In This Issue: - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
In This Issue: - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
In This Issue: - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
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From <strong>the</strong> Desk <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> Dean<br />
By Jeffrey Carr, Executive Vice President <strong>of</strong><br />
Academic Affairs and Dean <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> School<br />
PAFA is justifiably proud <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> long list <strong>of</strong> distinguished<br />
graduates <strong>of</strong> its School. Our museum collections are full<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m: historic figures such as Charles Demuth and<br />
Mary Cassatt, as well as recent stars such as Vincent<br />
Desiderio and Barkley L. Hendricks.<br />
One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> principle ways PAFA celebrates its alums<br />
is through exhibitions in our museum. <strong>This</strong> summer has<br />
seen a bumper crop <strong>of</strong> alums in <strong>the</strong> museum galleries.<br />
PAFA’s museum hosted a wonderful show <strong>of</strong> emerging<br />
artists titled Urbanism: Reimaging <strong>the</strong> Lived Environment.<br />
Alumni Steven and Billy Dufala and 2006 MFA graduate<br />
Amy Walsh exhibited in this show. Amy, who taught in our<br />
Post-Baccalaureate program last year, created a huge environment<br />
<strong>of</strong> cardboard and plastic walls, with peek holes<br />
that invite you into miniature urban interiors and ro<strong>of</strong>top<br />
vistas. The effect is mysterious, magical and evocative <strong>of</strong><br />
nighttime walks in Philadelphia, and poetic glimpses into<br />
lighted interiors and darkened doorways.<br />
<strong>In</strong> <strong>the</strong> School Gallery, Gift <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Women’s Board was<br />
an exhibition <strong>of</strong> two 2010 graduates <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Masters<br />
program, Katie Dillon and Reza Ghanad. Recipients <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> prestigious “One Year Out” award while students at<br />
PAFA, <strong>the</strong> two alums created an exhibition that demonstrated<br />
<strong>the</strong> range and quality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> work <strong>of</strong> our graduates.<br />
Reza’s work is a mad cap tour through an artist’s<br />
mind, with a visual overload <strong>of</strong> rich visual effects, arcane<br />
art historic allusion, and mixed media painting techniques.<br />
Katie Dillon Low exhibited a large hand-made boat that<br />
manages to be both funny and disturbing; a ship <strong>of</strong> fools<br />
metaphor with an empty table, <strong>the</strong> preparations for a long<br />
voyage, and an empty birdcage from which <strong>the</strong> dove<br />
has flown.<br />
The work <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se five artists has all <strong>the</strong> hallmarks <strong>of</strong><br />
what we want from our alums: a sense <strong>of</strong> craft, an appreciation<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> complex traditions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> visual arts, and an<br />
extraordinary sense <strong>of</strong> visual and poetic imagination. We<br />
are very proud <strong>of</strong> our alums. They continue to embody <strong>the</strong><br />
evolving traditions and cultural diversity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fine arts<br />
in America.<br />
Photo: Bresner Studios<br />
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT<br />
The Dufala Bro<strong>the</strong>rs: Toilet tricycles, dumpster c<strong>of</strong>fins and teaching at PAFA<br />
The Dufala Bro<strong>the</strong>rs leaning against <strong>the</strong>ir 20 Yard Dumpster C<strong>of</strong>fin.<br />
For <strong>the</strong> past seven years, Steven and Billy Blaise Dufala, known<br />
as <strong>the</strong> Dufala Bro<strong>the</strong>rs, have been working on cutting-edge collaborative<br />
art projects. PAFA alumni and faculty members since<br />
