Alumni News

Ann Albritton (1997) chaired the Academic Affairs committee at the Ringling School of Art & Design, 2005-2006. She also published an article on Sonia Delaunay-Terk's 1913 dress in the 2006 edition of Dress magazine of the Costume Society of America. She has received a paid professional leave for fall 2006 which will include travel to Eastern Europe.

 

Susan Chevlowe (2003) organized the exhibition The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography, and contributed to and edited its catalogue published by Yale University Press. The exhibition was held at the Jewish Museum, New York, from Sept. 23, 2005-Jan. 29, 2006 and is traveling to the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. It features ten commissioned photography and video projects by 13 artists: Dawoud Bey, Tirtza Even and Brian Karl, Rainer Ganahl, Nikki S. Lee, Shari Rothfarb Mekonen and Avishai Mekonen, Yoshua Okon, Jaime Permuth, Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, Jessica Shokrian, and Chris Verene. She also taught for the Program in Jewish Art and Visual Culture at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York where she is an adjunct assistant professor.

 

Deborah Frizzell (2005) is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art History at William Paterson University of New Jersey. In the Fall of 2005 she was Assistant Professor of Art History at WPUNJ during the sabbatical of David Shapiro. At WPUNJ she has taught Modern Art II, Art in New York, “Behind the Scenes in New York” and the Graduate Seminar “Issues in Contemporary Art.” Frizzell's professional activities include: Museum Evaluator for "Organizational Support Grants," at the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Hartford, CT, 2005-2006; the lecture, "Imaginary Goddesses: Nancy Spero," at the Dahesh Museum of Art, NY (January 2006); session Co-Chair at the College Art Association Annual Conference, Boston, MA, for the panel "Artists' Roles in a Time of War: Feminist Perspectives"; presenter, at "Constructions of Death, Mourning, and Memory Conference," a WAPACC sponsored conference, Woodcliff Lake, NJ (October 2006); co-curator, "Michel Gerard: travaux sur papier, la periode americaine," for "Matieres de Memoire: Travaux sur papier Michel Gerard (1975-2006),” at Epinal Musee departmental d'art ancient et contemporain, Epinal, France; manuscript reviewer for Andrew Wade's, "Art & Science: Connection & Disconnection," for Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Fall 2006). Frizzell's professional activities at William Paterson University include being a panelist in "What is Textile Art?" with Patricia Malarcher, Nisha Drinkard and Leslie Farber (November 2005); a NASAD Self-Study Steering Committee Member, 2005-2006; and a guest lecturer for WPUNJ's Graduate Forum, "Behind the Scenes in New York," 2006 Frizzell's publications include: "Michel Gerard: travaux sur papier, la periode americaine," an essay in Matieres de Memoire: Travaux sur papier Michel Gerard (1975-2006) (Epinal, France: Epinal Musee Departmental d'art ancient et contemporaine, 2006) and "Nancy Spero's Wall Paintings: Embodying Anti-Heroic Death and Martyrdom," Aurora: The Journal of the History of Art VII (Fall 2006).

 

Herbert R. Hartel, Jr (2002) taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Parsons School of Design.  At Parsons he taught the elective course: History of Abstract Art. He published the following article: "'The Land of Sunshine and Color and Tragedy': The Early Paintings of Raymond Jonson and the Lure of the Southwest," in the Journal of The American Studies Association Of Texas 36 (2005):  69-91. Hartel was a member of a panel on the documentary “Carhenge: Genius or Junk?” held at the Annual Conference of Southwest / Texas Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association,  February. 10, 2006, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

In September of 2005, Nora Heimann (1994) was made chair of the Department of Art at Catholic University.  Her first book,  Joan of Arc in French Art and Culture (1700-1855): From Satire to Sanctity (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005,) was published in November 2005. The research for this book dates back to the late 1980s, when she began her doctoral dissertation at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York on the iconographic fortunes of Joan of Arc’s image in France under the direction of two remarkable art historians, Patricia Mainardi and Linda Nochlin. Their brilliance still guides her path. Many thanks to the Graduate Center -- especially her mentors and friends Pat Mainardi, Linda Nochlin, and Bob Gilleece -- without whom her dissertation and later book could not have been realized!

 

Since May 2005, Natasha Kurchanova (2006) has been working as the Assistant Editor of RES, Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics. In June 2006, she presented a paper in the conference "L'abstraction dans les arts: un concept a definir" at the Institute National d'Histoire del'Art, Paris.

