Arnold Kemp: appointed 2016 Artist-in-Residence at San Francisco Art Institute
Arnold Joseph Kemp is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Artadia Fund for Art & Dialogue, Art Matters, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Printed Matter, and the American Academy of Poets. His artworks are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Berkeley Art Museum. Kemp is also a writer and he has read on street corners, in living rooms in Oakland, and in bars and bookstores in San Francisco, Berkeley, and New York. His writing has appeared in Callaloo, Three Rivers Poetry Journal, Agni Review, MIRAGE #4 Period(ical), River Styx, Nocturnes, Art Journal, and Tripwire. Kemp has presented his writing and performances at the Bowery Poetry Club, Banff Centre, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Portland Art Museum, California College of the Arts, PDX Contemporary, San Francisco State University, Portland State University, and New Langton Arts. He is the Chairperson of the Department of Painting & Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The program
SFAI's Low-Residency MFA in Studio Art program provides an interdisciplinary context for artists to develop and refine their work while engaging the historical, theoretical, sociopolitical, and creative concerns of the contemporary moment. Founded on the principle that critical inquiry and experimentation are at the forefront of art-making, the program fosters students' use of their own questioning to generate a sustaining and vital creative practice.
--------------------------------Photo credit: Left to right: Arnold Joseph Kemp. Photo: Christian Gregory; Headless (detail), 2015. Mixed media.
The three-year program offers the rigor of a full-time MFA in a flexible format ideally suited for artists who wish to develop their work without sacrificing a professional career or commitment. Students work with faculty during intensive eight-week summer sessions in San Francisco, and independently—with guidance from artists in their home communities—during the fall and spring. Summer sessions combine critiques, art history and critical studies seminars, visiting artist lectures, and individualized tutorials to create a comprehensive studio- and research-based curriculum. The program culminates with the highly celebrated MFA Exhibition. SFAI is continuing to accept applications to the Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art program on a space-available basis. To speak with your personal admissions counselor about this opportunity, email admissions@sfai.edu.
About the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), founded in 1871, is one of the country's oldest and most prestigious institutions in the practice and study of contemporary art. As a diverse community of working artists and scholars, SFAI provides students with a rigorous education in the arts and preparation for a life in the arts through an immersive studio environment, an integrated liberal arts and art history curriculum, and critical engagement with the world. Committed to educating artists who will shape the future of art, culture, and society, SFAI fosters creativity and original thinking in an open, experimental, and interdisciplinary context.
SFAI offers BFA, BA, MFA, and MA degrees, a dual MA/MFA degree, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, and a range of exhibitions, public programs, and public education courses. SFAI enrolls approximately 680 students in degree programs. Notable past faculty and alumni include Lance Acord, Ansel Adams, Kathryn Bigelow, Enrique Chagoya, Angela Davis, Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Kos, George Kuchar, Annie Leibovitz, Barry McGee, Manuel Neri, Catherine Opie, Peter Pau, Laura Poitras, Clifford Still, and Kehinde Wiley.