2009, <strong>the</strong>y practice in a variety <strong>of</strong> media, including sculpture,<br />
<strong>the</strong>ater, performance, music, digital media and drawing. The Dufala<br />
Bro<strong>the</strong>rs also investigate <strong>the</strong> human condition by repurposing<br />
industrial materials. As Andy Warhol used images <strong>of</strong> commercial<br />
objects to draw attention to an avaricious consumer culture, so<br />
<strong>the</strong> Dufala Bro<strong>the</strong>rs create start-to-finish object worlds, with a<br />
contemporaneity that urges <strong>the</strong> viewer to reclaim an increasingly<br />
besieged humanity.<br />
“When we see something that is wrong, unfair, counterproductive,<br />
wasteful and ridiculous, we want to initiate a dialogue,”<br />
says Steven, <strong>the</strong> middle child in a family <strong>of</strong> five boys. “We start to<br />
investigate, casting <strong>the</strong> net as wide as possible. Our role as artists<br />
is to monitor what’s going on, we are barometers <strong>of</strong> society.”<br />
“We like to work collectively,” adds Billy. “I jump on <strong>the</strong> bigpicture<br />
ideas and Steven examines <strong>the</strong> perimeters. We are each<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r’s sounding boards.”<br />
Both Dufala bro<strong>the</strong>rs graduated from PAFA’s Certificate<br />
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT<br />
Maureen Drdak: Beckoning Your Senses<br />
Rabindra Shakya and Maureen Drdak<br />
in Shakya Atelier.<br />
<strong>In</strong> 2006 artist Maureen<br />
Drdak traveled to Nepal, trekking<br />
to <strong>the</strong> remote kingdom <strong>of</strong><br />
Lo Monthang in Upper Mustang<br />
(NOVA “Lost Treasures<br />
<strong>of</strong> Tibet”), an experience that<br />
changed her life, leading to<br />
her 2008 collaboration with<br />
composer Andrea Clearfield<br />
in <strong>the</strong> innovative Lung-Ta (The<br />
Windhorse), a convergence<br />
<strong>of</strong> Tibet-inspired dance<br />
(choreography by Manfred<br />
Fischbeck), painting and<br />
music. Lung-ta is <strong>the</strong> mythic<br />
horse that carries <strong>the</strong> prayers <strong>of</strong> aspirants—and <strong>the</strong> Tibetan<br />
Buddhist Dharma—heavenward. It visualizes an ancient yet sophisticated<br />
concept—that <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> cosmic winds flowing through<br />
and energizing <strong>the</strong> body <strong>of</strong> man. Drdak contributed three huge<br />
prayer flags to <strong>the</strong> project, abstract variations on <strong>the</strong> wind<br />
horse, incorporating a prayer for world peace written especially<br />
for <strong>the</strong> project by a Senior Tibetan monk.<br />
Lung-Ta was commissioned by Philadelphia-based Network<br />
for New Music, which premiered <strong>the</strong> artistic collaboration in<br />
2009. “As a simultaneous performance and exhibition <strong>of</strong> dance<br />
music, and visual art, all your senses are beckoned,” says PAFA<br />
alum ’75 Maureen Drdak. “I’ve always felt a close relationship<br />
between music and visual art. Music reveals fragments<br />
and glimpses <strong>of</strong> physical form and streng<strong>the</strong>ns a particular<br />
emotional force.” Lung-Ta will have its Midwest premiere at<br />
University <strong>of</strong> Chicago’s Rockefeller chapel in 2012.<br />
<strong>This</strong> spring, Drdak received a 2011-2012 Fulbright Award<br />
for Nepal, enabling her to return to Nepal to actualize her<br />
Prakriti Project, <strong>the</strong> first syn<strong>the</strong>sis <strong>of</strong> painting and repoussé<br />
metal work. The Newars <strong>of</strong> Nepal are today’s masters <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
repoussé form, and Drdak’s Prakriti Project presents a unique<br />
contribution to <strong>the</strong> vocabulary <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> visual arts in fur<strong>the</strong>ring <strong>the</strong><br />
dynamic expansion <strong>of</strong> cultural boundaries between Asia and<br />
<strong>the</strong> West. She will return to her studies with Rabindra Shakya,<br />
decendant <strong>of</strong> Kuber Singh Shakya, whose family’s artistic<br />
