MFA Candidate Spotlight: Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay

Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay, Code Switching, 2017

The Georgia Museum of Art will soon host the annual Master of Fine Arts Degree Candidates exit show. The exhibition will display the creative works of 16 students slated to graduate from the Lamar Dodd School of the Art in May. Over the next three weeks, we will spotlight a few of these unique artists with information on their artistic journeys and processes.

UGA master of fine arts degree candidate Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay calls Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, home. Mukhopadhyay received his undergraduate degree in photography at Louisiana Tech. He continues to create art in the visual realm but has expanded beyond a single medium.

Today, he sees “forms as a result of concepts,” concepts he portrays in his installation work. The one photographic image within his installation at the MFA exit show is simply another material. More often, his “gestures are . . . in terms of readymades or assisted readymades.” Many of his materials are products you could buy, such as an LCD monitor or light fixture. He makes these standard objects new via their placement.

The context of the objects’ placement, and of Mukhopadhyay himself as he creates, define his work. In past installations, he took on heady topics such as post-colonialism. His inspiration for this show includes labor—specifically his labor as an artist—within institutional spaces.

“Maybe,” he suggests, “the white walls around me are what influenced me to make the work.” The inherent structure of his context influences his works but does not detract from the joy he finds in creating. “I find it funny, and I find joy in making these pieces,” says Mukhopadhyay, which is part of what he wishes to evoke in his audience.

Mukhopadhyay creates his installations with certain perspectives and intentions, but he hopes the audience will take it from there. When you walk through his installations, allow yourself to notice the sensations and think about the space as a shared, interactive experience.

To see Mukhopadhyay's work, along with that of all the other MFA candidates, you can visit the exit show, on view April 7 – May 20, 2018.

--
Savannah Guenthner
Intern, Department of Communications

De Wain Valentine: Thinking Inside and Outside The Box

In grade school we learn about the basic shapes in geometry: circles, ovals, squares, triangles, rectangles, quadrangles, parallelograms, the rhombus, pentagons, hexagons, octagons—the list goes on and on. Under most circumstances, these shapes are only used as simple elements within a much larger work of art. For example, one might use a circle and a triangle in a basic sketch. With added detail, the circle can become a head and the triangle takes the shape of a nose. With more shading, a few lines and a pair of eyes, facial features come into view, and eventually we lose track of the painting’s humble beginnings.

Like any other artist, De Wain Valentine approaches his sculptures with the basic geometry of the finished product in mind. But instead of fading away through added details such as fine chiseling or added sanding and polishing, the concept of the shape serves as the most essential part of his work. That is not to say Valentine doesn’t pay attention to detail—the technical composition of his large, polyester resin sculptures requires a complex process to bring out a sheen that acts as both an opaque reflector and a filter for light to pass through. In this regard, Valentine enables his audiences to look at both themselves and at other people within the scope of his sculptures, almost literally immersing the viewer in art.

De Wain Valentine
"Lavender Column"

De Wain Valentine
"Circle Blue Smoke Flow"

Valentine has had installations shown in the Museum of Modern Art, The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu and the San Diego Museum of Art. The Georgia Museum of Art, through the efforts of chief curator and Curator of American Art Paul Manoguerra, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art Lynn Boland, Director William Underwood Eiland, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, has put together an exhibition featuring Valentine’s work in Human Scale. The exhibition will run from Sept. 8, 2012, until Jan. 27, 2013. 

"Pattern and Palette in Print" installation

We're practicing with our new camera, and the ongoing installation of "Pattern and Palette in Print: Gentry Magazine and a New Generation of Trendsetters" (opening March 17, with a reception March 23) seemed like a good subject. This exhibition is so ripe for Pinterest!

Disegno install

Just as he did for "All Creatures Great and Small," preparator Larry Forte has made a video of the installation of "The Art of Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art," which is on view at GMOA through Aug. 7. Enjoy!

An Update

Hello, all! Between snow and ice, holidays and the like, we've had little time for blogging of late, especially as most of our hours are being spent getting art up on the walls. Please enjoy the slideshow below that features installation of our amazing, huge painting by Gregory Gillespie, which took six people to hang.

We'd also like to point you tonight to "A Year on the Hill," an exhibition over at the Lamar Dodd School of Art featuring photographs by Jim Fiscus and Chris Bilheimer, both of whom have close connections to GMOA. Jim has spoken here before, and Chris has been very busy donating his graphic design skills to the invitations and programs for Elegant Salute XII: Metamorphosis.

The opening reception is tonight (Friday, January 14) from 7 to 9 p.m. Here's a bit more about the show from the art school's release, and we promise more updates from us soon, including some of the installation of Beverly Pepper's sculpture "Asenscione"!

Just a reminder that "A Year on the Hill," an upcoming show featuring photography by Jim Fiscus and Chris Bilheimer, will be on display in Gallery 101 at the Lamar Dodd School of Art from January 14 until February 11. There will be an opening reception on Friday, January 14 from 7 to 9 p.m.

The exhibition includes ten single images and three triptychs, measuring from 3x4 to 8x8 feet. All photographs were taken with a view camera in multiple frames, which made possible the production of large size images. Some of the films used are no longer manufactured. Apart form their scale, the individual prints are distinguished by various overlay treatments, including encaustic. All the work on this project took place on The Hill in Athens, Georgia between November of 2009 and the fall of 2010. The images in this exhibition have never been shown before.

