This summer, Pratt in Venice faculty and alumni have been busy curating, exhibiting work, and screening films. Here’s a cross-section of what’s on!

Angela Conant

BOY BOX
Curated by Angela Conant
EFA Project Space
323 West 39th Street
New York, NY 10018
July 30—August 28, 2021

Pratt in Venice printmaking faculty Angela Conant has curated BOY BOX, a group exhibition at EFA Project Space. The exhibition features an intergenerational group of artists, with work by Jared Buckhiester, CAConrad, Deborah Czeresko, Karen Hall, BB Kenda, Rose Nestler, Sarada Rauch, Marion Scemama and David Wojnarowicz, Vincent Tiley, Christopher Udemezue, and Angela Washko.

A closing reception, catalog release, performances, and Disaster Relief Fundraiser for Haiti will be held on Thursday, August 26, 2021, 6:00–9:00 PM EST (masks, timed entry, and RSVP required).

Ian Faden (PiV ‘10)

Lily Wong + Ian Faden: Lunations
Harper’s Chelsea
534 W 22nd St
New York, NY 10011
July 15—August 14, 2021

Pratt in Venice alumnus Ian Faden (PiV ‘10) is exhibiting new work in a two-person show, Lunations, at Harper’s Books in Chelsea.

Kino Jin (PiV ‘19)

Pratt in Venice alum Kino Jin (PiV ‘19) has directed The Gate, an animation short. The film has screened at multiple film festivals in 2021, winning Best Short Animation Film at the 2021 Halicarnassus Film Festival, and was a nominee for a June 2021 Rome Prisma Film Award.

In The Gate, genderless children are raised inside the walls of a rigid city. At the age of 12, the children are forced to become “adults,” and give up their emotions and memories. When they become adults, their faces are hidden by masks, and they lose their individuality. A child, K-12012, and their friend, J-12606, accidentally discover a unique device in the library, which reveals the history of their city and allows them to escape.

Director & Animator: Kino Jin
Music and Sound Design: Cazz Cerkez
Background: Kino Jin, Richan Li
Advisor: Michael O’Rourke, Liz Blazer
Produced at Pratt Institute Department of Digital Arts

Fay Ku

Twilight Procession
Curated by Amelia Biewald, Barry Hazard, Katie Hector, Yizhe Huang, and Jason Clay Lewis
Royal Society of American Art
400 S 2nd St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
April 9—May 2nd, 2021

Pratt in Venice printmaking and drawing faculty Fay Ku exhibited new work in a group show, Twilight Procession, at the Royal Society of American Art. Curated by Amelia Biewald, Barry Hazard, Katie Hector, Yizhe Huang, and Jason Clay Lewis, the exhibition is on view from April 9—May 2nd, 2021.

Gerald Luss (PiV ‘10)

A major exhibition of contemporary art and design, At the Luss House, was on view at the mid-century modern building designed by Pratt in Venice alumnus Gerald Luss (PiV ‘10) in Ossining, New York from May 7 – July 24, 2021.

Luss’s first freestanding architectural project was the house in Ossining, New York built for his family as their own home in 1955. He acquired the land three years prior and first constructed a treehouse to live in on-site in order to provide him the opportunity to sense and experience the site’s potential. The house was built from prefabricated industrial components put together on a system Luss designed, including handcrafted interior details that remain vibrant today such as built-in shelving, cabinetry, and the use of exposed planks and paneling throughout the house including cedar, macassar ebony and teak woods.

The exhibition, organized by art fair OBJECT & THING and art galleries Blum & Poe and Mendes Wood DM, features the work by 18 international artists whose work responds directly to the environment of Gerald Luss’s architecture. Exhibiting artists include Alma Allen, Lucas Arruda, Cecily Brown, Matt Conners, Green River Project LLC, Mimi Lauter, Tony Lewis, Eddie Martinez, Ritsue Mishima, Paulo Monteiro, Kiva Motnyk, Paulo Nazareth, Johnny Ortiz, Frances Palmer, Marina Perez Simão, Yoichi Shiraishi, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, and Kishio Suga.

Jean Shin (PiV ‘93)

Jean Shin: FALLEN
Olana State Historic Site
5720 State Route 9G
Hudson, NY 12534
May 2—October 31, 2021

Pratt in Venice congratulates alumna Jean Shin (PiV ‘93) on the opening of her daring, thoughtful exhibition, FALLEN, at Olana State Historic Site, the former estate of Hudson River School-painter Frederic Edwin Church.

When the artist Frederic Church created Olana’s 250-acre naturalistic landscape, he planted thousands of native trees on a hillside that had been previously logged and deforested. His plantings included the eastern hemlock tree (Tsuga canadensis), a graceful native conifer that once thrived on the slopes of the nearby Catskill Mountains. In the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of hemlocks were cut down for the tanning industry, which used the tannin in the tree’s bark for the commercial demands of leather-making.

The devastating loss of these evergreen forests would have been visible from Olana’s hilltop. With an artist’s eye toward the cycles of nature, Church would also include fallen trees in his paintings. Sketches can be found in Olana’s extensive collection.

The eastern hemlock tree on Olana’s East Lawn died of natural causes last year, after attempts by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation to save it. It stood high amidst new native plantings, which were installed to complete the first project in Olana’s award-winning Strategic Landscape Design Plan. As a part of an ongoing commitment to engage contemporary artists at Olana, The Olana Partnership has commissioned the nationally-renowned artist Jean Shin to create a site-specific work in response to the loss of this hemlock tree.

“While reckoning with the devastating consequences of deforestation in local history, the project invites viewers to observe the natural surroundings more closely, witness nature’s struggles, and mourn what we have lost.“ says artist Jean Shin.

The exhibition was featured in a May 3, 2021 New York Times article by Meredith Mendelsohn. The artist also spoke about the project in a conversation with the Olana Partnership.

Chris Wright

Chris Wright: Eastern Sierra from Hwy 395
Lake Room Gallery, Mono Inn
55620 Highway 395
Lee Vining, CA 93541
June 15—July 15, 2021

Pratt in Venice painting faculty Chris Wright opened an exhibition of recent paintings of the Eastern Sierra at the Lake Room Gallery at the Mono Inn in Lee Vining, California. The exhibition was on view from June 15 – July 15, 2021. The Mono Inn reopened in June, and was previously owned by the Ansel Adams family.

Sofia Zu’bi (PiV ‘16)

NARRATIVE VISIONS: Sofia Zubi
VillageOne Art
594 Broadway, Suite 701
New York, NY 10012
July 22—August 31, 2021

Pratt in Venice congratulates alumna Sofia Zu’bi (PiV ‘16) on her solo exhibition, Narrative Visions, at VillageOne, on view through August 31!

Powerfully personal narratives and dream-like visions reign triumphant in large-scale paintings by artist Sofia Zu’bi in “Narrative Visions.” This solo exhibit, on view at VillageOne Art in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, offers bright hues and a range of symbolism evocative of artists like Marc Chagall and Henri Rousseau. Zubi features her studied range of styles both painterly and graphic, with an intuitive ability to adapt her sense of line and color to evoke emotional resonance within the composition.