Press Room

Featured artists include: Greg Climer, Rachel Farmer, Brice Garrett, Nick Leonoff, Nadia Martinez and Maika’i Tubbs; MADmakes will give visitors the opportunity to learn techniques with the artists

New York, NY (March 3, 2016)

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is pleased to announce the 23rd session of the Artist Studios Program. Launched in 2008, it brings artists and designers into studios located on the Museum's sixth floor, where they work daily in a live environment that museumgoers can visit. The program, which represents an innovative model of engagement, has served more than 120 emerging and mid-career artists and designers. Visitors to the studios are encouraged to inquire about artists' processes, materials and concepts, fostering a participatory setting that is enhanced by the addition of MADmakes.

Spring 2016 artists are Greg Climer, Rachel Farmer, Brice Garrett, Nick Leonoff, Nadia Martinez and Maika'i Tubbs, who is returning from last session. MADmakes, launching in conjunction with this group, is a new educational initiative at the Museum that is led by the residents of the Artist Studios. It is a drop-in, hands-on series where visitors can learn the artists' own methods and test their skills at art making and creative production. MADmakes engages visitors in various techniques and ideas, and provides an opportunity for visitors to better understand and appreciate workmanship. These sessions are great for visitors of all ages, backgrounds and interests.

"The Artist Studios is an incredibly important program for the Museum," said Cathleen Lewis, Vice President of Education. "Now, MADmakes provides visitors with the opportunity to not just meet artists and designers, but to actually work alongside them and participate in contemporary studio practice."

Artist selection is conducted by the Artist Studios Selection Committee twice annually. The Committee includes: Ken Amarit, artist and artist studio alumnus; Elissa Auther, Windgate Research Curator, Museum of Arts and Design; Carli Beseau, Manager of Interpretation, Museum of Arts and Design; Rama Chorpash, Director of Product Design, Associate Professor, Parsons; Lisa Dent, Director of Grant and Services, Creative Capital Foundation; Natalia Kakazawa, Assistant Director, Elisabeth Foundation Studios and artist; Cathleen Lewis, V.P. of Education and Programs, Museum of Arts and Design; Katerina Llanes, Manager of Public Programs, Museum of Arts and Design; Cybele Maylone, Executive Director, Urban Glass; and Isa Rodrigues, Adult Programs Director, Textile Arts Center. This season's committee reviewed the work of nearly 200 applicants.

ARTIST DESCRIPTIONS AND BIOS

Nick Leonoff (Tuesday)

Nick Leonoff creates blown glass using the Swedish overlay technique that inverts one bubble of glass over another to generate layers of color. He then uses cold-working techniques that carve into the glass to create richly complex and textured sculptural forms. Leonoff is drawn to the luminescent, translucent and opaque qualities of glass that allow for brilliant ranges of color and gradient.

In the Artist Studios, he will be exploring ways to use small "scrap pieces" of glass from his sculptures in innovative ways.

 

Maika'i Tubbs (Wednesday)

Maika'i Tubbs utilizes found detritus to create sculptures and installations around themes of obsolescence, consumption and ecology. He regards discarded objects as untapped resources and transforms them to reveal a world of hidden, limitless potential. His process-oriented work reflects honest observations of unnatural familiarity influenced by the blurred boundaries between organic and artificial life.

In the MAD Artist Studios, Tubbs is exploring a project derived from oceanic observation. Stepping Stones are sculptural rock formations made of trash and waste materials inspired by plastiglomerate, a new geological term used to describe the fusion of micro plastic, rock, sand, basalt, coral and wood discovered last year on Hawai'i Island. Tubbs will be combining the forms to make larger pieces before he cuts into them to reveal their hidden complex layers.

 

Brice Garrett (Thursday)

Brice Garrett is a multimedia artist and jeweler drawn to the ways that jewelry and objects can embody both the intimate and the social. Through the use of various materials and techniques, his practice aims to stimulate dialogues between the object, material, viewer and wearer.

While in residence at MAD, Garrett is developing a new series of casted objects using mold-making and slip casting techniques. In working with the object of the mold, the series will investigate the relationships and ideologies of production processes, labor methods and work culture. He invites the audience to help with the process of slip casting.

 

Nadia Martinez (Friday)

Nadia Martinez works in a variety of mediums, with her work reflecting on daily encounters and experiences that are often difficult to express in words. Martinez strives to make statements that are positive and uplifting and draws from her background in architecture to explore the interaction between humans and nature and the qualities that shape our faith and values today.