Valerie Ann Leeds contributed articles to the September/October 2006 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, "From Prose to Poetry: The Landscapes of Ernest Lawson; the March/April 2006 issue of American Art Review magazine on "Edmund Lewandowski’s Mosaic Murals;" and to the July/August 2006 issue on "Simple Beauty: Paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe." She also authored an essay for a catalogue, "The Purist at Pawleys: Houghton Cranford Smith," for the Charleston Renaissance Gallery; and a book review of Marian Wardle, ed. "American Women Modernists: The Legacy of Robert Henri, 1910-1945," (Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Association with Rutgers University Press, 2005) for the the website: http://www.h-net.org/~urban/ in May 2006. She co-curated an exhibition on Robert Henri and authored the catalogue, "Robert Henri: The Painted Spirit," held at the Gerald Peters Gallery, New York in October 2005, and co-curated an exhibition at the Shelburne Museum, Vermont, "Simple Beauty: Paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe," in 2006.

 

Catharina Manchanda  (2005) began working as a curator at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in Saint Louis, March 15, 2006. At the symposium "Critical Realism in Contemporary Art: Around Allan Sekula's Photography," she presented the paper titled "Against Affirmative Culture: René Block's Appropriation of Capitalist Realism." The symposium was organized by Jan Baetens and Hilde van Gelder at the Lieven Gevaert Research Center for Photography in Leuven, Belgium.

 

During the academic year of 2005-2006, Alan Moore (2000) taught as Temporary Assistant Professor of art history at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia (modern & contemporary survey, theory and criticism; "artworlds"; Dada & Surrealism.) In Spring 2005, he taught an eight-week course "Art Life" at the new SPACE education initiative, New York City (http://new-space.mahost.org/.) Moore published "Being There: The Tribeca Neighborhood of Franklin Furnace" (with Debra Wacks), for The Drama Review journal of performance studies (special issue on Franklin Furnace) 49, no. 1 (Spring 2005.) His essay "Buried in Plain Sight: Contemporary Responses to Writers and Writings of the East Village," was included in the exhibition catalogue East Village USA (New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 2005) and his essay "Play Power," was included in the exhibition catalogue for Tawkin New York Walls, curated by John Fekner at the Hillwood Art Museum, C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, 2005 with an expanded version online at www.streetartmuseum.org.

 

Beth S. Gersh-Nesic (1989) has been working as the director of the New York Arts Exchange and as an adjunct professor at Purchase College. She recently published André Salmon on French Modern Art (Cambridge University Press, 2005), a translation, annotation, and introduction to André Salmon's La jeune peinture francaise (1912) and La jeune sculpture francaise (1919). She created and maintains a website with Professor Jacqueline Gojard, University de Paris III, executor of Salmon's literary estate: www.andresalmon.org.

 

Rosemary O'Neill was promoted to Assistant Dean for Faculty with rank of
Associate Professor, Office of Academic Planning and Development, Parsons The New School for Design in January 2006. She published the article "Contemporary Art Practices and the Making of Global Cultures," for the “In a Global World: American Art and Art Education,” School for the Visual Arts Annual Conference (2006), proceedings on-line. She also reviewed a number of books for CAA Reviews on line including Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenehim with essays by Vivian Endicott Barnes, Jo-Ann Birnie Danzker, Robert Rosenblum, and Karole Vail (NY: Guggenheim Museum, 2005) and Hilla Rebay, Art Patroness and Founder of the Guggenehim Museum of Art (NY: The Edwin Mellen Press -- Studies in Art History, 2005) by Thalia Vrachopoulos and John Angeline.  Her conference papers included “Visions of the Flag: Ium and issues of Korean-ness,” at the conference “As the Pendulum Swings: the State of Contemporary Korean Art,” Artists Talk on Art, School for the Visual Arts, NY, April, 2006. She was panel co-chair for “Installation Art in the Age of Globalization,” at the College Art Association Annual Conference, February 2006, Boston. She was the moderator for, "Challenges to the Western Canon," at the conference “In a Global World: American Art and Art Education,” School for the Visual Arts, October 2005, where she also presented "Contemporary Art Practices and the Making of Global Cultures." She received the New School University Diversity Initiative Grant, 2005-2006, while teaching the following seminars: Global Art and Design series  -- Shanghai: Conversations with the City (Fall 2005) and Reading South by North and North by South:
Contemporary Mexican Art in New York (Spring 2006).

 

Lisa N. Peters curated and wrote the catalogue for John Twachtman (1853-1902): A
"Painter's Painter," an exhibition of over eighty works held at Spanierman Gallery, New York, from May 4-June 24, 2006. The exhibition will travel to the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, this summer and fall. She also gave the following lectures: "Scenery Fine Enough to Shock Any Mind: John Twachtman's Images of Niagara Falls and Yellowstone Park” in the symposium, "What Lies Beyond: America's Involvement with Frontier, Boundary, and Horizon," organized by the National Academy of Design and held at the Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, May 11-13, 2006, and “Look and Look Again: The Art of a "Painter's Painter," at the Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, May 18, 2006, in conjunction with the exhibition John Twachtman (1853-1902): A "Painter's Painter." She was also the content editor and a contributor to Ralph Sessions et al, The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism, the catalogue for an exhibition held at Spanierman Gallery, New York, from November 12, 2005-January 7, 2006.

