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Ron English Popaganda

Art

Artist Ron English presented a lecture titled “Popaganda,” in partnership with Baton Rouge Gallery, at the LSU College of Art & Design at 5 p.m. on Monday, January 29, 2018, in the LSU Design Building Auditorium (room 103).

One of the most prolific and recognizable artists alive today, New York-based painter, designer and street artist has bombed the global landscape with unforgettable images, on the street, in museums, in movies, books, television, and music. English coined the term Popaganda to describe his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, from superhero mythology to totems of art history, creating a visual language that turns advertising into “subvertizing” and parody into illumination.

English served as the juror for the Baton Rouge Gallery’s Surreal Salon X exhibition.

Carrie Mae Weems Named 2017–18 Nadine Carter Russell Chair in Art

Art & Design, Visiting Artists, Events, Art, Photography, Exhibitions, Lectures, Doctor of Design, , , ,
Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems, 2013 MacArthur Fellow

Influential contemporary American artist Carrie Mae Weems has been named the 2017-18 Nadine Carter Russell Chair for the LSU College of Art + Design. The four disciplines in the college share the rotating residency; this year’s residency is with the School of Art.

Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. Determined as ever to enter the picture—both literally and metaphorically—Weems has sustained an on-going dialogue within contemporary discourse for over thirty years. During this time, Weems has developed a complex body of art employing photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation, and video.

In a New York Times review of her retrospective, Holland Cotter wrote, “Ms. Weems is what she has always been, a superb image maker and a moral force, focused and irrepressible.”

Weems has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at major national and international museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain.

Her numerous awards include the prestigious Prix de Roma, The National Endowment of the Arts, The Alpert, The Anonymous was a Woman, and The Tiffany Awards. In 2012, Weems was presented with one of the first US Department of State’s Medals of Arts in recognition for her commitment to the State Department’s Art in Embassies program.

In 2013 Weems received the MacArthur “Genius” grant as well as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also received the BET Honors Visual Artist award, the Lucie Award for Fine Art photography, was one of four artists honored at the Guggenheim’s 2014 International Gala, a recipient of the ICP Spotlights Award from the International Center of Photography, and The WEB Dubois Award from Harvard University.

She is represented in public and private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and The Tate Modern, London.

The LSU Museum of Art’s annual collaborative exhibition with the LSU School of Art will feature Weems’ work this year. The gallery will feature two recent series of her photographic and video works, All the Boys and The Usual Suspects on display April 12-October 14, 2018. Weems will give a gallery talk at the exhibition opening April 12. Selected works from Weems’ From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried, Louisiana Project, and Slave Coast series will appear in the museum’s permanent collection exhibition Art in Louisiana.

As this year’s Nadine Carter Russell Chair, Weems will work with art students throughout the spring 2018 semester. She will also present a public lecture at 5 p.m. on April 11, 2018, in the LSU Design Building Auditorium, also supported by the Reilly Visiting Artist Fund.

Learn more about Weems’ prolific career.

More about the Nadine Carter Russell Chair 

In 1998, Paula G. Manship bestowed a fund for the LSU College of Art & Design to establish the Nadine Carter Russell Chair, named for her niece, a 1967 graduate of the College of Art & Design with a degree in art history. The Nadine Carter Russell Chair enables the LSU College of Art & Design to annually bring a prominent artist, designer, or scholar to campus. The rotating chair provides outstanding opportunities for all disciplines within the college and allows the college to meet a variety of curriculum needs. The duties of the chair primarily focus on teaching and public lectures but vary depending on the recipient’s field of expertise.

Art History Students Contribute to the LSU Museum of Art’s Surréalisme Exhibition

Art & Design, Art History, Art, Exhibitions, ,

This fall the students in LSU School of Art professor Darius Spieth’s History of Prints course had the opportunity to contribute to the Bonjour | Au Revoir Surréalisme exhibition, learning practical skills about museum curating firsthand.

Organized by LSU Museum of Art in collaboration with the Visat family, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Pau, France, and Professor Spieth, the exhibition is on display September 28, 2017 – March 25, 2018. The Surrealist exhibition features a selection of 60 works on loan from the family of printmaker and painter Georges Visat.

