Boston University students were shown new ways to create art without boundaries at a lecture Wednesday.
Sculptor and mixed media artist Alyson Shotz discussed her fascination with space, light and perception at Morse Auditorium. The lecture was a part of the College of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts’ Contemporary Perspective Lecture Series, which features talks by painters, sculptors, printmakers, graphic designers, art educators and art critics.
‘The whole idea is to bring artists to explain and express their work,’ said CFA School of Visual Arts Director and professor of art Lynne Allen. ‘That helps our students figure out how to interpret their own work.’
‘[Shotz] creates spatial volume without mass, combining drawing and sculpture, the beauty of a line marries its physical movement almost defining air,’ Allen said.
Shotz said she is interested in creating art that is somewhat unknowable. The Brooklyn, New York resident uses mediums that change with lighting and position, such as lenses, mirrors and other reflective materials, and questions the boundaries of positive and negative space. As a result, her work becomes interactive.
‘I have been spending the last few years thinking about space,’ Shotz said. ‘I think it’s one of the most crucial elements a sculptor has to think about because we’re living in space; space links all matter, as does time and change.’
Shotz’s work has been displayed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.
During her lecture, she showed a slideshow of her major sculptural works and installations and talked about how her art has evolved conceptually.
Shotz said she uses mediums that dictate her art. In ‘The Structure of Light,’ piano wires strung with thousands of glass beads hang from the ceiling as gravity shapes the material.
Many BU students had positive responses to Schotz’s lecture.
‘The lectures are a great opportunity for students to see the work of a variety of different artists that are well-established and have good reputations,’ said CFA first-year graduate student Annabel Osberg. ‘There’s a lot to be learned.’
CFA sophomore Eunice Yeung agreed.
‘It’s part of a learning experience,’ she said. ‘I’m trying to broaden my scope in terms of medium and topic and use it for my own artwork.’
CFA junior Kaylee Dombrowski said she enjoyed the lecture because it helped her view other types of materials used in art.
‘As a sculptor, I think the most interesting part is just seeing the different materials used,’ she said. ‘In painting, it’s pretty straight forward, whereas in sculpture, you can really use anything you want.’
CFA junior Katherine Otlowski also learned from Shotz’s style.
‘I learned that you don’t have to know what you want to do when you’re an undergrad, and that it can always change,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t matter what degree you have as long as you’re interested in everything and all materials.’
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