SocialKonstruct

I have tried and considering that our staff are all undergrad students, we are surprised that we are getting as far as we can. Our team just curated a group show up in Paradice Palase in NYC for early April so that's a start. And we are trying hard to get into art fairs too But we have a diverse roster so right now group shows are pretty much the only way we are going to thread disparate artists together.

That's accounting for my curatorial experiment which I started last year. Doing a contemporary and CUTTING-EDGE gallery here in Salt Lake City, Utah. To be honest, we aren't getting any recognition here in Utah (and we are very diverse on our roster with trans to Asian-American) and even though I sent press releases to Artforum and NYC art journals, no takes to review our shows. DEFINITELY geography is huge. You can peep that https://www.officespaceslc.com/ could be a LA or NYC space but it's not. If our address didn't show Utah, I don't think anyone could tell a single difference whether we would be in Utah or NYC. The problem is GEOGRAPHY. We just aren't in NYC/LA so we ain't gettin' no love here ya know?

Woot!

Maybe but I wish that I could be more optimistic about this. I don't think that often Whitney curators will be travelling much outside of New England, LA, NYC, Chicago, SF areas. I am curious about the shifting market. Do you think that the market will change that much? It didn't change at all when the market collapsed back in 2008 and definitely not during the 1990's either. Instead, the power players got more money. I wish that I could be more optimistic about the contemporary art world becoming more democratic but as I get older, I am much more cynical. One can pick up any issue of Artforum and it's still mostly NYC/LA. Rarely you will see shows reviewed from Texas and definitely not Utah where I live. The question is that we tend to think that artists make their own success but that's not the case. Art always exists in a financial and sociological context and as long as the art reviewers and publishers and curators and museum directors (major ones of course) remain mostly in NYC/LA/Chicago/San Fran then I really don't see too many artists outside of those spheres crashing into the major art fairs and biennials. In fact, you tend to see more folks who live in obscure places moving to NYC or LA to make it big. It's only when you are a blue chip artist that you have any leverage to control more of your own destiny. Until then, it's a huge unlikely shot.

Asking to be specific. Columbia University or Columbia College? One is in NYC and the other in IL.

It could be a matter of perspective. Let's imagine a scenario here. If you were a curator for the Whitney Biennial would you be more likely to select from Columbia or RISD or someone from University of North Texas. Granted, six figure debt is bad but if you were in law school or medical school that debt would be much larger :o.

Yep and you can see that the program is super small here at- https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/departments/art/studio-art/graduate/mfa-studio-art-alumni The alumni list is definitely one way to know that the painting program is very tiny.

As an Asian-American, I admit that hate crimes are happening everywhere now- https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/us/hate-crime-stabbing-attack-asian-man-new-york/index.html

As an artist, the prestige of the school will mean somewhat a lot if you are interested in success in the contemporary art world. And yes, networking is everything in the art world.

If I remember, Yale wants you to list your parents' assets and those are counted as part of your financial holdings... even if you are 60 years old. It's very odd but that was emphasized quite a bit during last year's discussions.

About the article, there is no doubt that if your goal to make it "big" in the contemporary art world, going to the top 10 MFA programs is pretty much it. With exceptions of Rutgers and a few others.

Yes... I actually have a class syllabus for their feminist science fiction course and it's dense. Lots of critical theory and very fascinating challenging precepts. Having an open mind. If you wish for a copy of the pdf, you can e-mail personally

Interesting that you use food in your artwork. My colleague Bea Hurd uses food all over her work too- https://beahurd.com/

I know that the Yale MFA Sculpture interview does require a physical/virtual slide presentation.

Thanks for sharing. Sorry about the interview. I am curious what you meant by tripped up here?

I have a friend/collaborator who is attending his MFA (Arts and Tech) in CalArts and it's a key school for awesome connects into the LA art world. If you are into highly conceptual art then this is the best fit along with UCLA. If you are looking into more traditional paintings, etc. then Otis would be a good fit there.

Honestly prestige is important but honestly if one is going to spend 2-3 years of your life doing a MFA, find your niche and be happy. My life experience has told me that you can't rewind your life and have a redux

This is the director here- https://www.joanwaltemath.net/ and https://www.mica.edu/graduate-programs/leroy-e-hoffberger-school-of-painting-mfa/faculty/

https://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/66-art-history/ This is the proper section.

Some folks argue that Columbia's program is in the same route as this. However, to be honest, I think it's an individual step. When I apply honestly I tend to be very self-directly and for me, I will continue doing art even if the world is collapsing around me. One shining example of success in a MFA program is a recent Columbia program graduate Susan MB Chen. https://susanmbchen.com/. Already fresh out of Columbia, she had already sold every single painting in her first solo painting at Meredith Rosen before the show physically exhibited. The reviews for her work has been glowing and she is cutting a new path for Asian-American contemporary figurative art. Even though some folks complained that Columbia was falling apart and completely junked out, Ms. Chen's example is a demonstration that where you attend your MFA program can really help to build the connections and establish a critical dialogue between the work and the public. She was able to show that the NYC art world can be understanding of what she was doing. And Columbia's location, prestige and still very respectable studio classes despite the issues show that the hierachy of which MFA programs can help you into the NYC/LA/Chicago art markets are intact here.

Also I believe that ICP-Bard is ran separately with Neyland Blake as the director so this probably only applies to the upstate Bard program. I have 2 years (or so) left to apply for a MFA program and honestly, it's an ongoing battle between validation and success within the contemporary art world (the cutting-edge stuff and not the traditional art/classic) and self-satisfaction. But I will continue to be active and be supportive here while relaxing here before I have to apply in fall 2022.

Indeed... I spent last year thinking about this and decided to start my own curatorial space in downtown Salt Lake City called Office Space (officespaceslc.com). I think that artist-run galleries are the best antidote to the traditional art power structures. I don't know whether I will make much of a difference but I am hoping that whatever meager effort I put in to create artist-safe spaces is my legacy in addition to the work I create. I think that if artists decide en masse to remove power from galleries and museums back to their domains instead of leaving it up to dealers and museum officials, then perhaps we could have stronger concepts and issues in art instead of commercial eye candies.

I went to the NYU open house and really dig their laid back approach. It looked like a pretty awesome place