Alums - SAIC
Tony Favarula
artist statement:
My work is based on the physical and psychological effects of social interaction and being in the world, manifested within the comfort of one’s own home. Everyday moments become templates for photographic reenactments where tension is heightened through the stripping away of superfluous, extraneous details. This yields an image devoid of all but hints of the original encounter, allowing the viewer to identify with the visual cues based on their own experiences and expectations. Maintaining a specific mise-en-scene through repetition and staging the images call into question our awareness of the everyday and the reality that presents itself. These images are an externalized response to social experience from within the modern nuclear family.
what do you love about the MFA program at SAIC?
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a place for me not just to continuously make work, but also to discuss depth, complexity, and potential in contemporary art through philosophy, cultural critique, and art history. The photography department specifically addresses current uses of the medium and constantly pushes the bounds of the photographic. The school encourages dialog among and between artists and instructors from a wide range of backgrounds and practice.
graduation date: May 2012
Kelly K. Jones
http://www.kellykristinjones.com/
artist statement:
Images are made of family and neighbors in North Lawndale, my home on the west side of Chicago. Photographs are taken in abandoned lots within the community. The formal portraits serve to mark this empty space while also honoring the subject.
This work is about reciprocity and mutuality, but also elements of uncertainty and power that underline the camera’s limitations. Images do not try to offer an unadulterated “truth”; rather they are carefully framed and composed portraits for the camera. My friends and family are aware of my presence and each image is the result of a self-conscious exchange between subject and photographer. The photographs strike a delicate balance between intimacy and distance, giving and taking.
What do you love about the MFA program at SAIC?
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago's MFA program has allowed me the incredible opportunity to work one-on-one wit faculty members across departments and fine artists in the area. Studio visits with advisors have been incredibly valuable and constructive and these exchanges have led to remarkable changes in my thinking and my practice.
graduation date: May 2012
Alex Zhang
artist statement:
I trust my intuition.
Capture photos of different subject matters.
Print them in various scales.
And show them together.
The images reflect moments of different complex emotional state my heart echoes with.
The images are autonomous individually, while gaining resonance through adjacency.
what do you love about the MFA program at SAIC?
1) In this totally interdisciplinary art school with no grading system, you enjoy the total freedom as an artist: you can make anything, choose advisors from different background, attend classes throughout the whole school.
2) It's a highly conceptual program. Critical thinking is demanded and emphasized (especially in photography department). It doesn't mean you need to make conceptual art, but the criticality gained through the vigorous training here will benefit all aspects of your art-making, even benefit all the non-art aspects of your whole life.
3) It's in Chicago, a world-class city with great resources, but stays highly accessible.
graduation date: May 2012
