Month: March 2025

Week 10

MONDAY

More examples of Conceptual Portraits

Work time in class

All groups must SHOW work in progress

Editing and in-progress support with Diane and Nathan

WEDNESDAY

OPEN STUDIOS – 2-530 pm and/or 7:30-9 pm Students must visit MFA studios/Captstone studios during this period. Nathan will be present to support technical questions if you would like to work on your projects in the lab.

BLOG assignment: Capture a few images of student work from Open Studios and comment on the experience of visiting the artists, studios and the works on your blog.

Diane will be leading Candice Hopkins around Open Studios and hosting the visiting speaker lecture. I’ll see you walking around – let’s high five!

Open studios 2025 information:

We look forward to welcoming everyone to Guelph for MFA Open Studios 2025! 🌟

MFA Open Studios is a free event open to the public where you can meet and greet our MFA students, see their current projects in their studios, and attend the Studio Art Lecture in Contemporary Art given this year by curator and writer @candicebhopkins!

Leading up to the MFA Open Studios and the Studio Art Lecture in Contemporary Art on March 19, we will introduce our first and second year candidates! Stay tuned to learn more about their diverse practices! 👀

Open Studios is on Wednesday March 19, 2025. The event will run from 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm.

Please visit the link in our bio for more information about the event including complimentary parking and registration for free tickets to the lecture.

Week 9

MONDAY

Complete audio critiques

Final audio blog posts due by next week!

LECTURE:

CONCEPTUAL PORTRAITS: Systems, Series, Stand-Ins

Assignment:

Make a CONCEPTUAL PORTRAIT*

Works can be in prints, slide-show images, video, audio, or found object sculptures and installations. Consider using text in your work when needed. Maximum limit for time-based works is 3 minutes.

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“In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work… all planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.”

Sol Lewitt, from Peter Osborne, Conceptual Art, Phaidon, Themes & Movements

“The system is the work of art; the visual work of art is the proof of the System. The visual aspect can’t be understood without understanding the system. It isn’t what it looks like but what it is that is of basic importance. “

Sol Lewitt

For this open media project you will create a representation of someone or something – in a non-literal way. You will create your conceptual portrait by using a system – like a rule, a formula, a series of tasks, or an experiment to plan and create the work.

Your work will not be narrative or decorative – it will include only what is necessary to convey your information, follow your task, or show the results of your experiment.

 Let the system be the “machine that makes the art.” For example the work might be:

  • An uncommon documentation of an aspect of life, using a series of images or forms of data
  • A collection of objects to make a portrait/ represent an abstract concept
  • Show the results of an experiment performed, to learn surprising truths about something

Consider, how does your series, collection, or system convey an idea, or make us understand something in a new way?

On the Blog: DRAFT a proposal of your ideas for discussion in the next class

Write about an artist reference from the lecture that informs your thinking – use images and prepare to discuss your proposal in our next class meeting:

*See schedule for work time and critique dates.

WEDNESDAY

More examples of conceptual portraits.

Brainstorm ideas roundtable and discussion

Work time