) and Kathie Halfin (2015) had work in the group exhibition “Tentacular Threads,” 9/5 – 9/19/24; Margaret Lanzetta (MFA 1989 Fine Arts) curated and Steve DeFrank (MFA 1990 Fine Arts), Lanzetta, and Holly Miller (BFA 1984 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “The Beautiful Forevers,” Rara Avis, NYC, 9/8 – 9/22/24.
MFA 2024 Computer Arts alumni Yuqi (Hazel) Gong , Yinjie Liu , and Yi Yao received the Best Soundtrack Award for their film Heart Beats, Girona Film Festival, Girona, Spain, 9/14/24.
Kelynn Z. Alder (MFA 1988 Illustration as Visual Essay), Sally Edelstein (1981), Glen Hansen (BFA 1985 Media Arts), Emily Rose Larsen (BFA 2015 Photography), Melissa Pressler (BFA 2019 Fine Arts), and Christian Wilbur (BFA 2013 Photography) had work in the group exhibition “The Body Politic: Long Island Biennial 2024,” The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY, 9/14/24 – 1/19/25.
Robert Kolodny (BFA 2010 Film and Video) directed, Bennett Elliott (BFA 2010 Film and Video) produced, and Sonia Foltarz (BFA 2017 Animation) was production designer of The Featherweight, which premiered in NYC on 9/20/24.
MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism alumni Anwulika Oputa (2021) and Brooke Viegut (2022) contributed to 3D Tech Fest 2024, 9/24 – 9/26/24.
KAWS, a.k.a. Brian Donnelly (BFA 1996 Illustration), co-curated and Julian Adon Alexander (BFA 2020 Illustration), Celeste Fichter (MFA 1996 Photography and Related
Excerpt from Scumburbia: Mega Sized Mall Issue (2024), a comic by SAM GRINBERG (BFA 2013 Cartooning). On view at Grinberg’s solo exhibition, “The Art of Scumburbia,” Gallery 839, Burbank, CA, 9/5 – 9/29/24.
Media), Greg Herbowy (MFA 2024 Fine Arts), Patricia Iglesias Peco (BFA 1998 Fine Arts), Orange Li (MFA 2024 Fine Arts), Chris Martin (BFA 1992 Fine Arts), and Douglas Ross (MFA 1998 Computer Art) had work in the group exhibition “2024 Benefit Auction,” The Drawing Center, NYC, 9/26 – 9/30/24.
Sarra Hussein Idris (MFA 1998 Photography and Related Media); MFA Fine Arts alumni Kyung Tae Kim (2017), Alison Kuo (2014), Leo Tecosky (2011), Zac Thompson (2019), and Kit Warren (1986); Guadalupe Maravilla (BFA 2003 Photography); BFA Fine Arts alumni Chris Martin (1992) and Rhesa Paul (2023); Joshua Sucher (MFA 2016 Interaction Design); Cyle Warner (BFA 2023 Photography and Video); and Jason Bard Yarmosky (BFA 2010 Illustration) had work in the group exhibition “The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition,” Brooklyn Museum, NYC, 10/4/24 – 1/26/25.
MFA Fine Arts alumni Sarah Dineen (2015) and Melanie Kozol (1987) had work in the group exhibition “A Movable Feast,” Readymade Gallery, Orleans, MA, 10/5 – 11/5/24.
Rebecca Goyette (MFA 2009 Fine Arts) wrote and Nadine Faraj (MFA 2015 Fine Arts) was featured in “Nadine Faraj’s Crucible of Humanity,” Hyperallergic, 10/13/24.
Stephen Sollins (MFA 1997 Photography and Related Media) and William Patterson
Lulu Luyao Chang (MFA 2024 Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “little knots in my hair,” curated by Eunice Yuyue Chen (MA 2023 Curatorial Practice), Chinese American Arts Council/Gallery 456, NYC, 11/1 – 11/15/24.
Laura Cerón Melo (MFA 2021 Design for Social Innovation) and Jenny Polak (MFA 1992 Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “The Fortune Society: Future Freedoms,” MoMA PS1, NYC, 11/14/24 – 3/24/25.
Renee Cox (MFA 1992 Photography and Related Media) and Lorna Simpson (BFA 1982 Photography) had work in the group exhibition “Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876 – Now,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, 11/17/24 – 2/17/25.
Hannah Rafkin (MFA 2023 Social Documentary Film) and Xinhui Ma (BFA 2019 Animation) were recipients of NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music, and Theatre grants, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, City of New York, 11/21/24.
BFA 2024 Illustration alumni Adrien Tang and Sumi Zhang co-curated “Marks,” A Space Gallery, NYC, 11/29 – 12/12/24.
Wayne County Arts Alliance, Honesdale, PA, 7/12 – 7/14/24.
1976
Theresa DeSalvio (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the online group exhibition “Domesticity,” Conversations with Artists, 11/1 – 12/31/24, and in the group exhibition “The Big Small Show,” Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ, 11/22 – 12/21/24.
1977
Dawoud Bey (Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits,” Denver Art Museum, Denver, 11/17/24 –5/11/25.
Denise Halpin (BFA Media Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Family of Ancient Sculptures,” Arts for Peace Gallery, NYC, 10/24/24 –2025, and had work in the group exhibition “In a New York State of Mind,” Fine Arts Gallery at Saint Peter’s University, Jersey City, NJ, 10/29 – 12/6/24.
1978
Richard Deon (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Lincoln’s Campaign to Defeat the Hudson River School,” Millbrook Library Art Gallery, Millbrook, NY, 8/9 – 9/26/24.
Karen Morris (BFA Fine Arts) published Nothing Happened Last Night (Finishing Line Press, 2024).
Martha Sedgwick (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “‘Write Me Letters’ You Write to Me,” A.I.R. Gallery, NYC, 6/28 – 7/28/24.
Individual Notes
1955
The late Tom Darcy (Cartooning) had work in the group exhibition “Darcy & Darcy: In Monochrome,” Nunu Fine Art, NYC, 6/14 – 8/24/24.
