Renowned artist Nick Cave to serve as UNT's artist-in-residence
2009
Human hair, knitted yarn, metal armature
Photo by James Prinz, Chicago, Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Internationally renowned visual and performance artist Nick Cave, whose work has been called "Must Be Seen to Be Believed" by the New York Times, will serve as the artist-in-residence for the University of North Texas Institute for the Advancement of the Arts in the 2011-2012 academic year.
Cave will visit UNT twice in the fall and twice in the spring to work with students, faculty members and community members in master classes, workshops and public lectures.
Cave, who studied at UNT in the 1980s, also has been commissioned by the UNT Art Galleries and the institute to create a new performance piece that will take place on campus in the spring with collaborative partners from the College of Music, Department of Dance and Theatre and other UNT arts programs. The piece will incorporate 30 newly created Soundsuits in the shapes of horse-like forms that move through campus and evolve into hybrid beings. Cave is renowned for his elaborate Soundsuits sculptures -- wearable art made of such items as twigs, beads, sequins, Easter grass and dryer lint. When worn, his Soundsuits envelop the body, making sounds as the materials brush together.
"Nick Cave's residency and performance are significant for students as opportunities to interact with an artist who will not only share his extensive experience, but also allow students to participate as collaborators," said Tracee Robertson, UNT Art Galleries director. "This is an opportunity for students from different arts disciplines and colleges to engage with each other through their own aesthetic languages and approaches in creating a unified work of art. The strength and breadth of the arts at UNT have uniquely prepared us for this experience."
In addition, Cave will be the featured speaker at the annual Nasher Lecture Series presented by the UNT College of Visual Arts and Design at 7 p.m. Oct. 11 (Tuesday) at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.
About Nick Cave
Cave has had numerous one-person exhibitions, including a large traveling exhibition, Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth, organized by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in 2009 and featured at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and Fowler Museum, University of California Los Angeles, Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, Fla., and at the Seattle Art Museum. Cave received the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in 2008, the Artadia Award, the United States Artist Award and the Joyce Foundation Joyce Award in 2006, Creative Capital Grants in 2004 and 2002, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 2001. His work is in many public art collections, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Portland Art Museum in Oregon, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, N.Y., among others. Cave is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York and will have his third solo exhibition there in September 2011.
Cave earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1981 and a master of fine arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., in 1988, after beginning graduate studies in 1984 at UNT, where he worked with professors Vincent Falsetta in painting and Shigeko Spear in fibers. Cave also was trained as a dancer by the renowned Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.
About the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts
Launched in October 2009, the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts (IAA) aims to showcase, support and advance excellence in the visual, performing and creative literary arts at UNT, among its faculty members and in conjunction with their renowned colleagues and collaborators.
The three central components of the Institute are UNT on the Square, the IAA Faculty Fellows program and the IAA Artist-in-Residence program. Previous artists-in-residence are filmmaker Guillermo Arriaga (2009-2010) and composer Jake Heggie (2010-2011).
The IAA is an initiative of the offices of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. Participating colleges include the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Visual Arts and Design and College of Music.
For information about the institute and related activities, contact Herbert Holl, director of the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts, at 940-369-8257 or herbert.holl@unt.edu.
About the UNT Art Galleries
Part of the UNT College of Visual Arts and Design, the UNT Art Galleries support the educational mission of the university, enrich the aesthetic environment of the community and serve as a cultural resource for the public at large. Through their focus on curatorial projects involving vanguard contemporary art, the galleries challenge and promote the current discourse surrounding living artists and their works.
For information about involving classrooms or community groups in the residencies and performance, please contact Tracee Robertson, director of the UNT Art Galleries, at 940-369-8914 or tracee.robertson@unt.edu.
UNT News Service Phone Number: (940) 565-2108
Latest News
Four faculty members and four students from UNT's College of Education were honored at the American Counseling Association’s annual conference in Cincinnati. In addition, the UNT chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, the international honor society of professional counseling, also received recognition at the conference.
The Department of Dance and Theatre’s 2013-14 season at the UNT includes a wide range of contemporary, prize-winning productions that examine relationships and the changes they make within oneself and one’s world.
McCoy led Montana State University to $112 million research enterprise.
UNT has signed an agreement with Barnes & Noble College as the new operator for the UNT Bookstore. Barnes & Noble College is set to take over operations of the university bookstore on Aug. 8.
Robert M. Citino, professor of history at UNT, has been selected to serve as a Visiting Professor at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn., during the 2013-14 academic year. He will assist in teaching core and elective courses within the college’s Department of National Security and Strategy. He will also conduct college-wide lectures and presentations, and lead faculty research and writing efforts.