Sunday, February 12, 2012


Michael Salter, Associate Professor of Digital Arts at the University of Oregon, is an artist concerned with the proliferation of graphic icons that are used in contemporary advertising, invading all public space.  With a background in sculpture and graphic design, his art work today includes electronic media, paintings and sculptures, including giant robots made from discarded Styrofoam computer packaging.  Sponsored by a Marsico Visiting Scholars Grant, Salter gave a lecture on his work on Thursday, February 16 to a full crowd in the HyperCube on the third floor.  He worked earlier in the week with eMAD students to produce a wall of his designs rendered in vinyl. 
      He has shown his art nationally and internationally in Brussels, New York, L.A., Portland, London, Amsterdam, Miami, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Seattle, Atlanta and Chicago. His work has been featured in Art In AmericaBest Art NY 2009Dot Dot DashPictoplasma2Grab MagazineArkitip MagazineRepellent Magazine, and LoDown Magazine.  



Thursday, February 2, 2012

DU SAAH Faculty Triennial




As students spilled out of class, a crowd had already gathered for the opening of the School of Art and Art History's Faculty Triennial. There was a great mix of excited students, experienced artists and dedicated art lovers - snacking and imbibing as they perused the incredible offerings of DU's faculty. A scan of the room quickly reveals the skill, creativity, and unique perspective of the instructors. This inspiring show was deftly curated and designed by Dan Jacobs and his gallery staff, grad students Anna Estes and Nessa Kerr. Students do not grow without the knowledge and inspiration of their teacher, so it is a great opportunity to celebrate the art of these important motivators. 

Marsico Visiting Artist Toni Mosely's Workshop: Creating Prints with DU Students


Toni arrived on Tuesday January 10 and started by setting up that afternoon. Catherine Chauvin's "Experiences in the Visual Arts" class helped her mix ink. It was a typical snowy Wednesday in Denver, the perfect day for the Workshop to start. First, the "Screen Print" class created rubbings all around the Shwayder Art Building. These became the base of several photo-screen prints which were used as the base of prints created by workshop participants. They then used the screens to print their own textures, layering hand cut stencils on top. Since the class used this method in their assignments, the preview of this tricky process helped immensely. 


On Thursday, Susan Meyer brought in two drawing classes to participate in the workshop. The first class had beginning students who used the textures and hand cut stencils to create their prints. Then, the intermediate class used a water based monotype process in order to have a more drawing-based experience. The day flew by with many students stopping by from 2-D Foundations to Advanced Problems, all looking forward to making prints. By the time Catherine’s Experiences in the Visual Arts class met, they found all the ink they had mixed had been used!  They decided to make a group piece – based on an Exquisite Corpse and each of them printed an individual piece as well.  All in all, over 50 people participated in the workshop, all printing in one day.  After that, Toni was “a bit knackered”  (exhausted) for her talk that evening – but it was well attended and she shared with the students a different view of artmaking and maintaining a studio practice wherever you go!


By Catherine Chauvin

Hamilton Visiting Artist Rupprecht Matthies' Public Lecture

On Monday October 17 at 6 pm Rupprecht Matthies delivered a public lecture on his work. The lecture was in the HyperCube space, located in Shwayder Art Building (top Floor).  Rupprecht Matthies was the third in the series of Hamilton Visiting Artists.  Thanks to the generosity of the Hamilton Family Fund, the Visiting Artists program has created opportunities for students to work with internationally recognized professional artists, while also strengthening the ties between the School of Art and Art History and the Denver Art Museum, where these artists are also doing installations or giving additional lectures. 
Rupprecht Matthies’ work focuses on communication and discussion. He considers himself a mediator and concentrates on words that express life, or that signify something important, or that are simply the favorite words of his subjects. Using the power of each remark, he creates an installation that ultimately distills the desires of humankind.


While in Denver, he re-interpreted his installation "¿Being Home?" from the Embrace exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, for a new exhibition opening November 12, 2011. In addition, he conducted workshops at Centro San Juan Diego and at DU - where students, community, faculty, and staff were welcomed to participate.

We want to thank the Hamilton Family Foundation for their generosity in sponsoring this Visiting Artist series.

Link to the an article about Matthies from DU Today