legacy and lineage dates from 1601 and was patronized by <strong>the</strong><br />
Program. Billy Blaise Dufala graduated in 2003 with a Sculpture<br />
major. At <strong>the</strong> <strong>Academy</strong> he was awarded <strong>the</strong> Cresson Travel<br />
Scholarship, Valley National Gases Prize, The Alexander Prize,<br />
and Philadelphia Mayor’s Award. Steven Dufala graduated in<br />
2000 with a Printmaking major. He has been awarded PAFA’s<br />
Cuff/Sammak Prize for Abstract Painting, <strong>the</strong> Wolf Scholarship in<br />
Honor <strong>of</strong> Peter Paone, and <strong>the</strong> John R. Conner Printmaking Prize.<br />
Recent art projects have included toilets affixed to bicycles,<br />
an ice cream truck mashed with a military tank (for which <strong>the</strong>y<br />
received <strong>the</strong> prestigious West Prize in 2009), and drawings <strong>of</strong><br />
body parts intertwined and morphing into machines. Their 20<br />
Yard Dumpster C<strong>of</strong>fin was included in PAFA’s summer exhibition<br />
Urbanism: Reimagining <strong>the</strong> Lived Environment, <strong>the</strong> first piece<br />
<strong>of</strong> art work to be produced entirely through RAIR, <strong>the</strong> non-pr<strong>of</strong>it<br />
artist in residency program located within Revolution Recovery, a<br />
construction waste recycling facility in nor<strong>the</strong>ast Philadelphia.<br />
For <strong>the</strong> last two years <strong>the</strong> Dufala Bro<strong>the</strong>rs have been teaching<br />
courses at PAFA on found material techniques, which explore<br />
alternative methods to traditional art making practice, using<br />
Philadelphia’s abandoned material as a basis for students’ new<br />
work. As former <strong>Academy</strong> students, <strong>the</strong>y bring unique insights<br />
and ideas to <strong>the</strong> teaching process.<br />
“I want to help <strong>the</strong> students navigate life at PAFA,” says Steven.<br />
“I remember it super well. We also want to expand <strong>the</strong>ir frame<br />
<strong>of</strong> reference. We’ve asked students to walk outside <strong>the</strong> building<br />
– a distance <strong>of</strong> at least five blocks – and work on a project. It’s<br />
necessary to constantly reinvestigate one’s relationship to one’s<br />
surrounding.”<br />
“It’s also important to prepare <strong>the</strong> students for life after PAFA,”<br />
he adds. “I believe <strong>the</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> life issue may be a challenge for<br />
<strong>the</strong>m. Even though <strong>the</strong> students are adept at living with very little<br />
in <strong>the</strong> way <strong>of</strong> traditional comfort, <strong>the</strong> ability to put <strong>of</strong>f a decent<br />
standard <strong>of</strong> living may not last forever, and it is an ingredient in a<br />
successful/sustainable art-making practice.<br />
Maureen Drdak, Lungta Triptych (detail), 2009, Image courtesy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> artist<br />
Malla kings <strong>of</strong> Nepal.<br />
Drdak connects deeply with <strong>the</strong> spiritual worldview <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
cultures <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Himalayas. While embracing <strong>the</strong> uniqueness <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong>se cultures, she also celebrates <strong>the</strong> inevitable bridging <strong>of</strong><br />
historically and socially disparate elements.<br />
“Societies are rapidly changing, increasingly stretching<br />
<strong>the</strong> limits <strong>of</strong> communal connection,” says Drdak. “Art can be<br />
a powerful force for easing this dislocation; art can maintain<br />
meaningful cultural identity and be a positive force for selfdefinition,<br />
a grounding matrix enabling individuals to locate<br />
<strong>the</strong>mselves within <strong>the</strong>ir societies, and <strong>the</strong>ir world.”<br />
Follow Drdak’s blog from Nepal at: www.maureendrdak.com<br />
The Dufala Bro<strong>the</strong>rs, Billy Blaise and Steven Dufala, posing in front<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir work, Heap, 2011<br />
Photo: Bresner Studios<br />
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