"A Garden of Visuality" Exhibition
Smack Mellon
This event has ended.
A Garden of Visuality is an exhibition of work created by students during Smack Mellon's Summer Arts Intensive arts education program. Every August, Smack Mellon's 6,000 square foot gallery is transformed into a giant art studio where young people aged 12-16 can create in diverse visual media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, and animation. The 2012 Summer Arts Intensive runs Monday through Friday from July 30-August 24.
Guided by different artists each week who are experts in their field, the 15 students in the Summer Arts Intensive are harvesting their surrounding environments for both materials and ideas. Smack Mellon and its Dumbo, Brooklyn neighborhood provide fertile ground for the visual "garden" now taking shape in our gallery.
During the first week of the program, video artist Michael Paul Britto led students in creating intricate animated collages and film sets, using recycled magazines and other found materials. In installation artist Sonya Blesofsky's Sculpture and Installation class during the second week, repurposed materials like cardboard and cloth grew into sculptures inspired by both organic and geometric forms. During the program's third week, students will work with mixed media artist Natalia Nakazawa to hone the skills of drawing and painting from observation, eventually adding collage. Photo/video and performance artist Jessica Ann Peavy will close the program with photo essays focusing on the neighborhood. Smack Mellon's state-of-the art Media Room serves as a laboratory for printing professional quality photographs and editing videos.
The students' work is also informed by weekly field trips to other New York City museums and art spaces. We traveled to Governors Island to see the FIGMENT interactive sculpture garden (featuring many works also made of found materials), met some of the sculpture artists, and created original videos of students interacting with the participatory artwork. We received guided tours of current exhibits at the Whitney Museum and Museum of Arts and Design; at both museums we learned about different art and museum careers from teen docents. We also received artist and curator talks at several Chelsea galleries in addition to exploring the landscaping and public art of The High Line.
Media
Schedule
from August 25, 2012 to August 26, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-08-24 from 18:00 to 20:00