Almost two years ago, Clarence Morgan, then chair of the Visual Artists Committee of the College Art Association, came to see me in my office at Cooper Union. He said that caa was interested in sponsoring major exhibitions of important work being realized by its members who were both professional educators and artists. He felt that the Cooper Union School of Art was the perfect place for an event celebrating studio practice that would take place in conjunction with the caa annual conference to be held in New York in the winter of 1997. I couldn't have agreed more, so I set about the task of defining a theme for an exhibition to propose to caa for its endorsement and support. I have curated many diverse exhibitions, including a recent Painting Faculty show at Cooper Union, where the work actually just hung against the gallery walls.
Technology is an enabler.
The spirit must be in the meaning. Artistic content is in the exploration of the unknown, beyond what we are confident we are capable of doing. Once accepted tools in certain art disciplines, such as graphic design and architecture, computers and related technologies are now becoming image-making tools integrated into all aspects of the visual arts, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. The proliferation of electronically mediated human interaction has profoundly altered the way in which we conceive of and identify ourselves. Ironically, these enticing agents of communication are intrinsically objective, impersonal, and detached, yet stimulate artists to explore the most basic and intensely personal issues concerning transformation and emergence, identity, self, sensuality, gender, and sexuality.