As co-contributors to the curatorial component of the exhibition, History of Prints students were required to conduct research, write didactic texts for the exhibition, deliver public talks, and lead guided tours for museum visitors.

“To see the Surrealist prints executed by Georges Visat firsthand represents a rare opportunity for LSU students and the art community in Louisiana to explore a key episode in the history of twentieth-century art,” Spieth said. “The collaboration with the LSU Museum of Art was exemplary in that students could work directly with the prints and take over some curatorial responsibilities of the exhibition project, which will help them further along their professional paths.”

The students had the opportunity to gain valuable learning experiences in a museum setting, said Courtney Taylor, LSU Museum of Art curator. “They did object-based research with the prints on loan from France, wrote interpretive labels for the prints/portfolio they studied, and acted as docents, giving tours for other students,” Taylor said.

For the course the art history students each researched an artist featured in the exhibition, and had the opportunity to examine the prints in person. “It is important, when learning about prints, to handle and study the real objects,” Spieth said.

Surrealism Exhibit

“The curatorial process itself started with actually seeing the prints we chose in person before they were displayed officially at the exhibition,” said Kelly Ward, a LSU Manship School of Mass Communication senior who took the class.

“As a student and co-contributor, each of us selected an artist on display and wrote the display description that would go next to the pieces in the exhibition,” student Sarah Eikrem said. “We had to research and analyze the pieces for the description and give some background information on the artist. Being able to see the final product on the wall was really really amazing!”

Studying the surrealist artists in-depth helped the students to better understand their artist’s techniques and creative inspiration, Spieth said.

“I chose the only Dalí print, Le Cheval Royal,” Ward said. “I enjoyed going behind-the-scenes to see the prints before they were hung for the exhibit, as well as engaging with the younger art history students that came to the docent tours.”

The exhibition is composed of rarely-seen prints by iconic Surrealist artists who collaborated with Visat’s publishing house. Included in the exhibition are graphic works by Max Ernst, Dorthea Tanning, René Magritte, Man Ray, Hans Bellmer, Roberto Matta, and Francis Bacon, among others.

Visat founded Éditions Georges Visat in 1962 and established his printing presses in the Parisian art district of Saint-Germaine-des-Prés. As Surrealism seemed to lose momentum in the 1950s, artists such as Visat’s close friend and collaborator, Max Ernst, sought to revive the movement. The exhibition includes works by early Surrealists as well as those who sought to reinvigorate the movement in the 1960s. The exhibition also features illustrated artists’ books with Surrealist poetry, a specialty of Visat, who had a profound understanding of Surrealism’s literary foundations.

“The visual power of the prints, I believe, speaks for itself and will make the exhibition an engaging encounter with the dream worlds of Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning, Salvador Dali, René Magritte, André Masson and many others,” Spieth said.

Professor Spieth made the initial connection that brought the exhibition to the LSU Museum of Art. During a research expedition in 2013, Spieth met Visat’s son-in-law in Pau, France, and forged a partnership. Visat’s family wanted to share his works publically and Spieth hoped to bring authentic works by Surrealist masters to Louisiana. This show is the first time the prints have been exhibited in the United States since the late 1960s.

The course provided the opportunity to learn more about prints, printmaking techniques, the importance of prints in the fine arts and the role of prints in disseminating images, Spieth said.

Spieth gave a gallery talk in the museum Thursday, February 8, 2018.

This exhibition is a collaboration between the LSU Museum of Art and the LSU School of Art. Learn more.

Future Innovation in Healthcare Takes Off at Design, Health & Wellness Symposium

Art & Design, Research, Landscape Architecture, Interior Design, Architecture, ,

Dozens of healthcare professionals convened with LSU faculty, students, and administrators at the LSU College of Art & Design this weekend to investigate how professionals in the social sciences, art and design, business, and healthcare fields may work together to develop new models for more effective and efficient public health outcomes.

The Design, Health & Wellness Symposium was organized by LSU College of Art & Design administrators to initiate a discussion around the development of a laboratory connecting faculty and students from LSU with leading design professionals and healthcare service providers. The new initiative, tentatively titled the Louisiana Design, Health & Wellness Lab, will provide a collaborative setting for faculty and students from all disciplines to conduct research and develop innovative design responses to emerging trends in healthcare design, management, and administration. Participating students will gain first-hand exposure and experience in this important area of design studies.

