Michael Goodson (second from left) during an MFA critique, photo by Luke Kramer

By Melissa Starker

CCAD has been raising its profile in Columbus quite successfully over the past couple of years.

But Michael Goodson, CCAD’s director of exhibitions since August 2011, is looking ahead with something much broader in mind.

“My goal with exhibitions and visiting artists is quite simply to bring great contemporary art and artists to the school,” he says. “This will in turn make CCAD a destination for contemporary art—not only for patrons but also for great students and teachers from all over the U.S. and, ultimately, the world.”

Formerly exhibitions director of New York’s James Cohan Gallery and a professor of art at Hunter College, Goodson has also assumed a teaching role at CCAD. He guides students in the MFA program, leading discussions and presentations of their thesis work. But as he explains, “The exhibitions programming and visiting artists are my first thought as I drag myself to consciousness each morning.”

Goodson sees a distinction between his efforts in the classroom and in the Canzani Center Gallery and believes there’s educational value in developing thoughtful programming that doesn’t always fit seamlessly into school curriculum — but his two roles are organically entwined. Each strongly informs the professional development of CCAD’s artists in training.

By exposing students of all levels to the works and real-world wisdom of a stellar assortment of visiting artists, he’s expanding and strengthening personal connections between the student body and the global community of working artists.

Stefan Sagmeister speaking at CCAD as part of the Visiting Artists & Scholars Series on Aug. 30, 2012

According to Ric Petry, director of graduate programs and part of the search committee who hired Goodson, “He has brought an impressive group of artists and scholars to campus who have been meeting with the grad students—Stefan Sagmeister, Benjamin Anastas, Eleanor Heartney, Byron Kim, Donald Moffett, and Chris Ware, to name just a few from last semester. It’s been great.”

With MFA candidates, Goodson also shares the practical experience he acquired from conducting the day-to-day operations of a top-tier commercial gallery, from developing contacts to planning and physically installing exhibitions to marketing artwork.

Petry notes that Goodson has taken these lessons off campus as well. “He has organized grad student visits to New York, where his network has provided studio visits and mentorships with a number of artists.”

At the same time, Goodson has challenged himself, branching outside of his existing network to connect the college with the finest international talents.

“Honestly, I’ve asked things of New York and Los Angeles and Hong Kong galleries since arriving here that have little if anything to do with previous connections through the New York art world,” he explains. “You ask things, respectfully and thoughtfully, and people say yes…sometimes.”

His efforts have yielded a diverse and unassailably impressive slate of exhibitions and lectures for 2013. Among the artists scheduled to make an appearance at CCAD, whether in person or through their work, are Sol LeWitt, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Nari Ward, Jim Hodges, Fred Tomaselli, and Gary Panter, along with author and cultural critic Greil Marcus (Lipstick Traces).

Such notable scores suggest an increasingly prominent role for CCAD in the art world, as well as for the city it calls home. The line-up is enough to whet the appetite of most contemporary art lovers, not just students and faculty, and holds the potential to make the college’s gallery exactly the kind of destination Goodson envisions.

“In my estimation, one reason to live in Columbus is the Wexner Center,” Goodson says. “I think that, given a little time and energy and growth, exhibitions at CCAD might be another reason.”

Close-up shot of Tim Rietenbach’s work that will be in “FUNCTION.” Photograph by Luke Kramer.

Seven CCAD faculty members will come together and show their work at Columbus’ Cultural Arts Center in a group exhibition, FUNCTION, Jan. 9–Feb. 8, with an opening reception Friday, Jan. 11, 6–8 p.m.

“The exhibition looks at the idea of function,” said Michael Goodson, CCAD’s exhibitions director. “We have faculty that have a design background and faculty that have a fine arts background in this show, and they are coming together to look at functionality and dis-functionality for items designed to function and those based on the idea of function.”

Goodson helped organize the exhibition and will show his work along with Associate Professor and Industrial Design alumnus Davis Burghy (CCAD 1989), Foundation Studies and Fine Arts instructor Matthew Flegle, Dean of the School of Design Arts and Industrial Design chair Tom Gattis, Professor and Industrial Design alumnus Joel Gundlach (CCAD 1986), Assistant Professor and Fine Arts alumna Danielle Julian Norton (CCAD 1999), and Associate Professor and Fine Arts alumnus Tim Rietenbach (CCAD 1977).

