Author: Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Vincent Stracquadanio: strutture d’ombra ?>

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Vincent Stracquadanio: strutture d’ombra

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series:
Vincent Stracquadanio: strutture d’ombra

The Fordham University Galleries
Fordham University at Lincoln Center map
113 West 60th Street at Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023

fordhamuniversitygalleries The Department of Visual Arts at Fordham University is pleased to present the first fall installment of the Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series with Vincent Stracquadanio. The selection of drawings featured in his book, strutture d’ombra (shadow structures), highlights Stracquadanio’s spaces depicting moments of transformation and magic, all of which are marked by rich patterning and dense with visual surprise and reference.

Vincent Stracquadanio: strutture d’ombra is the third publication for Hayden’s Books, a series honoring Hayden Hartnett, a much-loved visual art major. Hayden’s Books focuses on presenting artist projects, research, critical writings, and works in progress.

The Fordham University Galleries are currently closed to the public in response to COVID-19. In the meantime, please visit our gallery website frequently, as our gallery will continue to feature a robust selection of offerings from the different areas of study in the Department of Visual Arts: Architecture, Film/Video, Graphic Design, Painting, and Photography. Stay tuned for more online presentations, discussions, and public dialogues coming this fall as our gallery website functions as a launching platform for a thoughtful engagement with the issues of our times.

Artist Statement: The structures that surround us provide the boundaries that help define and clarify our collective understanding of the world. Their very presence however demarcates the moment of subversion where these structures can be broken down and changed.

The spaces in my work depict moments of transformation and magic. The rich patterning of these spaces is dense with visual surprise and reference. Some spaces are filled with foreboding forms such as dark fire and cloud-like mists that appear to seep through various Sicilian porticos disrupting spatial certainty. Others, archetypal forms like the “Arch” and the “Portal” line technicolor corridors that peer out into a horrific black abyss from a Giallo film. In these spaces, I’ve mined my own relationship to histories of art, family, and self.

These lavish interior spaces collapse and extend using patterning and flatness that eliminates hierarchies between foreground and background, form and formlessness, clarity and confusion. Each picture not only exhibits an interior logic but also presents distinct idiosyncrasies suggesting differentiation in time, event, or architecture. These defined moments are subverted and broken down to begin to illustrate the fluidity of one’s full identity and one’s relationship to histories both individual and shared.

Artist Bio: Vincent Stracquadanio is an artist living and working in New York City. He earned his MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BA in visual arts from Fordham University. He has been exhibited at Good Naked Gallery (NY), New Release (NY), Trestle Gallery (NY), Artspace (CT), among others. He was a nominee for the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant and received both the Gamblin Paint Award and James Storey Memorial Visual Arts Award. Stracquadanio has taught at the Yale University Art Gallery and is currently a museum educator at the Jewish Museum and an adjunct professor at Fordham University.

strutture d’ombra Book Link
Vincent Stracquadanio Website

For further information contact Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock.
For the Visual Arts Department Website: click here.
Faculty Spotlight Series: Amie Cunat Drawings ?>

Faculty Spotlight Series: Amie Cunat Drawings

The Department of Visual Arts at Fordham University is pleased to present a new summer installment of the Faculty Spotlight Series with Amie Cunat. This selection of drawings shares Cunat’s explorations, which have informed her recent work on canvas, and offer a play between the horrific and goofy, the earthy and transcendent, the familiar and alien.

Amie Cunat Drawings is the second publication for Hayden’s Books, a series honoring Hayden Hartnett, a much-loved visual art major. Hayden’s Books focuses on presenting artist projects, research, critical writings, and works in progress.

The Fordham University Galleries are currently closed to the public in response to COVID-19. In the meantime, please visit our gallery website frequently, as our gallery will continue to feature a robust selection of offerings from the different areas of study in the Department of Visual Arts: Architecture, Film/Video, Graphic Design, Painting, and Photography. Stay tuned for more online presentations, discussions, and public dialogues coming this fall as our gallery website functions as a launching platform for a thoughtful engagement with the issues of our times.

Artist Statement:
In 2018, Amie Cunat began to explore plant-like imagery within her abstract paintings. Influenced by depictions of nature from Shaker gift drawings, Art Deco, science fiction, and horror movies, Cunat’s work appears loud and flamboyant at first read. Whether they are painted from an observed source or the artist’s memory, their exclamatory presence is supplanted and prolonged through charged hue and inventive form. They offer a play between the horrific and goofy, the earthy and transcendent, the familiar and alien. The selection of drawings shares her explorations, which have informed her recent work on canvas.

