Sculpture and Expanded Media
"Sculpture: Investigations in Traditional and Expanded Media"
June 3-16, 2024
Resident Faculty: Eli Kessler
Visiting Artists: Raul De Lara & WHOOP DEE DOO
Participants in this two-week summer intensive will explore a range of traditional sculpting techniques and expanded media art approaches. Working closely with the resident faculty and visiting artists, participants will create self-directed artwork that utilizes processes including woodworking, metal fabrication, casting, performance, and video. Participants will have access to the Sculpture woodshop, metal shop, mold-making lab, and School of Art computer lab. Individual meetings with visiting artists, technical demonstrations, and group critiques will create a rigorous and productive framework. At the end of the course, the finished artwork will be presented on campus.
Non-credit Tuition Option - $1,100
Undergraduate and Graduate Credit: Undergraduate (3 credits); Graduate (3-4 credits). Standard tuition rates apply. More info available on admissions page (link below).
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Raul De Lara
VISITING ARTIST
Raul De Lara is a sculptor based in NYC. His practice is rooted in storytelling via woodworking. De Lara immigrated from Mexico to the United States at the age of 12, and has been a DACA recipient since 2012. Growing up in Texas as a non-English speaker, and still currently unable to leave the USA, his work questions ideas around nationality, queer identity, and the immigrant experience. Exploring forms inspired by flora, mask makers, furniture design and architecture, De Lara imbues his sculptures with a hybrid mixture of Mexican/American cultural references, and functions. His research preserves, honors and propels forward traditional uses of wood while combining them with new developments in the global industry of woodworking.
Raul De Lara received his MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University (2019), and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin (2015). His selected awards include the 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Craft/Sculpture, 2023 Art in America Magazine’s Top 20 Global Talent to Watch, Penland Distinguished Artist Winter Fellowship, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency, Haystack Mountain School of Craft Open Studio Residency, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Fellowship, The National Park Services OCARC Residency, Ox-Bow School of Art Fellowship, a Chicago Artists Coalition HATCH Residency, a Queens New Arts Grant, a New York City Arts Corps Grant, and the International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
WHOOP DEE DOO
VISITING ARTIST
WHOOP DEE DOO is an artist-led organization that creates live performances and immersive installations as part of an extensive community engagement initiative. Each project engages the immediate communities of the organization with which they partner, and they work closely with youth and non-profit groups to research, conceive, and create their programming. Their process emphasizes collaboration and seeks to initiate a cross-generational dialogue.
Since 2006, WHOOP DEE DOO has created over 50 large-scale commissioned projects for organizations including SFMOMA, The Smart Museum (Chicago), Loyal (Sweden), POP Montreal, The Kemper Museum (Kansas City), The Contemporary (Baltimore), The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art (Philadelphia), Knockdown Center (Queens, NY), and upcoming with Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (San Francisco). WHOOP DEE DOO has received a Franklin Furnace Grant, an Abrons Arts Center Fellowship, and was an artist-in-residence at the High Line (NYC) and Artists Alliance (NYC). WHOOP DEE DOO has created educational programming with MoMA, Art21, Franklin Furnace, The Museum of Art & Design, Fondation Phi pour l'art contemporain (Montreal), The Contemporary (Baltimore) and Abrons Art Center among many others. WHOOP DEE DOO has been featured in Art in America, Artforum, Vice, Rhizome, Artsy, and Hyperallergic, and is a featured artist project in ART21's documentary series New York Close Up.
ELI KESSLER
RESIDENT FACULTY
Eli Kessler is currently an Assistant Professor in Sculpture and Expanded Media at Kent State University. He earned a BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and an MFA in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University. He approaches sculpture as a way to examine particular artifacts, rituals, and cultural phenomena. Within his process, ideology and iconography are cut up, rematerialized, and arranged in an attempt to find meaning. His work has led him to investigate methods such as metal fabrication, woodworking, video, casting, and digital fabrication. His work has been on view in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh PA, Newton MA, Tyler TX, Washington D.C., New York NY, and Venice, Italy.
Header Images: (Left) "Soft Chair Series," 2022-2023, California Mesquite, Siberian Elm, Walnut, Variable Dimensions, by Raul De Lara (Right) WHOOP DEE DOO at the Knockdown Center, Queens, NY, 2017