September 1, 2010

RICHARD T SCOTT (MFA 2006) – Southwest Art Magazine

Alumnus Richard T Scott was noted in Southwest Art Magazine’s competition for emerging artists under 31 years of age.



By Bonnie Gangelhoff
Published: Sep 1st, 2010

Welcome back to our annual feature on emerging artists under 31 years of age. Every year since 2000 we’ve undertaken the challenging but wonderful task of finding the next generation of rising stars. This year we again held a competition that welcomed artists around the world, and two of the winners live outside the United States. All of them have bright futures ahead!

See the article here: http://www.southwestart.com/featured/21-under-31-winners

August 15, 2010

SETH RUGGLES HILER (2005) - Interview in NJ's "Neighbor News"

Alum Seth Ruggles Hiler was interviewed by the North Jersey.com’s “Neighbor News” (Boonton Edition) in response to his exhibition through the Emerging Artist Series at the Monmouth Museum. This article has been reposted from Neighbor News, August 11, 2010.

Boonton artist Seth Ruggles Hiler will be featured during the New Jersey Emerging Artist Series at the Monmouth Museum.
PHOTOS COURTESY
OF MONMOUTH MUSEUM
Boonton artist Seth Ruggles Hiler
will be featured during the New Jersey
Emerging Artist Series
at the Monmouth Museum.

Seeking to create an intimate exchange
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Neighbor News (Boonton Edition)

The New Jersey Emerging Artist Series at the Monmouth Museum continues this summer with an exhibition of colorful and dynamic portraits by Boonton artist Seth Ruggles Hiler.

Hiler captures as subjects his friends and family, with his goal in each work being to express both the likeness and emotional connection with each one.

"I am passionate about creating and recording connections to other people through portraiture," he said. "The challenge of translating the human face and figure from life and digital photography to canvas intrigues me. My ‘Twenty-Something Series’ is made up of oil and acrylic paintings of men in their 20s. I choose my subjects from the people who contribute to my own history, whether they are family, friends or members of my extended community."

According to his artist statement, Hiler began is private training at an early age and focused on painting flora and fauna. The scope of his subject matter broadened at Syracuse University towards the human figure and most specifically portraiture. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and his Master of Arts in 2005 from the New York Academy of Art in Manhattan, where he learned to understand the human anatomy and traditional painting techniques.

"In my work I combine my drive for expression with the knowledge gained from my training," he said. "The result is a classical sensibility with a contemporary understanding of color and composition. I illuminate my canvas with dynamic marks of tone and pigment, recording my view of person and place. Yet each painting goes beyond creating likeness or surface description to expressing a momentary relationship to my subject, informed by a collection of past experiences. Ultimately, the main goal of viewing the final work is to share that intimate exchange."

Hiler will give a gallery talk at the Monmouth Museum on Wednesday, Aug. 11, from 7 to 8 p.m., sharing insights on his work. The gallery talk is free and open to public.

Hiler’s oil on canvas, 'Momentary Thanksgiving.'
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MONMOUTH MUSEUM
Hiler's oil on canvas,
"Momentary Thanksgiving"


The New Jersey Emerging Artists Series at the Monmouth Museum features six exhibitions held each year and provides a unique and exciting opportunity for New Jersey artists to showcase their work. The artists selected for this series represent the diversity of talent in the State and demonstrate their creativity in a wide variety of media, including drawing, painting, watercolor, pastel, handmade paper, collage, photography, mobile art, clay, mixed-media sculpture and glass art.

Gallery talks scheduled during the exhibitions offer artists the opportunity to share insights on their work.

The Monmouth Museum, a private, non-profit organization, is located on the Brookdale Community College Campus, Newman Springs Road, in Lincroft. For more information, call 732-747-2266 or visit www.monmouthmuseum.org.

July 30, 2010

JENNIFER PRESANT (MFA 2002) - Whitewall Magazine

Alumna Jennifer Presant's (2002) solo exhibition at Eden Rock Gallery was reviewed by Whitewall Magazine:

Jennifer Presant’s second solo show “Passing Through” opened at St. Barth’s Eden Rock Gallery on July 1. Presant lived and worked on the island under the artist-in-residence program with the gallery for the month of June. During the residency, she allowed her unique style of composition and detail be effected by her surroundings.

Presant attended the New York Academy of Art (which has a strong relationship with Eden Rock Gallery), where she trained in figurative realism and graphic design. In her work, she combines the two practices to create paintings that play with layers of images and renderings the way photography does. Changing the internal to the external, opacities to the subjects, Presant’s paintings project the idea of our uncontrollable environments and the memories they leave in us.

Read the whole article in Whitewall Magazine.

June 4, 2010

ALUMNA ANNE DREW POTTER (2004) REVIEWED BY ART IN AMERICA

Photo: View of Anne Drew Potter’s exhibition
“Le Cirque de L’Armée Rouge,” 2010; at Dubhe Carreño.
Anne Drew Potter's work, “Le Cirque de l’Armèe Rouge,” recently installed at Dubhe Carreño Gallery in Chicago, was reviewed by Jane Koplos in the current issue (June/July 2010) of Art in America.



Chicago - Questions are raised by Anne Drew Potter’s exhibition “Le Cirque de L’Armée Rouge,” among them, why she would allude to a red army. Is it a political reference or merely a witticism because most of the figures in the installation are unglazed terra-cotta and therefore red? But there’s no mystery behind the carnival reference, as visitors were greeted by a Ticket Seller figure and a bowl of paper tickets on a stand beside a pulled-back red curtain (all works 2009).

Beyond was the main event: atop a stepped platform stood an earthenware figure, painted white, with childlike proportions and a large head. The face is slightly broad and not gender-specific, though a pot belly—protruding beneath a dark-red cloth weskit with long tails on the otherwise naked figure—is interpreted as a pregnant belly when one notices the female pudendum. The figure’s arms are raised, palms facing forward and fingers spread, suggesting a religious gesture of praise and exaltation.

She stands before an audience of nearly 20 naked female children—the terra-cotta “red army”—seated on a pentagonal red cloth. Their faces have more than a family resemblance; they could be clones. However, the kids are utterly, fascinatingly individuated. Hairstyles range from ponytail to bald head, and facial features suggest a universal blending of races.

The children are held rapt by the figure on the steps, except for one who has fallen asleep and another who turns her back. Perhaps four or five in age, they display the natural and unselfconscious body postures of youth. One sits on her heels, hands clasped to her chest, mouth slightly ajar. Another leans forward, her hands grasping her ankles, soles together and knees out. They are a lively, squirming, believable group.
In an artist’s statement, Potter, who is based in Indiana and recently finished an artist’s residency in Montana, discloses two source ideas: the “red army” of displaced Sudanese boys Dave Eggers described in his 2007 novel What is the What, and her own conviction that women embody all aspects of human nature. But the installation also conveys the promise and peril of childhood experiences that shape each individual.



To read this review on artinamericamagazine.com please click here.