1969
(MFA 2019 Fine Arts; BFA 2013 Visual and Critical Studies) participated in Gowanus Open Studios, NYC, 10/19 – 10/20/24.
Sama Srinivas (MFA 2024 Products of Design) and Qian (Jessie) Wang (BFA 2024 Interior Design) were finalists in the Global Design Graduate Show 2024, Arts Thread and Gucci, London, 10/21/24.
Yiting Nan (BFA 2022 Design) was a winner and Raven Jiang (MFA 2023 Illustration as Visual Essay), Aarman Roy (BFA 2022 Design), and Wenjing Yang (BFA 2022 Illustration) were finalists in The Young Guns 22, One Club for Creativity, NYC, 10/30/24.
Flora Bai (MFA 2021 Illustration as Visual Essay); BFA Design alumni Callie Barnas (2022), Shiqing Chen (2021), Xuanhao (Elio) Chen (2022), Yutong Hu (2024), Eun Soo Kim (2023), Zedan (Dan) Peng (2023), and Shantanu Sharma (2021); and MFA Design alumni Doga Bircan (2024) and Shaoyang Chen (2022), were selected for 15 Visual Artists Under 30; and Minkwan (Min) Kim (BFA 2020 Design) was the winner of New Visual Artist Over 30, Print New Visual Artists Competition, 10/31/24.
BFA Interior Design: Built Environments alumni Andreina Figueira (2018) and Christine Marsigliano (2019) were nominated for this year’s top 30 interior designers under the age of 30, Interior Design, October 2024.
Adrian Piper (Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Adrian Piper: Who, Me?,” Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany, 11/23/24 – 2/9/25.
1972
Linda Stillman (Graphic Design) had work in the group exhibitions “Small Works: Plant-Based,” Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY, 8/16 – 10/6/24, and “Address Earth—Fauna and Flora,” Time & Space Limited, Hudson, NY, 10/12 –11/10/24.
1974
Paul Giannone (Photography) had his Brooklyn pizzeria Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop featured in “The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now,” The New York Times, 10/29/24.
Dustin Pittman (Film and Video) was featured in “Photographer Dustin Pittman Was Never a Fly on the Wall,” W, 10/2/24.
Louise Sloane (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Back to the Future: The Paintings of Louise P. Sloane. Works from 1976 – 2022,” Spanierman Modern, NYC, 9/12 – 10/26/24, and was featured in “Louise P. Sloane—Geometry, Color, and Texture in Perfect Harmony,” Mosaic Digest, 10/31/24.
1975
Nancy Palubniak (BFA Fine Arts) participated in WCAA Artists’ Studio Tour,
1979
Ray Billingsley (BFA Media Arts) was featured in “Made in Connecticut: Ray Billingsley gives a glimpse into his creative process behind the comic strip Curtis,” News12 Connecticut, 6/4/24.
John Michael Pelech (BFA Media Arts) had work in the group exhibitions “Non-Juried Summer Exhibition,” 7/30 – 8/30/24, and “Humans 24: New York Figurative Exhibition,” 9/3 – 9/27/24, Salmagundi Club, NYC.
1980
Patricia Bellucci (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Concrete Canvas: Life Unfiltered,” Botanica Grove Gallery, NYC, 8/30 – 9/10/24, and published “I Am In Here: A Photo Essay,” The Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life, 9/30/24.
David Kaminsky (BFA Media Arts) debuted artwork in the A train’s 181st and 190th Street subway elevators, Community Subway Elevator Program, North Manhattan Art Alliance and MTA, NYC, 10/1/24.
1981
Peter Hristoff (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Homoerectus,” SlipStitch Studio, Seattle, 6/4 – 6/29/24.
Kenny Scharf (BFA Fine Arts) had the solo exhibitions “Go Wild!,” Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, 6/29 – 8/24/24; “Mythologeez,” Totah, NYC, 9/4 – 10/7/24; and “Kenny Scharf,” The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, NYC, 11/13/24 – 2/28/25.
Bill Shea (BFA 1981 Media Arts) self-published A Grandpa Joe Day! (2024).
1982
Susan Leopold (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Picturing Light: Artists Explore Luminosity,” Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC, 9/21 – 10/27/24.
Angelo Pastormerlo (BFA Photography) published Fuzz Against Smut: The Saga of the Anti-Smut Brigade (Black Scat Books, 2024).
Susan Schiffman (BFA Media Arts) was featured in “A Camera in the East Village, Capturing the Now and the Long Ago,” The New York Times, 10/9/24.
Lorna Simpson (BFA Photography) was featured in “The Greats,” T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 10/17/24, and had a solo exhibition, “Earth & Sky,” Hauser & Wirth, NYC, 11/2/24 – 1/11/25.
Joey Skaggs (BFA Media Arts) screened “Stop BioPEEP,” an episode in the oral-history series Joey Skaggs: Satire and Art Activism, 1960s to the Present and Beyond, New Jersey Film Festival, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 9/20/24, and ”Joey Skaggs: The Solomon Project,” another episode in the series, won the TV/Web Episode Competition, Williamsburg International Film & Music Competition, 9/21/24.
1983
Paul Leibow (BFA Media Arts) had a solo exhibition, “33 & 1/3 (Long Playing),” Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ, 8/2 –9/8/24, and was featured in “Paul Leibow puts new spins on vintage turntables at Monmouth Museum show,” njarts.net, 9/3/24.
Michelle Weinberg (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Painter’s Progress,” ArtBridge, NYC, 10/17/24 – 1/8/25.
Kenneth Wenzel (BFA Photography) participated in the LoLa Art Crawl, League of
Longfellow Artists, Squirrel Haus Arts, Minneapolis, MN, 9/21 – 9/22/24.
1984
Gail Anderson (BFA Media Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Reclaiming My Time,” National Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian, Washington, DC, 5/31/24 – January 2026.
