I'm so excited for Rebecca to expand her role this summer and come on as a mentor. The students that get to join her cohorts and spend a year nurturing their practices together are so, so lucky 🔥🔥🔥

Artists, if you feel stuck or alone in your art practice, today is the last day to apply for @artistcommons.bsky.social summer cohorts and get the support, mentorship, and community you need around your art. [1/2]

Can’t afford to get an MFA? Artist Commons is a year-long, online development program for visual artists. We're not an MFA, but we offer many of the things artists are looking for when they start thinking about grad school... [1/2]

Less than 48 hours left to apply 😱

I'm really touched that one of our students, Nick Demus (aka the illustrator/painter @Chumwizards) recorded a testimonial about his experience in @artistcommons.bsky.social this year 🫶 You should check out his art. The growth across his last few paintings has been a joy to watch.

Application deadline extended! We heard your requests for more time to finish your applications, so we've extended the application deadline to Monday, June 22. We get it. It takes time to fill out a strong application, to find the right words and to select good images for the portfolio section.

Last chance to apply! For an artist, being part of a cohort can be a transformative experience, where you learn to push your work and ask better questions about what you're making. We have some great cohorts shaping up for July. Application deadline is tonight.

You want to grow in your art practice, but you feel like an MFA is out of reach. If that describes you, come check out @artistcommons.bsky.social, a year-long online artist development program created by artists for artists. [1/2]

Artists, if you've been craving more feedback on your work, we’re looking for artists who are serious about their practice and eager to learn together, to join @artistcommons.bsky.social Application deadline is tomorrow 😱 We can’t wait to get to know you and your work. All are welcome.

Wondering if Artist Commons is the right next step for your art practice? The replay of our program info session is now up. Hear from faculty, mentors, and current students about the kind of momentum a year of mentorship and support can give your practice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEmBASVlNk

Before ChatGPT and Claude, there was BINA48, a humanoid robot created in 2010 by Hanson Robotics. BINA48 stands for Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture 48. It was powered by AI and a series of motors to create realistic facial expressions. [1/2] #contemporaryartists

Building an art practice is hard. I'm excited to share tonight at 6pm ET all the ways we've been nurturing artists and helping them grow their practice through @artistcommons.bsky.social year-long artist development program. You'll hear from current students about how they've grown. RSVP👇

Artists, if you’ve been craving more feedback on your work, this is for you. @artistcommons.bsky.social is a year-long development program with weekly online crits, lectures, mentorship, reviews, and community. Come learn more about the program at our summer info session on Wed, Jun 10 @ 6pm ET👇

Artists: join us Wednesday, June 10 @ 6pm ET for an @artistcommons.bsky.social info session. What could a year of hands-on mentorship, cohort feedback, and weekly lectures from art world professionals do for your art practice? RSVP at the link below to learn more:

How have artists used text as a visual medium? Last week Dr. Amy Raffel sat down with our students to talk about the use of text throughout art history. Of course, you can't talk about text in art without touching upon the Dadaists, including this delightfully odd performance by Hugo Ball.

You can't copyright an idea. A sunset is an idea, or at least a shared subject. Anyone can paint it. Anyone can photograph it. But your photograph of that sunset is a specific expression: your timing, your framing, and your finished image. That’s what copyright is concerned with. [1/2]

Do you have to a register an artwork to own the copyright to a piece you made? @haiverart.bsky.social sat down with intellectual property lawyer David Shein to discuss artists' rights and what they need to do to protect their work. #artistrights #artlaw #copyrightlaw #copyright

The one thing I wish I had more of growing up was mentorship. I could take one-off classes with inspiring teachers, but opportunities to go deeper were rare. That’s one of the reasons I built @Artist_Commons around a very hands-on program with one-on-one mentorship. [1/2]

Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes. @alissawilkinson.bsky.social and I had a delightful time at the immersive phantom Masquerade 👻

How do gallery directors think about the artist/curator relationship? Here, Adam Berninger (@adamberninger), founder of Heft Gallery (@heft_gallery), sits down with Artist Commons director @haiverart.bsky.social to discuss the importance of relationship over contract. [1/2]

There's only 2 weeks left to apply to @artistcommons.bsky.social to join the next batch of cohorts. What artists get: - Small Cohorts - Weekly Feedback Sessions - One-on-One Mentorship - Lectures & Panels - Portfolio Reviews - Writing Clinics Give your art the year it deserves. More info👇

Great artists steal. Richard Prince is famous for appropriating the work of other creators, so it's fun to see artist Michael Neff (@heyneff) turn the tables and appropriate Prince by removing the cowboy figures to turn these once Marlboro Man ads into pure, abstracted landscapes. [1/2]

Kehinde Wiley doesn’t hide his references. He wants you to see that he copied from Ingres's original painting of Napoleon. The composition, the pose, the trappings of power. Instead of asking viewers merely to admire power, his new painting asks us to reconsider how power is staged and performed.

