On May 28th, Parsons students Michelle Givent, Sooa Kim, Bonnie Ryung Na, Eleanor Vogel, Stephanie Wang and Sarah Yee attended the opening of  “Still Life and Man: Interpretations”, the 7th annual joint Parsons/Russia exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. A total of forty works by Parsons and Russian students were exhibited. The opening was followed by a round table discussion and was attended by the United States Consul General for Saint Petersburg, as well as a number of museum curators, staff, students, a local residents.

Though a substantial genre within the canon of painting, still life has been a disappearing art form in the digital age. The exhibition, “Still Life and Man: Interpretations”, asks students from The Hermitage Youth Education Center and Parsons The New School for Design to reconsider still life, and it’s relationship to the body, in a contemporary context. Utilizing the work of: Willem Claesz, Frans Hals, Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin, Cezanne, Henri Fantin-Latour, and Matisse, as inspiration the students have created a rich and diverse view of contemporary still life. These images not only address historical concepts and practices, but also ask the viewer to question what still life is, and how it has been reinterpreted via digital technology.

Exhibiting Parsons BFA and MFA students/recent alumni:

Fan Chen
Yujie Ding
Lauren Dishinger
Magali Duzant
Michelle Gevint
Emily Heinz
Sujung Heo
Esther JeeEunJang
Spencer Kohn
Rebecca Low
Suzanne Darcy
Sooa Kim
Bonnie Ryung Na
Kaitlin Miller
Lior Tamim
Stephanie Wang
Ethan Yoon