Photographers Visit Outdoor Exhibition

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Six TASIS IB students visited the outdoor photography exhibition Corona Immagini in the village of Carona near Lugano. The exhibition features the super Macro photography of Ettore Silini alongside the more ethnographic images of Alessandra Meniconzi from Mongolia and Siberia.The images are displayed on alluminum panels affixed to the walls of the buildings in Carona's historic center

TASIS IB Visual Arts students look at the practice of artists and curators in mounting exhibitons, from choosing artworks and arrangement within an exhibition space to assembling a group of artworks that communicate a larger idea to a particular audience.

"It was fun to follow the trail of pictures down the narrow walk street of the village," said Maria Vitoria Mourao Clemente '19. "I found myself looking at the textures of the buildings as well as the photos."

"I found it interesting to consider the connection between the images of insects and the images of the Kazakh Eagle Hunters with this Swiss town," said Bryan Soh '18. "The photographs don't seem to fit exactly, but they are great nonetheless."

"I found it interesting to consider the connection between the images of insects and the images of the Kazakh Eagle Hunters with this Swiss town," said Bryan Soh '18. "The photographs don't seem to fit exactly, but they are great nonetheless."

 

The exhibition also features the work of several photography students at the local art college, CSIA. The students especially enjoyed Romina Berri's images of the soles of shoes and the terrain they were designed to walk on, and the photographs of Viola Robbiani which show closeups of hands that resemble other body parts and other geography.

"I really enjoyed the pictures of the hands," said Mouna Loueke '19, "and I like the idea of seeing them right on the street of the town. I wanted to stay there and try to figure out how they were shot."

TASIS IB Visual Arts students will be visiting a number of exhibitions at museums and galleries this year, and many of the Year 2 students will spend two days at the Venice Biennale on Academic Travel.

Martyn Dukes Shows at Rhy Art Fair Basel

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Mr. Martyn Dukes, Chair of the Fine Arts Department, plunged back into the world of professional Fine Art exhibitions at the beginning of the summer after a number of years absence. His summary of the experience:

Oddly enough, my IB teaching was partly responsible for getting me back into exhibiting: A change of syllabus saw young artists having to write a rationale for their final show, and in effect curating their own shows. As their teacher, this got me thinking about how I used to do the very same thing, as a painter, and little by little, this rekindled my desire to exhibit.

The international art fair in Basel in June was an exciting and hectic week and attracted galleries, artists, and buyers from all over the world. Rhy Art Fair Basel, one of a number of fringe events, was the setting for my showing of paintings from a long running series called Icons. These reflect a fascination with the world of the consumer and explore the enduring and idolized symbols that have grown out of it.

This was a tiring and sometimes stressful return to what is also sometimes a capricious and volatile business. In addition, as one of the warmest Junes on record, there was no air conditioning in the exhibition halls and temperatures were close to 40 °C. There were other changes too, with social media having become the indispensable tool for promoting the artist and their artworks; my clients would more likely buy my work if they felt connected to me in others ways—for example, if they knew which coffee brand I drink...There was, however, good company, with fellow artists from all over the globe spending many hours sitting around in our respective areas, willing the visitors to turn into interested, potential, and then real buyers. There were plenty of jokes and shared commiseration when they didn't.

Was it worth it? Well, yes, it was a great experience. And I’m going to do it again.

Mr. Dukes’ artworks in this show (Icons) can be seen catalogued with other works at www.martyndukes.squarespace.com.

IB Visual Arts Exhibition a Great Success

The IB Visual Arts final exhibition was on display for the weekend of March 17–20 in the Palestrina. The exhibition serves as the internal assessment for the course. Students must choose the artworks from the body of work they produced during the two-year course and curate the exhibition.

This year 11 TASIS seniors mounted exhibitions featuring work made with different media, from video and animation, drawing and painting, cut out and construction to cyanotype prints and site-specific installation. The artists used their exhibitions to express ideas and feelings on a range of social and personal issues.

The gallery below contains images from the show. Click on any image and you will be taken to a slideshow. 

IB Visual Arts Final Exhibition

Everyone is welcome to the IB Visual Arts Final Exhibition this coming Friday in the Palestrina. The exhibition opens at 16:00 with light refreshments. Come and meet the grade 12 artists, celebrate their achievements and see what they have been up to in the art and photography studios. This year the group has been particularly creative and there should be something to appeal to most tastes. You may well have already noticed student artwork appearing around the campus - an umbrella tree, a very large rubric's cube, a sock mobile.... so, come and discover more in the Palestrina. The exhibition is open over the weekend, with the exception of Saturday morning when the artwork is assessed and marked.

The Great Magazine Cover Assignment

TASIS Photography 1 students are assigned a project to make a magazine cover using their own images and copy, but are allowed to emulate well-known publications. There is creative license with regard to how closely the cover copies a specific publication. The objective is to learn how to combine text and photographs, to work with many different layers, and to use layer styles to create the look and feel of a real magazine. The results are quite impressive! Here is a gallery of six created covers by current Photography 1 students.

Winter Exhibition 2017

Don't miss the opportunity to view and support TASIS Visual Arts students. Photography and work from the Architecture and Design will be displayed in the Palmer Center. In the Sahenk Fine Arts Center will be more photography, drawings, and paintings. The work in the weekend exhibition includes work by beginners to higher level IB students. Below is a gallery of a few images that will be on display this weekend. Join us!