AND THE AWARDS JUST KEEP ON COMING!



The finished product!



Isabel Kennedy, Alicia Calderon, Sharon Gardell, Vernola Brooks, Lisa Samuelsson and Juan Russo

Cathy Hobbs (4th from left)  presenting check to group-Tory Jones is at right

Alicia Calderon and Isabel Kennedy.  Anthony Caradonna in background (left)

Ten Ai New York City Interior Design Students under the direction of instructor Tory Jones and Interior Design Department Chair Anthony Caradonna recently competed in a design competition sponsored by the Sofitel hotel chain.  Contestants submitted their sketches for a chic holiday design to grace the Manhattan property's lobby.  Ai New York City was selected for their winning design!   Students were given $13,500 budget to create the design (in the campus' Gallery annex outside Career Services), which they did entirely from the ground up!

On December 6, our students were honored by the hotel at the unveiling of their finished work.  Cathy Hobbs from HGTV's "Design Star" and former "Real Houswives of New York City" celebrity Jill Zarin of Zarin Fabrics were present at the celebration.  Ms. Hobbs presented the group with a large check for their efforts! 

The Sofitel is located at 45 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan.  If you are in the area next week, check it out!

Check out the photos above! 

Our congratulations go out to:

Isabel Kennedy
Brian DiPaolo
Sharon Gardell
Lisa Samuelsson
Rochelle Daire
David Williams
Alicia Calderon
Jessica Willias
Vernola Brooks
Juan Russo
Tory Jones (Ai New York City Faculty)
Anthony Caradonna (Department Chair) 

We are all very proud!

LAST WEEK FOR "MARROW IN THE MARROWS" SHOW

Ai New York City faculty Zachary Fabri's first solo show "Marrow In the Marrows" will be closing tomorrow, December 14, 2012.  The show is at Third Streaming Gallery, located at 10 Greene Street, 2nd Floor in Manhattan.  If you haven't seen it yet ... you have this evening until 6 p.m. and from noon to 6 p.m. tomorrow.  An Art Papers review of the show appears below:

"ZACHARY FABRI

NEW YORK - Marrow in the Morrows - September 13-November 9, 2012 is the first U.S.solo offering from Zachary Fabri on view at Third Streaming. At the forefront of the works are questions of history and place as it relates to the black social and political body. In a series of photographic, video, and performance-based works, Fabri addresses gesture, space, and time in a series of both public and intimate displays of signs and symbols of black consciousness. By moving through the work from text to body to symbol, Fabri creates a system by which the viewer can access these ideas in a progressively more complex and personal way.

Upon entering the gallery, one sees a set of text-based pieces. The words "The Political Destiny of the Colored Race on the American Continent" are displayed in the print edition titled lorem ipsum Martin Delany 1854, 2012.The quotation of Delany is a nod to the theoretical roots that predate Marcus Garvey.One could think of this work as prototypes of black nationalism re-presented in a slick contemporary forma t, a nee-broadside resem­ bling advertising by American Apparel or some other chic brand fused with the history of black consciousness. The term "lorem ipsum" is a reference to placeholder text used by graphic designers. This ironic shift in the presentation of these ideas offers an opportunity toques­ tion their validity in a contemporary world. One cannot help but think of the larger status of these ideas beyond an advertising/design context. Are they simply place­ holders for what has gone before, or will black national­ istic ideas continue to generate meaning in a post­ Obama America?

Issues of economy and commerce are explored in the short video The Big Payback, 2009.This short vignette is a snapshot of street vendors on the iconic 125th Street in Harlem, New York.Fabri's camera captures a moment wherein two men are dancing to James Brown's The Payback. Superimposed over their moment of revelry are words that follow the graphical look of the Martin Delany poster. The words Buy Black People are rephrased into different contexts, eventually stating Bye-Bye Black People. What starts out as a prescription of economic soildarity gives way to the reality of gentrification as well as the fragile status of black economies in New York City, in which a participation in the wider economy is at best basic. These are street vendors who are actually not sell­ ing anything. They are participating fully in a joyful moment of black self-determination (a nationalist flag,a James Brown song, a pro Robert Mugabe poster. and I even spot a bean pie among the vendors wares).But one cannot help but be overwhelmed even without the text that Fabri provides that this scene exists in an economy of lack.

How can one "Buy Black" and still account for the multiplicities of lack? On one hand there is a very real black president,but with the upcomingelection looming, we are forced to ask if a Black president is a subject for a future reality, or will the past four years become a fetishistic memory. Even if the latter is true, how do we reconcile a position of such absolute power and prestige with day-to-day struggles of unemployment and under­ employment in communities of color? Fabri inserts into this narrative an investigation of our shared fascination with the speculations of black presidents. In the photo­ graphic works Aureola Dennis Haysbert, 2012, and Aureola Richard Pryor, 2012, we are presented with a re-presentation of a representation. These photos are all snapped from computer screens, using an external light source that partially obscures each image taken from a film or television source. Beyond their original media context, these pieces allude to Buy Black in that Fabri is for all intents and purposes bootlegging the source mate­rial. These "bootleg" presidents exist in the popular imagination and never have to contend with Birthers, the Tea Party, or a Republican congress. They are simulta­neously hyper-political and apoliticaL It is unfortunate that more pieces from thsi series could not be displayed, as it seems that the various source materials create a very interesting dialogue.