Work will range from Burghy’s deconstructed stair banisters to Flegle’s illustrations of colliding objects. For more information and gallery hours, visit the Cultural Arts Center’s website.

Add the following dates to your calendar

The days may be getting shorter (and colder), but that doesn’t mean we don’t still pack them full of events! Here are a few things going on that might interest you.

CCAD in NYC Feb. 15

Several CCAD faculty will be in NYC for the College Art Association conference and are planning a get together at 7 p.m. on Feb. 15. Want to meet up with President Denny Griffith, Dean Julie Taggart (class of ’91), Graduate Studies Director Ric Petry, Professor Tim Rietenbach (class of ’77), and more? We are still figuring out a few details, but if you’d like to be kept in the loop, shoot us and email and we’ll make sure you’re updated as we get more info.

Exhibitions:

• Byron Kim’s The Sunday Paintings, open through Jan. 10.
• Donald Moffett’s The Radiant Future and Mr. Gay in the U.S.A. open through Jan. 11.
• Simulacrum open through Jan. 11.
• Scholastic Art Awards: 2013 Central Ohio Regional Exhibition, Jan. 18–Feb. 2
• Sam Martineau’s Fair Touching, Feb. 4–Feb. 21
• Wall, Feb.22–April 5
• Trenton Doyle Hancock’s FIX, Feb. 22–March 14
• To see a full listing of upcoming exhibitions, click here.

Visiting Artists & Scholars:

• Feb. 22: Trenton Doyle Hancock, multimedia artist
• Feb. 28: Sharon Olds, poet
• March 15: Nari Ward, sculptor
• To see a full listing of Visiting Artists & Scholars, click here.

To keep up to date on all CCAD events, check our continually changing online calendar here. Also, check the exhibition page for updated holiday hours.

Add the following dates to your calendar.

Per usual there is a lot going on at CCAD. Whether you’re local or planning a trip back to Columbus, here are a few things coming up that might interest you. Follow links to more information on each event.

It’s Time for HOMECOMING!

Oct. 12-13

Family Weekend & Homecoming

Don’t miss out on hearing from recently retired Dean Richard Aschenbrand (a.ka., respectfully, Fashionbrand); catching up with fellow classmates; celebrating the 2012 Alumni Award for Excellence winner; touring campus (it just keeps changing); and talking with faculty (it’s a lot more fun now that you’re not being graded). You can get a complete schedule on the event page. If you haven’t already, please RSVP.

Also coming up…

Oct. 3-6

Mix 2012: Comics Symposium with Keynote Speaker Chris Ware, learn more and register online.

Dec. 1

CCAD Art sale, sign up dates TBD

Exhibition openings

• Sept. 21: Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, read more.
• Sept. 27: Todd Slaughter’s American Primitives, read more.
• Oct. 16: Ian Ruffino’s Sleep, read more.
• Nov. 16: Donald Moffett’s Radiant Future and Mr. Gay in the U.S.A., read more.
• Nov. 16: Byron Kim’s The Sunday Paintings, read more.
• Nov. 17:  Simulacrum, a group exhibition, read more.

Visiting Artists & Scholars

• Sept. 28: Roger Martin, design thinking expert (this is a ticketed event), read more.
• Oct. 19: Benjamin Anastas, author, read more.
• Nov. 16: Donald Moffett and Byron Kim, artists, read more.
• Nov. 28: Simulacrum panel, read more.

Check out a full listing of CCAD events online.

From Chris Ware’s exhibition “Jimmy Corrigan”

This fall, as classrooms are filling up with students, CCAD’s exhibitions program will bring to campus an impressive series of exhibitions.

Debuting this year is a new exhibition space called Room, developed by Exhibitions Director Michael Goodson. Room is a project space in CCAD’s Canzani Center Gallery that will host small exhibitions, projects, and video installations that sometimes complement the main gallery show and other times stand alone.

Kicking off the fall season in Room is Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, running Sept. 21 to Oct. 12.

Ware is an American comic book artist notable for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth.

The exhibition presents artwork from the novel, which follows four generations of the fictional Corrigan family. The exhibition is being shown in conjunction with the Mix 2012: Comics Symposium, which is bringing Ware in as the keynote speaker.

Todd Slaughter’s “My EMF Comfort Zone”

Opening in the main gallery Sept. 27 is Todd Slaughter’s American Primitives. Slaughter, a former CCAD faculty member, points out parallels between American individualism and isolationist groups in the exhibition, which runs through Nov. 8.

