huntercollegeart News and Events

Lisa Corinne Davis Named a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Painting

Davis is a Brooklyn-based painter best known for paintings and works on paper that resemble multilayered maps with encoded narratives.

Born in Baltimore, MD, Davis received her BFA degree from Pratt Institute, and her MFA degree from Hunter College. Her paintings have been exhibited across the United States and in Europe. She is currently represented by Miles McEnery Gallery (New York), Jenkins Johnson Gallery (San Francisco & New York) and The Mayor Gallery (London).

 
A renowned professor, Davis currently teaches art at Hunter College.
 
The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship makes unrestricted cash grants to New York State-based artists working in 15 disciplines, recognizing five disciplines per year on a triennial basis. This program is administered by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).
 
 
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In Memoriam: Michael Edward Berube

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Memoriam
Michael Edward Berube
November 10, 1957 – May 15, 2024

The Hunter College community mourns the loss of our friend and colleague Michael Edward Berube, a beloved faculty member and alumnus, who died at the age of 66 after a brief but heroic battle with lung cancer. Michael was part of the department and our community for twenty years. He began his BFA here in 2004, earned his MFA in 2010, and began teaching in the department in 2012. Michael taught ARTLA 101 Introduction to the Study of Visual Experience and was part of the team who helped to reconceive our introductory studio course as ARTLA 201 Art Foundations: Seeing, Thinking, Making, inaugurated in 2015. He also taught Special Topics in Collage. Across the decade he introduced hundreds of students to a newer, deeper way of thinking about art and to the Studio Art major at Hunter. Despite the aggressiveness of the cancer that finally took his life, Michael continued to teach through as much of the Spring 2024 semester as he could, meeting his class into his very last weeks. I want to acknowledge the support his longtime ARTLA 201 co-teacher, Katerina Lanfranco, gave him and his students in these past few weeks.

In 2010 Michael was awarded the prestigious Graf Travel Grant, which allowed him to immerse himself in the art and culture of Italy. His favorite cities, Rome and Venice, deeply inspired him and influenced his work. The above image is from his research trip to Venice. As an artist, Michael explored the realms of maximalist aesthetics, camp, and beauty.

Michael was an early member of the artists’ collective Openings, a vibrant and diverse community of artists working in a variety of media, and a founder of its curatorial program.  Reflecting his personality and his teaching, the collective emphasizes collaboration, creativity, and camaraderie. From 2011 on, Michael wore multiple hats at Openings; not only was he an exhibiting artists member, he also was part of the collective’s core governing body and its senior curator, working with visiting artists and curators and organizing the annual group exhibition. His curatorial work often included exhibitions of Hunter College faculty and alumni, reflecting his deep connection to the community.

Most of Openings’ exhibitions and events take place in a space provided by The Church of St. Paul the Apostle, the founding church of the Paulist Fathers, on the Upper West Side, where a solo show of Michael’s art is in planning for this coming fall. Michael asked that there not be a funeral or memorial service; instead, this exhibition will be an occasion of celebration of his life and work.

Openings’ vision statement reads: “Connections between creativity and transcendence foster meaningful conversations that have the potential to unite individuals and promote community.”

In addition to his visual art career, Michael had an earlier career in performance and music. Under the pseudonyms Michael London and Audrey White, he was a central figure in the 1980s East Village Pyramid Club and wrote and recorded music.

Michael was a cherished teacher known for his ability to connect with and mentor students from diverse backgrounds and interests. His fastidious application of theory and technique, combined with his rich anecdotes of the 1980s NYC downtown art scene, enthralled his students. He often shared stories of rubbing elbows with iconic figures like Andy Warhol, providing a unique and personal perspective on the New York art world.

The Hunter College community extends its heartfelt condolences to Michael’s family, friends, and all who were touched by his presence. Michael died in peace with family and friends and visits from his dog Shadow, who is now re-homed with his sister.  Remembrances and condolences can be shared on his Facebook page: Michael London Berube.

