Dawoud Bey’s work is both a documentation and an excavation. The photographer is preoccupied with history and its effects on our contemporary experience, chronicling the America that resides largely in the shadows and bringing it closer to the center. Often depicting Black subjects, Bey understands that the collective aches we feel today are the remnants of yesterday’s agony, attesting to poet …
How Painter Vaughn Spann MFA ’18 Became a Breakout Star at Yale While Raising Two Young Kids at the Same Time
Discussions about young artists on the rise frequently employ the passive voice. He “was chosen” for a competitive residency or solo exhibition; she “was accepted” to an elite art school. But the trajectory of newly minted art star Vaughn Spann, who opened a sold-out solo show at Almine Rech gallery in New York, is no accident. Instead, it is the …
Maya Lin ’81, MArch ’86 and her Ghost Forest Exhibition in Madison Square Park
On Earth Day, Maya Lin stood in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park surrounded by dead trees. The artist and architect had just completed Ghost Forest, an installation of fifty lifeless cedars cleared from New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, where rising sea levels and salt-water infiltration now threaten the woodland ecosystem, slowly rotting trees from the inside. Tragic figures, the cedars remain standing as …
Sarah Sze ’91 Chosen for LaGuardia Airport Art Installation
The $8 billion renovation of New York’s LaGuardia Airport won’t be finished until 2025. But Terminal B is already complete, and it’s gorgeous. The centerpiece is a spectacular new airborne sculpture called “Shorter Than the Day,” by artist Sarah Sze ’91, a professor of visual arts at Columbia, a MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, and a mother of two. Sze said, …
Jennifer Packer MFA ’12 Reviewed in The Guardian: “A Painter of Abundant Gifts”
Eric leans back in his chair, lost in thought, posing for the painter. He wears conspicuously odd socks and purple laced shoes. Objects seem to drift around him like figments in the ambient glow of the studio, or perhaps it’s the atmosphere of the painting itself, with its veils of gold and ochre. Everything is at once so distinct, from …
“We’re Not Going Anywhere”: Genevieve Gaignard MFA ’07 and Her Art Are Ready for This and Every Moment
WTF AMERICA?” wrote the artist Genevieve Gaignard MFA ’07 on Instagram on May 27, two days after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. With it she shared an image of her 2020 collage titled Fantasia, a piece that examines police brutality, innocence, and the white gaze. “I was obviously angry,” said Gaignard, whose work blends mixed media, sculptures, domestic installations, …
Yale Alumni Artists Boast Strong Representation at Art Basel Miami 2021
From December 2-4, 2021, Art Basel will host an in-person show in Miami. A host of Yale alumni artists will be showcasing their work. For a full list of artists who’ve confirmed their work will be showcased, see below: Tunji Adeniyi-Jones MFA ’17, Morán Morán Gallery, Art Basel Meridians Farah Al Qasimi MFA ’17, Helena Anrather at Art Basel Positions …
Contemporary Crossroads III
About this Event Join Yale alumni and friends for an engaging afternoon with world class alumni and specialists in the Arts as we get an in-depth look into the contemporary arts scene during the internationally acclaimed Art Miami. Whether you are a seasoned collector, avid art enthusiast, practitioner, or just beginning your artistic journey, this event is for you. The …
Jessica Wynne ’99 Featured in NYT
Jessica Wynne ’99 was featured in a NYT article, “Where Theory Meets Chalk, Dust Flies,” a photography showcase of mathematicians’ work on blackboards. “I am attracted to the timeless beauty and physicality of the mathematicians’ chalkboard, and to their higher aspiration to uncover the truth and solve a problem,” Ms. Wynne said in an email. “Their imagination guides them and …
Photographs by Ronghui Chen MFA’21 featured in NYT Magazine
In the article, “Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans,” in the New York Times Magazine, Ronghui Chen’s MFA’21 photography was featured. Throughout the long-form article, Chen’s photography illuminated the students whose lives’ were being discussed in visual form. The article is a very fascinating read, and the photos humanize those who are interviewed and discussed. Read the article here.