Mason Exhibitions

Art history students learn how to mount an exhibition

Shayla Brown — Wed, 01 May 2024 17:07:44 +0000

Art history students learn how to mount an exhibition Shayla Brown Wed, 05/01/2024 - 13:07

��AV students taking Art History 495/595 Curating an Exhibition worked together to take an exhibit of South African art from conception to completion this spring.

Students putting the exhibition up at the Gillespie Gallery in the Art and Design Building. Photo provided.

The class of undergraduate, graduate students, and professional artists were split into four groups: research, installation, design, and marketing/outreach, and worked with a faculty member from Mason Exhibitions to co-curate Faces and Figures: Identity through Printmaking in South Africa, which ran from March 24 to April 19 in Gillespie Gallery of the Art and Design Building on George Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

The artwork in the exhibit was from student and professional artists associated with Artist Proof Studio in South Africa. The course was taught by LaNitra Berger, an associate professor of history and art history and director of African and African American Studies Program.

“It's such an honor that we get to work with real artists from South Africa,” said art history graduate student and chief curator of the exhibition Irena Jansen, who is from Croatia. “I was really struck by the connection that it makes across countries. It spoke of my time growing up in the communist country, but here it speaks in their context.”

Chief curator, Irena Jansen. Photo provided.

Senior art history major Esther Perez-Rosales was in charge of the installation group.

“I printed small versions of the artwork and made an initial draft of what the curatorial flow would be like, which was really fun to do,” said Perez-Rosales. “It was really good to kickstart the process because it taught me a lot about curatorial work and how different aspects of it can make or break the vision.”

The themes of migration, family and community, and gender roles were emphasized using theme texts mounted alongside the artwork.

“We felt that identity was the overarching theme as the artists try to figure out who they are personally,” said Jansen.

George Mason graduate student Nicola Macdonald, who is from Durban, South Africa, was part of the research team.

“Being a part of the culture and from contemporary South Africa, I knew I could bring that to the table, so when we divided into groups, I [wanted] to be in the research group to bring this historical background to aid in putting the exhibition together,” said Macdonald, who worked with family members throughout the creative process to ensure authenticity to the South African culture.

“We got to choose most of the works that were shipped to us,” said Jansen. “Some of the works that arrived were a little bit of a surprise, but that was a great challenge for us because that's what happens in real world sometimes.”

The students hope to do more work with Artist Proof Studio in the future and potentially reinstall the exhibition at Mason Exhibitions Arlington, said Jansen.

“Our goal was to highlight South African art as elevated and sophisticated, and I hope we’ve done that,” Jansen said.

Students from the course, Mason Exhibition faculty members, and Professor Berger (far right). Photo provided.

In This Story

LaNitra M. Berger, PhD

Topics

Students

Workforce Development

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Mason Exhibitions

Department of History and Art History

innovative classes

Murals at Mason: 'Icons of Fashion'

Melanie Balog — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 18:42:53 +0000

Murals at Mason: 'Icons of Fashion' Melanie Balog Thu, 01/11/2024 - 13:42

Emely Ramos

Murals at Mason, part of Mason Exhibitions, aims to increase diverse representation and provide paid opportunities for students and professional artists across Mason campuses and in the community.

"Icons of Fashion" is a 209 foot long, 7 foot tall mural at Tysons Corner Center. The mural, featuring a series of iconic women throughout different periods of fashion, was painted by Emely Ramos.

Ramos is a Northern Virginia-based artist who graduated from ��AV with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2023. She is studying for a Master of Arts in Teaching in Art Education at Mason.

These notable figures are displayed in a runway format to showcase their memorable outfits. Following these women are an assortment of flowers to mirror their beauty and the personalities of each gown. Ramos chose the type of flowers and colors for each woman to capture the character of each piece of fashion.

Her work often showcases portraits of people with an intentional use of vibrant colors to emphasize their personalities.

You can see more on the Murals at Mason page or by visiting Tysons Corner Center; the mural is near H&M and Hyatt Regency. Photos by Sophie Bae.