Oct. 16 to Nov. 9, Room will showcase Ian Ruffino’s Sleep, which explores the artist’s decision to remove every color from his wardrobe except for blue.

Nov. 16 will be the beginning of two exhibitions by Donald Moffett in the main gallery,  The Radiant Future and Mr. Gay in the U.S.A. Byron Kim’s The Sunday Paintings will be featured concurrently in Room.

In The Radiant Future, Moffett’s paintings shift our expectations of what a painting should be. They are oil on panel, to be sure, but each blade, hair, and fiber of paint is methodically extruded onto the picture plane so that the surfaces resemble curiously, radiantly pigmented AstroTurf. Mr. Gay in the U.S.A is a group of 17 courtroom drawings from the case of Ronald Gay, a Vietnam veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Donald Moffett’s “Lot 080711″ (detail)

 The Sunday Paintings is a series of sky-colored fields made by Kim as diary entries every Sunday since 2001.

Rounding out the fall exhibition schedule is Simulacrum, Nov. 17–Jan. 11. Simulacrum unites the work of artists whose art making freely borrows from the worlds of ethnographic and material culture, folk art, fashion, hobby crafts, DIY, hyper-realism and the shelves of Home Depot.

Participating artists include Conrad Bakker, Libby Black, Tom Burckhardt, Folkert de Jong, Chris Hanson, Kiel Johnson, Tony Matelli, Taylor McKimens, Ree Morton, Kaz Oshiro, Hendrika Sonnenberg, Lee Stoetzel, Jude E. Tallichet, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, and Jade Townsend.

CCAD’s exhibitions are free and open to the public. Gallery hours: Monday, closed; Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, noon–5 p.m.

CCAD’s exhibition programs are supported by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, and CD 102.5.

Add the following dates to your calendar.

Per usual there is a lot going on at CCAD. Whether you’re local or planning a trip back to Columbus, here are a few things coming up that might interest you.

SAVE THE DATE FOR HOMECOMING!

Oct. 12-13
Family Weekend & Homecoming
Plan on coming back and seeing old friends and faculty. A full schedule will be on the event page soon.

AND Heads up! It’s time to submit your nominations for the Annual Alumni Excellence Award. Nominations are due July 20 and can be submitted via the online form. The winner will be presented with the award at homecoming.

Also at CCAD…

Sept. 27
Exhibition Opening, Todd Slaughter: American Primatives, Canzani Center Gallery

Sept. 28
Guest Lecturer Roger Martin.
Ticket prices and details coming soon.

Oct. 3-6
Mix 2012: Comics Symposium with Keynote Speaker Chris Ware.
CCAD is currently accepting proposals for papers, roundtables, and workshops; more info here.

Dec. 1
CCAD Art Sale, sign-up dates TBD

Find a full listing of events at CCAD, on the website.

Be sure you are getting emails from CCAD about events and alumni specific notices, by signing up.

An early rendition

On May 11 Columbus College of Art & Design will open its annual student exhibition (the 133rd for those of you who are counting). This phenomena is a massive celebration of the best work of CCAD’s academic year.

Most of the art and design work in the show—representing the college’s graduate program and its nine undergraduate majors—is the result of thesis projects, contests, and class assignments. One project is simply a labor of love.

Each year students from the three-dimensional illustration class produce a crowd-pleasing piece that, while whimsical, is also masterful. This year’s creation is sure to be another attention getter—and its makers, who have spent the entire academic year building it, did so on their own time.

The colossal blood-sucking monster from a lost age

So what is this mysterious beast? Well, to call it a giant flea doesn’t really do justice to something the size of a compact car. It has been described as a “colossal blood-sucking monster from a lost age” and a “terrifying beast from a distant planet.” The beast isn’t alone; it will be ridden by a woman (presumably some type of warrior). When we asked her name, there was a quick scramble to come up with ideas—Fleaopatra seemed to stick.

You would think all this extracurricular work would just be added stress for a graduating senior, but Christopher Castorano says differently.

“This guy’s been keeping me sane,” explained the Illustration major with a smile.

The journey to build the beast and its rider began fall semester with Castorano and Illustration junior Tyler Crooks (both also work as Illustration lab techs). In spring they were joined by two juniors and fellow lab techs Henry Scott (Illustration) and Allison Cundiff (Animation). Leading the monster squad (and credited as the mastermind) is 3D Illustration Professor Mark Hazlerig.

