Category Archives: Exhibitions

Illustration//Design Within Reach Bellini Chair project gets written up in Interior Design magazine

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bellini chairs at design within reach

Interior Design magazine recently featured a brief write-up of the Bellini Chair collaboration between Illustration students and Design Within Reach. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Sari Widman won first prize for her Fluff chair, which encapsulates a Bellini chair in wire, fabric, and cotton. “I have a bit of a fantasy of being hugged and carried around by a huge, fluffy white monster when I get stressed out or tired,” says Widman. “I wanted to make a chair that would feel like that, and also the opportunity to build something because I draw all the time but rarely get to work in three dimensions.” Other winning designs include See no Sit by Chris Yip and This is Where by Christina Young.

Read the rest of the article here and don’t forget that the chairs are on view until January 20th, so there’s still a chance to see them in person! Congratulations to Sari and all the other Illustration students involved and thanks again to Kenna Kay and Bradford Shellhammer of Design Within Reach for facilitating this exciting project.

Design Within Reach
408 West 14th Street
(between 9th and 10th Ave.)
New York, NY 10014
[photo by Michael DiVito]

Reminder: Reception for Illustration’s Collaboration with Design Within Reach

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bellini-copy

The New School’s Weekly Observer included a write-up of Bellini chair creative project that Illustration Department students have been working on over the course of the semester. Here’s an excerpt:

Re-imagining the Chair is a semester-long project of the Beyond Editorial course, taught by Parsons faculty member and alumna Kenna Kay. The course explores the ever-expanding realm of illustration, going beyond the traditional boundaries of the printed page to look at toys, animation, clothing, skateboards, and food packaging. The project was developed with Bradford Shane Shellhammer, the studio proprietor and blogger for Design Within Reach, who is also a student in Parsons’ AAS program.

For the project, students were asked to reexamine an everyday object, the chair, taking into account the experience of sitting, the usefulness of the object, the human form, social conventions, style and culture. The design could be personal, political or fanciful, as long as it makes the viewer think about the chair “in all its chairness.”

Read the rest of the article here, as well as the other write-ups on this blog, located here & here. Additionally, don’t forget the opening reception which happens in just a couple of days!

Re-Imagining the chair
Wednesday, December 12, 7-9pm
DWR West 14th Studio
408 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212.242.9449

West Coast Alert–Illustration Faculty Jordin Isip Show in LA

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isip for la luz

“Blue Tangle (The Ungluer)”, 5″ x 5″, mixed media on panel

La Luz de Jesus Gallery, which showcases mainly figurative, narrative paintings, and unusual sculpture, presents a show featuring Illustration faculty member Jordin Isip. La Luz de Jesus features exhibitions that are considered post-pop; the art content ranges from folk to outsider to religious to sexually deviant. The gallery’s main objective is to bring underground artists and counter culture to the masses.

JORDIN ISIP
Red Tangles (Wishful Thinking)
December 7 – 30, 2007

Opening Reception Friday, December 7th, 8 – 11 pm

La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323.666.7667
www.laluzdejesus.com

Illustration students written up in Design Notes

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rej ahmed bellini chair

A Commentary on Laziness, Rejwan Ahmed

There’s a great account of the collaboration between Parsons Illustration’s Bellini chair project and Design Within Reach in the most recent issue of DWR’s newsletter, Design Notes, which reaches a whopping 400,000 readers. Bradford Shellhammer discusses the genesis of the project and how it all plays out. Here’s an excerpt:

The class took some time to warm up to the chairs. Skateboards are instantly recognizable by undergrads, but most had yet to even purchase a new chair. [Kenna] Kay, who works by day as a creative director for TV Land, instructed them to research the history of the chair and follow up with a design statement. Steps were mapped out: Move from statement to sketch to model to final design. During each stage we met for a classroom critique. We talked openly and honestly about each idea and encouraged students to refine and better articulate their designs.

The first round of sketches included such diverse ideas as covering the chair in cushions and peacock feathers or attaching a bent spine to the chair to illustrate the negative impact a seated position can have on the human back. Some ideas were political and thought provoking, others were purely decorative. Some students had impressive concepts from day one, while others grew stronger and stronger with each passing week. Some ideas stuck (the chair with the spine) and some fell by the wayside (sayonara, peacock feathers), but all have remained truly original. The designs are as diverse as the students who created them.

