Paul Scott, Foot and Mouth Watchtree.

The Art Department is fortunate to have visiting artists throughout the year funded through the Vail Visiting Artist Fund. The artists for 2006-2007 included: 

Paul Scott

British artist, writer and curator, Paul Scott was on campus March 18 - 22, 2007.  He gave a public presentation, "Cumbria Blue(s)?Ceramics, Landscape Memory and Confection," on March 20, 2007.  Throughout the week he worked with students in Professor Olson's Ceramic Surface class and met with studio art majors for individual critiques of their work. 

Paul Scott's work involves the digital manipulation of established vocabularies of printed motif, pattern and image from industrial ceramic archives and engraved book illustration.  Cloning and collaging these, sometimes with photographic elements, he creates contemporary artworks in ceramic and printed form.  The altered ready-mades, hand-built sculptural vignettes and architectural interventions are all characterized by a blue and white semiotic.  Together with a focus on pastoral landscapes and chinoiserie, Scott's work draws on the cultural wallpaper in our minds, playing with our sense of the familiar.

Anya Liftig and Angus Galloway

Anya Liftig and Angus Galloway came to the department the week of March 27 through April 4 to work with the Studio Art Foundation classes. Angus is a Photographer and Web Designer as well as an Installation Artist. Anya is a photographer and does work in Performance and Installation. They gave a public presentation, "Performance, Photography and Cake Frosting," on March 28, 2007.

Monica Vorbeck

Monica Vorbeck is an Art History professor at the Universidad San Fransisco de Quito de Ecuador. She is a renowned curator who has juried many art competitions in Educador and Columbia. Her public performance, "Resonances: A Sample of Contemporary Art from Ecuador" was held April 26 at 7:30 PM in Cleveland Annex 104. She juried student work on Dissonance and Harmony.

Jeffrey Nilan, Ground

Jeffrey Nilan

Photographer Jeffrey Nilan presented "2000 Pounds of Soil: Imagery from the Rural Midwest," on Tuesday, October 24 at 7:30 PM in Cleveland Annex 104. Nilan's documentary-like installations emerge from the people, landscape, and structures of rural soutwestern Iowa. His work includes black and white and color photographs, artists' books, video, as well as alternative photgraphic processes.

In May 1999, Jeff received an M.F.A. in Photography from Indiana University at Bloomington. During his graduate study, Jeff began making research trips back to his relatives’ farms in Iowa. For the last three years, he has used black-and-white and color photography, in addition to photo-based artist’s books, to explore themes related to his family’s history and their current lifestyle as crop and livestock farmers. Jeff’s work is concerned with the rapid changes which are occurring in the farming community as a result of the ongoing farm crisis in America.

Scot Kaplan

Artist Scot Kaplan presented "That's not art, it's not even pretty," on Thursday, October 26 at 7:30 PM in Cleveland Annex 104. In a subversive and humorous way, Kaplan manages to breach the rules of the art world, delivering ironic comments on socially controversial subjects. Philadelpia-based puppet theatre group SpiralQ worked with the Studio Art Foundation classes and the Denison community to present a "Spectacle" outside Slayter Hall on November 9 at 11:30. Sponsored by the McGregor Connections Initiative, the group built large puppets and props to mobalize grassroots communities to create social and political change.

Alexander Masters

Alexander Masters presented "Stuart Shorter: Hostage Taker, Panhandler, Sociopathic Street Raconteur - An Important Man."  He gave his presentation on November 30, 2006.

Jorg Schlinke

German Artist Jorg Schlinke was at Denison from March 5 - March 9, 2007. He was brought to Denison's attention because of his art in public spaces, often creating large sculptural words of natural materials that give pause to passerbys who encounter them. He is part of "The Art of Science and the Science of Art" series, and his visit was sponsored by the McGregor Intitiative and the Vail Visiting Artsist series.

Born in 1964 in Potsdam,  Jorge lives and works in Potsdam and Mecklenburg. He graduated from the Acadaemy of Fine Arts Berlin-Weissensee. 1996 he got a DAAD grant for New York. 1999 he won the Art Prize of the Land Brandenburg. Since 1989 he produces art in public spaces. Since 2002 Jorg has worked with the urban planning team at the Bauhaus Dessau.