Healing Artist Collective highlights work of Mason students, alumni

Shayla Brown — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 18:24:29 +0000

Healing Artist Collective highlights work of Mason students, alumni Shayla Brown Tue, 06/20/2023 - 14:24

The Edges of What I Feel, an exhibition by the Healing Artist Collective curated by recently retired ��AV professor Peter Winant, features the artwork of an eclectic group of Mason School of Art students, staff, and alumni. The diverse group of artists participated in the exhibition with the common goal of healing.

From left: Steven Luu, Michelle A. Smith, and Peter Winant with other Mason artists at Mason Exhibitions Arlington for the "Edges of What I Feel" opening. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding

One of the featured artists, Mason alum Michelle A. Smith, is a surviving military spouse, and she said the exhibition allows her to express the pain of losing her husband.

Steven Luu and Michelle A. Smith with her piece "Absence: Grief." Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding

"I'm confronting and expanding on the emotions of grief and loss with this exhibition. It's a difficult question without a definitive answer," said Smith, who graduated from Mason in 2021 and recently received a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) Fellowship.

“Through art, through the healing, it is cathartic for me to deal with these processes,” said Smith, who draws inspiration from nature. “I feel like the people who see what I'm doing might not know the whole backstory, but they don't have to in order to make a connection, feel something, to be able to put themselves in that space.

Smith is particularly fascinated by seeds and their processes and potential. Seeds are both creative and destructive, just like people, said Smith, whose work makes that connection between nature and humans, and seeds and souls.

“Michelle has an experience that is beyond imagination for somebody like me,” said Winant, who retired from Mason on June 1. “Much of her work has been autobiographical; exploring herself and areas within that were brought about through traumatic experience. In the making of that work, there's always something that requires a huge amount of personal courage and I really admire her for that.”

Featured artist and alum Steven Luu served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years as a combat medic. Using materials such as concrete and epoxy resin, Luu addresses the concept of death in his work.

Steven Luu (center) with his piece Fourteenth Heads. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding

“In the war zone, [there are] dropping bombs and debris flying everywhere. So, I had a horrible experience with concrete, and now I really don't like concrete. But this project is how I make peace with the concrete. I'm actually OK. I'm revisiting it. I transformed my past into this material that [traumatized me], and now I’ve become a viewer. So, I'm no longer carrying it with me,” he explained.

Luu and Smith are pioneers in many ways, said Winant.

Luu wrote to Winant in 2016 asking to be an art student at Mason. “I wasn't an artist at the time, I was a medic, but Peter said that I have the attitude [of an artist] and that changed my life forever. So, I'm very grateful for that,” said Luu, adding, about Winant: “He’s not just a professor, but a friend and mentor.”

“It's been such a privilege to work at George Mason; for me to grow as the university has grown, and to be a part of something that's just an amazing story,” said Winant.

Other artists featured in the exhibition include CJ Davis, Moe Lewis, Liz Louise, Abdulrahman Naanseh, Alanna Rivera, Adrian Scalzo, and Tessie Van Dyke.

The Healing Artist Collective exhibition, The Edges of What I Feel, will be featured through August 26. To see more School of Art events, visit their page.

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College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Students

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Mason Exhibitions Arlington

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.

Topics

School of Art

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Mason Exhibitions

Mason Exhibitions Arlington

Mason Square

Arlington campus