“Mark’s been wanting to do this for 20 years,” explained Scott, who has known Hazlerig since Scott was first a student at CCAD in 2000. Scott left the college to join the military, returning to continue his studies after serving four tours.

The team will be working up until the last minute, bringing in one extra hand to help with the painting. At their most basic, the 3D pieces are constructed of blue foam and covered in latex. But, as with all good things, the process is much more complicated than that. (When we asked about construction, terms such as two-part foam, molding, and resins were bandied about). Anyone seeing the beast in person will appreciate the extraordinary level of detail, right down to the spindly little insect hairs.

Come see the colossal beast along with many other exquisite examples of art and design work from CCAD’s undergraduate and graduate programs. CCAD offers nine undergraduate majors, Advertising & Graphic Design, Animation, Cinematic Arts, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Design, and Photography; the graduate program is a multidisciplinary one called the MFA in Visual Arts: New Projects. THE SHOW: the 133rd Annual Student Exhibition opens Friday, May 11, at 4 p.m. and will be open through the summer.

From Bending the Mirror, "Early Years" by Folkert de Jong

Columbus College of Art & Design’s exhibitions program is off to an ambitious start in 2012. The winter/spring lineup is varied and diverse, ensuring visitors plenty to see and contemplate in the coming months.

“My goal for the CCAD exhibitions program is to provide the public consistent, compelling information, with a dedication to making people aware of the art of their time; the art of this moment,” said CCAD Director of Exhibitions Michael Goodson. “I always tend to think of an exhibition as a kind of theater. This sometimes entails the use of a kind of flow and narrative—at very least it involves a clear consideration of the viewer’s time, body, and perspective thoughts within the exhibition space.”

The winter/spring series got an early start when Malcolm Cochran: Dutch Shoes was installed in the front portion of the Canzani Center Gallery, Dec. 9 2011. The work is from a series of four that Cochran executed when he was teaching in the Netherlands in the mid-1990s. Part of a private collection, Dutch Shoes is not often available for public viewing.

“This work hasn’t been seen in Columbus since an appearance in the Columbus Museum of Art in 1997,” explained Goodson. “CCAD is taking advantage of a time opportunity between larger scheduled exhibitions to invite the community to our gallery to see this absorbing work in person.”

Dutch Shoes is on view through Feb. 3, and CCAD is hosting a free closing reception with the artist Tuesday, Jan. 31, from 6–8 p.m.

Also on exhibit in the Canzani Center Gallery is the Scholastic Art Awards 2012 Central Ohio Regional Exhibition, which honors work from central Ohio artists in grades 7–12. The Scholastic Art Awards have been recognizing and encouraging excellence in the visual arts throughout the United States for more than 80 years, and the central Ohio regional exhibition is on view at CCAD through Feb. 4.

Coming right on the heels of Dutch Shoes and the Scholastic Art Awards, on Feb. 10  CCAD will open two exhibitions curated by Goodson. Bending the Mirror, featuring 15 artists, samples the fecund diversity of international figurative art today.  home.,  examines what we might call “normal” suburbia and the lives of those within. The artists involved include New York City painter Jessica Rohrer, iconic 1970′s photographer Bill Owens, and Cleveland-based artist Mark Slankard.

“The history of CCAD and the use of the figure are paired going back to the inception of the school,” said Goodson. “With Bending The Mirror I want visitors and students to be aware of the various ways in which this long tradition still imparts ideas and how varied the methods, perspectives, and ideas can be.”

“In many ways home. Is my attempt to understand the recent transition in my own life from the endless flux of Brooklyn and New York City to the relative quite and peace of Columbus,” explained Goodson. “What I found, however (and what started to drive the show) was that this is not a bucolic place. Perhaps no place in America is anymore. home. has become an attempt to understand the true complex nature of American suburban life. It’s an attempt to explore the dream within the American dream.”

CCAD will host a free opening reception for both exhibitions on Feb. 10 from 6–8 p.m. The exhibitions are up through March 16. See a full list of participating artists and images from the show on the shows’ webpage.

Opening March 30, First: The 2012 New Projects MFA Thesis Exhibition, is, as the name suggests, an exhibition of thesis work from the college’s first Master of Fine Arts graduating class. Eleven MFA candidates will present work that ranges from glass, installation, social practice, and photography to fabric design, illustration, painting, and digital media. The MFA exhibition will be on view through April 27.

