Art and Art History Department

Master printmaker Keiji Shinohara, artist in residence, will have three solo exhibitions in 2015." The title is "Keiji Shinohara: Woodcut." The first will be at the Odakyu Shinjuku Art Salon in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan March 11-17. For more information call 03-3342-1111 (Japan). The second show will be at Art Zone-Kaguraoka in Kyoto, Japan May 9-May 25. For more information call o75-754-0155 (Japan). The exhibition will return to the United States and be on display at the Visual Arts Gallery at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. throughout the month of October. In addition, Shinohara will be demonstrating Japanese Ukiyo-e printmaking…

Early this year, Gary Shteyngart embarked on an experiment for The New York Times: For a week straight, he would "subsist almost entirely on a diet of state-controlled Russian television, piped in from three Apple laptops onto three 55-inch Samsung monitors in a room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan." Assistant Professor of Art Sasha Rudensky documented this experiment in a series of photographs that accompany the story. Here is Shteyngart lying in bed, feet encased in hotel slippers, while Russian President Vladamir Putin's stern face fills three towering television screens. Here Shteyngart is dining on Wagyu beef slices and sipping pinot noir…

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Tula Telfair, professor of art, is having a solo exhibition of 21 new monumental oil paintings at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum Jan. 10 through March 15. The opening reception is 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 29. In a "World of Dreams— New Landscape Paintings," Telfair paints monumental landscapes and epic-scale vistas that act as windows into another world — a dream world — where everything seems familiar yet remains beyond grasp. Drawing upon the long tradition of landscape painting from the backdrops of the Renaissance through the Romanticism of the 19th century, she presents a thoroughly contemporary perspective upon an archaic art form. Instead of documenting…

#THISISWHY (by Christine Foster. Originally published in Wesleyan Magazine, Dec. 10, 2014) Professor of Art Tula Telfair’s epic and massive landscape paintings fill the walls of Wesleyan’s Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. They call forth our memories of the most stunning scenic vistas—craggy mountains topped by threatening clouds; impossibly moist, green valleys; icebergs jutting hundreds of feet out of the freezing aqua waters below. From a distance, they appear to be photographs, but they aren’t. These views don’t even exist, except in Telfair’s mind and on her canvases. Still—even knowing they are imagined— the viewer is tempted to look for signs of…

Thirteen students enrolled in Professor of Art Tula Telfair's Painting I course (ARTS 439) displayed their artwork at a Painting Show Dec. 8 at Art Studio South. This introductory-level course in painting (oils) emphasized work from observation and stressed the fundamentals of formal structure: color, paint manipulation, composition and scale. Students addressed conceptual problems that helped them develop an understanding of the power of visual images to convey ideas and expressions. (Photos by Dat Vu '15) (more…)

The work of Keiji Shinohara, artist-in-residence of art, artist-in-residence of East Asian studies, will be exhibited at a gallery in Plantsville, Conn., Oct. 4-31. The exhibition at Paris in Plantsville Gallery, titled, "Whispers of the Infinite: The Art of Keiji Shinohara," represents the first time that Shinohara's monotypes will have been exhibited in the United States. An opening reception will be held Oct. 4 from 6-9 p.m. Born and raised in Osaka, Japan, Shinohara trained for 10 years as an apprentice under the renowned artist Keiichiro Uesugi, and became a Master Printmaker. Shinohara then moved to the U.S., and has…

John Frazer, professor of art, emeritus, died July 7 at the age of 82. "Generations of Wesleyan students knew John as a gifted teacher of students at all levels of artistic ability," said Ruth Striegel Weissman, provost and vice president for academic affairs. Throughout his career on the Wesleyan faculty, from 1959 to 2001, Frazer introduced hundreds of Wesleyan students to the art of drawing, painting and film. He taught the first filmmaking courses at Wesleyan and continued this teaching until the Film Program, which he helped found, became independent of the Art Department. His influence lives on through his endowment…

Associate Professor of Art and Art History Katherine Kuenzli has won a prestigious American Council of Learned Societies fellowship for next year. The award will support her work on Henry van de Velde, a European artist whose aesthetic helped shape modernism. The fellowship – one of 65 awarded this year to scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences – provides salary replacement for faculty who are embarking on six to 12 months of full-time research and writing. “I am thrilled to have the support for and acknowledgement of my work,” Kuenzli said. “I began (the project) in 2009 and…

Professor Phillip Wagoner is the co-author of Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India’s Deccan Plateau, 1300-1600, published by Oxford University Press in March 2014. Wagoner is chair and professor of archaeology, professor of art history. Focusing on India’s Deccan Plateau, this book explores how power and memory combined to produce the region’s built landscape, as seen above all in its monumental architecture. During the turbulent 16th century, fortified frontier strongholds like Kalyana, Warangal, or Raichur were repeatedly contested by primary centers—namely, great capital cities such as Bijapur, Vijayanagara or Golconda. Examining the political histories and material culture of both…

The seniors in the Department of Art and Art History's art studio program are presenting their work in the Senior Thesis Exhibitions through April 13. The art is displayed in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. Students presenting work include Carlos Sanchez, Emily Bernstein, Can “Claire” Zhou, Alex Ginsberg, Will Wiebe, Emily Roff, Allison Greenwald, Evita Rodriguez, Rebecca Schisler, Katie Deane, Oliver Citrin, Hannah Knudsen, Pik-Tone Fung, Jessie Loo, Julia Drachman, Nathaniel Elmer and Isaac Madwed. Each student selects a single work from his or her Senior Thesis Exhibition for the end of the year showcase, which is curated by Tula…

A book written by Joe Siry was named a finalist for the 2013 National Jewish Book Award in the visual arts category. Siry is professor of art history, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of the Humanities and chair of the Art and Art History Department. The Jewish Book Council announced the winners of the 63rd Annual National Jewish Book Awards on Jan. 15. Beth Sholom Synagogue: Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2011. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Beth Sholom Synagogue was one of Wright’s last…

Shinohara’s Solo Exhibitions to be Displayed in Japan

Rudensky’s Photos Featured in Times Story on Russian TV

Faculty Curate Picture/Thing Exhibit in Zilkha Gallery

Telfair’s Solo Oil Painting Exhibition Opens in Louisiana Museum

Telfair’s Imaginary Landscapes Garner Attenton from Artists, Scientists Alike

Students Showcase Art at Painting Show

Shinohara’s Monotypes to be Exhibited at Plantsville Gallery

Professor of Art John Frazer Remembered for Teaching, Painting, Films

Kuenzli to Research European Artist through Learned Societies Fellowship

Wagoner’s Book Explores Built Landscape of India’s Deccan Plateau

Art Studio Seniors Showcase Work at Thesis Exhibitions

Siry’s Frank Lloyd Wright Book Named Finalist for Visual Arts Award