Lydia Panas (BFA Photography) had work in the group exhibition “About a Woman,” CulturArte Cultural Center, San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina, 7/5 – 8/3/24, and gave a talk, “‘Meet the Artist’ with Lydia Panas,” Center for Photography at Woodstock, Kingston, NY, 11/14/24.
1985
Dana Marshall (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Expressive Nature,” Kasteel Groeneveld, Baarn, Netherlands, 7/9 – 9/29/24.
Emily Thompson (BFA Media Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Painting the Garden State,” Schmidtberger Fine Art Gallery, Frenchtown, NJ, 6/8 – 6/30/24.
1986
The late Darrel Ellis had work in the group exhibition “What It Becomes,” Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, 8/24/24 –1/12/25.
1987
Melanie Kozol (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Converge: 9th Benefit Exhibition,” Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, 6/11 – 8/3/24, and had a solo exhibition,
SUPPORT THE TALENT
“So Far Away,” The Gallery at 350 Bleecker, NYC, 10/4 – 11/30/24.
Gary Petersen (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “The Shape of Walking,” McKenzie Fine Art, NYC, 9/11 – 10/20/24.
Elizabeth Peyton (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “daystar hakuro,” David Zwirner Gallery, Ryosokuin Temple, Kyoto, Japan, 9/8 – 9/24/24.
Amy Pink (BFA Media Arts) self-published Animal Joy (2024).
Patricia Vlamis (BFA Photography) self-published My Memory Journal: A Coloring Book for Children Who Have Experienced Loss and Grief (2024).
1988
Catya Plate (Fine Arts) directed Las Nogas, which won Best Environmental Short Film, Portland Festival for Cinema, Animation & Technology, Portland, OR, 8/21 – 8/25/24.
Gary Simmons (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Thin Ice,” Hauser & Wirth, NYC, 11/2/24 – 1/11/25.
Lisa Zilker (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?,” LIC-A Art Space, NYC, 9/19 – 10/31/24.
1989
Matthew Cohen (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “The Non-Moment and Subjective Time,” New England Visionary Artists Museum, Northampton, MA, 10/3 – 11/1/24.
Margaret Lanzetta (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Hunters and
Gatherers,” Art Spaces @ Krasdale, White Plains, NY, 10/4/24 – 1/8/25.
Al Nickerson (BFA Cartooning) published The Sword of Eden (Volume 2): Shinobi (Messianic Comics, 2024).
1990
Patricia Spergel (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibitions “100 Women of Spirit +, Part 1,” Salon Zürcher, Zürcher Gallery, NYC, 9/2 – 9/8/24, and “Select 2024,” Garvey|Simon, NYC, 11/25/24 –2/21/25.
1992
Carol Fabricatore (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “Meet Carol Fabricatore,” Bold Journey, 10/17/24.
The late Dinh Q. Lê (MFA Photography and Related Media) was featured in “How Dinh Q. Lê Unpacked Belonging Through Weaving,” Hyperallergic, 7/31/24.
Christine Romanell (BFA Graphic Design) participated in Fall Open Studios, Manufacturers Village Artists, East Orange, NJ, 10/19 – 10/20/24.
1993
Lauren Berkowitz (MFA Fine Arts) exhibited the installation Residual Matter, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2024, Urada, Japan, 7/13 – 11/10/24, and was featured in Great Women Sculptors (Phaidon, 2024).
Vladimir Cybil Charlier (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Alchemy of Transmutation: Vladimir Cybil Charlier and Marina Gutierrez,” Tiger Strikes Asteroid, NYC, 8/24 – 9/29/24.
“This award affirmed my belief that the personal struggles I explore in my work as a queer and trans artist are important for all of us as a culture right now.”
Joseph O’Malley MFA 2024 Photography, Video, and Related Media
Thomas Reiss Memorial Award | @josephomalleyarts
Help students realize their dreams by donating today.
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Portrait by Nir Arieli (BFA
2012 Photography).
Shawn Martinbrough (BFA Illustration) illustrated “Why Counterfeit Ozempic Is a Global-Growth Industry,” Vanity Fair, 6/4/24, and was featured in “Red Hood ’s New Gotham Team Is the Best Thing to Happen to Jason Todd in Years,” ScreenRant, 8/2/24.
Carlos Saldanha (MFA Computer Art) directed Harold and the Purple Crayon (Sony Pictures, 2024).
1994
Inka Essenhigh (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “How Women Surrealists Shaped the Movement’s Past—And Its Present,” Artnet News, 9/14/24.
Dick Lopez (MFA Photography and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Small Works,” B.J. Spoke Gallery, Huntington, NY, 7/3 – 7/28/24.
1995
Michael De Feo (BFA Graphic Design) had work in the group exhibition “New Flora,” Craven Contemporary, Kent, CT, 6/8 – 8/4/24, and had an online solo exhibition, “The In Betweens: Small Paintings on Paper,” mdefeo.com, 11/12 – 12/17/24.
Cheryl Kaplan (MFA Fine Arts) was the executive director of the performance “Alta Marea,” CRDANCE, Martha Graham Dance Studio Theatre, NYC, 6/9/24. Vera Lutter (MFA Photography and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Spectacular. An Exploration of Light,” Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy, 10/11/24 – 1/6/25.
1996
KAWS, a.k.a. Brian Donnelly (BFA Illustration), had work in the exhibition “KAWS + Warhol,” The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, 5/18/24 – 1/20/25, and curated “The Way I See It: Selections from the KAWS Collection,” The Drawing Center, NYC, 10/10/24 – 1/19/25.
Stephen Savage (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) published Rescue Cat (Roaring Brook Press, 2024).
John von Bergen (BFA Cartooning) was a recipient of 2024 Albers Foundation Residency, Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, CT, June 2024, and had work in the group exhibition “The Tee Room,” Night Gallery, Los Angeles, 11/16 – 12/21/24.
1997
Murray Hill (MFA Photography and Related Media) was featured in “Is Murray Hill’s Showbiz Dream Finally Coming True?,” The New York Times, 6/19/24.