Topics

Murals at Mason

Mason Exhibitions

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

School of Art

Picture This

Alumni

'Greetings from Fairfax' mural builds town-gown connections

Lauren Reuscher — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 14:51:35 +0000

'Greetings from Fairfax' mural builds town-gown connections Lauren Reuscher Thu, 08/03/2023 - 10:51

Photo by Sophie Bae/Mason Exhibitions

As a result of a grant awarded by the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Fairfax City Economic Development Authority commissioned Murals at Mason to install a mural highlighting landmarks and experiences in Fairfax, Virginia. Greetings from Fairfax, by Mason alum Lecsi Pillar, is located at Point 50 shopping center.

Photo by Sophie Bae/Mason Exhibitions

Fairfax City Mayor Catherine Read (pictured at center, above) was present at the unveiling. “Buildings like this can help to represent what a vibrant, dynamic community Fairfax City is,” said Read. “[It is] a celebration of the things that make Fairfax City unique." See more photos of the mural.

Topics

Engineering with nature: Exploring Mason's contribution to water conservation

Shayla Brown — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 14:17:13 +0000

Engineering with nature: Exploring Mason's contribution to water conservation Shayla Brown Tue, 08/01/2023 - 10:17

In This Story

Celso Ferreira

Jennifer Sklarew

Many people at ��AV do not realize that Mason Pond is actually there for stormwater management.

That bit of news was delivered by Mason researcher Jennifer Sklarew during her talk at the recent Head Above the Water event in Washington, D.C.

Planned by Mason Exhibitions in the School of Art, with collaborators including the DC Department of Energy and Environment, City as Living Laboratory, local artists, and guest speakers, Head Above the Water included a walk along D.C.’s Watts Branch and Oxon Run streams to raise awareness about flooding in those neighborhoods and the flood mitigation programs available to residents.

Stream Restoration project by Facilities runs from Patriot Circle/Aquia Creek Lane to Mason Pond. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding

Mason is deeply committed to pioneering processes that can answer the grand challenges of water, its responsible management, and sustainability. In fact, the university’s interdisciplinary approach and cutting-edge research as part of its strategic direction, has turned Mason’s campuses into a Living Lab.

Take what Sklarew, an assistant professor in Mason’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy, said about Mason Pond.

“The stormwater channels that look like streams are components of the actual stormwater system,” she said. “The pipes outflow into those streams, and then everything goes into the pond.”

But that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Mason is doing and accomplishing when it comes to handling water resources on its campuses, using research and technologies that can be applied beyond to the broader community.

At Mason Square, Mason Innovation Partners encountered a serious infrastructure issue that posed a frequent stormwater challenge for the surrounding area of the new Fuse at Mason Square in the heart of Arlington’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.

Replacing the culvert required precise coordination with the future building foundation design and intricate sequencing to control the constant flow of stormwater as it was diverted from the old culvert pipes to a new 12 feet wide, 6 feet high box culvert.

Facilities also has an extensive list of mitigation protocols it applies to remove pollutants and control storm runoff flow rates, including Illicit discharge detection and elimination, and construction site runoff control.

Mason’s stormwater system is monitored by Facilities, which can prohibit projects that might interfere with the system. The university recently completed a stream restoration project on the Fairfax Campus that not only improved the flow of the waterways but added asphalt sidewalks and some lighting so the campus community can enjoy the paths.

Stream Restoration project by Facilities runs from Patriot Circle/Aquia Creek Lane to Mason Pond. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding

Also on the Fairfax Campus, the irrigation system has sensors that register rainfall to control landscape watering. The irrigation system on the Science and Technology Campus evaluates local weather data. Additionally, the campus strives to create more vegetated regions, with green roofs, vegetated gardens and swales. There are also plans to design additional dry and wet retention ponds to reduce stormwater runoff and pollution in our waterways.

