Things Become Things: Sculpture & Site Specific Installation

with Devin T. Mays
SCULPTURE 689 001 | 3 credits | $100 Lab Fee
May 26 - June 8, 2024

Students will create objects and temporary environments specifically for the Ox-Bow campus. Ox-Bow's community of art making as well as its unique natural offerings such as the forests, lagoon, and lake will be the source and location for site-specific creations. It is an opportunity to blur the lines between studio production and daily life in this setting and be in conversation with other artists expanding the boundaries of the studio.  Students will experiment with various traditional and non-traditional approaches to object making such as casting, construction, knotting, the augmentation of found objects, and dimensional drawing. The resulting sculptural experiments will be placed in spaces in and around Ox-Bow. Presentations on historical and contemporary examples including Beverly Buchanan, Emmer Sewell, and Kenzi Shiokava will help to contextualize these modes of working and readings will include Forms of Poetic Attention by Lucy Alford, Blackness and Nothingness by Fred Moten, A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, and The Endgame by Beckett. We will discuss the meanings of exhibiting work in a variety of spaces: rural/urban, indoor/outdoor/, natural/manicured, gallery space/living space, sacred/profane, actual/virtual and in addition to creating objects and environments for specific locations, we will also reverse this process by letting spaces dictate what the sculptural environment should be. Assignments will invite students to wander, catalog the material world of their surroundings, and produce temporary slight and monumental gestures in the landscape. Regular discussion and critique will culminate in a presentation of works for the Ox-Bow community.

Devin T. Mays (b. Detroit, Michigan) uses sculpture, installation, performance and pictures to offer observation of what's seen and unseen. The materials being used in his practice do not always present themselves as anything more than what they appear to be. There is not always a physical transformation at the hands of his facilitation. He often refers to his interdisciplinary practice as an exercise in wandering, a practice-in-practice, a place for things to become Things. Mays has exhibited at Sculpture Center, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Driehaus Museum, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Belmacz, London; The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago; DePaul Art Museum, and The Gray Center for Arts & Inquiry among others. Mays holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University and a Master of Fine Arts from The University of Chicago. He is currently a fellow with the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL) and the Art Department at Rice University.

Hot & Cold Casting

with Chris Bradley
SCULPTURE 687 001 | 3 credits | $250 Lab Fee
June 9 - 22, 2024

In this class, students will be introduced to a variety of casting techniques including silicone, plaster, rigid and flexible foams, concrete, and aluminum. With these methods artists can explore the opportunities for multiples and realism within sculpture. Demonstrations will introduce students to best practices within cold casting techniques and build toward the molten metal aluminum and bronze pours. After experimenting with them all, students will design and propose a final project utilizing at least one of the featured methods. Students are encouraged to bring items they would like to cast, and to consider foraging in the natural landscape as a source of inspiration. We will review the work of sculptors and installation artists including Liz Magor, Tony Matelli, Rachel Whiteread, Daniel Arsham, and Urs Fischer for inspiration. Working in the open–air metals studio, the class will focus on methods for safe casting. Assignments will invite students to work in response to the natural environment, casting foraged objects, and exploring pattern generation. The class will culminate in a presentation of casted sculptures installed on Ox-Bow's campus. 

Chris Bradley is an artist based in Chicago. He has presented his work in solo exhibitions at Ackerman Clarke Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Shane Campbell Gallery, Roberto Paradise, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Raleigh, and has been included in group shows at the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2023, the Renaissance Society, Atlanta Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the NRW-Forum, and the Elmhurst Art Museum. He received his MFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Meier Achievement Award. In addition to his studio practice, he is an instructor of sculpture at both SAIC and the University of Chicago. Over the past two decades, Bradley has developed a sculptural language around representation, poetics of ordinary subjects, trompe l’oeil techniques, and exhibition as site for the imagination. He aims to use this creative language to encourage his audience to practice the suspension of disbelief as a method for reconsidering and understanding this shared common world.

Blacksmithing: Sculptural Forms

with Natalie Murray
SCULPTURE 672 001 | 3 credits | $250 Lab Fee
June 23 - July 6, 2024

This intensive will start with the fundamental techniques of forging, and move quickly into more advanced projects.  We will focus on the processes of moving material while hot, and the forge and anvil will be the primary tools of achieving form.  As a corollary, the history of forged ironwork (architectural, tools, and sculpture) will serve as a source of inspiration.  Each student will also be encouraged to make an inflated sheet metal sculpture.