Daniel Maldonado (BFA Film and Video) directed ...in darkness there is light, which screened at Chroma Art Film Festival, Miami, 8/17 – 8/18/24.
Raul Manzano (BFA Illustration) was the recipient of a merit award for an oil painting, National Juried Art Show + Exhibition, Center for Contemporary Arts, Abilene, TX, 10/4 – 11/16/24.
Sarah Sze (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Pictures at an Exhibition,” Gagosian, Paris, 6/25 – 9/28/24.
1998
Malin Abrahamsson (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Works in Public 2024,” Art Students League and NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, Riverside Park, NYC, 10/1/24 – 8/31/25.
Nanette Fluhr (BFA Illustration) hosted a workshop, “Capturing a Likeness: Painting the Portrait in Oil,” InView Center for the Arts, Landgrove Inn, Landgrove, VT, 7/8 – 7/12/24.
Juan Eduardo Gómez (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Dusky Rainy Sunny,” James Fuentes, NYC, 7/25 – 9/10/24, and was featured in “What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in August,” The New York Times, 8/1/24.
Patricia Iglesias Peco (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Las plantas de ese jardín conservaban en la sombra sus colores,” François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, 10/26 – 12/14/24.
Naomi Katz Plotkin (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 1996 Fine Arts) participated in the Brooklyn Navy Yard Annual Fall Open House, Open House New York Weekend 2024, NYC, 10/19/24.
Neil Sabatino (BFA Animation) was featured in “This North Jersey man owns a record label with more than 8 million streams. Meet him here,” northjersey.com, 9/19/24.
1999
Ketta Ioannidou (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) had work in an open studio with J&M Studio and Sunset Park Open Studios, NARS Foundation, NYC, 10/18 – 10/20/24, and had work in ChaShaMa Open Studios, Brooklyn Army Terminal, NYC, 10/19 – 10/20/24.
Janelle Lynch (MFA Photography and Related Media) participated in a Q&A following screenings of two documentaries about her work, Janelle Lynch: Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Janelle Lynch: Amagansett Portraits, International Center of Photography, NYC, 10/19/24.
Artem Mirolevich (BFA Illustration) had a solo exhibition, “The Bridge to Higher Self,” Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, Hollywood, FL, 9/7 – 9/27/24.
Anna Zaderman (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Works by Anna Zaderman,” Oak Park Public Library, Oak Park, IL, 11/4 – 11/30/24.
2000
Kevin Cooley (MFA Photography and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Force Majeure,” The Jones Institute, San Francisco, 8/23 –9/28/24.
Matt Hoyt (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection and Beyond,” Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, 9/19/24 – 2/22/25.
Eric Rhein (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 1985 Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Sweetness on the Mountain,” Fierman, NYC, 10/30 – 12/20/24.
2001
Daina Higgins (BFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Salon des Refusés 2024,” Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, NYC, 9/21 – 10/13/24.
James Jean (BFA Illustration) had a solo exhibition, “Meadowlark,” Center of International Contemporary Art Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 7/25 – 9/15/24.
2002
Michael Alan Alien, a.k.a. Michael Alan (BFA Fine Arts), was featured in “Call Him ‘Alien’: Meet the Masked N.Y.C. Artist Painting Portraits for Celebrities,” People, 8/25/24.
Leigh Aschoff (BFA Photography) created a new podcast, Mega Heart, 7/4/24.
George Boorujy (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) created a 963-foot mural, Migratory Pathways, for the Audubon Mural Project, in collaboration with the Red Hook Conservancy, National Audubon Society, Gitler & , and Monarch Foundation; Red Hook Park, NYC, 7/8/24 – 7/7/25, and was featured in “For the birds: Massive mural sends message about climate change’s impacts,” NY1, 7/9/24.
James Bowman (MFA Computer Art) directed music videos by AnimHeru, “Train Ride” and “Ethereal,” which were selected to screen at Neum Animated Film Festival, Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 8/30 –9/3/24, and WideScreen Film & Music Festival, Toronto, 11/7 – 11/10/24, respectively.
Joe Fig (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 1991 Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer,” Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, FL, 11/17/24 – 4/13/25.
Mariam Ghani (MFA Photography and Related Media) directed Dis-Ease, which had its U.S. premiere at BlackStar Film Festival, Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, 8/1/24, and its U.K. premiere at Starr Cinema, Tate Modern, London, 8/7/24.
Nancy Hollinghurst (BFA Illustration) was nominated for Catherine K. Gyllerstrom
They ride the Dragon Coaster over and over. They sit in the middle, they sit in the back, and they even sit in the front row!
They have the whole amusement park to themselves.
Illustrations from A Grandpa Joe Day! (2024), a children’s book written and illustrated by BILL SHEA (BFA 1981 Media Arts).
GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF OUR 2025
Corporate Partners for the Arts
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SVA Alumni Society
People’s Choice Award, Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2024, 8/28/24.
Diana Shpungin (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Second Nature,” Dinner Gallery, NYC, 7/11 – 8/9/24.
Sara Varon (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “Bringing a New York Street Scene to Life in Robot Dreams,” The New York Times, 6/4/24.
2003
Phil Buehler (MFA Photography and Related Media) was featured in “In Empty Beds, a Stark Reminder of War’s Youngest Victims,” The New York Times, 10/29/24.
Guadalupe Maravilla (BFA Photography) curated the performance event “Abrazos de Luz,” Performance Space NYC, 6/13/24.
Ti West (BFA Film and Video) was featured in “MaXXXine is Ti West’s Hollywood horror story. The real-life locations are even scarier,” Los Angeles Times, 7/2/24, and “Ti West Is Turning Hollywood into a Horror Show,” The New York Times Magazine, 7/6/24.
Timur York (BFA Advertising) had a solo exhibition, “Spreading Love,” Hudson Park Library, NYC, 6/4 – 7/5/24.
2004
Jessica Layton (BFA Photography) was named photography department chair, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA, 9/27/24.