Celso Ferreira, an associate professor in Mason’s Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, calls the approach engineering with nature—taking advantage of what nature already provides and using it efficiently in engineering.

“How can we use nature in a way that benefits society for flood protection other than being detrimental to causing more floods,” said Ferreira, who also heads Mason’s Flood Hazards Research Lab, a collaboration between multiple Mason colleges and the university’s Institute for Sustainable Earth. “We’re trying to investigate natural features that can help us in engineering design that we can use to smartly prevent flooding.”

Ferreira also co-directs the Virginia Climate Center, which works with local communities across the commonwealth to support climate resilience, action, and planning for communities. Ferreira said he tries to bring those concepts into the classroom “to make sure that the future engineering workforce that we’re graduating design and implement infrastructure in a way that they’re mindful of natural processes. Then we can use them smartly to prevent flooding.”

For Sklarew, the Head Above the Water event was a natural extension of the outreach work she does as a Mason faculty member.

Participants during the Head Above the Water walk in D.C. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding

“I go into rural communities and talk with them about what they think their challenges are for food, energy, water, and climate, and how to develop solutions that emerge from within the community rather than outside the community,” said Sklarew, who connects her research with environmental justice. “The walk on Oxon Run and Watts Branch is a great example of something like that.”

Topics

Sustainability

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

civil engineering; stormwater infrastructure; climate variability

Fuse at Mason Square

Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Virginia Climate Center

Mason Exhibitions

Research

College of Engineering and Computing

Murals at Mason: 'Sediment to Sky'

Lauren Reuscher — Tue, 16 May 2023 19:37:36 +0000

Murals at Mason: 'Sediment to Sky' Lauren Reuscher Tue, 05/16/2023 - 15:37

Murals at Mason, part of Mason Exhibitions, produces public art projects that engage social justice issues and enrich the university’s learning environment. Murals at Mason hires artists, many of whom are students, and mentors them during the mural-making process. The result? Beautiful, high-quality murals at Mason locations and in the local community.

Sediment to Sky mural by Nadya “Bella” Steare. Photo by Sooyhun (Sophie) Bae

Murals at Mason commissioned School of Art student Nadya "Bella" Steare to design two murals that reflect the research focuses of faculty and students at Mason's Potomac Science Center. The staircase mural Sediment to Sky focuses on each layer of the Potomac River watershed, highlighting native flora, fauna, and microorganisms.

Sediment to Sky mural by Nadya “Bella” Steare. Photo by Sooyhun (Sophie) Bae

Climbing up the staircase evokes the sense of ascending from the riverbed while having close encounters with locally found species of fish, birds, and mammals. The side wall mural depicts researchers and community members studying and enjoying nature at the Potomac Science Center.

Sediment to Sky mural by Nadya “Bella” Steare. Photo by Sooyhun (Sophie) Bae

The side wall mural focuses on the coexistence of people and wildlife. It depicts water birds such as the osprey and great blue heron, as well as researchers and equipment used for environmental science study. Together, both parts of the mural feature more than 25 species of native macro and micro fauna, as well as several aquatic and terrestrial plants. Learn more about the mural.

Topics

Murals at Mason

Potomac Science Center

Mason Exhibitions

School of Art

Picture This

Murals at Mason: "LOVE & Unity"

Lauren Reuscher — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 14:49:07 +0000

Murals at Mason: "LOVE & Unity" Lauren Reuscher Thu, 03/30/2023 - 10:49

LOVE & Unity mural by Sarah Berry and Monica Tucker of Persimmon Project Murals. Photo by Sierra Guard

LOVE & Unity, by Sarah Berry and Monica Tucker of Persimmon Project Murals, is located at the south entrance of Manassas Mall in Manassas, Virginia.