At MAD, Martinez will use computer parts to create sculptures and jewelry that respond to the inherent beauty in abandoned materials by giving them "second lives." She uses assemblage techniques, along with mold-making and casting methods. Martinez is also interested in visitor response, namely, visitors' reactions to her work and how their insights and thoughts can inform her process.

 

Greg Climer (Saturday)

Greg Climer's work focuses on how traditional crafts can be augmented, re-imagined, or challenged by new technologies in a way that marries traditional crafts with modern tools. Climer separates the means of making from the outcome, in the hopes of deepening our understanding of the objects.

In the Artist Studios, Climer is combining two of his ongoing projects to create a 15-frame quilted short animation. He designs his quilts in Photoshop, then digitally prints them onto cotton before sewing them together. Visitors will experience a diverse mix of activities with Climer ranging from quilting and seeing files created on a computer to being able to use their own phones to reveal hidden images.

 

Rachel Farmer (Sunday)

Rachel Farmer is a ceramic artist who was raised in Utah. Her work explores her Mormon pioneer ancestry, as well as larger mythologies of the western United States, hidden LGBT and women's histories, and our contemporary relationship to the western landscape. Farmer is interested in a series of interrelated questions such as, "What gets passed down through generations?" and "What is memorialized and what is left behind or willfully forgotten?"

At MAD, Farmer will continue working on her series of figurines depicting pioneer women in action. They are small, delicate and playful anti-monuments of sorts in contrast to the bronze, somber pioneer statues Farmer grew up around. These figurines function as both stand-alone sculptures and subjects in a series of photos and videos shot out West.

ABOUT THE ARTIST STUDIOS

The Artist Studios are supported by the Van Lier Fund of The New York Community Trust and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The Artist Studios Program has three sessions per year, each session running for approximately four months (17 to 18 weeks). Artists in the program work one regularly scheduled session per week, with additional evening sessions on Thursdays and Fridays.

MAD conducts a Request For Proposal (RFP) two times annually. The next RFP in 2016 will be posted in mid-July. Artists submitting applications during this RFP process will be considered for two sessions: February through May 2017, and June through September 2017.

MADMAKES SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

MADmakes with Maika'i Tubbs
Thursday, March 3 – 6:00 pm

Build a seascape of coral mutations using plastic and trash collected from the museum that investigates the role waste products have on the natural environment. Visitors are invited to imagine forms, cut and join discarded plastic, and use recycled paper pulp to create a marine environment that Tubbs will continue to expand throughout his residency.

MADmakes with Nadia Martinez
Thursday, March 24 – 6:00 pm

Create 3D sculptures from wire and electronic resisters that examine rhythm, balance and movement. Visitors will learn basic techniques for shaping and assembling forms, and will work with Martinez to explore the relationship between 2D drawings and 3D sculptures.

MADmakes with Brice Garrett
Thursday, April 7 – 6:00 pm

Experiment with mold-making and casting techniques to construct an evolving sculpture. Visitors are invited to use their hands as casting subjects using body-safe materials to create sculptural forms that are both unique and universal.

MADmakes with Rachel Farmer
Thursday, April 20 – 6:00 pm

Investigate the creation of narrative using Farmer's series of ceramic pioneer women as inspiration. Visitors will watch as the artist demonstrates basic hand-building techniques, then will have the opportunity to create their own figures and backdrops to contribute to a collaborative story.

MADmakes with Greg Climer
Friday, May 13 – 6:00 pm

Examine the role that color, texture and shape have on constructing the way we see and perceive the world. Join Climer as he discusses color theory in the digital landscape, then collaborate with the artist on the construction of a photo collage to test your skills at composition and gestalt principles.

MADmakes with Nick Leonoff
Friday, May 20 – 6:00 pm

Explore the boundaries of function and form inspired by Leonoff's work with glass. As the artist explains his process, visitors will be encouraged to use a variety of materials to create objects that blur the boundaries between sculpture, jewelry and wearable art.

http://madmuseum.org/series/madmakes

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields, presenting artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill to their work. Since the Museum’s founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from traditional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum’s curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving 21st-century innovation, fostering a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design.

#MADArtistStudios
#MADmakes
@MADmuseum