Reuben Negrón (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) had a solo exhibition, “A Dialogue with Sparrows,” H Gallery, Paris, 10/10 – 11/23/24.
Chris Oh (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “The Artsy Vanguard 2025: Chris Oh,” Artsy, 10/21/24.
Morley, a.k.a. Joseph Petrick (BFA Film and Video), had an online solo exhibition, “Messages in Monochrome,” Mark My Words Gallery, 7/30 – 9/1/24.
2005
Andrea Burgay (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Fictions,” Guldner Gallery, Central Library, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, MO, 6/1 – 8/17/24.
Zackary Drucker (BFA Photography) directed The Stroll, which was nominated for Best Documentary, 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NYC, 9/25 – 9/26/24.
Thomas Holton (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) was selected for the 2024 Mid-Career Artists Initiative, Baxter St Camera Club of NYC, 6/5/24.
Domingo Milella (BFA Photography) had work in the group exhibition “Nuove Avventure Sotterranee,” MAXXI (Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo), Rome, 6/14 – 9/25/24.
Sahira Nair (BFA Film and Video) was named head of Hindi Scripted Series, Prime Video India, 10/17/24.
Dash Shaw (BFA Illustration) published Blurry (New York Review Comics, 2024).
2006
Negar Ahkami (MFA Fine Arts) had a painting selected as cover art for English / Wish You Were Here: Two Plays by Sanaz Toossi (Theatre Communications Group, 2024).
2007
Elizabeth Castaldo (BFA Fine Arts) exhibited work at Booksmart Fair, Center for Book Arts and Art on Paper, NYC, 9/5 – 9/8/24, and exhibited work at Pittsburgh Art Book Fair, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, 9/28 – 9/29/24.
Timothy Goodman (BFA Graphic Design) was selected for The Unity Project 2024, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA, 8/22/24.
Raheem Nelson (BFA Cartooning) had a solo exhibition, “Visual Notes,” Creative Art Works, New Haven, CT, 11/7 – 12/2/24.
Chari Pere (BFA Cartooning) won Artist of the Year for her short film Miscarried, JewCE Awards, Jewish Comic Experience, Center for Jewish History, NYC, 11/10/24.
2008
Cat Del Buono (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) had work in the group exhibition “Vote for Democracy,” SaveArtSpace, Milwaukee, WI, 7/1 – 7/21/24.
Jade Doskow (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) participated in the panel discussion “Artists as Changemakers,” The Packer Collegiate Institute, NYC, 10/28/24.
Ashley Garrett (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Upstate Art Weekend Offers a Year’s Worth of Art in Four Days,” The New York Times, 7/18/24, and had work in the group exhibition “Upstate Gnarly,” as part of Upstate Art Weekend, Ashley Garrett & Brian Wood Studio, East Chatham, NY, 7/19 –7/21/24.
Elise Valderrama (MFA Computer Art) directed Bloodercream, which won the Oddball Award, Darkside New Jersey Film Festival, Edison, NJ, 11/16/24.
2009
María Berrío (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) is now represented by Hauser & Wirth, NYC, in collaboration with Victoria Miro, London, 11/26/24.
Noa Charuvi (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Thresholds,” H Gallery, Paris, 8/31 – 11/2/24.
Jasmine Gregory (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Who Wants to Die for Glamour,” MoMA PS1, NYC, 10/10/24 –2/17/25.
John MacConnell (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) had a solo exhibition, “Piece by Piece,” Revelation Gallery, NYC, 6/3 – 6/30/24.
Marie-Yan Morvan (BFA Graphic Design) designed the collars featured in the book Cone of Shame by Winnie Au (Union Square and Co. Publishing, 2024).
Brennan Lee Mulligan (BFA Film and Video) was featured in “2024’s Comedians You Should and Will Know,” Vulture, 9/3/24.
Jaime Permuth (MPS Digital Photography; MFA 1994 Photography and Related Media) had a solo exhibition, “Blindness,” Project K Gallery, Seoul, 11/1 – 11/10/24.
Paul Joseph Vogeler (BFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Last Rites,” RX&Slag, Paris, 10/12 – 11/9/24.
Damian Wampler (MPS Digital Photography) directed Written in Skin, which screened at New York Short Film Festival, NYC, 11/10/24.
2010
Hilary J. Corts (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “North Country,” Filson, NYC, 10/1 – 10/31/24.
Robert Kolodny (BFA Film and Video) was featured in “The Featherweight Deftly Probes the Mores—and the Filmmaking—of a Bygone Era,” The New Yorker, 9/18/24.
Luther Mosher (BFA Cartooning) had work in the group exhibition “Sequential Variants,” Artworks Trenton, Trenton, NJ, 10/23 –11/23/24.
Angela Riechers (MFA Design Criticism) was appointed education director, Letterform Archive, San Francisco, 10/14/24.
2011
Bobby Doherty (BFA Photography) created the photo illustration for the cover story, “What a Crackdown on Immigration Could Mean for Cheap Milk,” The New York Times Magazine, 10/15/24.
Cindy Hinant (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Solitary Confinement,” Keskpuur Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia, 11/21 – 12/6/24.
Bao Nguyen (MFA Social Documentary Film) directed The Greatest Night in Pop, which was nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Los Angeles, 9/15/24.
Julie Schenkelberg (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Parlor Trix,” Abattoir at The Quarter, Cleveland, OH, 7/2 – 10/12/24.
Tony Toscani (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “From Safety to Where?,” Stems Gallery, Paris, 8/31 – 10/12/24.
Michele Washington (MFA Design Criticism) co-curated “Designer’s Choice: Norman Teague—Jam Sessions,” The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, 10/10/24 – 5/11/25.
2012
Joana Avillez (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) illustrated Roman Recipes for Modern Cooks (Apartamento Publishing S.L., 2024).
Pablo Delcan (BFA Graphic Design) wrote and illustrated “I’m Just a Human Sitting in Front of a Stack of Blank Paper, Sketching as Fast as I Can,” The New York Times, 9/5/24.