Artist Statement: “Based on census data from Prince William County, the languages selected are the most commonly spoken where the mural was painted to represent unity (English), 단일성 (Korean), unidad (Spanish), وحدة (Arabic), đoàn kết (Vietnamese) in multi-cultural Manassas. The rainbows represent us all, regardless of what we look like, love like, pray like, vote like, or dream like. As with all Persimmon Project Murals, a native species is selected to include in the art. In this case, the American Dogwood (Cornus florida) was selected for this project because it's the Virginia state flower and we wanted to represent the whole state in LOVE & Unity.”

Topics

Murals at Mason

Mason Exhibitions

Picture This

Tackling climate change 100 trees at a time through afforestation projects

Colleen Rich — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 12:32:34 +0000

Tackling climate change 100 trees at a time through afforestation projects Colleen Rich Mon, 10/10/2022 - 08:32

Artist Katie Kehoe planted 100 trees on Mason's Fairfax Campus with the help of volunteers. Photo by Sierra Guard/Creative Services

Artist Katie Kehoe wants to make a difference—100 trees at a time.

Kehoe is one of seven members of the Atlantika Collective, whose artwork was displayed at Mason Exhibitions Arlington this fall in the show Approaching Event Horizons: Projects on Climate Change.

Her work, a series of animated photographs that reveal the ecological emergency of wildfires titled Superimpositions: Wildfires in My Landscape, was inspired by the media coverage of many forest fires and the impact they have had on the environment.

“I did a screen-capture of newsclips from the states on the West Coast that were hit hard by fires in 2022,” said Kehoe, who taught at ��AV’s School of Art for five years in subjects that ranged from digital photography to art as social action. “Then the footage starts to overlap, to really communicate that there are so many fires. It’s overwhelming.”

Kehoe met with Mason’s Greenhouse and Gardens sustainability program manager Doni Nolan via Zoom to discuss the final part of her exhibit—an afforestation project across Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

“She needed spaces to plant the trees where they could thrive and be protected for the duration of their lives,” said Nolan. “I often help students with these types of projects, so [University Curator Don Russell] connected her with me.”

Kehoe received funding from Mason’s Patriot Green Fund to purchase the trees, fertilizer, mulch and supplies.

On Saturday, October 1, in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, Facilities Management, Green Studio, and Mason Exhibitions, Kehoe, Nolan and a group of volunteers planted 100 native trees on parts of the Fairfax Campus.

Mason sustainability program manager Doni Nolan (left in green) and artist Katie Kehoe (in yellow) with volunteers on Mason's Fairfax Campus. Photo by Sierra Guard/Creative Services

“All of us working together,” Kehoe said, “people have been sharing their expertise to guide me and helped me refine the plan for this project so that everyone feels committed to it, invested in it and like it represents their needs.”

Kehoe’s objective with this project is to speak about the urgency of climate change and how it’s affecting our forests, she said. This is the second part of a project that Kehoe led in Nova Scotia, Canada, last summer where she planted 100 trees native to the area.

“Forests are critical because trees store carbon and when forests burn, especially old growth forests, it releases carbon, which actually hastens climate change,” she explained. “It’s really devastating to see the sheer number of fires and a lot of the old growth forests getting burned and I had to acknowledge that.”

Kehoe wants to motivate her audience and to provide people with knowledge of where to start. “We all know how to plant trees now,” she said. “I’m sure there are going to be more trees planted out of inspiration from this event, so that for me is next level in my art practice.”

This was artist Katie Kehoe's second 100 Trees planting. Photo by Sierra Guard/Creative Services

“As an artist myself, I really appreciated how Katie brought the soul of the trees to the event,” said Nolan, who is working on a PhD in biosciences at Mason. “A couple years ago, Mason was accredited as an arboretum for the trees on campus. I'm hoping that the trees from this planting event will be added to our collection.”

After planting trees at Mason, Kehoe wants to continue her afforestation efforts.

“I’m thinking of this as the beginning of larger projects that’re always going to be titled ‘100 Trees,’” Kehoe said. “I want to work with other organizations and educational institutions to host events of this nature that involve planting 100 native trees on sites around the country so that we keep adding trees to the landscape. Maybe we'll get to 1,000, maybe we’ll get to 100,000.”