CCAD’s academic year ends with a campuswide exhibition that celebrates the best work from nine BFA majors and the MFA program. Show: the 133rd Annual Student Exhibition opens May 11 and stays up through the summer. Parents, friends, and the community are invited to come and spend the evening reviewing the creative excellence that is CCAD.

CCAD exhibitions are free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. Parking is free in CCAD lots (Please note the lot adjacent to the Canzani Center is not a CCAD lot.)

Dates to remember.

Per usual there is a lot going on at CCAD. Whether you’re local or planning a trip back to Columbus, here are a few things coming up that might interest you.

Through Feb. 3, 2012
Malcolm Cochran: Dutch Shoes
Dutch Shoes is an installation piece from a series of four highly personal works that Malcolm Cochran executed when he was teaching in the Netherlands in the mid-1990s. Learn more here.

Feb. 10-March 16, 2012
Two exhibitions: Bending the Mirror and home.
Opening reception is Feb 10, 6–8 p.m. in the Canzani Center Gallery.
CCAD presents two new exhibitions in the Canzani Center Gallery: Bending the Mirror, which samples the fecund diversity of international figurative art today, and home., which examines what we might call “normal” suburbia through the work of painter Jessica Rohrer and photographers Bill Owens and Mark Slankard. Learn more here.

March 30-April 27, 2012
MFA Thesis Exhibition: Join us as we celebrate our first MFA graduating class.

April  14, 2012
CCAD Art Sale, spring edition. Table sign ups should start in late February or early March (the exact date is still being determined). An email with sign up info will go out to all alumni on our email list. You can also check the Selling at CCAD’s Art Sale page for updates.

If you are an alum, but not on our email list, sign up here and be sure to check the “alumni newsletter and notices” box.

April 25, 2012
Directions Career Fair
This reverse career fair allows employers to check out portfolios and speak to soon-to-be CCAD graduates. If you are one of the many alumni that take advantage of this annual event to find fresh talent, keep your eye out for more details, including how to register.

Save the date: May 11, 2012
CCAD Senior Fashion Show Event (tickets will go on sale early in 2012)
Opening of the 133^rd Annual Student Exhibition

For a complete list of upcoming events, check out our event listings.

Michael Goodson

By: Michael Goodson

For the past year I’ve been working on the über “mixed tape.” (You can call it what you want to fit whatever paradigm—digital or analog—you prefer.) I’ve come to think of it as both a work of art (an edition of 100 with a few artist’s proofs) and a curatorial endeavor, and titled it An Act of Hubris: 357 of My Favorite Songs in No Particular Order…For What It’s Worth…Probably Nothing.

It started with mixed-CD exchanges I was having with some artist friends. Simon Evens, for instance, is a Kiss fan, able to lucidly delineate between their earlier, “brilliant” output and their descent into comic book treacle after Destroyer. Eric Swenson really likes “Surfin’ Bird” and actually prefers Sha-Na-Na’s version to the classic Trashmen or even Ramones versions, which is unthinkable to me. In the midst of doing this I realized that our attempt to understand ourselves via these songs was an apt application of post-structuralist theory. The record you liked when you were 14 pushing up against that which your current brain chemistry allows you to understand and enjoy—all the various contexts and relational positions being brought to bear.

It’s become a meditative time sink, a way for me to relax in the wee hours while my family sleeps. I might think of a song I had somehow missed that must be in the mix. Or edit, begrudgingly, a song I love in order to make room for something more imperative. I recently cut the Partridge Family’s “Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque” to make way for the Jam’s “Art School.” A sound choice, I reckon. In any case, this little project has become curiously important to me.

There’s the third movement from Maurice Ravel’s Piano Trio in A Minor. There’s a poem by Charles Bukowski read by Tom Waits. Mostly, though, as the title suggests, it is songs from various genres—by Hank Williams, Black Flagg, Nina Simone, the Stooges, the Louvin Brothers, Gang Starr, Loretta Lynn, Mississippi John Hurt…and so on.

Still from the video Hanabira by Tabaimo, which is expected to be included in Bending the Mirror.

