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Joe D

- Research Program Mentor

MFA at San Francisco Art Institute

Expertise

studio art, sculpture, art history, art production

Bio

I am a visual artist living and working in Los Angeles. I have been working professionally for 20+ years as an exhibiting artist and curator. Originally from Massachusetts, I moved to San Francisco in my 20's, where I received my MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute. While in LA, I have been able to witness the growth of the arts community, while also playing an active role in it. Part of my experience includes exhibiting in solo and group shows, organizing group shows, and teaching art at the university level. Though I am always visiting galleries and museums to see the vast array of art, my true love is sculpture. The first time I put my hand in a bucket of plaster, I was hooked. It leads me to explore traditional art practices like carving and modeling, but also working in diverse materials like resin, silicone, even Scotch tape. Though my primary interest is contemporary art, I love to delve into art history and research different time periods to help inform me of the world in which I live. I can spend as many hours studying Jan van Eyck and the Northern Renaissance as I do studying Gerhard Richter and contemporary painting. www.joedavidson.art

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

What makes the Baroque, baroque?

For the student developing their portfolio who wants to add an extra layer of depth and context to their work. We would take a deep dive into works of the European Baroque, identify what defines it, and create a connection to your current body of work. Create a new sculpture, painting, photo, or digital work employing elements of the Baroque to help you draw comparisons between what you are doing in your portfolio with another historical time period. Also, to help you define today’s period by looking at another moment in art history.

Online exhibition

For the young curator, we will explore what it means to curate and mount a show. Research and find artists in your peer group, develop an idea for an exhibition, and mount the show for online view. Explore an idea that runs through a collection of artworks, and develop the narrative that links the work together.

Teaching experience

I have taught many classes in sculpture on both the university and community levels. In Los Angeles, I have taught at Otis College of Art, American Jewish University, and the Brentwood Art Center. As an MFA candidate in San Francisco, I taught undergraduate students as a TA.

Credentials

Education

University of Massachusetts Amherst
BFA Bachelor of Fine Arts (1992)
Sculpture, art history, philosophy
San Francisco Art Institute
MFA Master of Fine Arts (1996)
Sculpture

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