Octet: Codes and Contexts in
Recent Art
November 24 – December 23, 2009
Reception: Thursday, December 3,
6 – 8pm
Visual Arts Gallery
601 West 26 Street, 15th floor
New York, NY 10001
212.592.2145
http://www.sva.edu
Featuring over 90 works by faculty, alumni and students from the BFA Fine Arts Department at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), “Octet: Codes and Contexts in Recent Art” offers a multi-generational response to current trends in contemporary artistic practice. Curated by Department Chair Suzanne Anker and faculty member Peter Hristoff, “Octet” presents an amalgam of stylistic concerns as a way to show the dynamic flow of advancing patterns within the visual arts today. The selected works reflect the preponderance of available influences in a global, media-driven society, where technology allows for instantaneous transmission of culture and access to an enormous data bank of shared images and ideas.
The exhibition is divided into eight thematic sections: Word and Image, examining visual articulations of language; Identity and Identity Politics, looking at constructions of self and community in today’s heterogeneous world culture; Post Pop Art and Tabloid Culture, commenting on the proliferation of consumerism and celebrity culture via mass media today; The Corporeal and Divine, addressing the ways that religion, spirituality and myth narrate concerns over ethical dilemmas; Material Matters, exploring the syntax of matter and its novel combinations and possibilities; Narrative Imperatives, delving into the fantasy life of the human psyche; World Dramas, centering on the expression of widely-held societal concerns like ecological stewardship, geopolitical tensions and economic meltdowns; and Relational Aesthetics, a sampling of recent experiments in interactivity, audience participation and ways to create collective social experiences through works of art.
In conjunction with the exhibition, SVA will present Modernism and the Global Diaspora, a panel discussion on the impact of the global art scene on Modernism. Panelists include: Thelma Golden, executive director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Hou Hanru, director of exhibitions and public programs at the San Francisco Art Institute; Susan Hefuna, an artist based in Egypt and Germany; and Vasif Kortun, director of the Platform Garanti Contemporary Arts Center in Istanbul. The discussion will be moderated by SVA faculty member David Ross, former director of the Whitney Museum of American Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The discussion will take place on December 1, 2009, 7pm at the SVA Theatre, located at 333 West 23 Street.
“Octet” was previously on view at the Suna and Inan Kiraç Foundation Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey from August 13 – October 4, 2009. The Suna and Inan Kiraç Foundation Pera Museum and the Visual Arts Gallery presentations of “Octet” have been supported by the following institutions: the Turkish Culture and Tourism Office in New York, The American Turkish Society, the Moon and Stars Project and the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul.
School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and a clear direction of purpose.