Natalie Murray is a sculptor and fabricator with a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she continued to work as a foundry manager post-graduation. Beyond collegiate instruction, she teaches welding classes, including the 'Women in Welding' course at the Arc Academy. Natalie's time and talents have taken her from her Midwestern roots all the way to the largest women's university in the world in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; building some of their first maker-space facilities.

Alternative Armatures

with Elena Ailes
SCULPTURE 685 001 | 3 credits | $200 Lab Fee
July 15 - 27, 2024

In this class, we will build armatures from wood, metal, and found manufactured and natural objects. Working in Ox-Bow’s Metals Studio, students will explore three-dimensional design concepts and sculptural projects at any scale and repurposing and recycling materials will be encouraged. We will integrate unconventional materials including glue, foam, items foraged from Ox-Bow’s campus, and use play, intuition, and memory to design a unique and expressive body of work. Demonstrations on technical skills will include methods for effective welding, joinery, installation, and finishing. Slide lectures will review the work of Barbara Hepworth, Leonardo Drew, Bob Cassily, and Niki de Saint Phalle and discussions will cover contemporary sculptural practices, sustainable sculpture, and current 3D scanning and printing technology. Assignments will invite students to use abstract shapes, forms, and textures to fabricate 3D self-portraits. In week one students will learn how to craft sturdy and expressive armatures and in week two we will focus on the “skin” that covers the armature. Students will be encouraged to consider how their design and patterns, textures, and materials used affect our emotions. This course is a great way to be introduced to a variety of techniques in a sculpture shop, beginners are welcomed.

The World is One. The Human is Two: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Objects

with John Preus
SCULPTURE | 684 001 | 1.5 credits | $50 Lab Fee
July 28 - August 3, 2024

This course will challenge students to work across two hand-made designed objects, one chosen and one randomly procured, to create a third sculpture which creatively considers form, function, destruction, and collaboration. Students will provide the items, which must be made by a human and no bigger than 3 feet on any side, and participate in an object swap to secure their second subject. Demonstrations including chop saw, band saw, jig saw, and other basic building tool usage will introduce students to a variety of processes they can utilize in constructing/deconstructing their object. Throughout the creation process we will discuss the object as sacrament, fetish, scapegoat, and as matter of hermeneutics. We will look at the work of contemporary artists such as Brian Jungen, Edra Soto, Amanda Williams, Theaster Gates, Doris Salcedo, and others. Because of the short length of time we have together, some short limited readings will be assigned, but a more extensive list of resources and texts will be made available. Susan Sontag, Laura Kipnis’s Against Love, Joan Didion on desire, Peter Rollins on the Lacanian subject and the church that believes in nothing. Colby Dickinson on the Sacrament and the Fetish object, Rene Girard on the scapegoat and mimetic desire. Students should be prepared for a robust collaborative experience as this course will dedicate significant time to the ritual and performance of the object exchange, so as to set the stage for considering the relationship between forms. This course will culminate in a final presentation of sculptures thoughtfully installed indoors or out.

John Preus works with broken things in 2-dimensional, sculptural and functional formats. His earliest memories are of running barefoot dodging cow pies in Tanzania, child to Lutheran missionaries. His work reflects on the nature of trauma and memory, the capacity of material to store psychic and emotional content, the history of religion and its use of imagery to convey meaning and influence. He is currently thinking about the relationship between the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Psychological Disorders used by psychiatrists) and its relationship to demonology. He studied at the School of the Art Institute, and received his MFA from the University of Chicago. He shows currently with Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco.