All of this is apropos of what I envision for exhibitions at CCAD and, in fact, my curatorial perspective in general. To be clear: This idea that Thelonious Monk’s “Abide with Me” can and should sit next to  the Bad Brains’ “Pay to Cum,” both of which are, in turn, well paired with Hank Williams’ “The Angel of Death,” is not the idea behind one good exhibition. (I am, after all, also a believer in the concepts of Harald Szeemann, the father of modern curation, so I like art to be assembled in a precise, graceful, layered, and cogent manner.) It’s a path through an arch of exhibitions over a period of time. Exhibition concepts will always be challenging but will also always attempt to be inclusive of the CCAD family, Columbus generally, or, for all practical purposes, whoever might wander into the gallery on a given day. I, for one, always want my mixed tapes to teach the people to whom they are gifted. It is my hope that each person will discover something new in spirit of these little receptacles. (Try me. Teach me something. Hand me a mixed tape and I will, within a week or so, respond in kind.)

A viewer at the opening reception for Supply and Demand (in front of Infinite time, infinite color, infinite memory, infinite destiny by Damian Aquiles.)

Bio: CCAD Director of Exhibitions Michael Goodson joined the college in August. Previously, he worked at the James Cohan Gallery in New York City, where he started in 2003 and was promoted to exhibitions director in 2006. Concurrent with his work at James Cohan, he taught sculpture and installation art at Hunter College; he has also taught sculpture at Wright State and Wittenberg universities. He holds a BFA from Wright State University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Side story: On view until December 6 in CCAD’s Canzani Center Gallery is Supply and Demand, an exhibition of work made with repurposed consumer goods, curated by CCAD adjunct graduate faculty member (and associate curator of contemporary art at the Columbus Museum of Art) Lisa Dent. Michael Goodson’s first curated exhibitions will be Bending the Mirror, a show about contemporary figuration opening on February 10, and home, a three-artist show of paintings and photographs about suburbia opening on March 2.

"House on Hill," by Ross Caliendo

Fine Arts alumnus Ross Caliendo (CCAD 2011) was featured in weekly newspaper Cincinnati CityBeat’s article, Art: Rites of Passage and Magnitude 7.

Caliendo’s painting is one of the 13 works on display at the exhibition, an annual show showcasing the work of college juniors, seniors, and recent graduates. Jurors selected the works from more than 381 entries from students at 88 colleges and universities.

“With my art I strive to transform our hyper-reality world, into a tangible physical form,” Caliendo said on his website. “I use paint as a way to layer multiple ideas, images, feelings, and situations into one single entity. It is much as if you were to put every frame of a movie into one image.”

For more information about Caliendo, read his blog.

Rites of Passage and Magnitude 7 can be seen at Manifest Creative Research Gallery in East Walnut Hills through June 24. Read the article in its entirety here.

Six CCAD alumni will participate in the German Village Art League's "The Language of Art."

Works by six CCAD alumni will be on display at the third annual exhibition, The Language of Art, hosted by the German Village Art League (GVAL). Participating alumni are: Illustration alumni Michael Guinane (CCAD 2000), Marc Lincewicz (CCAD 1992), and Ryan Orewiler (CCAD 2004); Fine Arts alumnae Michele Ulmer (CCAD 2005) and Molly McNitt (CCAD 2004); and Interior Design alumna Jurate Phillips (CCAD 2002).

The Language of Art features visual art complemented by poetry. Selected artworks were assigned to a poet, who produced a poem to reflect their experience with the art.

The show runs June 1-25 at The High Road Gallery in Worthington, Ohio. An opening reception and poetry reading is June 5 from 2-4:30 p.m.

To read artist biographies or to learn more about GVAL, visit their website.

The 132nd Student SHOW

CCAD’s campus was a buzz of hyper activity Friday night as thousands converged for the slew of events that were taking place.

Students, alumni, family, faculty, staff, supporters, friends, businesses, even the mayor were on hand to celebrate the college and all it stands for.

The large campus crowd was due to several celebratory events. CCAD opened its 132^nd Annual Student Exhibition, which showcases (throughout campus) the best work of the academic year. This year the exhibition included work by MFA students. As in years past the opening included screenings in the auditorium of the media studies and animation work from 6-8 p.m.

At 8 p.m. CCAD’s Alumni Relations office welcomed the class of 2011 into the ranks of alumni with a Senior Party. Red Bull made an appearance and DAGR (Walker Crane & Alex Trimpe) brought the tunes.

While all of this was going on the college was also hosting its signature fundraiser the CCAD 2011 Senior Fashion Show. This year’s event, which raises money for scholarships, included a pre-runway party and an après-runway dance party. Read all about it and see pics on the Fashion Show blog.

