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By Rachel Ellner, December 8, 2011 3:36 pm

“Art Basel is to the art world what Fashion Week is to the fashion world,” says Melissa Starke, advisor for the FIT Fine Arts club Urban Studio.  This year Urban Studio was selected to participate in Art Basel Miami Beach, a contemporary art exhibition held every December since 2002. Art Basel is referred to as the “Olympics of the art world.”

Urban Studio created and installed a 16-foot sculpture, partially submerged in a pool of water, for ArtNow/Red Dot Art Fair, an exhibition site at Art Basel.

"Stroke and Poke" installation by Urban Studio

The installation is ingeniously held by sand bags attached to the bottom of the sculpture and strung by cable at the top to adjacent roof tops.  Its concept comes from “Schopenhauer’s Porcupine,” a book by Deborah Anna Luepnitz, which explores the “push-pull of intimacy and its dilemmas,” says Starke. The porcupine, with its “protective spikes,”  is the metaphor for the contradictions of human intimacy.

"Stroke and Poke"installation being hoisted by Urban Studio members

Students Brittany Gray and Eric Gottshall, along with sculpture technician Pansum Cheng, lift the sculpture into the water.

“It’s an extraordinary experience for the students to have this ‘hands-on’ opportunity to work on an endeavor of such enormous prestige. It helps them see the connection between their studio practice and what actually happens in the art world,” says Starke.

Urban studio participant Eric Gottshall got the connection.  “It proved to be the moment where our education met the real world playing field,” said Gottshall. “I’ve never been part of a collective where the universal strive for creating something new and different was more of the essence. Because of it, this experience will always stand out in my life.”

photos provided by Melissa Starke

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By Rachel Ellner, November 17, 2011 2:46 pm

“The filmmaker shows the way artists think and work to overcome obstacles and get past their struggles. Artists work their way through things…It verifies what art students are doing,”

- Stephanie DeManuelle, Chair of Fine Arts

On Monday November 14, a film screening of  “The Art of Stephanie DeManuelle,” was held in a lecture room packed with students and faculty.  The film shows DeManuelle in her studios in New York and the Adirondacks. It includes interviews with gallerists and another artist.

“I am thrilled with the discussion the film inspired,” says DeManuelle. “I knew that the filmmaker, Robert DiMaio, had an idea of what artists do. He has made 60 of these films. He envisions using films about artists to show in schools.  The filmmaker shows the way artists think and work to overcome obstacles and get past their struggles. It’s an excellent model for school kids.”

The approximately 10 minute film can be seen by clicking on the embedded link: “The Art of Stephanie DeManuelle.”

Art work used with permission.