 

 

A photo of Michael Berube in his MFA studio.

Any inquiries related to acquiring and exhibiting Michael Berube’s artwork can be emailed to: anthony.santella@gmail.com

 

 

huntercollegeart News and Events

BFA Degree Exhibition / May 9

 

 

 

Hunter College Spring 2024 BFA Degree Exhibition

May 9 – June 8, 2024

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, May 9th, 5–7pm
The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery
Hunter West Building, 132 East 68th Street
Gallery Hours: Tues–Sun, 12–6pm

The Hunter College BFA Program and the Hunter College Art Galleries are pleased to present the Spring 2024 BFA Degree Student Exhibition at the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery, opening May 9 and on view through June 8. The exhibition will feature works by Peter Ayala, Jarrett Esaw, Sarah Lou Haddad, Natalie Hernandez, Dianna Hu, Frankie Tejada Lizardo, Mario Daniel Martinez, Alex Perloff, Maria Fernanda Rivera, Noelle Salaun, and Sara Shaw.

Please join us for an opening reception with the artists on Thursday, May 9, 5-7pm. 

Learn More

The gallery is free and open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-6pm.  The gallery entrance is located on the south side of 68th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. Closest subway is the 6 train at 68th Street Street/Lexington Ave. If you have any accessibility concerns or questions, please email us and we will be happy to assist.

huntercollegeart News and Events

Suzanne McClelland: ZABAR VISITING ARTIST / Postponed

ARTIST LECTURE AND CONVERSATION WITH THIERRY DE DUVE

Event postponed

 

RSVP to: spevents@hunter.cuny.edu

Suzanne McClelland has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad since the early 1990s. Her practice includes large-scale paintings, works on paper, and books. These often extract fragments of speech or text from various political or cultural sources, explore the social, symbolic and material possibilities that reside within language, and celebrate the physicality of speech and sound. McClelland parses such issues as the limitations and malleability of communication, the impact technology has on interpreting information, and the mechanics of translation. Her works are infused with social commentary, underscoring the way in which language itself is gendered and politicized by its context.

McClelland is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery, NYC. She has participated in the 1993 and 2014 Whitney Biennials and has been the subject of solo presentations at The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Amy Smith-Stewart; The University of Virginia Museum of Art, curated by Jennifer Farrell; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, Philip Morris branch, curated by Thelma Golden. Her paintings are held in numerous public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Yale University Art Gallery, The Albright-Knox Gallery, and The Walker Art Center. Awards and residencies include Guggenheim Fellowship, PS1/ Clocktower Artist Residency, Nancy Graves Foundation Grant, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Lab Grant Residency with Dieu Donne Paper mill Lab Grant, Visiting Artist with UrbanGlass and Resident Artist in 1999 and 2022 with Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture where she has served on the board of governors since 2000. Recent publications include the monograph “Suzanne McClelland: 36-24-36” with an essay contribution by Thierry de Duve, published by team (gallery, inc.) distributed by D.A.P.

ABOUT THE JUDITH ZABAR VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM
In November 2007, Hunter College received a generous commitment to establish the Judith Zabar Visiting Artist Program Fund. The Fund has allowed Hunter to bring a series of internationally recognized artists to campus to work directly with students in the MFA program, in master classes, critical seminars, and private tutorials, providing students with the unique opportunity to interact with top practitioners in the field. Zabar Visiting Artists also present public lectures where they discuss their work, engage in conversation with members of Hunter’s faculty, and with Hunter’s broader student community and the general public. Past Zabar artists have included: Vito Acconci, Janine Antoni, Polly Apfelbaum, Julie Ault, Kevin Beasley, Robert Barry, Dawoud Bey, Tania Bruguera, Patty Chang, Mel Chin, Peter Doig, Charles Gaines, Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Joan Jonas, Jeff Koons, David Lamelas, Glenn Ligon, Sharon Lockhart, Marie Losier, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Tracey Moffatt, Wangechi Mutu, My Barbarian, Gabriel Orozco, Laura Owens, Sondra Perry, Elizabeth Peyton, Paul Pfeiffer, William Pope L., Walid Ra’ad, Yvonne Rainer, Doris Salcedo, Shahzia Sikander, Cauleen Smith, Frances Stark, Fred Tomaselli, Nari Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, and Stanley Whitney.

