Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Courtesy PhotoThe Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present this fall “Chance Aesthetics,” a major loan exhibition examining the use of chance in modern art. The exhibition is the first of four major shows slated for the 2009-10 academic year.

In an unstable world chance events can seem to threaten our claims to self-determination. Yet in the early 20th century avant-garde artists embraced chance as a primary compositional principle. This fall the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present Chance Aesthetics, a major loan exhibition examining the use of chance in modern art. The exhibition is the first of four major shows slated for the 2009-10 academic year.

Installation artist Allison Smith will serve as the inaugural Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Smith is known for creating large-scale works that critically engage popular forms of historical reenactment along with crafts and other traditional cultural conventions to redo, restage and refigure historical memories. Launched in partnership with Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the Freund Visiting Artist program joins a similar collaboration between the Sam Fox School and the Saint Louis Art Museum, which was initiated in 1995.

The Saint Louis Art Museum and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis jointly announce the selection of artists Bruce Yonemoto and Ian Monroe as the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellows for the academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11, respectively. The Freund Fellowship consists of two month-long residencies in the Sam Fox School’s Graduate School of Art and a Currents exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The collaboration was established in 1995.

Courtesy PhotoThe Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present its annual MFA Thesis Exhibition in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum beginning Friday, May 8. The exhibition features thesis projects by 27 master of fine arts candidates in the Graduate School of Art.

Hye Young Kim, *Awakening Moment I*The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present its annual MFA Thesis Exhibition in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum May 8 to July 27. The exhibition will feature thesis projects by 27 master of fine arts candidates in the Sam Fox School’s Graduate School of Art. Works will explore a wide range of thematic territory, from formal concerns to social issues, ecological simulations and scientific research. Media include painting, printmaking and sculpture as well as photography, video and site-specific installation.

Beginning May 8, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will showcase “Rirkrit Tiravanija: Chew the Fat,” a multifaceted video installation that together profiles a loose-knit group of 12 internationally known artists.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts honored six outstanding architecture and art alumni at its second annual Awards for Distinction dinner April 23.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will honor six outstanding architecture and art alumni at its second annual Awards for Distinction dinner April 23. Recipients will include Ralph Cunningham (BA 1983), Ann Fertig Freedman (BFA 1971), Tom Friedman (BFA 1988) and Harry C. Kendall (BA 1978). In addition, Sara Velas (BFA 1999) will receive the 2009 Young Alumni Award. Judy Pfaff (FA71) will receive the Dean’s Medal for distinguished service to the school.

Rirkrit Tiravanija creates spare yet provocative installations designed to blur lines between art and life, transforming galleries and museums into ephemeral social spaces for cooking meals, playing music and hanging out. Beginnin in May the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will showcase one recent project with its exhibition Rirkrit Tiravanija: Chew the Fat, a multifaceted video installation that together profiles a loose-knit group of 12 internationally known artists.