Anyone can view Mason’s Arboretum collection and look at the map of where certain trees are located. There are also signs physically near the trees where people walking by can scan a QR code and read about the tree.

Topics

Sustainability

Mason Exhibitions

Campus News

Mason Exhibitions Arlington presents "Pressure, Movement, Effect" by Syrian Artist Abdulrahman Naanseh

Kirstin Franko — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 22:02:00 +0000

Mason Exhibitions Arlington presents "Pressure, Movement, Effect" by Syrian Artist Abdulrahman Naanseh Kirstin Franko Mon, 06/13/2022 - 18:02

In This Story

Donald Russell

Syrian artist Abdulrahman Naanseh is the 2022 Artist-in-Residence at Mason’s School of Art.

Mason Exhibitions is honored to present Abdulrahman Naanseh: Pressure, Movement, Effect, a solo exhibition of the artist’s recent Arabic calligraphy on paper and canvas, on view June 17 through August 6, 2022. The opening reception for Pressure, Movement, Effectwill kick off with the Arlington Collective Art Walk the evening of June 17, featuring self-guided art experiences open to the public that connects seven local galleries.

Syrian artist Abdulrahman Naanseh (b.1991) is an Artist Protection Fund Fellow (IIE-APF) and the 2022 Artist-in-Residence at ��AV’s School of Art. Naanseh’s calligraphy is a personal response to the tangled narratives of religion and politics that characterize life in his native Syria, which Naanseh sees as essential to understanding the Middle East or the Arab region.

“With today’s online culture and the proliferation of graffiti and street art, calligraphy is more visible and influential today than ever before," shares ��AV Curator, Don Russell. "Naanseh is a great example of an artist who is extending and freeing this ancient form.”

Naanseh learned Arabic calligraphy with the support of his father, a self-taught calligrapher. Naanseh has excelled in this field with exhibitions at the Arneli Art Gallery during the Beit Misk Festival in Beirut, murals at Damascus University, solo exhibitions in Syria in 2002 and 2005, and national Arabic calligraphy competitions. The practice of Arabic calligraphy spans nearly 2,000 years and is strongly influenced by Islamic culture and design. Naanseh’s analytical approach involves research and readings of modern and ancient Arabic poetry, linguistic analysis of Arabic words and sounds, as well as direct experience of the social pressures engrained in religion and politics.

"All Distances are Dangerous," 2022.
Photo Credit: Sophie Bae

Naanseh’s recent work focuses on three specific words and concepts and their expression in Arabic script: pressure, movement, and effect. Pressure is force signaling a pen or brush on paper; a mental, physical, and social constraint; it pushes back. Movement is a path; a strategy; and a cadence that gives shape, substance, and emotional resonance to poetry, music, or storytelling. Effect is the external impact and change.

In each artwork or sequence of works, Naanseh starts with one of these three simple words and by repeating and altering their forms in a variety of styles, scales, layers, and colors, he builds visual structures and motifs which compound and refract their potential readings. Like concrete poetry, the resulting images can be appreciated on multiple levels, as poetic formal abstractions and conceptually driven commentary on the social circumstances of the artist’s native region.

An initiative of Institute of International Education, the Artist Protection Fund (IIE-APF) fills a critical unmet need by protecting threatened artists and placing them at welcoming host institutions in safe countries where they can continue their work and plan for their futures. IIE-APF places these artists in safe havens for a full year and provides fellowship funding, mentoring, and inclusion in a comprehensive network of artistic and social support.

Arlington Collective Art Walk
The opening reception for Pressure, Movement, Effect will kick off with the Arlington Collective Art Walk, a self-guided art experience that connects seven local galleries.

Friday, June 17, 2022
5-7 p.m. participants will walk between venues independently
7-9 p.m. participants will culminate at WHINO for an Arlington Collective Art community engagement opportunity

Pressure, Movement, Effect is on view June 17 through August 6, 2022. For more information visit the Mason Exhibitions website.