Fine Arts

In order to evolve and discover new pictorial horizons painting today must remain open to the possibility of a dialogue with the wide range of multidisciplinary influences that are available. Where once the field of exploration was defined by the rigueur and strict dictates of a formal training.

The strength of painting today lies in its flexibility to use such training and adapt to the influences of other 2D and 3D disciplines and the pictorial possibilities that they offer as art experience. The possibility to create an art experience through research, experimentation and interaction are the key components in the junior year in painting. With this as a core component the dynamics of painting are explored through a variety of set projects designed to stimulate the individual imagination.

Prerequisites: Sophomore year painting

The Junior Sculpture I studio-based course introduces students to key issues in contemporary sculpture while providing the technical and conceptual means to develop a personal artistic language and identity. Students engage with sculpture as an exploratory medium, experimenting with different approaches, materials, and concepts that extend beyond traditional definitions of the form. The course encourages investigation of technical skills necessary for conceiving and executing sculptural work across various scales and contexts. Through structured assignments and ongoing studio practices, students explore how identity forms gradually through time, memory, language, and place, concepts that may become material for sculptural investigation. Students examine how sculpture and installation can serve as tools to explore personal and cultural layers, investigating the relationship between material choices, form, and meaning. The course considers how textures, gestures, and spatial relationships can evoke experience without relying solely on narrative or figurative representation. Over the semester, students develop and pursue a personal sensibility within their artistic research, building confidence in making conceptual and formal choices. Regular critiques and discussions contextualize student work within contemporary sculpture practices while encouraging individual artistic development.

Prerequisites : Sophomore Sculpture

You may select an elective from the many course offerings in your department or in other departments with the approval of your department chair.

This interdisciplinary course explores the rise of visual media, communication and information, within the context of a broad cultural shift away from the verbal and textual toward the visual, which has taken place since the advent of photography and cinema in the late 19th century, through the birth of television, to the present proliferation of digital media worldwide. We will consider the critical practices of looking, historicizing and interpreting that have accompanied this ‘visual turn’. Our readings will primarily address the theoretical foundations of the study of visual culture, which is understood to incorporate a variety of visual media and visual technologies: painting and sculpture, scientific imagery, material culture, the internet. If everything can be visual culture, what remains of traditional notions of medium specificity? What critical tools must be invented to analyze visual events from a visual cultural perspective? The relationship between the visual arts and visual media, especially with respect to the ‘global’ contemporary visual landscape, will be a focus of this course.

You may select an elective from the many course offerings in your department or in other departments with the approval of your department chair.

Building upon the investigative approaches introduced in Studio Concepts I, this studio-based course advances students’ understanding of studio practices through a rhizomatic approach that addresses the complexity of contemporary artistic production. Students work practically, producing work through methodologies aligned with professional artistic practice while exploring different conceptual models of the studio itself. The course examines practices requiring minimal infrastructure alongside traditional studio formats and expanded “Hors le Mur” approaches, where ideas are sought through urban exploration, site visits, and engagement with contexts beyond the studio walls. Students study concrete examples of exhibition production, from initial conception and sketches through technical development, simulation, and final realization. The course continues to challenge students to explore creative processes across all media while deepening their ability to justify conceptual decisions and document developmental processes. Students refine their capacity to create individual and critical responses to ideas spanning all disciplines, strengthening the underlying connections between their investigations and their personal artistic practice through sustained engagement and reflection.

Prerequisites: Sophomore year sculpture/Junior Sculpture1

In order to evolve and discover new pictorial horizons painting today must remain open to the possibility of a dialogue with the wide range of multidisciplinary influences that are available. Where once the field of exploration was defined by the rigueur and strict dictates of a formal training,
the strength of painting today lies in its flexibility to use such a training and adapt to the influences of other 2D and 3D disciplines and the pictorial possibilities that they offer as art experience. The possibility to create an art experience through research, experimentation and interaction are the key
components in the junior year in painting. With this as a core component the dynamics of painting are explored through a variety of set projects designed to stimulate the individual imagination.

Prerequisites: Sophomore year painting/Painting Interactions 1

This course engages more complex forms of printmaking, such as photo emulsion silk screen, laser lithography and other forms of etching to encourage students to combine printing techniques.
The course will be given in a workshop environment, using water based materials.

Prerequisites: Printmaking 1

The Creative and Experimental Drawing studio-based course focuses on drawing as a process of investigation and experimental practice, encouraging students to discover new forms of expression, possibilities for mixing media, and ways to appropriate the act of drawing. Through workshops and assignments, students explore drawing beyond conventional approaches, engaging with perception, materiality, and process in unexpected ways. The course draws inspiration from diverse models, including surprising examples from nature and science, to encourage students to dismiss purely rational thinking and locate artistic activity at the intersection of sensory experience and material exploration. Students investigate different senses, attentiveness to unexpected effects, and the impact of evaluation during the creative process. The first half of the course introduces experimental methods and enriches students’ toolboxes for working with materials, situations, processes, and contexts. In the second half, students develop individual experimental projects, consolidating methods for sustaining experimental workflows in their broader artistic practice. The course includes collaborative exercises, events both inside and outside the school, generating new ways of thinking about drawing’s expanded possibilities.

Prerequisites: Sophomore year drawing, advanced drawing skills

What is performance art? Exploring the body and live media in art. What is the meaning of the term “performance” today? For many artists, its attitude is an integral part of their working process, with a range of expressive means: from painting to installation, video to text. This course will investigate ideas related to performance in the context of art. Together, we will experiment and delimit thinking around ‘performativity’, technology, and subjectivity via presentations, games, exercises, and visits to live events. The aim of this course is to explore and understand how the body (human and non-human) can be used as a tool for investigation, improvisation, and documentation. Students on the course are active in their learning. You will be introduced to key subjects and issues with examples of performances, followed by practical workshops where you will work together to develop and experiment through themes of music, movement, language, technology, liveness, and collectiveness. You will then be invited to test your own ideas with practical and conceptual support from the group. You will develop critical, creative, and producing skills in order to challenge what performance can be, what it can do in the world, and how it might connect ideas, practices, and communities.