Read the entirety of Bradford’s account, as well as see more images of the students’ work, in Design Notes and don’t forget about the exhibition of the completed chairs, which opens with a reception on December 12th and continues through January 20th.

Illustration & Design Within Reach Collaborate!

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bellini chair specs

Students in Kenna Kay’s Beyond Editorial class have teamed up with Design Within Reach to produce their own renditions of a design icon–the Bellini Chair. Here’s the official announcement about Design Within Reach’s celebratory reception, which takes place next week:

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Parson’s design students deserve a sitting ovation!

Once again, Parsons’ students have raised the bar with their well-tapped imaginations and fearless style. Incorporating materials of their choosing, students from Parsons’ Illustration department will exhibit their own inspired interpretations of the simple yet virtuous Bellini Chair by Heller. Using the Bellini as a blank canvas, students started with an idea on paper and finished the project fabricating a full-scale prototype. The students will join us for a reception at the West 14th Studio to share with you the fruits of their labor.

The “re-imagined” chairs will be critiqued by an esteemed panel of judges, including Alan Heller of Heller and floor covering designer Sandy Chilewich. Chairs will be exhibited in Studio through the month of January. Refreshments will be served.

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Congratulations to all the students involved and thanks to Design Within Reach (and especially Bradford Shellhammer) for approaching the Illustration Department with the offer to participate in this fantastic project!

Re-Imagining the chair
Wednesday, December 12, 7-9pm
DWR West 14th Studio
408 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212.242.9449
Directions

Illustration Faculty and Alumni in two shows on opposite sides of the country

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green show logo

Green Group Exhibition
curated by Mark Murphy
November 17 – December 22, 2007

Out in sunny Santa Monica, California, Illustration adjunct faculty Jordin Isip and Illustration alums AJ Fosik & William Buzzell are part of the Mark Murphy-curated show Green, which opened this month at the Robert Berman Gallery.

Here’s an excerpt of the show’s description as well as some information about Jordin’s work (as seen below): Curator and publisher, Mark Murphy has invited 40 artists to share their inspired vision about the delicate and often aggressive intermingling of human beings with nature…At first glance, Jordin Isip’s “Know” painting looks as if he utilized thread or colored string in the central figure. Jordin reports, “It’s not thread, these “tangles,” (as I call them), are made of tiny pieces of cut paper, glued together using tweezers, with a semi-steady hand and half-bottle of patience. Sometimes it’s therapeutic—like meditation, other times—just frustrating, maddening…” Jordin is a great promoter of a huge range of artistic talent.

isip-know.jpg

By Chance Alone by Jordin Isip

See images from the opening evening of Green here and read more about the exhibition here (as well as see more images). All the way across the country…these same three gentleman are included in another Mark Murphy-curated group show called Know which opens December 6th amidst the tumult of Art Basel in Miami. Here’s the overview of the show, along with information about the William Buzzell image below: KNOW looks to introduce the fans of art and culture to more that 50 major works, 8″ x 8″ in size with various social and political themes. Curator and publisher, Mark Murphy will be on hand to introduce you to the artists who are featured in “Know” and who actively celebrate the fine art of visual story telling…William Buzzell is a Philadelphia based artist who is constantly influenced by social issues and history. Will’s latest painting, “Self Portrait as a Townie,” is an acrylic and ink painting on wood that invites close inspection and is love for library books. Will has been exhibiting since 2001 and is an emerging visual artist who continually evolves, while provoking the viewer to look deeper.

self portrait as a townie
Self Portrait as a Townie, by William Buzzell

KNOW : Art Exhibition
Curated by Mark Murphy
Art Now Fair : Art Basel Miami
Murphy Design : Booth No. 215
December 6 – 9 : 2007
Thursday – Saturday : 10 am – 8 pm :
Sunday : 10 am – 6 pm

Go here to see images from & information about all the artists involved in this exciting show.

Congrats to our faculty and alums going coast-to-coast!

Illustration Faculty Member Carol Peligian in group show at Number 35

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peligian wallpaper number 35

The Illustration Department’s own Carol Peligian will be part of a group show at Number 35, curated by Ron Keyson of Wallpaper LAB. Here’s an excerpt from the official press release for the show:

Monastic life in a 12th century scriptorium and artistic life in a 21st century studio converge in a contemporary exploration of the illuminated manuscript form.