Rhyming the Land

with Hai-Wen Lin & Manal Shoukair
SCULPTURE 688 001 | 1.5 credits | $100 Lab Fee
August 4 - 10, 2024

This course is an exploration of land art, installation, and performance art that uses poetry as a framework to think about sculpting. As a class, we will consider the poem and its structures (rhyme, meter, stanza, verse) as form, material, and method. We will begin with a series of exercises that develop a relationship between writing, the land, and our bodies. Techniques demonstrated will include mold making, field recording, movement mapping, basic metal and woodwork. This is not a poetry class, but a class of poetic making and will entail mapping, listening, walking, sharing, caring, speaking, humming, singing, dancing, and meditating as forms of writing and research. We hope to challenge conventional understandings of the separation between body and environment by situating ourselves directly within the land. We will consider the works of artists such as Ana Mendieta, Liu Bolin, Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy, Mierle laderman Ukeles, and Rebecca Horn. Readings and screenings may include Braiding Sweetgrass, the Tao Te Ching, and Leaning Into the Wind. The final project is the construction of a duet poem wherein one part originates from the artist’s body and one part originates from the landscape.

Hai-Wen Lin is a Taiwanese-American artist whose work explores constructions of the body and its surrounding environment. They are an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, previously a LeRoy Neiman Fellow at the Ox-Bow School of Art, and earned a Master of Design in Fashion, Body and Garment from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where they were selected as a Fashion Future Graduate by the CFDA upon graduating. Lin has published research on smart textiles and taught origami technique workshops at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and MIT. They have performed publicly at the Chicago Cultural Center and MU Gallery, and have exhibited work in a variety of places including the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, 3S Artspace in New Hampshire, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, the walls of their home, their friend’s home, within an envelope, on a plate, on a lake, and in the sky.

Manal Shoukair is a Lebanese-American artist whose work in video performance, sculpture, and site-specific installations explore the complex intersectionality of her multicultural identity, Islamic spirituality, and contemporary femininity. Shoukair’s installation work directs the viewer in space that is only partially physically accessible, forcing the feeling of being left out or cut off. It prompts the viewer to explore a space physically, psychologically and culturally; methodologies that parallel her intuitive practice. The work navigates a conscious space of being and reflection of place and directs awareness inward, engulfing its audience in the stillness of its gesture. Manal has been featured in art publications, including Hyperallergic, Sculpture Magazine and the Detroit Metro Times. Manal holds a BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and is a recent MFA graduate from the Sculpture and Extended Media Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a recipient of the Master’s Thesis Grant from Virginia Commonwealth University, the Gilda Award from the Kresge Foundation, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship and the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship.

Building Big

with Nick Fagan & Mark Schentzel
SCULPTURE 686 001 | 3 credits | $200 Lab Fee
August 11 – 24, 2024

This class will focus on building large, sculptural structures in wood and metal. Cost effective and beginner friendly methods will be employed to empower students to overcome the intimidation that can accompany a wish to work large. Together, we will consider the steps required to complete a large sculpture including drafting, model making, fabrication, safety, and budgeting. We will draw inspiration from sculptures by Phyllida Barlow, view Robert Snyder’s1974 documentary The World of R. Buckminster Fuller, and readings will include Robert Smithson’s “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic”. After completing a small-scale balsa wood model, students can expect to complete one large-scale sculpture. This class will culminate in a presentation of monumental sculptures in the landscape.

Nick Fagan is a multimedia artist based in Cape Cod. He has exhibited work in a number of galleries and shows across the United States, most recently the Egg Collective in New York, Massey Klein Gallery in New York, Tops Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee as well as the Seattle art fair with FFT and Future Art Fair with ADA Gallery. He has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the MASS MoCA Studio Program and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His work has been featured or reviewed in a number of publications, including Burnaway, NPR, Divergents Magazine, New American Paintings, and The Rib. Awards include a Kennedy VSA Artists with Disabilities Award, and Foundation of Contemporary Art Grant. He received his MFA in sculpture from Ohio State University in 2017.

Mark Schentzel holds a BFA in Sculpture and Functional Art from Kendall College of Art and Design, He received the program’s sculpture excellence award. Mark appreciates the craft school experience, and has attended workshops at Ox Bow School for the Arts (MI), Penland School of Craft (NC), and Peters Valley Craft Education Center (NJ). He has over 25 years of welding and custom metal fabrication experience and is co-founder and co-owner of EA- Craftworks in Grand Rapids MI; a custom metal shop providing unique metal works to Michigan and surrounding areas. Mark’s large-scale public sculptures in Michigan and the Midwest carry notions of material identity, sustainability considerations, and infrastructure issues.