MMC Art and Art History Programs Spur Outstanding Alumni Success
Marymount Manhattan College’s Department of Art & Art History prepares students with a stellar education grounded in the liberal arts, and graduates go on to an array of impressive careers as artists and in art-related fields. This summer proved to be an especially fruitful one for the department’s graduates, with six alumni attaining milestone achievements in their careers.
“The Art and Art History faculty are delighted and proud of the extraordinary accomplishments of this recent group of alumni,” says Beth Shipley, MFA, Associate Professor of Art and Chair of the Art and Art History Department. “The diversity of their pursuits—crossing disciplines and spanning the globe—speaks to their ability to transform a core body of knowledge into far reaching innovations and significant contributions in the fields of contemporary art and arts administration.”
Read their stories below:
Ellie Ga ’98selected to exhibit in the 2019 Whitney Biennial
Ga, a former Studio Art major and now internationally recognized artist, was one of just 75 artists selected to exhibit in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, the country’s most important and longest-running showcase of contemporary art. This year’s exhibition runs from May 17 through September 22 and features Ga’s video installation, Gyres 1–3. In addition, Ga performed her narrative-based piece, The Fortunetellers, in July at the Whitney, drawing from her experiences during a five-month expedition near the North Pole. Ga combines memories with a vast array of documents—including photographs, videos, annotated sketches, maps, and travel logs—created and archived during her travels. She is represented by Bureau in New York.
Ashley Stewart ’06appointed Director at Gagosian Gallery
Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery that exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Stewart, who majored in Art History, will serve the gallery’s network of seventeen exhibition spaces in cities across the globe, including New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Rome, and Athens, and in Hong Kong. In a recent article by The CUT, Stewart says, “I’ve built incredible relationships and worked with a number of exceptional people in the industry, many of whom have championed my talents and given me a platform to excel.”
E. Jane ’12 selected as Artist-in-Residence at Harlem’s Studio Museum
Jane, Art History alum and conceptual artist and musician, was selected as one of three artists-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem for the 2019–20 year. For five decades, the residency program has provided a platform for emerging Black and Latinx artists to advance their practices. Inspired by black liberation and womanism, Jane’s work incorporates text, video, performance, sound, sculpture, and installation.
Kristen Haskell ’05exhibits work at Hartford Artspace Gallery and MMC’s Hewitt Gallery of Art
Studio Art alum and mixed media artist Kristen Haskell’s decomposition drawings were featured in Vision Quest, an exhibition of art, fashion, and music at the Hartford ArtSpace in Hartford, Connecticut, in August. In addition, Haskell is co-founder of The Gowanus Swim Society, a small Brooklyn art collective whose members explore multiple forms of media and themes including site-specific installation, drawing, design, and video art. Haskell is the curator for SYNAPSES: The Gowanus Swim Society Art Collective, an exhibit in Marymount Manhattan’s Hewitt Gallery of Art that explores the deep interconnectivity of the collective’s artists. The show runs August 19 – October 30, 2019.
Heui Tae Yoon ’11exhibited new work at Chosun Ilbo Museum in Seoul
The Studio Art alumnus exhibited Bible: The Space Zero Enter Lowercase OLO at the Chosun Ilbo Museum in Seoul, South Korea, from August 7–12, 2019. In a review of his work, artist Linda Francis said, “Questions of authenticity, self-expression, and revelation are placed together in a witty confrontation between metaphor, symbol, and abstract idea. Even style and its meaning to specific culture is questioned; the tropes of Western art and Eastern art are face-to-face.”
Amy Pekal ’15selected to participate in Rituals of the Contemporary residency in Italy
Pekal, a former Art History and Business double-major and Studio Art minor, was one of six artists selected to participate in Rituals of the Contemporary, a week-long residency program at Cittadellarte. Cittadellarte is an art and creativity laboratory and an institute of higher education offering short and long-term courses in art and social change. The program invited artists to reflect on the notion of the ritual and to envision their own performative act.
While courses within the Department of Art and Art History were conducted remotely throughout the Fall 2020 semester, faculty and students took advantage of public art spaces and exhibits around New York City as creative influences for their projects.