Much more personal, but by no means out of place are a series of nine photographs titled Futon, Nine Events, 2006/2012.These photos ride the line between a photographic narra tive and performance documentation. In the photos,Fabriis in varying states of interaction with a futon mattress in an apartment. tn the context of the other works in the show, one cannot help but read into the ethereal, barely visible bodies as a dwindling subject, both out of focus and unfixed. This piece relates to the photo series next to it, An Apparent Wind, 2006/2012,a series of five photographs of a black flag blowing by a window.The photos were taken in Budapest as a gesture of mourning for a political figure. The black flag blowing in the breeze operates both as a symbol of mourningand as a political call to action. Is this the black flag of anar­ chy? Mourning? Blackness? Are these symbols of mourn­ ing for the bodies in the Nine Events photos? Fabri's Hungarian/Jamaican background complicates the posi­ tion one occupies in relation to these symbols. His concern is less about a specific path for black conscious­ ness to take than it is about continuing the dialogue beyond the bounds of the current political moment. The work is neither pre.scriplive, nor prophetic, but what is offered is a meditation that becomes increasingly complex and personal in relation to the twofold meaning of the show's title. "Marrow" refers to bone marrow, the sluff of blood and its symbolic attachment to the black folks (i.e. the one drop rule) while "Morrows" is a refer­ ence to an unspecified future."

-Wayne Hodge

INSIDE FRONT COVER:Zachary Fabri.Aureola Richard Pryor. 2012, pigment pnnt,35 x 54 inches I ABOVE,LEFT TO RIGHT:Zachary Fabri,lorem tpsum Martm Delaney 1854, 2012,instal­lation.40 x 40 inches; Zachary Fabri still from video The Big Payback, 2009, single channelvideo (images courtesy of the artist and Third Streaming,New York)

ART PAPERS (p. 58) Future Antenor

Zachary is also exhibiting in three other shows in New York, and Houston, Texas:

• The DODGEgallery on Rivington Street ("Bigger Than Shadows") until December 22 http://dodge-gallery.com/cgi-bin/DODGE?s=exhibitions&v=201281313142550918506805724,
• The Studio Museum in Harlem ("Fore") until March 10, 2013 http://www.studiomuseum.org/exhibition/fore and
• Contemporary Arts Museum Houston ("Radical Presence:  Black Performance in Contemporary Art")until February 15, 2013 http://www.camh.org/exhibitions/current

Congratulations Zachary! 

OPEN STUDIO AND HOLIDAY SALE THIS WEEKEND

Ai New York City faculty member SuZen will be hosting an Open Studio/Holiday Sale this Saturday and Sunday, December 15 and 16 from 2:00-6:00 p.m. (or by appointment).  The show and sale will be held at the Westbeth artists' building, 55 Bethune Street (#D816) in Manhattan.  Westbeth is one block south of West 12th Street on the corner of Washington Street. 

SuZen will be showing new, never before seen photographs and friends will be exhibiting jewelry, books, artwear, scarves and t-shirts. Refreshments will be served. A portion of the sales will go to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy.

So what are you waiting for?  Time to cross off a few more names on that holiday list, view some great art and help victims of Sandy at the same time ... a winning combination!

BASECREATE BAZAAR THIS THURSDAY & FRIDAY!

Ai New York City faculty member Trina Morris couldn't be more pleased and excited for her FM220 students who created their own fantasy (in-class) public relations and special-events firm called Press Play, which is comprised of three teams: Event Production, Visuals/Merchandising and Public Relations. 

The Ai New York City students making up the aforementioned three teams are: 

• Public Relations Team Ashley Luiso, Iris Caldwell, Silvia Chan Wan Yi, Quisha Joacin, Myesha Banks and Liz Jimenez.
• Event Production Team
  Magdala Casimir, Shirley Salvi, Dorothy Cineus, Jacqueline Farrara and Kaya Glenn. 
• Visual Merchandising Team
  Jessica Faria, Dikesh Webster, Victoria Abercrombie, Naomi Fell, Michal Guzman and
  Valaria Willis. 

Trina let her students run with the project and everyone will see the fruits of their labors "BaseCreate-The AiNYC Holiday Bazaar" in the Ai New York City Gallery starting this Thursday, December 6 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and concludes on Friday, December 7 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 

The Bazaar will feature unique student/faculty-made gifts, music and treats from their corporate sponsor, Panera Bread; pitched and confirmed by the class' student production team!  Students who participated in Mercedes Benz Fashion Week will also be in the spotlight at this event.  The students incorporated social media into their event planning and you can view the profiles on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Google Plus.

The students are also reaching out to those in our community who were affected by Hurricane Sandy and are accepting donations of NEW toiletries, diapers, baby wipes, infant/toddler clothes, towels, warm clothing as well as non-perishable food and canned goods. 

Trina Morris said "I am honored to be teaching this PR and Special Events class.  My students learn key principles and techniques that are meaningful to their professional development.  They can reference and apply them during internships, and well into their desired careers.  This special event, BaseCreate Holiday Bazaar, is indeed a reflection of how creative, collective and promising AiNYC students are.  I'm super proud of them!"  "... I'm telling you, these students are ON IT!!  They make my heart go pitter-pat! ..."

Please support their efforts and check out the Bazaar this Thursday and/or Friday!  The Bazaar is open to all and purchases made at the bazaar are cash only.

Congratulations to all who made this event possible ... you all worked so hard and we are all very proud of you!