Jim Fiscus

Jim Fiscus is an award-winning advertising and editorial photographer whose clients include Levis, Guinness, HBO, Nike, Coca-Cola, Showtime, Anheuser-Busch, and ESPN. Fiscus, who was voted International Photographer of the Year for 2006, has had work featured on two communication arts covers and named #1 on Campaigns 2008 list of top photographers in the United Kingdom. His reputation for perfection is matched only by the respect with which he treats his subjects. Fiscus studied photography at East Texas State University and is based in New York City and Athens, Georgia. His work can be seen at fiscusphoto.com.

According to Magazine 13:“Fiscus has been pushing the boundaries of photography and digital imaging for more than 15 years. Famous for his highly stylized photographs, he seamlessly melds people, places and elements into provocative images for editorial and advertising purposes. A pioneer in digital imaging, his technique gives him latitude to create any environment his clients envision, no matter how impossible.

Fiscus’ career began with a campaign for Philip Morris and has grown to include many national and international high-profile clients. A native Texan, Jim currently lives in Athens, Ga. Fiscus was voted International Photographer of the Year for 2006 by the International Photography Awards. His work was featured on two covers of “Communication Arts,” and he was named #1 on “Campaigns” magazine’s 2008 list of top photographers in the United Kingdom.”

Chris Bilheimer

While attending U.G.A. in pursuit of a degree in drawing and painting in the late 80's, Bilheimer began exploring graphic design on a whim in an effort to help out his friends in local bands, seeing posters and album covers as an avenue to show his artwork. Several years after meeting Michael Stipe of R.E.M. through mutual friends, Chris began to assist Michael in the design work for R.E.M., abandoning his painting to work full time as a designer. In short time, Bilheimer began designing for many other major-lable music acts while continuing his work with R.E.M., going on to design for Green Day, Weezer, Nirvana and many others. His twenty year career has seen hundreds of C.D.s released with his work, generating sales of over 30 million copies worldwide. He has been nominated three times for Grammys for his packaging, and his art and music photography has been published extensively. Bilheimer has also branched out of the music industry to design for comedy and television. He currently resides in Athens, Ga, and will soon be relocating to Austin, Tx.

Installation

The exhibition "University of Georgia Turns 225" has been going up in the locked galleries of the Visual Arts Building for the past few days, with preps doing last-minute tweaks, making sure everything is level, adding "Please do not touch" labels and the like. Here are some photos we took to show you what's going on:

Note that this set may well be updated later today, when the pumpkin orange wall right across from our offices (in the same building) gets updated with some artwork.

Re:Construction

We’ve all had awful experiences with construction sites­. They cause traffic, never seem to end, and are dangerous and not so pretty, but the Alliance for Downtown New York has introduced a public art program called Re:Construction that turns construction sites into works of art.

Construction projects are everywhere in Lower Manhattan, and the poor economy delays completion, causing the sites to become seemingly permanent. The goal of Re:Construction is to make these sites into “canvases for innovative public art and architecture.” The project’s curator is BravinLee Programs, run by Karin Bravin and John Lee.

Photo credit: BravinLee Programs

All of the projects in Re:Construction “bring color, movement and scenic beauty” to the construction sites. Botanizing on the Asphalt (above) by Nina Bovasso covers 400 feet of jersey barriers at Hudson River Park. Fence Embroidery with Embellishment (below) by Katherine Daniels consists of such materials as spools, jar lids and wire mesh. The installation runs 600 feet along a construction fence.

Photo credit: Nina Bovasso

Re:Construction has been ongoing since 2007 when the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) awarded the Downtown Alliance $1.5 million for the project. Check out the Re:Construction Web site for more photos and information.

A Soulful Celebration: The Installation

The preps and some assistants have been installing the works of art that will be on display at tonight's dinner, so we wandered over to the gallery where the dinner will take place and snapped a few amateurish photos of it all. We miss being able to see scenes like this on a regular basis!

Flocks

PICDIT called our attention this morning to the work of Kristi Malakoff, a Canadian artist who seems to focus on scale and repetition in her installation pieces. We recommend you don't skip a single section of her site, though, lest you miss the incredible works she's done with flowers, money, stamps and candy, in addition to her detailed recreation of butterflies and bees en masse.

"Lord Love You" installation

Installation-in-progress photographs will appear on here soon. Below [click it to make it larger and clearer] is an image showing my (second) rough draft plan for the installation of the 83+ objects in the exhibition.

As a monograph of Miller from a single, private collection, the display is to be arranged along themes (selected via subject matter and meaning): introduction to the artist, popular culture, animals and critters, Blow Oskar and patriotism, religion and millennialism (which I can't spell), and personal life.

Although I did plan for specific objects to be placed in very specific locales within the Lyndon House's upper atrium, I also permitted myself a bit of conceit in leaving the process somewhat organic. What looks good next to what else? Long sight lines? Short sight lines? Interesting combinations and juxtapositions of objects as talking points?



Edit: Photos are now on Flickr and can be viewed below in a slideshow.