Healthcare—broadly considered to include content, cost, public access, facility design, and best practices—occupies a substantial place in the nation’s current discourse. The focus of the Design, Health & Wellness Lab will be on creating timely working relationships, through studio investigations, research, case studies, and on-site experiences, linking the design arts with professionals in design, human sciences, and wellness/healthcare administration. The expected outcome will include more innovative, sustainable approaches to exterior and interior design strategies, management practices, and healthcare policies.

“Coupled with the fact that many LSU College of Art & Design faculty and alumni are leaders in the healthcare design fields, this initiative will provide opportunities for design students to specialize in areas related to healthcare, giving them a competitive edge for growing demands in these areas of professional practice,” commented Lake Douglas, associate dean of research and development at the LSU College of Art & Design. “Our first step was to invite these design professionals, community leaders, and medical professionals to campus to discuss how this academic initiative could take shape.”

Symposium participants (listed below) were divided into groups to explore the initiative, identify supporting programs and activities, and create partnerships among the academy, profession, and industry.

“The discussions during the symposium were incredibly successful due to the diverse cross-section of participants—from college students, faculty, and members of our university community to design professionals from HKS, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, WHLC, Sizeler Thompson Brown, GraceHebert, and CDI Solutions and representatives from Our Lady of the Lake, Pennington Biomedical Research, Woman’s Hospital, and more,” said Marsha Cuddeback, director of the LSU School of Interior Design.

“The LSU Design, Health & Wellness Symposium was a launching pad for bringing the College of Art & Design to the next level,” stated LSU interior design alumnus Jennifer Mitchell, associate at Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects in New Orleans. “I envision this fresh idea bringing all of the college’s four disciplines—architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and art—together in a renewed sense of collaboration and idea generation.”

Learn more about the LSU College of Art & Design at design.lsu.edu, and read more about how LSU’s art and design alumni work in the areas of health and wellness in the summer 2016 issue of Quad magazine.

Symposium Participants

  • Kathleen Bogaski, Professional in Residence, LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture
  • Rex Cabaniss, AIA, Principal, WHLC Architecture
  • Charles Cadenhead, FAIA, FACHA, FCCM, Senior Medical Planner, EYP Architecture & Engineering
  • John Campbell, John Campbell Design Assoc., LLC, Professional in Residence, LSU School of Interior Design
  • Christine Cangelosi, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
  • Marsha Cuddeback, Ruth Z. McCoy Professor in Interior Design and Director, LSU School of Interior Design
  • Michael Desmond, PhD, Director of Graduate Studies, LSU College of Art & Design and Professor, LSU School of Architecture
  • Lake Douglas, PhD, Associate Dean Research & Development, LSU College of Art & Design and Professor, LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture
  • Matthew Edmonds, ASID, LEED AP, CDI Solutions and Professional in Residence, LSU School of Interior Design
  • Eduardo Facundus, MD
  • Taylor Fehmel, Second-Year MLA Candidate, LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture
  • Marwan Ghandour, Professor and Director, LSU School of Architecture
  • Cecile Guin, Director, Office of Social Service Research and Development, LSU School of Social Work
  • Robert Holton, Assistant Professor, LSU School of Architecture
  • Xiaoman Ji, Second-Year MLA Candidate, LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture
  • Thomas Karam, Senior Instructor, Department of Marketing, LSU Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, and Senior Instructor, LSU Flores MBA Program
  • Angela Keller, AAHID, CHID, Facility Design Coordinator, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center
  • Maura Kepper, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Contextual Risk Factors Lab, Pennington BioMedical Research Center
  • Rick Libscomb, AIA, ACHA, Principal, WHLC Architecture
  • Jennifer Mitchell, AAHID CHID, EDAC, Director of Interior Design, Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects
  • D’Ann Morris, Executive Director, LSU Student Health Center
  • Rod Parker, Professor and Director, LSU School of Art
  • Kriste Cronan Rigby, IIDA, ASID, Partner, Interior Designer, GraceHebert Architects
  • Mark Ripple, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Partner, Director of Operations, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
  • TL Ritchie, Associate Professor, LSU School of Interior Design
  • Lou Sachs, President, Anchor Health Properties
  • Stan Shelton, Senior Vice President of Planning, Development and Construction, Woman’s Hospital
  • Melinda Solomon, PhD, Director, School of Kinesiology, LSU College of Human Sciences & Education
  • Jeff Stouffer, Executive Vice President/Global Health Director, HKS Architects
  • Antonio Tejeda, Third-year BArch Candidate, LSU School of Architecture
  • Alkis Tsolakis, Dean, LSU College of Art & Design and Professor, LSU School of Architecture
  • Casey Weisler, Fourth-Year BID Candidate, LSU School of Interior Design
  • Pei Yu, Third-Year BArch Candidate, LSU School of Architecture

