Visual Artist Series
The Visual Artist Series is collaboratively organized and hosted by faculty and students. Funded by the Student Association through the Campus Arts Council, the series typically brings seven to nine artists to our campus every year. These artists give public lectures, workshops, demos and critiques. Artists from all media are represented in the series. They come from all over the U.S. and Canada and, from time-to-time, other countries.
Because of the precautions necessary to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, this semester’s visits will involve a remote lecture only.
Spring 2021
Katie Garth, February 16, 2021
Katie Garth, printmaker, book and installation artist, will be our first presenter
of the Spring 2021 semester. Katie Garth is a print-based artist in Philadelphia.
Her interdisciplinary practice investigates tensions between the everyday lived experience
and the otherworldly and sublime. Across cyanotypes, risography, video, installation
and other media, she positions tedium as a coping mechanism from the persistent chaos
and seeming insignificance that pervade our contemporary experience. Garth received
her M.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art and a B.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work has appeared in the
Washington Post and Print Magazine. For more information, visit Katie Garth’s website.
Ms. Garth gave a presentation on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Watch Katie Garth’s presentation
Sara Catapano, February 23, 2021
Sara Catapano, ceramic artist, will be the second presenter of the Spring 2021 semester.
Catapano employs the use of forms, textures and compositions found in nature as design
elements in her ceramic sculptures to juxtapose against architectural components that
exist in materials reminiscent of industry. She fuses an abstracted reference to plants,
bacteria and geological systems with patterns of growth, decay, degradation, erosion
and gestation to create a biomorphic ingredient which both confronts and reacts to
the minimal and formalistic component. Skeletonizing the influence of man made structures
and materials in relation to natural growth patterns. She received her M.F.A. in
Ceramics from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and she currently lives and works
in Helena Montana. For more information, visit Sara Catapano’s website.
Ms. Catapano gave a presentation on Tuesday, February 23, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Watch Sara Catapano’s presentation
Jane Kent, March 10, 2021
Jane Kent, printmaker, will be the third presenter of the Spring 2021 semester. New
York artist Jane Kent has made artists’ books, silkscreen, drawings and other works
that combine printed, drawn and painted elements. Kent typically bases her images
on a mezzotint ground that she prepares herself; the silhouettes of unfolded cardboard
packaging are equally central to her working method. Using these unlikely everyday
objects as a starting point she goes on to build compositions of layered and juxtaposed
shapes and colors. For more information, visit Jane Kent’s website
Ms. Kent gave a presentation on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Watch Jane Kent’s presentation
Benjamin Jose, March 16, 2021
Benjamin Jose, sculptor and metal casting artist, will be our fourth presenter of
the Spring 2021 semester. Mr. Jose received a Master of Fine Arts from the University
of Georgia and a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Plattsburgh in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Benjamin
has exhibited his work in New York, Georgia and Minnesota and internationally at venues
such as The Triangle Artists Workshop (KM0 Workshop) in Warnes, Bolivia and The International
Sound Sculpture Invitational (Pulgar #11) in Mexico City, Mexico. Benjamin works as
a fine arts fabricator while also running his foundry, Benjamin Bronze Studios. For
more information, visit Ben Jose’s website
Mr. Jose gave a presentation on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Watch Ben Jose’s presentation
Erick von Hoffmann, March 25, 2021
Erick von Hoffmann, painter, will be our fifth presenter of the Spring 2021 semester.
Von Hoffmann received a B.F.A. in painting from SUNY Plattsburgh and then an M.F.A.
in painting from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. His works have been
exhibited across the country and are found in a number of private collections. He
lives with his wife and two children in Colorado and teaches upper school art at Golden
View Classical Academy and works as an adjunct lecturer for the University of Colorado
Denver.
Mr. von Hoffmann gave a Zoom presentation on Thursday, March 25, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Watch Erick von Hoffmann’s Presentation
Sal Taylor Kydd, April 1, 2021
Sal Taylor Kydd, photographer, will be our sixth presenter of the Spring 2021 semester.
Originally from the UK, photographer and artist Sal Taylor Kydd earned her B.A. in
Modern Languages from Manchester University and has an M.F.A. in photography from
Maine Media College. Her photographs have been exhibited throughout the country and
internationally, including New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Mexico and Spain. Sal is
also a writer and poet, and has self-published a number of books combining her poetry
with her photographs. Her books are in numerous private and museum collections throughout
the country including The Getty Museum and in the Maine Women Writer’s Collection
at the University of New England. For more information, visit Sal Taylor Kydd’s website
Ms. Kydd gave a Zoom presentation on Thursday, April 1, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Watch Sal Taylor Kydd’s Presentation
Fall 2020
Amanda Browder, September 8, 2020
Amanda Browder, installation artist, will be the first presenter of the Fall 2020
semester. Browder lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. producing large-scale fabric installations
for building exteriors and other public sites. For more information, visit Amanda Browder’s website.
Ms. Browder presented via Zoom on September 8. To watch the recording of this presentation, use this link: Amanda Browder Presentation 9/8/20
John Brickels, October 8, 2020
John Brickels, ceramic artist, will be the second presenter of the Fall 2020 semester. Mr. Brickels will give a Zoom presentation on Thursday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. Link to John Brickels’ Zoom Presentation
Brickels’ ceramic art ranges from architecturally themed sculptures, machines, life-size robots and vintage pedal car bodies retrofitted with ceramic mechanicals. His work is created from slab and extruded stoneware clay. For more information, visit John Brickels’ website.
Barry Blitt, November 12, 2020
Barry Blitt, cartoonist/illustrator, will be the third and final presenter of the
Fall 2020 semester. Mr. Blitt will give a Zoom presentation on Thursday, November
12 at 7:30 p.m. Link to Barry Blitt’s Zoom Presentation
Blitt is a cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his New Yorker covers and as a regular contributor to the op-ed page of The New York Times. For more information, visit Barry Blitt’s website.