Close • ness | Upcoming Project

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Every step I take during this durational performance will be a milestone bringing me closer to the end of the cross-country walk. The emotional aspects of this piece, however, start long before I hit the trail. In the months leading up to the excursion, I will sort through decades’ worth of stockpiled remnants. These hoarded artifacts, consisting of printed text message conversations, emails, and photographs, will be compressed into briquette shaped objects using a custom built compound lever press. These pieces will be held in a water-proof container that I carry the length of the performance, the physical weight of which parallel the emotional struggles of long distance relationships. During the performance the sculpted artifacts will burn in a small camping stove, producing the fire necessary for survival on the grueling trek. Creating something new from painful memories, and then using those objects to directly fuel this performance, will be one of the most significant moments of this piece. In addition, I will document through written journals, photographs, and video the walk across the United States to provide further more in depth context to “Close • ness”. The trip provides me a chance to be, consumed in thought, while unburdening both my pack and mind to become lighter the farther I travel.

Finding closure out in the openness. Close • ness.

Artist Spotlight | Alissa Marie Neal

Video by: Cylan Shaffer

Small Things Considered | Davis Dominguez Gallery

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"This year's entertaining exhibition, the 25th in the gallery's series, features some 80 little pieces by as many artists. The media range widely from oils and watercolor to ink and charcoal and beyond. The digital photographs are particularly inventive, with assorted complicated processes applied and collages mixed in. A strong subgroup of sculptures deploy bronze, copper, glass, wood, clay and—let us give fair warning—urine, happily secured in medical specimen jars."     - Tucson Weekly

MFA Thesis Exhibition | Joseph Gross Gallery

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The School of Art, Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition is presented annually during the last semester of graduate student's process to complete the Master of Fine Arts Studio Degree. In lieu of a written thesis, the student must present a fully developed body of work to the public in the form of an exhibition. During the last year of their coursework, graduates work closely with faculty to develop original art of which the character and reach of works being presented is determined by the graduate. This required component is the culmination of a three-year terminal degree program to pass and receive their Master of Fine Arts degree. 

Alissa Marie Neal: Specimen | Lionel Rombach Gallery

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Specimen is a multimedia installation piece that revolves around the pseudoscience experimentation and analysis of Alissa Neal’s emotional condition. Being born with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder not only affects her social skills and relationships with others but also impacts every aspect of her artistic practice. Frustrated with the methods and medications provided by the mental health care system she sets out to better understand human nature by documenting the seemingly mundane or intentionally ignored parts of life.

All or Nothing | Manifest Gallery

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Sometimes works of art are made up of many parts, each playing a critical role in forming a complete whole. Diptychs and triptychs (two and three panel images) are simple examples, where the parts could qualify as stand-alone images, but the meaning or impact of the entire work would be lost without the set. Other examples we have seen in Manifest exhibits over the years include (but are by no means limited to) grid installations, modular or installation-based sculptural works, interdependent narrative or conceptual series, and so on.

For its final competitive thematic exhibit of Manifest's 12th season, the gallery called for submissions of such works which explore the role of unity in establishing a singular artistic experience or statement through multiple physically disconnected parts.

For this exhibit 115 artists from 30 states and 6 countries submitted 288 works for consideration. Eight works by the following 8 artists from 6 states were selected for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Distorted Curtains : False Walls | Fascinations Sex Shop

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Distorted Curtains and False Walls are two one-day group pop up shows which explore how different people experience shame and rejection through society, tradition, and stigma. Artists address their individual characters and how they relate within the constructs of these specific places. They focus on the juxtaposition of artwork and location in an attempt to eliminate any prejudices associated with both. By opening up these spaces and the uncomfortable topics often associated with them, the artist can begin to redefine how space contextualizes art and how society tends to scrutinize the unfamiliar. Both exhibitions features local artists and students from the University of Arizona School of Art.

The separate but joint sister shows will run in conjunction with each other. While Distorted Curtains will feature wholesome, religious, or feel good work in a sex shop location, False Walls will show art that disturbs, upsets, or creates anxiety in a church turned gallery.

Night Vision : Still Life | Exploded View Gallery

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Professor Barbara Penn (2D Division) and Professor Aurore Chabot (3DXM Division) organized and guided a month long mixed media collaboration project that culminated in a joint class exhibition, "Night Vision I Still Life" at Exploded View Microcinema and Artspace in Downtown Tucson, on March 4th. Undergraduate Contemporary Drawing students and Advanced and Graduate Ceramics students exhibited their individual and collaborative drawings and ceramics pieces along with visiting artists Caroline Early and Kate Walker (2005 2D MFA alumna). Early and Walker's collaborative work was also shown in "End to Uncertainty," in the same space, and included Walker's video, "Manual of Arms."

Human as Object | Exploded View Gallery

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The human body is often the subject of art, but it can also be the art object itself. Human As Object is an exhibition that features works of art developed by undergraduates and graduates enrolled in a Performance Art class at the University of Arizona School of Art. The exhibition will feature live performances, video documentation of performances, and and other body-oriented video works.

Saturday, December 12th @ 7:30pm - 9:30pm

Muckraking in the Big Backyard | Steinfeld Warehouse

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Muckraking in the Big Backyard exhibition features work created by students at the University of Arizona’s School of Art. Showcasing a multitude of artworks by undergraduates and graduates alike, the works incorporate numerous approaches generated in two separate courses—an installation art course and a performance art course.

Although we live in a society where we have the luxuries of peace and relative economic stability, there remain numerous chronic problems regarding politics, religion, and a host of racial, gender, and economic inequities.

Our society is comprised of individuals whose life experiences are unique catalogues of events that shape how we each understand and engage one another and the world. Each artist in this exhibition isolates and amplifies issues and areas of inquiry that differ; however, they all share the impulse to dig introspectively, critically examine their surroundings, and illuminate foibles in order to become more self-aware with the impulse to communicate candidly with others.

Hucker : HOUSE TRUCK | ONGOING Project

While renovation of my 2002 Ford Explorer Sport Trac started out purely as a living situation it has since become the bases and fundamental tool in my artistic practice. I have begun traveling the country collecting various soil samples all while living out of the back of my House Truck (aka Hucker).

With an inexpensive street-parking permit I was able to secure a nice shady spot on the outskirts of downtown bringing my rent to a grand total of $34.00 a month!

The plan for this project included: wiring and mounting a solar panel, cutting fiberglass and installing an RV fan, electrical work from the panel to the battery and inverter, constructing housing units and programming electrical panels, building a wheel well platform with compartments, cutting down a foam mattress, installing a fiberglass camper shell, and building a large pull out clothes drawer.

Deteriorating Preservation | Graduate Gallery

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In the Deteriorating Preservation Exhibition the two artists examine the temporality surrounding life and seek solidity in an uncontrollable environment, while commenting on the vulnerability and the transient qualities of the human experience. Within their own bodies of work, they address the distinction between retaining control and the complete removal of power. Through methods of gathering, ordering, and processing, the artists create works that span from objective preservation to subjective observation. One takes on a participatory role in trying to give life back to the abandoned in order to prolong their existence, while the other is a spectator reacting and recreating the deterioration of these experiences. One creates meaning by combating the temporality, while the other finds significance in embracing the ephemeral. Whether these objects are representing themselves or being used as a metaphor for the artist, both are commenting on the degradation and loss of life and relationship. Through the use of acrylic, mica, and found objects, constructed into sculptures, books, letterpress, and installations, the artists attempt to preserve the impermanence and explore their interactions within an uncontrollable environment.