Matthew Carter Lecture

Art

Matthew Carter presented a lecture titled “Bruce Rogers’ Centaur Type” Wednesday, November 15, at the LSU Design Building. A reception followed at the Hill Memorial Library.

Matthew Carter is an internationally renowned British type designer with fifty years of experience in typographic technologies ranging from hand-cut punches to computer fonts, including Verdana, Bell Centennial, Snell Roundhand, and Galliard.

Elementary Outreach—Inspiring the Next Generation of Architects

Students, Community Outreach, Architecture, , ,

LSU School of Architecture students and faculty visited Park Elementary in Baton Rouge to help students generate ideas and build models for a new school.

Park Elementary, which follows a Project Base Learning model, is slated to get brand new facilities in the next few years, and administrators are fully engaging students in the building process. Each grade level is participating in a different project to envision the new school—some are working on classrooms, some on the cafeteria and athletic fields, and others are working on the playground.

In early October, Professor Jori Erdman and Professional in Residence William Doran of the LSU School of Architecture led a question and answer session with some of the older students about what it means to be an architect, and Park Elementary students built a giant model of the school inside their gymnasium. Members of LSU’s chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students, including NOMAS president Jack Burleigh and member Jorge Galdamez, volunteered to spend the day advising and assisting the elementary students in generating ideas and modeling the different components of their new school. The Baton Rouge chapter of the American Institute of Architects donated model-making materials and helped organize the event.

“Professors Doran and Erdman shared some of the perks of the architecture profession, making real-life connections that the students could relate to,” commented Stephanie Tate, principal of Park Elementary. “The students were thrilled to have actual architecture students assisting them on build day. Park Elementary students are considering college now that they’ve had this interaction with LSU students. Partnerships grow leaders!”

4th Annual Statewide Juried High School Exhibition

Events, Community Outreach, Art, Exhibitions

 

4th Annual Statewide Juried High School Exhibition

The LSU School of Art, in conjunction with the LSU College of Art & Design will host the 4th annual statewide juried art exhibition for high school artists. The LSU School of Art—one of the largest and most comprehensive art schools in the region—will showcase selected works from students who represent talent from all areas of the state. The goal of the exhibition is to inspire young artists by providing a platform for their work to be displayed in a contemporary gallery setting, thus giving them a taste of professional experience. This annual exhibition is intended to showcase the finest artistic student talent in Louisiana.

This 4th annual exhibition will be held February 26–March 24, 2018, at the Foster Gallery on the LSU campus. Winners will be announced and prizes will be awarded at a closing reception for the artists on March 24, 2018.

Eligibility:

All public, private, and home-schooled high school students (grades 9 through 12) who reside in Louisiana at the time of submission are eligible.

Submission Requirements:

  • Artwork must be submitted by a high school teacher or representative.
  • Each high school teacher/representative may submit up to 10 pieces of artwork. Please note that this is a juried show. Entries are not guaranteed acceptance.
  • There are no fees associated with submissions.
  • Any piece created by students at any time during their high school education may be submitted.

How to Submit Artwork:

Artwork should be submitted by January 12, 2018, through Slideroom at:

https://lsuart.slideroom.com/#/login/program/39889

Media:

Paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, photographs, computer- generated art, digital media and mixed media artwork that meets the following specifications are eligible for submission.