 

Caterina Y. Pierre (2005) graduated from the Graduate Center in May of 2005 and gave the students' welcome address at graduation.  She is now an Assistant Professor of Art History in the Art Department of Kingsborough Community College. Pierre has taught at a number of branches of CUNY and, before arriving at Kingsborough, she was a Graduate Teaching Fellow at Queens College.  She also teaches on the faculty of the New School - Parsons School of Design.  In addition to her work at Kingsborough, she is also a visiting lecturer on the faculty of the education department of Christie's New York. Pierre lectured on Marcello at the College Art Association's Annual Conference in Atlanta and on Hildegarde of Bingen at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Times Square.  In the summer of 2006, she will be a visiting professor at the American University of Paris, where she will teach a specialized course on French Nineteenth-Century Art. Many of the class lectures will be given in front of masterpieces at the Musée du Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée Rodin. Forthcoming articles will appear in the Journal of the History of Collections (Summer 2006) and Nineteenth-Century Contexts (2006).

 

Julie H. Reiss (1996) has a forthcoming essay titled "Sound Affects: The Auditory Experience in Installation Art" in the catalogue for Sonambiente 2006 -- Festival fur Horen und Sehen (Berlin: Akademie der Kunste). In the fall she will participate in a symposium on installation art at Brown University.  She is currently Associate Professor at Christie's Education.

 

Vanessa Rocco (2004) is an Assistant Curator at the International Center of Photography.  In fall 2005, she co-edited and co-curated the exhibition Modernist Photography: Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection with Christopher Phillips. She published the essay "After In/Sight: Ten Years of Exhibiting Contemporary African Photography" in the ICP catalogue Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography (New York: ICP, 2006.)  Her next exhibition project is Louise Brooks and the New Woman in Weimar Cinema, opening at the George Eastman House in Rochester, November 2006.

 
Bruce Weber (1985) published two books, Paintings of New York, 1800-1950 (San Francisco: Pomegranate Press, 2005) and Toward a New American Cubism (New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, 2006.)

 

Paul Werner's (1998) Museum, Inc: Inside the Global Art World was reviewed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which called it "relentlessly brilliant, hilarious, dead-on and hyperwitty" and "a canny, erudite analysis of the high-art market." He lectured at Columbia University's Buell Center on "Working the Floor: Pimps, Prostitutes and Museums."

 

Susan Fillin-Yeh (1981) co-curated the exhibition, Hilda Morris, at the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, the artist's first retrospective exhibition, and published an essay on Morris in the catalogue. Her essay “Pasty Faces: John Sloan, Franz Wickhoff and Erwin Panofsky in American Art” is forthcoming in Pictorial Languages and Their Meanings:  Festschrift for Nurith Kenaan-Kedar (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2006,) and her catalogue essay on “Sloan, Images as Imaginary Documents:  John Sloan in New York” is in press, for publication in the exhibition catalogue John Sloan in New York (Wilmington, Delaware: Delaware Art Museum, 2007.)  She is working on a book on Sloan. During the spring 2006, she was Associate Adjunct Professor, in the Art History and Women's Studies program at Barnard College, Columbia University teaching the course “Theorizing Women and Art”, and has been a Visiting Scholar, The Graduate Center, CUNY.

 

Kathleen Wentrack graduated from the Graduate Center in Spring 2006 upon the completion of her dissertation entitled: "The Female Body in Conflict: U.S. and European
Feminist Performance Art 1963-1979, Carolee Schneemann, Valie Export, and Ulrike Rosenbach." She currently teaches at Queensborough Community College.

 

Steven Zucker (1997) has been appointed Dean of the School of Graduate Studies at FIT/SUNY. Last year, he launched Visual Art Management, an interdisiplinary museum studies degree program that he co-authored. In October, he co-organized, with Beth Harris (CUNY 1997), "Small Tools/Big Ideas: a conference on the discipline-specific technologies reshaping the practice of teaching art and art history." This one day conference was attended by over 200 participants representing nearly 100 institutions including 20 SUNY campuses, Bard, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, CUNY, MIT, NYU, Penn State, Princeton, RISD, Rice, Skidmore, Tufts, UC Berkeley, Wesleyan, and Yale. Along with Harris, he also co-presented "The Digital Image Library as a Social Learning Environment," at the 2006 College Art Association Annual Conference in Boston.

 

Karen Zukowski (1999) has just finished the book Creating the Artful Home: The Aesthetic Movement, which will come out in September 2006.  It describes the expression of the Aesthetic Movement in American homes, and makes connections between the historic style and modern homes. She is also planning a book on Olana, the home and studio of Frederic Edwin Church. Zukowski continues her involvement with historic homes through teaching, writing, and working with professional organizations, especially AASLH. •