Doron Gild (MPS Fashion Photography; BFA 2005 Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Doron Gild Photography,” Tent New York, Interior Arts Building, NYC, 10/2 – 10/31/24.
Elektra KB (BFA Visual and Critical Studies) had an artwork, Bandera sin miedo, 2024, selected for the Flag Series, Americas Society, NYC, 6/5 – 9/3/24.
J. Mike Kuhn (BFA Graphic Design) self-published Dawg Days of Winter (2024).
River Ramirez (BFA Fine Arts) performed at “Visual AIDS Pride Party,” Visual AIDS, NYC, 6/14/24.
An Rong Xu (BFA Photography) photographed “This Taiwanese Calligrapher Brings a Message of Freedom to the Met,” The New York Times, 11/9/24.
2013
Supranav Dash (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Eros and Its Discontents,” Alice Austen House, NYC, 6/1 – 8/31/24.
Sam Grinberg (BFA Cartooning) had a solo exhibition, “The Art of Scumburbia,” Gallery 839, Burbank, CA, 9/5 – 9/29/24.
Chemin Hsiao (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 2011 Animation) created a mural, My Journey to the West: The Dragon, for Nin Hao restaurant, NYC, 9/14/24.
Bradford Kessler (MFA Art Practice) had a solo exhibition, “John,” Ritsuki Fujisaki Gallery, Tokyo, 9/21 – 10/20/24.
Sara Mejia Kriendler (MFA Fine Arts) had had work in the group exhibition “The Earth Remembers Everything,” The Madoo Conservancy, Sagaponack, NY, 7/6 – 7/27/24, and a solo exhibition, “Seedlings,” Proxyco Gallery, NYC, 9/6 –11/2/24.
Matt Shaw (MFA Design Criticism) published American Modern: Architecture, Community, Columbus, Indiana (The Monacelli Press, 2024).
2014
Graciela Cassel (MFA Fine Arts) participated in the artist-in-residence open studios, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Arts Center at Governors Island, NYC, 7/13/24, and exhibited work at ArtCrawl Harlem, NYC, 8/1 – 9/30/24.
Ja’Tovia Gary (MFA Social Documentary Film) screened her work and participated in a talk during “Serpentine Cinema: An Evening with Ja’Tovia Gary,” Ciné Lumière, London, 10/14/24.
Katrìn Inga, a.k.a. Katrín Inga Jónsdóttir Hjördísardóttir (MFA Fine Arts), had a solo exhibition, “Your Feelings Matter,” Gallery Gudmundsdottir, Berlin, 6/6 – 7/1/24.
Victor Liu (MFA Art Practice) had work in the group exhibition “Magnetic,” PS122 Gallery, 11/22/24 – 1/5/25.
Molly Matalon (BFA Photography) was featured in "Molly Matalon is making her majestic photo diaries with ‘a crappy little point-and-shoot from 2004’,” It’s Nice That, 7/31/24.
Pat O’Malley (BFA Photography) photographed “He’s Been Behind the Wheel of This 1930 Ford Since He Was 13,” The Wall Street Journal, 8/4/24.
Caroline Tompkins (BFA Photography) photographed “Seven-time Olympic Gold Medalist Caeleb Dressel on Mental Health, Doping in Sports and the Paris Games,” Women’s Wear Daily, 6/14/24, and “How Wicked ’s Ethan Slater Made It to Oz and Back,” GQ , 10/30/24.
Kendra Torres (BFA Illustration) had work in the group exhibition “West Harlem, Where Art Lives,” West Harlem Arts Alliance, NYC, 8/15 – 11/15/24.
2015
Daniela Alatorre Benard (MFA Social Documentary Film) was named head of the Mexican Institute of Cinematography, Mexico City, 10/1/24.
Yasi Alipour (BFA Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Dream as It Falls in the Eye, in Water, in Mirrors,” Penumbra Foundation, NYC, 6/6 – 8/26/24.
Alexandra Beguez (MFA Visual Narrative; BFA 2006 Computer Art) illustrated Hispanic Star: Bad Bunny (Roaring Brook Press, 2024).
Peter Buotte (MPS Art Therapy; BFA 1999 Fine Arts) was featured in “Military Veteran, Artist, and Art Therapist Peter Buotte Shares Significant Works from His Artist Journey,” National Endowment for the Arts, 7/25/24.
Kathie Halfin (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Terra Textl,” WhiteBox, NYC, 10/2 – 11/1/24.
Jocelyn Tsaih (BFA Design) participated in Greenpoint Open Studios, NYC, 6/1 – 6/2/24.
2016
Georgia Lale (MFA Fine Arts) exhibited a sculpture, April Fools, Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, 6/20 –6/28/24, and gave a talk, “Flags as Art and Protest with Tereza Chanaki and Georgia Lale,” New York Public Library, NYC, 11/22/24.
Sara Meghdari (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) curated “Setare Arashloo: Softening Mind,” Transmitter, NYC, 8/24 – 9/29/24.
Bat-Ami Rivlin (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Bat Ami Rivlin: Functional Narratives,” Art Spiel, 6/24/24, and had an artist residency and exhibited “Untitled (car, eyeballed),” Lower Cavity, Holyoke, MA, August – November 2024.
Scott Alexander Ruderman (MFA Social Documentary Film) was selected for “40 Under 40,” DOC NYC, 8/20/24.
Ping Wang (MPS Digital Photography) had a solo exhibition, “Pentimento,” Kuma Lisa Gallery, NYC, 7/2/24.
2017
Amaurys Grullon (BFA Design) was included in the Arts, Culture, and Entertainment section of the Hispanic Heritage Month Speakers Guide, HLX+, September 2024.
Youri Hwang (BFA Advertising) had a solo exhibition, “Poetic Silence,” Maison Mono, NYC, 6/1 – 7/29/24.
Carl Knight (BFA Film) co-created the 2025 Adobe Premiere Pro splash screen image, 10/16/24.