Two-dimensional work must not exceed 40 inches wide by 68 inches high. Three-dimensional work must not exceed 60 inches high by 40 inches wide and 40 inches deep.

Work must be physical and tangible and must remain in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition. All two-dimensional works must be framed and ready to hang for a professional gallery with the appropriate mounting hardware (wire, cleats, etc). Using tape to secure hanging wire is unacceptable. All pastel and charcoal drawings must be sprayed with fixative. All three-dimensional works must be structurally sound with all components securely fastened.

Jurors:

Submissions will be selected by a jury of School of Art faculty members.

Awards:

First-, second-, and third-place winners will be selected, and honorable mentions will be awarded in the following amounts. A special award will be made to the teacher/program with the best overall showing.

  • First Place: $500
  • Second Place: $300
  • Third Place: $200
  • Honorable Mentions: $100

Sales:

Since the purpose of the exhibition is to provide an opportunity similar to what a professional artist would encounter, we encourage all work to be for sale. Please consider reasonable prices to encourage sales. All sales are to be conducted between the buyer and the artist. The gallery will not be responsible for delivering purchased works. Price on Request (POR) designations will not be accepted for any artwork. Not-for-sale (NFS) artwork must still include an insurance value.

Liability:

Every precaution will be taken to assure protection of entries. Liability for hand-delivered works left after the pickup or shipping dates will not be assumed by the LSU School of Art.

Shipping/Delivery:

All selected works must be received by either shipment or delivery by February 19, 2018.

Delivery:

Works must be delivered to:

LSU School of Art Foster Gallery
Louisiana State University
111 Foster Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
225-578-5402

Gallery Hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you need to deliver on a weekend, please contact Kitty Pheney in advance to make arrangements. 

Shipping:

Shipped works must be received in the LSU School of Art Office, 220 Design Building, no later than February 19, 2018, at 4 p.m.

Outbound shipping and packaging costs are the responsibility of the student artists or high schools.

The School of Art will cover return shipping preparations and costs. In most cases, work will be returned in the same boxes/materials in which it arrived.

Shipping Address:

Attention: Kitty Pheney/High School Art Exhibition
School of Art
Louisiana State University
220 Design Building
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

Schedule & Deadlines:

January 12, 2018

Submissions are open now, but must be uploaded to Slideroom by January 12.

January 26, 2018

Teachers/schools will be notified on or around January 26, if their submissions are selected for the exhibition.

February 19, 2018

Selected works must be delivered/shipped to the School of Art by February 19.

February 26, 2018

The exhibition, which will take place at the LSU Foster Gallery, opens to the public on February 26. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please let us know if you are bringing a group from your school.

March 24, 2018

The winners will be announced and prizes awarded at the closing reception at the LSU Foster Gallery on March 24, 2018, 1–3 p.m.

March 24, 2018

The exhibit closes to the public on March 24, 2018. Teachers (schools) are allowed to take work from their school with them at the end of the reception.

April 13, 2018

Hand-delivered artwork that has not been sold must be picked up by April 13. (Special arrangements can be made for weekend pick up should this be necessary.)

A storage fee of $10 per day will be charged for hand-delivered artwork not picked up by April 13, 2018. Shipped work will be returned by the week of April 13.

Contact:

For more information contact:

Kitty Pheney
LSU School of Art
220 Design Building
Baton Rouge 70803

Office: 225-578-5411
Cell: 225-266-4812
E-mail: kphene2@lsu.edu

View a printable version of the prospectus.

Alumni Spotlight: Kyle J. Bauer, MFA 2011, Ceramics

Art & Design, Art, Ceramics, Sculpture, Alumni, Alumni Profiles,
kyle bauer

Kyle Bauer (MFA 2011) is a conservation technician at Baltimore Museum of Art and a practicing studio artist.

Don’t quit your day job. Build your skill toolbox. Start from the bottom and work your way up. Don’t be afraid to fail. Apply to everything you can afford. Become your own salesman. Network, network, network.

These directives are clichés for a reason: because they work—as proven by LSU alumnus Kyle J. Bauer. Kyle lives by these tenets and has created a complementary dual career path as a conservation technician and practicing studio artist.