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Zabar Lecture: Rosa Barba / March 6

 JUDITH ZABAR VISITING ARTIST / SPRING 2024

Flex Space / 205 Hudson
New York, NY
March 6, 6PM

RSVP to: spevents@hunter.cuny.edu

 
Rosa Barba is an artist and filmmaker who balances conceptualism with a distinctly personal vision in her work. She merges films, sculptures, installations, live-performances, text pieces, and publications that are grounded in the material and conceptual qualities of cinema. She also creates installations and site-specific interventions to analyze the ways film articulates space, placing the work and the viewer in a new relationship. Her work is part of numerous international collections and her recent and forthcoming exhibitions include: the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (2026); MoMA, New York, (2024); the MALI Museum, Peru (2024); the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023); the Tate Modern, London (2023); the PICA, Perth Australia (2023); the Villa Medici, Rome (2022); the Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré, Tours (2022); the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2021-2022); the Cukrarna, Ljubljana (2021, 2022); the Beaufort Triennial, Belgium (2021); and the Yokohama Triennial (2020).
 
 

 

huntercollegeart News and Events

BFASO Lecture: Stephanie H. Shih / March 5

 

 

Stephanie H. Shih is a ceramic artist whose painted sculptures explore diasporic identity and cultural migration. Her newest body of work chronicles its past and present through imperfect replicas of everyday items. Rendered in a medium malleable enough to yield to the artist’s touch and painted by hand, each sculpture fits into Shih’s object-based accounting of historical events and cultural touchpoints. The recreation of seemingly disparate objects—such as a restaurant sign, a toy train, a dry-cleaning hanger, and, here, a bottle of soy sauce with less sodium—shapes narratives that are at once playful and reflective.

Shih’s work has been exhibited in New York; Los Angeles; Miami; San Francisco; Portland, OR; Dallas; Boston; and Philadelphia. Among other accolades, Shih has recently been nominated for awards including the United States Artists Fellowship, the UOVO Prize at the Brooklyn Museum, and a permanent public artwork with the City of New York. Shih’s engagement with social issues extends beyond her craft; since 2017, she has raised over $100,000 for disenfranchised and immigrant communities facing material instability and deportation.

huntercollegeart News and Events

Mattering: Life, Art, and Materiality / February 29

 

 

Thursday, February 29, 2024
6:15 PM Reception with refreshments
7:00 PM Event begins

 

Roosevelt House
47 – 49 E 65th St
New York, NY 10065

 

The Dedalus Foundation and Hunter College Department of Art and Art History present “Mattering: Life, Art, and Materiality” at the Roosevelt House. Celebrated art historian and 2018 Robert Motherwell Book Award recipient Julia Bryan-Wilson has selected three recent Dedalus MFA Fellows for a free-ranging discussion of process and materiality. 
 
Artists Jessi Ali Lin (2020, University of Pennsylvania), Luis Emilio Romero (2023, CUNY, Hunter College), and Charisse Pearlina Weston (2019, University of California, Irvine), will each present their work. The evening will culminate with a group discussion moderated by Bryan-Wilson.
 
This event is free, however, due to limited capacity, registration is required.
 
RSVP
 
Julia Bryan-Wilson is Professor of Contemporary art and LGBTQ+ Studies at Columbia University. She is also Curator-at-Large at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, where she is working on the forthcoming exhibition entitled Queer Histories. Her books include the recently published Louise Nevelson’s Sculpture: Drag, Color, Join, Face (2023) and Fray: Art and Textile Politics, which won the ASAP Book Prize, the Frank Jewett Mather Award, and the Robert Motherwell Book Award from the Dedalus Foundation.  
 

