fresh faces in our window

the GCA window is on 44th St between 5th & 6th Avenues, now featuring a selection of portraits by students in the core program

Reminder: Upcoming Deadlines!

Mt. Washington by Gamaliel Beaman

Hudson River Fellowship Applications due January 31! (next Tuesday)
For details on the fellowship and it's move to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, click here!
To download an application, click here.

First year student, Adrienne Stanger, drawing a feature cast.

Water Street Atelier/Core Program Applications due April 1!
For details on our four-year, full-time program, click here! For an application, click here. 
Scholarships: In addition to 4 annual scholarships awarded for academic excellence in cast drawing, block-in and figure works, one new full scholarship will be awarded to a promising incoming student.
Financial Assistance: Students may apply for any open work study positions after they have been at GCA at least 6 months. Positions are awarded balancing financial need with skill and seniority. The award is half tuition.
Questions/Visits: email Justine at grandcentralacademy@gmail.com

Finalist Lori Shorin sculpting on Competition Day 2, June 2011.

5th Annual Figure Sculpture Competition Applications are due April 1!
This year's competition takes place June 11-15, 2012 in the GCA Sculpture Studio.
For details and to apply, click here!

Peter Trippi Lecture Jan 25th at GCA

Please join us on Wednesday, January 25 from 5-6 pm for a lecture by Fine Art Connoisseur editor Peter Trippi:

Not Just Impressionism: A Broader Look at European Painting 1880-1900

Almost everybody seems to admire Monet, Renoir, and the other French Impressionists, and well they should.  Yet there was a whole lot more going on in Western European painting during the Imps’ heyday.  In this illustrated talk, former Dahesh Museum of Art director Peter Trippi stands back to compare and contrast the disparate movements and schools thriving in the very late 19^th century from Dublin to Moscow, from Helsinki to Valencia.  Since it would be impossible to explore these regions in any depth within one hour, his discussion will offer instead a contextual framework that today’s artists can use to better understand their 19th-century forerunners, then pursue their own in-depth investigations.

 Photo caption

Wilhelm Leibl (German, 1844-1900)

Three Women in Church

1881, Oil on canvas, 44 ½ x 30 ½ in.

Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

GCA lectures are open and free to the public!
RSVP: grandcentralacademy@gmail.com

New Continuing Education Classes at the ICA

A new schedule was just posted for the ICA's continuing education classes.  To read the full class descriptions and to register, click here.

Theory of Proportion: A Perennial Pathway of Beauty   

1 Session Intensive: Saturday, February 11, 2012; 10:00am–1:00pm; 2:30pm–5:30pm

 

Proportion in Practice

4 evening sessions: Wednesdays, February 29–March 21, 2012; 6:30pm–9:00pm

 

Introduction to Linear Perspective

1 weekend Session: Saturday, March 10, 2012; 10:00am–1:00pm; 2:00pm–5:00pm

 

Traditional Drafting by Hand

6 evening sessions: Tuesdays and Thursdays, March 13–29, 2012; 6:30–9:00pm

 

Reading Vitruvius

5 weekend sessions: Saturdays, March 24, 31, April 14, 21, 28, 2012; 10am–1pm

 

Overview of Molding Types and Drawing the Tuscan Order

1 weekend session: Saturday, May 19, 2012; 9am–2pm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save the Date! Upcoming Group Show at Chelsea's Joshua Liner Gallery!

Nouveau Red by Tony Curanaj, 2011, Oil on Canvas, 18 x 36 in.

Resolve, a group show curated by Tony Curanaj, opens on January 26 at the Joshua Liner Gallery in NYC! The show runs from January 26-February 25, 2012.

Opening reception: Thursday, January 26, 6–9 PM
Address: 548 West 28th Street, 3rd Fl.
To read the full press release, click here!
(Excerpt from press release...)
The show includes work by twenty-five artists (twenty-two painters, two sculptors and one photographer) " . . . whose work is rooted in classical art traditions and training . . . and expresses a collective interest in classical art forms with a variety of distinct and decidedly contemporary voices."

The artists:
Anthony Waichulis, Brad Kunkle, Christopher Gallego, Dan Thompson, David Kassan, Edward Minoff, Graydon Parrish, Jacob Collins, Jacob A. Pfeiffer, Jefferson Hayman, Jeremy Mann, Kate Lehman, Kim Cogan, Kris Kuksi, Kris Lewis, Lee Misenheimer, Michael Grimaldi, Rob Leecock, Scott Waddell, Shawn Smith, Shawn Barber, Steven Assael, Tony Curanaj, Travis Schlaht, and Will Wilson. 


Note: Tony was at GCA teaching still life students, and reports that it's a thrill to see the actual pieces as they come in. He'll begin hanging the show soon & hopes to talk a student or two into helping him!


Scroll down to view a few of the works:

Studio Interior by Chris Gallego, 2009, Oil on Canvas, 51x49 in.

Interior III by Jacob Collins, Oil on Canvas, 12x16, 2009.

Untamed by Edward Minoff, Oil and Gold Leaf on Linen, 24x36.

Portrait of Trinette by Michael Grimaldi, 2011, Oil, Tempera on Canvas, 18x14 in.

New American Wing Opens at the MET

While GCA studios were closed on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. - many students, faculty and staff were at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the opening of it's New American Wing.

Some observations:

"The new main room with Washington Crossing the Delaware, and work by Frederic Edwin Church & Albert Bierstadt was breathtaking. I particularly enjoyed that they included some of Church's plein air studies next to the larger paintings." 

