NEW PALTZ — Itty Neuhaus, assistant professor of art, recently returned from a SUNY New Paltz Fellowship Leave in Slovenia. While there, the sculptor and installation artist visited icebergs, glaciers, volcanoes and other sites where the raw natural environment reveals a stark and dramatic landscape, while concealing a more perilous undercurrent.
The Student Art Alliance has invited Neuhaus to present a lecture about the body of work that she developed on fellowship on Wednesday, October 26 at 7:30 in Lecture Center room 102. It is part of the Art Lecture Series sponsored by the Student Association.
The SUNY New Paltz Fellowship Leave was established to encourage accomplishment in scholarly or creative work – study, research, writing and/or other experience – that will have direct and positive impact on a faculty member’s value to the university and thereby improve and enrich its program. This fellowship is awarded based upon performance in teaching and demonstrated commitment to college service.
Neuhaus’ recent work deals with natural phenomena and challenging settings like the glaciers of Iceland and the caves of Slovenia. Using layered paper constructions, video projections, cloth, paint and other materials, Neuhaus’ sculptures act as reciprocal interchanges between nature and art, revealing both what is seen and what is hidden beneath the surface.
In “Fathom,” the underside of an iceberg is imagined in an animation made from a still image shot in Iceland. This animation is projected onto a 13 foot long paper sculpture of an iceberg, allowing the reflection to grows to enormous proportion. The paper sculpture acts as a screen to “catch” the projection and it’s shadows. The sculpture is constructed of hanging sheets of translucent paper whose ripped edges traced the projected contours of the ever-expanding iceberg.
The gradational paper creates an object that stops time, takes a core sample, and peels back the layers, but associations can also be drawn between geological transformation and the impermanence in our daily lives.
Itty Neuhaus holds a BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute and an MFA in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She is a recipient of many distinguished awards from NYFA Special Opportunity Stipend (2003), Andy Warhol Foundation (2001), Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1994) and others. Her work has been shown at Islip Art Museum, NY (2004), Museo Ebraico, Venice, Italy (2003), Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY (2003), Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY (2001), Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY (2000),as well as other important venues. Neuhaus is an assistant professor of art at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
The Art Lecture Series is a project of the Student Art Alliance. Lectures are free and open to all.
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