Thomas Slattery (MFA Visual Narrative; BFA 2010 Cartooning) art directed Janet Planet (A24, 2024).
Hiroka Yamashita (BFA Fine Arts) is now represented by Blum Gallery, Los Angeles, and had a solo exhibition, “こをろこをろ koworo-koworo,” Blum Gallery, 7/13 –8/30/24.
2018
Anna Bida (BFA Illustration) had work in the group exhibition “Staff Only: Whitney Staff Art Show,” Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, 6/29 – 7/17/24.
Rina AC Dweck (MFA Fine Arts) co-curated “Everything Ends Eventually,” LatchKey Gallery, NYC, 8/8 – 8/19/24.
Emma Rose Milligan (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media; BFA 2015 Photography) photographed “The Angst and the Joy of Celebrating Pride Month in a Small Town,” The New York Times, 6/30/24, and ”A $12,000 Surgery to Change Eye Color Is Surging in Popularity,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/17/24.
Jamele Wright, Sr. (MFA Fine Arts), had a solo exhibition, “We Are All Kinda Floating,” Lyndon House Arts Center, Athens, GA, 10/26 – 12/28/24.
2019
Hailey Heaton (BFA Photography and Video) photographed “New York Is Heaven and Hell. For Women’s History Museum, It’s Also Salvation,” i-D, 9/6/24.
Oxana Kovalchuk (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “A Journey to Be Continued,” Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Brownsville, TX, 9/20 – 10/23/24.
Marianna Peragallo (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Backlot,” Cleo
the Project Space, Savannah, GA, 6/8 –7/20/24.
2020
Daniel Arturo Almeida (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “The Elephant Never Forgets,” Locust Projects, Miami, FL, 9/7 – 11/2/24.
Joey Gonnella (BFA Visual and Critical Studies) is now represented by Uprise Art, September 2024.
Jae Won Jung (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “The Scene: Cinematic Moments,” Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA), Gimpo, South Korea, 7/17 – 7/21/24.
Pilar Newton-Katz (MFA Visual Narrative) directed Last Class, which screened at ANNY: Animation Nights New York, NYC, 8/20/24.
Amanda Smith (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Names and Details,” Three Eyes Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 10/30 –11/24/24.
2021
Jon Key (MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism) published Black Queer and Untold: A New Archive of Designers, Artists, and Trailblazers (Levine Querido, 2024).
Song Lu (MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media) was featured in “Using Photography and AI, Song Lu Renders the Everyday Uncanny,” Art in America, 11/7/24.
Adam Mackie (MPS Directing) directed End of Story, which won the Best Short Movie Award, Ischia Global Film Festival, Ischia, Italy, 7/7 – 7/14/24, and won the Revelation Award, Kineo Awards at the Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, 8/31/24.
Sao Tanaka (MPS Digital Photography) had work in the group exhibition “Maybe— map(ping) dissonance,” NARS Foundation, NYC, 11/22 – 12/11/24.
2022
James Bowles (BFA Visual and Critical Studies) had work in the group exhibition “The Block Is Hot,” 1969 Gallery, NYC, 8/2 – 8/31/24.
Mickey Ferrara (MFA Design for Social Innovation) was selected as a member of the 2024–25 cohort for cultural incubator NEW INC, New Museum, NYC, 9/9/24.
Sunny Liu (MFA Social Documentary Film) directed and produced the documentary Pianoman (2024).
Ashley McLean (BFA Photography and Video) photographed “Why Donald Glover Is Saying Goodbye to Childish Gambino,” The New York Times, 7/17/24, and had a solo exhibition, “Seeking you in other bodies…,” Blue Sky, Portland, OR, 10/3 – 11/2/24.
Dylan Rose Rheingold (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Behind Closed Doors,” Public Service Gallery, Stockholm, 8/22 – 9/27/24.
Roshita Thomas (MA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism) wrote “Bitter aftertaste: the fraught world of branding cultural food products,” It’s Nice That, 9/10/24.
Margarita Zulueta (MFA Products of Design) had work in the group exhibition “Design for All? Diversity as the Norm,” Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland, 5/31 – 10/20/24.
PAUL LEIBOW (BFA 1983 Media Arts), Untitled (Tower of Song), 2024, mixed media. On view at "33 & 1/3 (Long Playing),” Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ, 8/2 – 9/8/24.
2023
Anoushka Bhalla (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Lost and Found,” Cinema Supply, NYC, 5/25 – 7/27/24.
Janine Brown (MFA Art Practice) had work in the group exhibitions “47th Annual Juried Exhibition,” Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT, 9/28 – 10/27/24, and “[Gasp!],” Loft Artists Association, Stamford, CT, 9/28 – 11/3/24.
Xinyue Chen (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) illustrated “I’m 16. On Nov. 6 the Girls Cried, and the Boys Played Minecraft.,” The New York Times, 11/16/24.
Tom Hecht (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “On Track,” Modest Common, Los Angeles, 8/3 – 9/3/24.
Jingyao Huang (MFA Fine Arts; BFA 2019 Photography and Video) had work in the group exhibition “Living Room Rhapsody,” Allen Street Gallery, NYC, 7/25 – 9/5/24.
Katinka Huang (MFA Fine Arts) had a solo exhibition, “Dreamers vs. Swimmers,” Galería Leyendecker, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, 9/13 – 10/31/24.
kiarita, a.k.a. Kiara Ocasio (BFA Visual and Critical Studies), co-curated “Tender Gluttons,” John St Gallery, NYC, 6/6 –6/30/24.
Hannah Rafkin (MFA Social Documentary Film) directed Keeper, which won gold in the Documentary category, 2024 Student Academy Awards, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 10/14/24.
2024
Hsi Cheng (BFA Film) won the DOC NYC U Award for her thesis film, Find Me, DOC NYC, NYC, 11/25/24.
Nicolette Francis (MFA Design) led a virtual workshop, “Rooted: A Design Salon for Black and Latina Graphic Designers,” AIGA Design Conference, NYC, 10/10 – 10/12/24.