Joshua LaRock

"I spent all morning with the landscape paintings, I love being able to see Church's plein air studies alongside his larger studio paintings. I also discovered some new favorites I haven't seen before."

Emilie Lee

"When I walked into a room with multiple life size John Singer Sargent paintings that have been hiding from NYC's proud painting population, I was shocked! The collection is stunning."

Liz Beard

Check Out Jacob Collins' Interview in The New Criterion!

The New Criterion's David Yezzi interviewed Jacob Collins about his life, work and the world of figurative art. Here are some fun excerpts from the December 2011 issue:

(For the full interview, click here!) 

On working from photographs:

Here's one thing that people say about using photographs: "It's just a tool, You should use all the tools...whatever tools there are you should use. You need to do this job and you want to do it as well as you can and you use all the tools." That then connects to the Old Masters, who used all the tools in the toolbox, any tools in their toolbox they would have used--that's a perfectly fine argument.

What I would say is this: They didn’t have the tools, and that’s why they invented the form they invented. It would be a little bit like saying that you’re deeply into kung fu, and you love kung fu so much. You revere its form, its practitioners, and its history. You show up at your kung fu match, and there’s the guy you think is so great. Then some other guy shows up, and he pulls out a revolver and he shoots your guy, and you say, “What the hell are you doing?” He says “Well, I won, didn’t I?” You say, “Well, that wasn’t kung fu!” And he says, “Come on, it’s just the tools, and I’m using all the tools at my disposal.”

 It’s a ridiculous example, but you might say then “You can’t just bring this in.” They might say, “Well, you’re so hidebound, caught up in your idea of what the rules are; you need to let go and use whatever tools are at your disposal.” You say “That’s ridiculous, that’s not kung fu.” Then they might say, “Look, the inventors of kung fu would have used the gun if they’d had it,” and they would have. That’s a perfectly valid argument. What they were trying to do was defeat the other guy. At that point you have to say, “What is it I love?” I don’t love beating the other guy up. I love the practice of the form, and the way that the guy I think is so great practices the form.

On photo-realism: 
The aesthetic that arose from those old studio practices can still be approached laterally by the use of photography. Inevitably, though, the new practices lead to a new aesthetic. For me, after a short time (and it’s happening fast), those pictures look more and more photo-ey. It’s not something that I could even say is a bad thing. It’s interesting: it relates to magazine ads. It feels modern; it feels like a traditionalist postmodernism. It doesn’t have that sort of stuffy feeling that I love so much, that stodgy, old-fashioned, awkward humanism. It feels like it’s sort of snappier, and I can see why a lot of people like it. I can see why a lot of collectors like it and why a lot of dealers want to really go with it. 

On painting self-portraits:

The funny thing about a self-portrait is: I’m always looking at my work and having a roller coaster of anxiety about whether I’m doing something that’s really beautiful or really successful or powerful. And then, with the self-portrait, the problem is that I’m looking at the work and I’m judging myself as well. I’m looking at the guy who did it. And so when I’m feeling like “This is just awful, what horrible person would make something as debased and horrible-looking as this,” and then there he is! 

 Here's an older self-portrait we had on hand in the office. Looking forward to seeing the new one!

(For the full interview, click here!) 

Bon Voyage Chris Waddell!

Goodbye to Chris with Coffee & Donuts!

Chris Waddell, one of our beloved sculpture teachers, is leaving his teaching post at the GCA for a new job in Portland, Oregon. Chris, who has also been working at Studio Eis here in New York, was hired by Laika, one of the world's premier stop-motion animation studios.  He is excited to for 'the breath of fresh air - literally, and for the space to set loose his three young boys. He will miss his eclectic work life in New York where the people, and the work, continually taught him new things.'

Chris has taught cast sculpture to four sets of first year students in our full-time program. He has served the GCA well, introducing our new students into the world of sculpting, and welcoming them to the school with his friendly sense of humor.

His students will continue their studies with our figure sculpture teacher, Jiwoong, Cheh. They will join third and fourth year students currently sculpting the figure. On a related note, as a result of Chris leaving, GCA alumn Angela Cunningham, has been hired by Studio Eis on a project basis.

Salmagundi Club Opening Reception Tonight

"Laurelside Afternoon" 10"x8" oil on canvas, by Emilie Lee 2011

I hope you don't mind this shameless self-promotion, but I wanted to share that I have five paintings in a show that opens tonight at the Salmagundi Club.  These plein air paintings were all done on last summer's Hudson River Fellowship. You can see all five on my personal blog here.

The opening reception is from 6-8 PM
The show runs until January 20th
The Salmagundi Club gallery is open to the public and it is located at 47 5th Ave, New York, NY.  Regular Hours are Monday - Friday 1-6 PM and 1-5 PM on weekends.

ACOPAL Members Show!

Paintings by three GCA teachers are on view through February 27 in an ACOPAL Members Exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. Congratulations to Edward Minoff, Tony Curanaj, and Josh LaRock! ACOPAL stands for American China Oil Painting Artists League. The organization is a nonprofit dedicated to building a creative and philosophical exchange between artists living in the United States and those living in China. The exchange programs allow artists to travel to either place to share ideas, methods and techniques. Scroll down to view the paintings on view by Ted, Josh and Tony.

Tortured Sea, by Edward Minoff, Oil and Gold Leaf on Linen, 24 x 36"

Portrait of the Artist's Wife, by Joshua LaRock, Oil on Linen, 18 x 15"

Pop Art, by Tony Curanaj, Oil on Panel, 8 x 6"