Kyle grew up in southern Illinois in a family of self-starters and entrepreneurs. His mother owned a custom framing shop and was a local politician. His father worked 26 years in banking—starting out as a bank teller and working his way up to regional president. Kyle’s parents introduced him to the value of learning a skilled craft, and they taught him the importance of hard work and attention to detail.

As a teenager trying to figure out what to do with his life—“At 5’8” and 110 pounds, I knew I wasn’t going pro,” laughed Kyle—his father encouraged him to pick up his old 35mm film camera. “I fell in love with photography, which led me to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; I came out a sculpture/ceramics grad in 2007.” He spent his summers between school and the year following graduation working on a lake in Wisconsin before deciding to apply to graduate school.

His mentor Ron Kovatch (who, coincidentally, taught Michaelene Walsh, associate professor of ceramics at the LSU School of Art), advised Kyle not to go to a school that he could easily drive home from. Kyle was accepted to LSU, which was far enough away to follow his mentor’s advice.

“Hurricane Gustav hit a month after I arrived in Baton Rouge,” said Kyle. “It was forever life-altering. I started grad school at 23, and I had to grow up; I admit it. I wasn’t always the best student and had a lot of failures, but failing is a healthy part of the artistic process; it forces you to leave your comfort zone.”

In fact, Kyle went way out of his comfort zone when his first thesis was rejected right as he was awarded an artist’s residency at Baltimore Clayworks. “I had 65 days to completely rework my thesis exhibition and paper so I could graduate in time for the residency, and I did it.”

Kyle received his MFA in Studio Arts in the summer of 2011. He and Erin Horton, his girlfriend at the time, moved to Baltimore, a city they have both grown to love. (Erin received her MA in Art History from LSU and is now Erin Horton Bauer. Kyle and Erin met on an LSU study abroad trip to Italy.)

Kyle’s residency at Baltimore Clayworks came with access to studio space, ceramic kilns and facilities. He taught community classes as part of his residency while working full-time as a security guard at the Baltimore Museum of Art, located right across the street from where he lived. Kyle said he decided to do everything in his power to “get his name out there.” He started applying to every group exhibition he could afford.

“And for some unknown reason, it worked!” laughed Kyle. “I became my own salesman, exhibiting my work in group and solo shows, and lecturing at MAP Gallery’s Thirty Under Thirty speakers’ series, which was a great honor.”

But the real tangible result of the previous three years of nonstop work was Kyle’s selection as a finalist for the 2014 Sondheim Prize. As a finalist, he was vying for a $25,000 grand prize and was awarded his first museum exhibition—and all before the age of 30.

“I didn’t sleep much, pretty much lived in my studio, but I still somehow have my relationship,” quipped Kyle. “2014 was my coming-out party. I set up a list of goals, decided to forgo the remaining two years of my residency, and rented a studio space of my own in a warehouse on the east side of Baltimore.”

Kyle’s studio includes woodworking tools, a ceramic casting station, a portable spray booth, and a finished, gallery-style wall that he uses to document his work on a consistent background, mimicking the symmetry of how works are presented in some of his favorite monographs, such as Martin Puryear’s. Kyle’s wife, Erin, who majored in photography before pursuing her master’s in art history, photographs his work. “Team work!”

In 2015, Kyle received an individual artist grant from the Maryland State Arts Council and was a finalist for the Miami University Young Sculptors Competition for the William and Dorothy Yeck Award. He was awarded third place by juror Ann Barlow, an experienced contemporary art curator and arts administrator, former director of Art in General in New York City, and current artistic director of Tate St Ives. Kyle has exhibited his mixed-media sculptures in over 40 group and solo exhibitions since 2011, most notably at the Hamiltonian Gallery, Walters Art Museum, Loyola University Maryland, Vox Populi, Flashpoint Gallery, McDaniel College, Arlington Art Center, School 33 Art Center, and Maryland Art Place.

He was able to make all of this happen because of what may appear to others as a stroke of good fortune. (As Kyle said, it all looks easy from the outside.) While working as a security guard at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Kyle purposely set out to meet as many people as he could, particularly in installation, registration, and conservation, applying for positions whenever available.

