Sculpture

Historical events like the 1680 Pueblo Revolt may not immediately spring to mind when you think of science fiction, but blending age-old traditional methods with contemporary clay techniques traverses into the future. Using visual storytelling, students learn about the central cast of characters from Ortiz's screenplay Revolt 1680/2180 and how they shape the fantastical world he's creating with clay and multimedia art. Using a unique coil and scrape building process and carving methods, participants examine, explore and build a mid-sized scale bust. Students also create a personal rendition and interpretation of Virgil Ortiz's latest character to be revealed and exhibited at Vladem Contemporary Museum, Fall 2022.

Throughout the history of art, steel is a material commonly associated with industry, violence and strength. This workshop challenges such connections, investigating ways that steel can become visually delicate, and inventing new meanings and visual relationships through combining steel with materials that contain opposite characteristics. Exercises address both technical and creative inquiries regarding how steel is cut, shaped and physically joined and how to challenge material assumptions if steel becomes a secondary, rather than a primary, compositional element. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory and unexpected materials.

This small-scale sculpture course explores the intersections between architectural model and tabletop sculpture. Students reconsider and recreate the properties, sensations and language surrounding monuments, sites and structures at a domestic scale. Students also use economical construction methods with basic wood, foam, resin and mixed-media assembly. Modular units, structural stability, color, light and context are investigated. Tools and materials are stretched to their limits and methods practiced in the course remain achievable long after the workshop’s conclusion.