Thao-Nguyen Phan (Post-Bac 2011, MFA 2014), an alum from the School's Painting and Drawing department, was selected for the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative last year. The program, designed by the watchmaker to promote excellence by pairing budding young artists with sage accomplished ones, has in years past utilized the wisdom of Toni Morrison, Phillip Glass, and David Hockney, among others.
Steven Haulenbeek is a Chicago based industrial designer and artist. He received his bachelors in drawing and sculpture from Hope College in Holland, Michigan in 2002 and received his Masters degree in Designed Objects from SAIC in 2006. In 2010 he founded his independent design practice with the interest in experimental, material, and process based objects for the home. Steven Haulenbeek Studio is represented by Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris, London and New York as well at The Future Perfect in New York and San Francisco.
Steven’s work passes by the typical design/build format and instead seeks to invent a production framework by which objects emerge more organically. Shown here are two unique and ongoing experimental processes developed in this spirit. The Ice-Cast Bronze collection pairs the natural freezing cold climate of the Chicago winter with the lost-wax process to create uniquely textured objects and furniture in cast bronze. The RBS Series (Resin-Bonded Sand) utilizes silica sand, a typically disposable industrial byproduct, to create colorful sculptural objects, furniture and lighting.
In her Scientific Illustration course Professor Peggy Macnamara (Visual Communication Design) guides her students through Adirondacks and other Winslow Homer originals, challenging her students’ preconceived notions of the limits of watercolor painting.
Q&A with distinguished alumni lecturer and alum Isil Egrikavuk (MA 2005, MFA 2008) whose work blends social and political events with fictional components, often weaving in a fantastical or absurd element that challenges the viewer's ability to believe it. On March 6, she returns to SAIC as the Distinguished Alumni Lecturer for the Visiting Artists Program.