Artist Bio:
Amie Cunat (b. 1986, McHenry, IL) is a Japanese American artist, who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Cunat received her MFA from Cornell University, Post-Baccalaureate in Painting and Drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her BA in Visual Arts and Art History from Fordham University. She has had solo exhibitions at Peep (PA), Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon, Victori +Mo, Knockdown Center, Sunroom Project Space at Wave Hill, Outside (MA), The Cooper Union, among others. Recent group exhibitions include Fur Cup at Underdonk (Brooklyn), The Unusual Suspects at DC Moore Gallery (NY), Surreality at Crush Curatorial (NY), The Unlikely Whole at ArtYard (NJ) and Softer but Louder at Geary Contemporary (NY). In 2019, she was awarded a Regional Economic Development Council Grant by NYSCA in collaboration with Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon. Her work has been reviewed and featured by The New York Times, ARTnews, Artsy, Artnet News, Vogue Italia, ArtMaze Mag, and Two Coats of Paint.

Book Link
Amie Cunat Website

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Lois Martin ?>

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Lois Martin

The Fordham University Galleries Online
Fordham University at Lincoln Center map
113 West 60th Street at Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023
fordhamuniversitygalleries

The Department of Visual Arts at Fordham University is pleased to present the fourth installment of the Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Lois Martin. Over the months to come, members from the Department of Visual Arts adjunct faculty will be sharing samplings of their production with the Fordham community.

The Fordham University Galleries are now open to the general public. As well, our gallery website will continue to feature a robust selection of offerings from the different areas of study in the Department of Visual Arts: Architecture, Film/Video, Graphic Design, Painting, and Photography. Stay tuned for online presentations, discussions, and public dialogues coming this fall as our gallery website functions as a launching platform for a thoughtful engagement with the issues of our times.

Artist Statement: For many years, I have been creating art about New York City subway riders. The subject compels me; I snatch sketches on the train as I travel, and then put together composites of remembered and imagined scenes in the studio. Children, wry contrasts, and glimpses of drama (whether romance, rage, or camaraderie) are favorite subjects.

I work in a variety of media at a miniature scale. In my mixed media sculptures, I build wire armatures for figure bodies and form heads and hands from polymer clay. The figures are dressed with found scraps, often re-purposed lost gloves or bits of fabric. My watercolor paintings are usually accentuated with gold leaf, and my drawings are executed in silverpoint on prepared paper. I love the way the combination of precious (gold & silver) and commonplace (scraps of paper) seems to reflect the subway setting with its compressed chain of humanity and contrasts of drama and dullness. Smashed up next to a stranger, subway riders don’t know whether their neighbor is a murderer or a Nobel Laureate—or who has just committed a robbery, won a lottery, or been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Sparks of emotion suggest optimistic or pessimistic readings, but there is no overarching narrative.

I work slowly, loading great detail into each compressed image. Often I work in a scroll format, representing a horizontal line of seated and standing figures. Together, the linear format, miniature scale, and richness of detail hopefully pull viewers into this mysterious subterranean orbit.

Image Caption: Lois Martin, Hawaiian Shirt, 2019, watercolor, 6 x 11 inches.

For further information, contact Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock.
For the Visual Arts Department Blog: click here.
For the Visual Arts Department Website: click here.

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series & Book: Anibal Pella-Woo: “Almost 2.0” ?>

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series & Book: Anibal Pella-Woo: “Almost 2.0”

The Department of Visual Arts at Fordham University is pleased to present the first summer installment of the Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Anibal Pella-Woo: Almost 2.0. As well as being the first offering of the season, this project is the inaugural publication for Hayden’s Books. Hayden’s Books will be producing an ongoing series of publications focusing on artist projects, research, critical writings, and works in progress. This publication series honors Hayden Hartnett, a much-loved visual arts major. Please stay tuned over the weeks to come as members from the Department of Visual Arts adjunct faculty and artists at large share samplings of their production with the Fordham community in our Hayden Hartnett Project Space (online) and in this exciting new book series.

The Fordham University Galleries are open to the general public provided that visitors complete a temperature check and brief screening according to university health protocols (the gallery is accessible for those on campus registered with VitalCheck). Additionally, our gallery website will continue to feature a robust selection of offerings from the different areas of study offered in the Department of Visual Arts: Architecture, Film/Video, Graphic Design, Painting, and Photography. Stay tuned for online presentations, discussions, and public dialogues coming this summer as our gallery website functions as a launching platform for a thoughtful engagement with the issues of our times.

Artist Statement:

2.0: “used post-positively to describe a new and improved version or example of something or someone.”

In 1999, I bought my first digital camera. It produced a 1.92-megapixel image file.

