At VCUarts, we celebrate research and work that serves as an evocative medium, transcending boundaries and connecting individuals across cultures and experiences. Arts research, regardless of discipline, births a unique language that speaks directly to our emotions, challenges our perceptions and breathes life into imagination. At the heart of this journey of communication lies the guidance and inspiration of exceptional artist educators who make it their mission to shape the next generation of emerging talent.
In partnership with the Arts Research Center at VCUarts, we are pleased to launch this ongoing interview series with VCUarts faculty. By presenting the excerpts that follow, we aim to open a window of correspondence and understanding through which prospective students and the world for whom art matters can discover and engage with some of the most inspiring artists and educators in their fields. Here, our exceptional faculty share their experiences of community, their unique studio practices and epistemological philosophies in order to illuminate how their creative journeys inspire emerging artists in the classroom and beyond.
Throughout this series, we seek to uncover the essence of research and practice at VCUarts. What motivates these professors to dedicate their lives to shaping the artistic minds of the future? How do they navigate the delicate balance between nurturing their students’ individuality, imparting foundational knowledge and maintaining their own practices? What challenges do they contend with in an ever-evolving world, and how do they prepare their students to thrive in that crucible?
Explore/Engage/Evolve: J. Molina-Garcia, Department of Photography + Film
J. Molina-Garcia is a Salvadoran-American media artist, writer and educator. Molina-Garcia’s work draws on the politics of immigration, philosophies of madness and nonwestern esoteric traditions to critique the violence of the Global North. They build assemblages of fiction out of analog media, digital novelties and written/spoken prose to agitate a queer-trans-of-color resistance, en masse.
Explore/Engage/Evolve: Massa Lemu, Department of Sculpture + Extended Media
Massa Lemu is a Malawian visual artist and writer whose multidisciplinary artistic practice takes the form of text, performance and multimedia installations that are concerned with the contradictions of migration and the psychological effects of an immaterial, flexible and mobile capitalism on the post-colonial subject. He is a founding member of the Ozhopé Collective, which works globally and in Malawian communities to spur conversation around global environmental and economic issues.
Explore/Engage/Evolve: Blair Clemo, Department of Craft/Material Studies
A. Blair Clemo is associate professor of Ceramics in Craft/Material Studies. Originally from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Clemo spent many years out west studying ceramics and working at small production potteries in Idaho and Montana. He has been an artist in residence at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, the Da Wang Culture Highland in Shenzhen, China, and the Zentrum für Keramik in Berlin. His utilitarian pottery, sculpture and installation work have been included in numerous national and international exhibitions. Clemo received his B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Montana Missoula, and his M.F.A. in ceramics at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
Explore/Engage/Evolve: nicole killian, Department of Graphic Design
nicole killian’s work uses graphic design, publishing, video, objects and installation to investigate how the structures of the internet, mobile messaging and shared online platforms affect contemporary interaction and shape cultural identity from a queer perspective. They are interested in the repetition, looping and dissemination of content.