“The first couple didn’t land, but I eventually built up trust and was hired as a conservation technician of prints, drawings, and photographs at the museum,” shared Kyle. “I give credit to my background in physical skills and my mom’s custom framing shop, but the work at the museum is much more technical. I was lucky to have a patient boss who was willing to bench-train me.”

In his role as conservation technician, Kyle helps frame and prepare the museum’s collection of more than 65,000 works on paper. The Baltimore Museum of Art has one of the world’s most robust collections of Matisse’s works on paper, which Kyle helps preserve and prepare for exhibition, study, and loans to other museums.

“Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I’m lucky to have access to these master works,” shared Kyle. “Handling a Matisse is just another day on the job.”

It’s been five years since Kyle began working as a full-time conservation technician—what he considers his day job. “It’s great to make art, great to talk art, but having the skills to market your ability and to keep money in your pocket to stave off debt—those experiences further inform my practice and are so vital. So many artists leave school and don’t have a facility where they can work. I’m surrounded by art, and it influences my work in so many ways.”

Kyle currently has a solo exhibition, chatter, on display at Loyola University Maryland, September 21–October 22, in the Julio Fine Arts Gallery. A group exhibition associated with his fellowship, Fellows Converge, curated by Eve Biddle and Will Hutnick of Wassaic Project, opens November 18 at the Hamiltonian Gallery in Washington, D.C. Kyle is also participating in School 33 Art Center’s 29th Annual Open Studio Tour this year, which runs October 7–8 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Kyle said he feels confident about where he is as an artist and conservation technician, and he is most grateful for having such a great “partner in crime.” Kyle and Erin were wed in Southwest France last year, and they live in their recently purchased rowhome that is, again, right across the street from the Baltimore Museum of Art. They live with their two charismatic 10-year-old Dachshunds, who, Kyle swears, wear LSU Tiger collars.

Visit kylejbauer.com for more information about Kyle and to see more images of his work. Visit art.lsu.edu for more information about an MFA in Studio Arts from LSU.

LSU Landscape Architecture Programs, Again, Named Best in Nation

Art & Design, Landscape Architecture,

lsu landscape architecture ranked #1

The undergraduate and graduate programs at the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture (RRSLA) have once again received top rankings from DesignIntelligence magazine, the leading journal of design professionals. The 2017–18 issue of “America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools” ranked the undergraduate program as number one in the nation and the graduate program as number three in the nation, up three spots from last year.

LSU’s landscape architecture undergraduate program has been consistently ranked in the top two in the nation for well over a decade; the 2017–18 ranking is the eighth time the undergraduate program has held the number one position since 2006. The graduate program has also been ranked within the top six in the nation for over 10 years, sharing top rankings with Harvard, Cornell, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania. LSU is by far the most affordable graduate program of the top three.

“I’m pleased that our rankings remain strong,” commented Mark Boyer, director of the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture. “These rankings are evidence that we continue to do a great job preparing our graduates to go into the profession and contribute to our legacy of excellence.” 

DesignIntelligence’s research ranks undergraduate and graduate programs from the perspective of leading practitioners. Each year, approximately 3,000 hiring professionals from more than 2,000 professional practice organizations participate in the research and are asked to rank the accredited schools best preparing students for success in the profession and for designing a sustainable future. Firms are queried about additional issues, as well, such as how programs rate in teaching various skills, such as communication, computer applications, construction methods and materials, design, planning, research, cross-disciplinary teamwork, sustainable design practices and principles, and theory.

Surveys for “America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools” are conducted annually by DesignIntelligence on behalf of the Design Futures Council. The research ranks undergraduate and graduate programs from the perspective of leading practitioners. Survey participants are professionals in architecture, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture, drawn from the Greenway Group database of leading firms throughout the United States. Visit di.net to for a complete list of design school rankings.

About LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture

The Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture has established an international reputation as one of America’s leading and consistently top-ranked programs. Part of the LSU College of Art & Design, the school offers Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture programs. For more than 70 years, the program has produced landscape architects who practice all over the world and participate in the full spectrum of the discipline. For more information, visit landscape.lsu.edu.