New Year for the Visual Arts

A very warm welcome both to the new academic year and to this, our showcase of the very best of art and design at TASIS, as it happens. Art is a very special language, one through which every artist hopes to find a voice, and for 60 years countless students at TASIS have been given the means to give expression to this idea. My colleagues and I in the Visual Arts aspire to see this long tradition continue and together we look forward to a creative and successful year. - Martyn Dukes, Fine Arts Department Chair

New galleries on the site include: AP Studio Art 2-D Photography (2016) and AP Studio Art Drawing and Painting (2016).

 

The Palestra was filled with artwork!

It takes a couple of days to get the Visual Arts exhibition up every year for the Spring Arts Festival, and then only a few hours to take down. This year the work was especially impressive from the younger artists in the Elementary and Middle School to the IB/AP work of high school juniors and seniors. The slideshow below does not do the exhibition or work justice, but you get an inkling of the many talented artists TASIS has in every division.

The gallery below is from our TASIS SmugMug site where photographs can be viewed and/or purchased. 

TASIS Spring Arts Festival Off and Running!

The 42nd annual TASIS Arts Festival began on Thursday May 19 with an Opening Celebration in the Palestra, and will conclude with outdoor workshops led by guest artists on the afternoon of Sunday, May 22. The days and hours in between will be packed with concerts, theatrical performances, art exhibitions, and much more.

Download and view the schedules in PDF format here, Arts Festival Program 2016 in English, Arts Festival Program 2016 in Italian). Please note that the general public is encouraged to join TASIS for this year's exciting celebration of the Arts.

Enjoy a gallery of images from the first couple of days from this busy and jam-packed weekend!

 

 

IB Visual Arts Final Show

TASIS Art, Photography, and Architecture/Design students held their IB Visual Arts final show April 16-18, 2016.

This final exhibition, spread across the Palestrina, the Palmer Cultural Center and the Horst Dürrschmidt Gallery in the Śahenk Fine Arts Center is the culmination of the students' IB Art experience. Students presented a selection of their best work in the form of a curated final show, and defended and articulated their purpose and intention in a written rationale. The exhibition represents 40% of final grade awarded.

A busy and often challenging day of moving screens, creating installations, placing and hanging pictures and models saw an abundance of good humor with students and teachers collaborating closely to get the show ready for the opening.

The exhibition remained open for three days. During that time the show receive a variety of visitors from both TASIS and members of the local community, and was also assessed and marked.

Click on any image below to view the photographs in a slideshow. For more information about the TASIS Visual Arts Program please visit the TASIS website. Click here for more information about the 2016 IB Architecture and Design students' work.

The TASIS Spring Arts Festival runs from May 20 - 22, and all the Visual Arts students will be displaying work along with Sunday workshops, and musical/dramatic performances throughout the weekend. The Spring Arts Festival program will be posted soon!  

Great Reads and Inspiration

Articles, videos, ideas, photos, and artwork....the TASIS Visual Arts Faculty often share links and ideas with one another. We have decided to collect a few of our favorites so alumni and students can see what is inspiring the TASIS Visual Arts faculty these days! We plan to post 'Great Reads' at least twice a month. 

Our hope is to challenge and inspire current and former TASIS Visual Arts Students. Let us know your thoughts and share your favorite links with us in the comments section.

Old Masters at the Top of Their Game
 Portraits of men and women in the 80s and 90s, rich in the rewards of substantial and celebrated careers. 

She Who Tells a Story  (From Digital Photo Pro) 
A glimpse of the lives of Arab women captured by the lenses of women photographers living in that world.

Truthtelling (From Digital Photo Pro)
An article about Barbara Davidson, Pulizter Prize winning photojournalist

Cutting and Layering Clay Slabs to Create Organic Texture (From April 2016 Ceramics Monthly)
Potter Jeremy Wallace shares how he makes a textured slab-built cylinder. 

15 Iconic Buildings Celebrate the Monumental Modernism of Louis Kahn
Reflections on one of architecture’s most influential figures of the 20th century - Louis Kahn

Scanning the Covers of Fortune Magazine (From CreativePro)
Gene Gable did a column on the covers of Fortune magazine, especially those published before 1960 when the magazine was one of the most lavishly produced in the United States. 

The Place of Craft (David duChemin, former Senior Humanities Speaker) 
David states that we ".....suffer from a lack of visual literacy, imagination, and the willingness to connect emotionally – and vulnerably – with our subjects."

The Disease of Being Busy (OnBeing.org)
An article just as its title suggests - 'being too busy'.

Out of an Ivory Tower and into the World
An article about Swiss photographer Werner Bishof (Note: TASIS students and faculty visited a Bishof exhibition in Chiasso last year.)


 

 

 

 

 

Porcelain Workshop held at TASIS

IB Visual Arts students participated in a one day workshop in creating a table lamp from Paper-Porcelain with TASIS Art teacher and ceramics artist Simona Bellini.  The workshop was a complete experience as students prepared the porcelain material and created the lamp forms from their own designs.  

Despite the heavy snow on the day of the workshop, ten students plus Mr. Mark Aeschliman, working under the supervision of Ms. Bellini, created the paper-porcelain in the ceramics studio, mixing clean toilet paper in hot water to create a pulp mixture which was then added to a porcelain mix (1:3) and then blended together.  The clay mixture was then stretched out and left to dry on plaster tablets and allowed to dry to a workable consistency.

After lunch, the students returned to the studio and began to work their paper-porcelain material, further rolling the clay to the proper thickness and then beginning to impress their design ideas into the soft material.  The paper porcelain sheets retain a great strength after firing, but are thin enough that the light from a small lightbulb will pass through, creating a beautiful glow.

The students used various stamps – letters, designs, lace doilies, leaves – to press their design into the porcelain sheet.  The sheet was then wrapped around the form which was to be the basis of the lamps’ shape.  The base piece was joined to the form and the finished piece was left to dry, and then be fired.  After the firing, the electrical lamp is added to complete the piece.

View a gallery of images from the workshop taken by TASIS Photography teacher, Frank Long. These images can also be viewed in the Porcelain workshop gallery on TASIS SmugMug.