Eleven artists, ten texts and Marilyn Minter’s “merry merry” tree, oscillate as one meta-installation, posing the question, “Can books, magazines, newspapers and online information still evoke resonant images?”…

The installation itself will echo the image of lines of text: The ten works to be laid out on a single white page/wall. The gallery itself is illuminated as a sign.

This is not Carol’s first project with Wallpaper LAB. She has created work for them in the past like 2006’s Avian Lux, seen below.

avian/lux peligian

 

Don’t miss this unique show and the opportunity to see Carol’s work up close and in person.

Holiday Reading
Opening, December 1, 2007
Number 35
39 Essex Street
New York, NY

(Image by Carol Peligian)

Upcoming show at Giant Robot: Adrian Tomine

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tomine at giant robot

Illustrations and art by Adrian Tomine will be shown in a new show at Giant Robot, which opens on December 8th with a book signing. Adrian’s most recent work, Shortcomings, has garnered critical praise from all over. Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times book review:

Tomine has always been attracted to love gone wrong among the hesitant young men and women of the bourgeois-bohemian set, but he gets his subject across in the unsentimental style of an anthropologist’s report. Unlike the more playful graphic novelists who influenced him, Daniel Clowes (“Ghost World,” “David Boring”) and the Hernandez brothers (“Love and Rockets”), Tomine isn’t given to flights of surrealism, rude jests or grotesque images. He is a mild observer, an invisible reporter, a scientist of the heart. His drawing style is plain and exact. The dialogue appearing inside his cartoon balloons is pitch-perfect and succinct. He’s daring in his restraint.

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Read the full text of the review here, head over to Giant Robot website to see a little sneak peek of the art that Adrian will be showing, and if you can’t make it to the show, pick up your own copy of Shortcomings through Drawn & Quarterly.

Adrian Tomine
Shortcomings and Goings
Opening: Saturday, December 8th @ 6:30 p.m.
Giant Robot
437 East 9th Street

Giant Robot announces an exhibition with Illustration Alum Jill Bliss

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jill bliss @ giant robot

 

Jill Bliss and Saelee Oh at GR2
Los Angeles, CA
December 8 – January 9

Giant Robot presents Hidden Habitats, an art show featuring the work of Jill Bliss and Salee Oh. Jill graduated from the Illustration department and has since given presentations to our students as an alum & visiting artist. Here is an excerpt from the official press release:

Jill Bliss grew up on a family farm in Northern California where everything was hand-built or cultivated-the food, the house, the farm machinery, and even the family computers. Since graduating from the Parsons School of Design & the California College of the Arts, her professional background has included fashion design, illustration, and design theory. Whether designing limited-edition paper goods or fine art pieces, all of her work reveals a fondness for combining fabric, paper, and other found materials.

For this show, the artists will make individual and collaborative drawings, paper cut-outs, sewn soft sculptures, and other pieces that expand on the theme of their third collaborative calendar, Hidden Habitats. The artwork depicts houses, shelters, buildings, and dwellings incorporating and blending into nature. These dwellings are sometimes human-sized, but more often than not sized for real and imagined animals, reptiles, or bugs.

In this body of work, both artists explore the underlying structures of nature, the inherent beauty and interdependence of these structures, and human nature’s interpretation of and dependence upon them. The original drawings, many of which have been altered or expanded upon since the making of the calendar, will also provide insight into the artists’ digital and hand-drawn collaborative process.

For more information about the exhibition, visit the Giant Robot site.

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276

Gagosian mixed media exhibition: Fit to Print

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fit to print

Fit to Print
Printed Media in Recent Collage
November 12th-December 22nd, 2007
Gagosian Gallery
New York, NY

Fit to Print exposes the artist’s compulsion to react to the steady stream of information that the print media delivers on a daily basis. The works on view range from meditations on formal composition to personal perspectives on current events.

All works included in this exhibition have been made since January 2000, illuminating the vast extent to which contemporary international artists share an interest in the myriad forms of printed media while working within the traditional definition of collage. A thoroughly modernist invention, the use of collage first appeared in the work of Picasso and Braque and was embraced by the international Dada movement as a mode of political critique. Whether referring to autobiography, disposable pop culture, or actualities of global politics, the artists in this exhibition acknowledge the legacy of past practice by immediately utilizing mass-distributed, readymade print, and incorporating it directly into their work.

Read more information and see additional images here.

Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Ave.
New York, NY
info@gagosian.com