Artists working in the studio |
November 5, 2010 — Area residents and visitors are invited to attend a free Works-in-Progress Program and Reception on Tuesday, November 16 from 5 to 7 pm, at the Sculpture Space studio, 12 Gates Street, Utica, located nearby the Historic Brewery District. The reception is sponsored by Jay-K Independent Lumber Corporation, New Hartford, NY. The restaurant sponsor is Leaf, Loaf and Ladle, Utica, NY.
The community will have the opportunity to view exciting sculptural contemporary work in a wide range of media created by emerging professional visiting artists, Priscila De Carvalho (Brazil/ New York, NY), Joseph Esser (Long Island, NY), Carmelo Midili (Messina, Italy/ Brooklyn, NY), and Bundith Phunsombatlert (Bangkok, Thailand/ New York, NY). These artists have spent up to two months at Sculpture Space making new art.
“The art is original, experimental and cutting edge and always totally intriguing,” said Sydney L. Waller, Sculpture Space executive director. “The artists are articulate, inventive and delightful. They are each so different from one another, demonstrating a broad spectrum of approaches to contemporary art making. We hope the public will enjoy this glimpse into the creative process.”
About the Artists:
The newest arrival to the 34-year-old international artist residency program that has been attracting professional artists to the Mohawk Valley since 1976 is Priscila De Carvalho. Priscila studied at the City College of San Francisco, the UC Berkeley and at the Art Student League in New York. Ms. De Carvalho is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant, Artist in the Market Place at Bronx Museum, Queens Council on The Arts Fund, and Aljira Emerge 10 Fellowship. She has been an artist in residency at Jamaica Center for the Arts and Learning Residency Program. Her work has been featured in individual and group exhibitions in the US and internationally, including a solo show at the Jersey City Museum, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Deutsche Bank and various other galleries and museums. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Art Aldia International, Art Nexus and many others.
Joseph Esser is an interdisciplinary media artist specializing in mechanics and electronics. A native of Missouri, he studied architecture at Drury University in Springfield, MO and at Kansas State University and earned his BFA in sculpture from Missouri State University, where he began exploring kinetic sculpture and interactivity. This series of sculptures led him to Stony Brook University, where he added physical computing and electronics to his repertoire of sculptural tools, moving beyond the object and into the space through large-scale interactive multi-media installations. He earned his MFA from Stony Brook in 2010 and his work has been exhibited at the Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery and the Islip Art Museum in Long Island.
Carmelo Midili was born in Messina, Italy and lives and works in Brooklyn. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy and studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome, Italy and at The Art Students League of New York. He has had solo exhibitions at Artspace, Richmond, VA, Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA, Chi-Lin Gallery, Meredith, NH, and Provincia Regionale di Messina, Italy (2005). His work has been reviewed in Flash Art Online Magazine. He has been awarded a Vermont Studio Center Residency and Chashama Studio Program. Midili’s work is comprised of large scale, three-dimensional formations, creating the supporting structures from wood and then giving the piece its ultimate form by cutting and shaping painted canvas panels and gluing them together.
Bundith Phunsombatlert earned both his BFA and MFA degrees in graphic arts (printmaking) at Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, and his second MFA in Digital Media at Rhode Island School of Design. He has participated in various international exhibitions, such as the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 1999, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, ISEA 2004: the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Arts, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, The Third Guangzhou Triennial 2008, Guangdong Museum of Art, China, and The 4th Auckland Triennial 2010, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand. Among his selected awards and fellowships are Pollock-Krasner Grant, Second Prize Unesco Digital Art Award, and Asia Cultural Council Fellow. Phunsombatlert is a multimedia artist, working with diverse media from handmade prints and multiple sculptures to interactive installations where occasional computerized monitorings are used. The concepts behind his work deal with observations of social, economic and political situations in Thailand.