Pacita Abad’s quilted trapuntos blur the line between painting, textile, and relief sculpture. She activates the surface with layered fabric, paint, stitching, shells, buttons, and other materials. Every material choice adds weight and rhythm. [1/2]

A year can change an art practice. 9 months ago, I launched Artist Commons because every time I did a studio visit I kept hearing artists ask for the same things: more structure and rhythm in their practice, better feedback on their work, practical knowledge about the art business, and mentorship.

We often approach art by asking what kind of thing it is. A painting. A sculpture. A performance. An installation. But some works resist that first step. Sónia Almeida’s work refuses to give us a stable category, and that refusal becomes part of the experience. [1/2]

Before you make art in the studio this week try this: Make yourself a rule. It can be simple: only use one material or one tool, one color or one type of mark or gesture. When you narrow your options, you have to listen more closely to your materials. Limits can change the way you see your work.

Applications are now open for the next Artist Commons cohorts. Beginning this July, artists will spend a full year in conversation with mentors, art world professionals, lecturers, and a small cohort of peers who are serious about building a stronger, more sustainable art practice. [1/2]

I love how my brain knows these are staged photographs, but the way he paints his costume, instead of making it more sculptural, somehow manages to flatten the image.

Is any artwork truly original? Last week, Prof. Cheyenne Rudolph looked at Kehinde Wiley’s portraits as an example of how artists borrow from one another. By reworking old master paintings and replacing their figures with Black subjects, Wiley redirects the authority of art history to new ends.

Michelangelo's quote is a good reminder that patience isn't passive. The patience to trust slow growth. The patience to protect the quiet part. The patience to keep looking. The patience to let the work teach you what it needs. The patience to keep going when no one else can see it yet. [1/2]

I loved going on the DAM show last week with Roger Dickerman to talk about art and Artist Commons. It was a great conversation about what artists need to truly grow, and how rhythm and community can help. Give it a listen ;) https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1NGaraYozeVJj?s=20

One week left to apply for early admission!

Working in ceramic and steel, artist Sanford Biggers mashes up the disciplines of quilting and sculpture to create geometric works. Rather than treating quilting as a flat or domestic form, Biggers expands its visual logic into space, transforming pattern and repetition into a sculptural presence.

When does an artist's intention matter? It's always a hot topic. Dr. Rebecca Millsop (@noumenal.bsky.social) presents Noël Carroll's theory as a middle ground between the two extreme ends of the spectrum on artist intention versus viewer interpretation. 1/2

We're delighted to announce Artist Commons' next two Visiting Artists in Residence! One of our favorite things about designing this artist development program was finding a way to put students in close contact with established contemporary artists actively shaping the field. 1/x

When your drawing tool is a razor blade the sketching and planning stage becomes all the more important. I love the way artist Andrew Benincasa thinks about this for his papercut art and animations.

I love Andy's take on composition here. How does positive and negative space play a role in your art practice?

Stillness can make movement read stronger. In his process lecture this quarter, visiting artist in residence, Andrew Benincasa, reflects on Hokusai, where a fisherman’s active body is set against a calm, open field of sea. 1/2

1/2 What if an artwork could change not just what you see, but how you understand your own story? Artist Do Ho Suh’s art pushes viewers to reevaluate their relationship with space and memory, and to rethink their perceptions around architecture, intimacy, migration, and our connection to home.

Artists, looking for a fun way to mess with viewers? Position your art between categories. This was one of my favorite bits from our philosophy of art lecture last week.

How does an artist actually get a curator to look at their work? Hear independent curator @arthemort.bsky.social (prev: director at Sotheby's) and Adam Berninger, director of Heft Gallery, break down how a recommendation from an artist already connected to a gallery can help get a portfolio seen.

So grateful for all the great voices coming in to talk to our students in Artist Commons this year.

I'm kicking into my content creator phase and have been making lots of vertical videos to share on @artistcommons.bsky.social in the coming days to give everyone a taste of what our students are learning behind the scenes in their cohorts as part of our year-long artist development program.

Art historian Dr. Cristin McKnight Sethi gave a great lecture last week for Artist Commons' students on the history of quilting and various stitching techniques from across North America and Asia. #ArtHistory #TextileArt #VisibleMending

Celebrating wrapping @artistcommons.bsky.social's first quarter by going on the @shillr.bsky.social space to talk with my old friend Joana about our amazing artists and all the things our students have been learning from various lectures and guest speakers this year. 3pm ET x.com/i/spaces/1NG...

1/ This week we held our kick-off events for @artistcommons.bsky.social and welcomed forty students into our year-long program.

We're off to the races!

1/ We're excited to announce Artist Commons' first two Visiting Artists in Residence! One of our favorite things about designing this artist development program was finding a way to put students in close contact with established contemporary artists actively shaping the field.

What an amazing night seeing the last batch of Artist Commons applications piling in. This is going to be such a good group of artists learning and growing together. We have such a good year ahead 🧡