Jusun Jessie Seo (MFA Fine Arts) had work in the group exhibition “Vitruvian Woman,” Thierry Goldberg Gallery, NYC, 6/11 – 7/12/24.
Nanki Singh (BFA Photography and Video) had a solo exhibition, “Aaina Tak Ka Safar,” Confluence 24 at Stainless Gallery, New Delhi, India, 6/15 – 6/22/24.
Jen Yoon (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 2019 Illustration) published The Greek Mythology Coloring Book (Penguin Random House, 2024).
IN MEMORIAM
TOM ENGELHARDT (1957 Cartooning) died on July 28, 2024, at the age of 93. Engelhardt attended SVA after serving in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, and worked in New York City and Cleveland before returning to his hometown to work as an editorial cartoonist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch until his 1997 retirement. More than 8,000 of his cartoons are in the collection of the State Historical Society of Missouri. Engelhardt was preceded in death by his wife, Katherine. He is survived by his children Marybeth (Mark) Lumetta, Carol (Tom) Herringer, Christine, and Mark (Moira); and 11 grandchildren and step-grandchildren.
ALEX GNIDZIEJKO (1966) died on July 30, 2024, at the age of 80. After attending SVA, Gnidziejko worked as a commercial artist in New York City, and illustrated for publications like Playboy, Sports Illustrated , and Time. He also taught at SVA. He later spent 30 years in Maine, painting portraits and still lifes. Gnidziejko’s work won awards from the ANDYs and the Society of Illustrators and is in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
He is survived by his wife, Paulette; son, Andy (Danielle); daughter, Amy (Peter) Harkins; two grandchildren; brother, Ronald; and other relatives.
TREVOR JOHN THOMPSON (1958) died on December 12, 2024, at the age of 87. Thompson, who was born on the island of St. Vincent, grew up in Trinidad and Aruba before moving with his family to Brooklyn. After attending SVA he served in the U.S. Army before embarking on a 40-plus-year illustration career in Detroit’s automotive industry—one of the few people of color in the field at the time. After his 2006 retirement he returned to St. Vincent, then relocated to Florida. He is survived by his wife, Mary; children Sydney (Teresa), Sonya (Enoma), Yvette (Shawn), Yvonne, Trevor Emile (Katie), and Lewis; nine grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; sister Veda; brothers Emery and Edison; and other relatives.
ALGIMANTAS (ALGIS) BALSYS (BFA 1977 Photography), died on January 7 at the age of 76. Upon graduating from SVA, Balsys received the Rhodes Family
Award, in recognition of outstanding achievement in photography. Three years later he joined the College’s faculty, mentoring countless young photographers over a nearly 45-year teaching career. Balsys authored and edited several photographic texts. His photography appeared in numerous publications and exhibitions and is in the collection of the Archdiocese of New York. His many clients included Doubleday McGraw Hill, and Time/Life.
STEVE PELLEGRINO (BFA 2013 Design) died on February 27 at the age of 34, from injuries sustained in a car crash. Pellegrino, a self-taught knifemaker, opened Pellegrino Cutlery in 2017 in the Philadelphia area; his high-end culinary knives, featured in the spring 2019 Visual Arts Journal, were widely acclaimed and used by many of the city’s top chefs. He is survived by his wife, Rae; parents, Linda Ruffa and Donald; a brother; and a grandfather.
In 1965, a three-story-tall cartoon of a woman in evening wear appeared on the side of a Manhattan building, alongside block letters reading, “Why doesn’t someone give Mogubgub Ltd. two million dollars to make a movie?” Whether School of Visual Arts co-founder Silas Rhodes saw the mural, in that same year he funded a film made by its creator, animator Fred Mogubgub, albeit at the more modest budget of $5,000.
Mogubgub joined SVA’s faculty in 1964, and at the time was known for fast-paced animations for clients like Ford and State Farm. Rhodes’s hope, in commissioning him to make the first SVA-produced film, was to raise the College’s profile within the film and television industry.
Mogubgub responded with Enter Hamlet, a three-minute film consisting of 266 cartoon frames, one for each word of Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy. The cuts are synchronized to a recitation by actor Maurice Evans (best remembered as Dr. Zaius in the original Planet of the Apes films), so while a few frames linger, most flash past. The images themselves—drawn by Mogubgub, Sylvia Davern, and Irene Trivas—are mostly puns on Hamlet’s words: for awry, a baker presents a loaf of bread; for ills, a cowboy points to some far-off peaks. Pop-culture icons like Mr. Clean, the Jolly Green Giant, and Popeye’s Wimpy make cameos.
Enter Hamlet screened at venues like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Venice International Film Festival, where it won a
Stills from Enter Hamlet (1965), an SVA–produced short by experimental animator Fred Mogubgub.
Lion of St. Mark prize. It was distributed through Janus Films, a company known for highbrow fare. Fifty years on, however, the film is fairly obscure. A low-resolution copy, uploaded by independent animator Richard O’Connor, is on YouTube; a higher-resolution snippet is on the Internet Archive.
Mogubgub, too, is little known today. After Enter Hamlet, he made other avant-garde films—including The Pop Show (1966), featuring Gloria Steinem—before reportedly becoming disenchanted. SVA faculty member and MFA Design cofounder Steven Heller (see page 4) worked alongside Mogubgub in the early ’70s at the East Village Other, for which Mogubgub illustrated, and has recalled him inviting the alt-newspaper’s staff to help him dump his cameras into the Hudson River. Mogubgub kept working in television, most notably as the animation producer for the ABC show Make a Wish (1971–76), but from then until his death in 1989, at the age of 61, he concentrated his creative energy on painting.
“Animation is a field of unheralded geniuses,” O’Connor wrote in 2002 for ASIFA Magazine, a publication of the International Animated Film Association. “Even here, Fred Mogubgub is an unheard-of genius.” ◆
Lawrence Giffin is the assistant archivist at the School of Visual Arts.