Jessi Ali Lin is an artist working with and through sculpture, video, performance, and embodiment. Her work exploits the notion of positionality both in terms of physical position and the multivalence of identity. Lin’s multifaceted practice examines the relationships between the performance of the self, its fragmented nature, and its location within the social and built environment.

Lin holds a MFA in interdisciplinary art from the University of Pennsylvania. She has received awards and fellowships from the Dedalus Foundation and Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been exhibited at Hong-gah Museum, Taipei; EFA Project Space, New York; IceBox Project Space, Philadelphia; and Dixon Place, New York. Her video works have been shown at international film festivals, including 25FPS in Zagreb, Croatia; Kassel Documetary Film and Video Festival; Beijing International Short Film Festival; Bideodromo Experimental Film and Video Festival in Bilbao; and Saigon Experimental Film Festival. Recent projects include residencies at SOMA Mexico, RAIR in Philadelphia, 18th Street Art Center in New York, and an upcoming solo exhibition at MoCA Taipei.

 

Luis Emilio Romero is a Guatemalan painter and drawer, whose painting process is a ritual, and who employs a meditative and spiritual process through works on paper that become oil paintings. He describes his compositions as structural fortresses created through patterns and spaces that he calls chambers and containers. The core of his linear compositions is a gateway to understanding the spirit of color harmony, and his paintings contain tactile surfaces created by dashes of small curved shapes applied with the brush leaving a trail of thick paint. The marriage of paint and light emerges as a field of textural energies.

Romero received his MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2022 and a BFA from Rutgers University in 2019. He has exhibited his work at Arsenal Contemporary in New York. Most recently, he was part of the Mostajo Projects Residency in Connecticut (2023). He received the Giza Daniels-Endesha Award and the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship. Romero currently works in Ridgewood Queens, NY.

 

Charisse Pearlina Weston is a conceptual artist and writer whose work engages with the dynamic interplay of violence and intimacy through repetition, enfoldment, and concealment. Weston received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of California-Irvine in 2019. She is an alumna of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program.

Weston was named a Studio Museum in Harlem Artist in Residence in 2022–23, a 2023 Jerome Hill Fellow, and a 2023 Hodder Fellow at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. She has mounted solo exhibitions at Project Row Houses, Recess, the Moody Center of the Arts at Rice University, and the Queens Museum. She has received awards and fellowships from Artadia Fund for the Arts, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dedalus Foundation, the Harpo Foundation, the Graham Foundation, the Corning Museum of Glass, and Creative Capital, among others. She was a 2021 Artist Fellow at the Museum of Art and Design, where she was also awarded the 2021 Burke Prize. She was a Paul and Irene Hollister Fields of the Future Fellow at Bard Graduate Center in 2022. She will be featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial.

 

huntercollegeart News and Events

Building the Cosmos of Cosmic Shelter/ February 28

 

 

SYMPOSIUM

Building the Cosmos of Cosmic Shelter: Curatorial Team
Kossak Lecture Hall, Room 1527, 
Hunter North Building (15th floor)
695 Park Ave 
New York, NY

February 28, 6:30 – 8pm
 
A series of three presentations by the curatorial assistants of Cosmic Shelter, Thais Bignardi, Rowan Diaz-Toth, and Angelica Pomar. The presentations explore themes related to works presented in the exhibition in order to contextualize the world of Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida’s Cosmococas.

Presentations to include:
  • “Marginality as Process: The South Bronx and Hélio Oiticica” by Angelica Pomar
  • “A Plan for a Practice: Hélio Oiticica’s Experiments in New York at the Boundaries of Time-Based Media” by Rowan Diaz-Toth
  • “Gardens, Wars, Politics, and Cinema: A Discussion on Neville D’Almeida’s Jardim de Guerra” by Thais Bignardi
*Please note: Non-Hunter affiliated guests will need to register at the main welcome center in the Hunter West Building lobby. Please let us know if you have accessibility concerns or questions and we will be happy to help. Email: hcag@hunter.cuny.edu.