Almost 2.0

Book Link

New book: 2021 Senior Thesis Exhibitions ?>

New book: 2021 Senior Thesis Exhibitions

Hot off the press—the 2021 Senior Thesis Exhibitions book by Amanda Asciutto, Catherine Cain, Ashlinn Casey, Laura Foley, Alejandra Garcia, Mack Hurstell, Bawila Idris, Jesse McBrearty, Elizabeth McLaughlin, Vittoria Orlando, Sofia Riley, Justin Schwartz, and Julia Taylor is now available. Edited by Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock with a fantastic cover design by Natalie Norman-Kehe. 142 pages of amazing work by our graduating artists!

2021 Senior Thesis Exhibitions: Small Square, 7×7 in, 18×18 cm, 142 pages is available to preview and purchase here.

New Books—Digital Photography Volumes 2 & 3 Out Now ?>

New Books—Digital Photography Volumes 2 & 3 Out Now

The speed at which one can learn the principles of traditional analog photography during a typical school semester is relatively quick. Things are humming along smoothly by week number seven, with students having a working understanding of camera operations, film processing, and the development of contact sheets and prints. Around week seven, we begin to switch gears from focusing on the technical to concentrating on meaning and communication strategies. The remaining eight weeks are devoted to exploring what one wants to say about the world, how to go about it, and how to read and discuss photographs.

The speed at which one can learn the principles of digital photography is absurdly accelerated compared to traditional photography. Within the first five classes, we are already up and running and understand camera usage and how to employ the computer for image management, adjustment, and output.

Three months ago, these students were pushed into the deep end of the photographic pool of digital photography and asked to swim almost immediately. They rose to the challenge admirably. Their selections for this book represent their speedy technical proficiency; moreover, their images show their intelligence, distinct personalities, and concentrated engagement with the world.

Enough said, enjoy! —Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock

Digital Photography Volume 2

Digital Photography Volume 3

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Vincent Stracquadanio ?>

Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Vincent Stracquadanio

The Department of Visual Arts at Fordham University is pleased to present the third spring installment of the Adjunct Faculty Spotlight Series: Vincent Stracquadanio. Over the weeks to come, members from the Department of Visual Arts adjunct faculty will be sharing samplings of their production with the Fordham community.

The Fordham University Galleries are currently closed to the general public in response to COVID-19 (open for those on campus registered with VitalCheck). However, our gallery website will continue to feature a robust selection of offerings from the different areas of study offered in the Department of Visual Arts: Architecture, Film/Video, Graphic Design, Painting, and Photography. Stay tuned for online presentations, discussions, and public dialogues coming this spring as our gallery website functions as a launching platform for a thoughtful engagement with the issues of our times.

Artist Statement: My work depicts spaces of transformation and magic. These lavish interior spaces collapse and extend using patterning and flatness that eliminates hierarchies between front and back, foreground and background.

The rich patterning of these spaces is dense with visual surprise and full of organic references, geometry, personal history, horror films, and antiquities. Each picture not only exhibits an interior logic but also presents distinct idiosyncrasies suggesting differentiation in time, event, or architecture.

Some spaces are filled with foreboding forms such as dark fire and cloud-like mists that appear to seep through various spaces disrupting spatial certainty. Others, silhouetted figures and latticed patterns line corridors and form structures for rhythm and magic. In many, lingering shadowy hands cradle and loom over these spaces, suggesting a menacing presence that creates and holds these spaces together.

Artist Bio: Vincent Stracquadanio is an artist living and working in New York City. He earned his MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BA in visual arts from Fordham University. He has been exhibited at Good Naked Gallery (NY), New Release (NY), Trestle Gallery (NY), Artspace (CT), among others. He was a nominee for the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant and received both the Gamblin Paint Award and James Storey Memorial Visual Arts Award. Stracquadanio has taught at the Yale University Art Gallery and is currently a museum educator at the Jewish Museum and an adjunct professor at Fordham University.

For further information on the exhibition, please contact Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock.

The Fordham University Galleries are currently closed in response to COVID-19. In the meantime, please visit our gallery website frequently, as our exhibitions are still underway.

Department of Visual Arts Senior Thesis Exhibitions ?>

Department of Visual Arts Senior Thesis Exhibitions

The Fordham University Department of Visual Arts is pleased to announce the start of the 2021 Senior Thesis Exhibitions. Please follow our talented emerging artists as they exhibit throughout the spring semester. Part one is now available online.

For further information on the exhibition, please contact Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock.

The Fordham University Galleries are currently closed to the public in response to COVID-19. In the meantime, please visit our gallery website frequently, as our exhibitions are still underway.