Find lots of pics (now and more throughout next week) on the CCAD Facebook page, the CCAD Alumni Facebook page and the fashion show blog.

Facetime by Dennis McNulty, as installed in the Canzani Center Gallery, CCAD. Courtesy of the artist and Green on Red Gallery.

It was there on the newsstands, staring out at me, just before Christmas. I still haven’t signed up for Facebook, partially because I’m a little worried about the latent potential of large mounds of data and partially because I know that I would probably become completely addicted to it. But there was something compelling about that image: Mark Zuckerberg’s blank, almost symmetrical face on the cover of Time magazine—magnetic, calm, unsettling, unreadable. Person of the Year. It seemed significant that a bastion of the old ways was paying tribute to the king of the new ways. The top-down distribution of information by self-appointed gatekeepers versus the flattened hierarchies of networked distribution. Physical objects versus invisible information on magnetic storage devices. People 1.0 versus People 2.0, as Zadie Smith would have it. But things are never that simple. I bought the magazine and read the feature.

Zuckerberg intrigues people, me included, because his motives are unclear. He doesn’t seem to be interested in money or coolness. In David Fincher’s movie The Social Network, Zuckerberg’s portrayed as a young guy trying to find a way to hook up with girls. As incredible as Aaron Sorkin’s script is, this was patently not the case in reality—but it’s clear why Sorkin felt he needed to create this motive for the leading man. Otherwise, where’s the plot? How can we identify with a character who makes choices for no discernible reason? You can imagine Jesse Eisenberg, the actor who plays Zuckerberg, standing on set asking Fincher, “Okay, so what’s my motivation?” and Fincher looking at his feet and saying, “I’ve told you before, Jesse, we don’t have any idea what your motivation is.”

Studying ancient Greek and Latin, as Zuckerberg has, usually means studying the ideas that were formulated in those languages, the ideas that form the basis of the society in which we live. Initially, Martin Schoeller’s Time cover shot reminded me of the award handed out to actors at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards—a mask that is in turn based on the masks used in classical Greek theatre. It’s static, almost symmetrical, impassive. I began to think of Zuckerberg as the king of a vast virtual city-state.

Dennis McNulty

But after reading the Time feature, I found myself coming to a different conclusion. I was intrigued by the descriptions of Zuckerberg targeting key people who were very focused on their own projects and ultimately converting them, persuading them to aid him in creating his vision of a world connected and re-ordered by Faceboook. What strikes me now is how Facebook, in its desire to re-engineer society, in many ways resembles a cult. Its software provides an ever-increasing number of users with a series of rituals and the language to accompany them—poking, writing on walls, friending and de-friending. However, if Facebook is a cult, it’s one where the figure of the charismatic leader has been replaced by one with a calm, inexpressive stare, a face-void to be filled with your own data.

Dennis McNulty is an artist based in Dublin, Ireland, whose practice is concerned with memory, potential, and flow. His work emerges from research, suggesting possible narratives through the overlapping of pieces in various media. McNulty’s extensive exhibition record includes representing Ireland at the São Paulo Bienal and participating in solo and group exhibitions in Ireland, Northern Ireland, France, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States. His 2011 works The Crash, Facetime, and Carbon Dating were commissioned by CCAD and Bureau for Open Culture for the exhibition Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven, presented at CCAD from January 27–March 12, 2011.

"San Francisco" is a part of Moran's "April Rains" exhibition

Alumnus Max Moran (CCAD 1978) showcases his rainy day paintings in his exhibition, April Rains,  at 4N Main Gallery in Southampton, New York.

“Navigating glorious sunny landscapes provides artists with ample subject matter, but I’m drawn to the element of rain because it acts like a trigger,” Moran explains on 4 North Main Gallery’s website. “It’s usually avoided, ignored, however in an urban setting there is a certain atmosphere and mood that lends itself to all kinds of interesting possibilities.”

“When it rains I fly out with my sketchbooks and sit at corner coffee shops filling them with observations and notes,” Moran continued. “Rain is a great equalizer in the city, we all need a cab at the same time, we all may feel uncomfortable, however we are all basically waterproof.  As a painter I take the opportunity to watch and sketch people as they do every day things amongst the right angels of Manhattan. Many of these observations can be seen in this exhibition of paintings.”

April Rains opened, Saturday, April 2, at 4N Main Gallery. For more information about Moran, visit his website.