Andrew Sterrett Conklin

Andrew S. Conklin, Adjunct Faculty, (2007). BFA, 2000, American Academy of Art, Chicago. MFA, 2013 Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Exhibitions: National Arts Club, NYC, Institute of Arts and Letters, NYC, Horn-Ashby Gallery, NYC, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown OH, Ft Wayne Museum of Art, IN, University of Texas, Tyler, Harold Washington Library, Gallery Victor, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago. Publications: Artists Magazine, American Artist, New American Paintings. Bibliography: Chicago magazine, The Artist’s Magazine, Chicago Reader, NeotericArt.com. Collections: U.S. District Court, Boston, State Capitol, Providence, RI, Princeton University. Awards: National Arts Club, George Sugarman Foundation Grant, E. D. Foundation.

My work explores the human figure as the subject, depicted realistically in oil paintings and drawings. I focus on the psychological state of the individuals, and their interactions. Defined interior spaces provide context, and may range from artist ateliers to intimate rooms to video motion capture studios, a subject that comprises much of my recent work, in which I juxtaposes the body with new technology designed to digitize the human form. I aim to raise issues about representation, idealization and aesthetics of the body.

The School of the Art Institute holds a singular place in my imagination. I visited the Museum as a child, and reveled in the vast collection of paintings. As a young artist in NYC, I met a number of talented SAIC alums and former instructors. When I moved here, I was fortunate to begin teaching Continuing Studies courses in painting, drawing and design. I find the students inspiring on a several levels: in their myriad professional and personal accomplishments, in their drive to seek knowledge and skill in the arts, and in their ability to turn their hard work into images of considerable quality and personal expression. The school’s rich resources, in staff, materials and technology bolsters the learning experience for me and the students, and makes each new term full of promise and the belief that we are working effectively towards improving ourselves, and by extension, our city.

The history of painting, its materials, technologies, styles and influences remains a strong and abiding interest. Another is the nature of art instruction, particularly that of the Bauhaus art school, and the extensive, and well-deserved influence it continues to exert on aesthetics and pedagogy. I take interest in developments in architecture and graphic design. My reading tends toward biography, but also in literature focusing on the post World War II Asian and Asian-American experience.