A continued examination and development of drawing skills. This course is coordinated with Painting II.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

A continued examination and development of drawing skills. This course is coordinated with Painting II.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

A continued examination and development of drawing skills. This course is coordinated with Painting II.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

This course presents the graduate student with a series of problems intended to develop drawing as a tool for inquiry into a terrain outside the well-known beaten paths of his/her past studio practice. Expanding the role for drawing in studio experimentation is a goal. Work will be done outside class. There are critiques each week.

Major Requirement | MFA Painting

Critical Curating will offer an in-depth and immersive introduction to curatorial practice, examining the art of exhibition-making from cultural and theoretical perspectives. The course looks at current and historical exhibitions that engage a range of public platforms, as well as artist practices invested in exhibition-making. The course also has a practical component, which will be an opportunity for students to develop and implement a public exhibition. 

The first half of the course will introduce students to the critical analysis of the curatorial field. We will experiment with writing for various curatorial activities including exhibition reviews, curatorial proposals, and research presentations; as well as conduct site visits to different exhibition platforms. The second half of the course will focus on the production of an exhibition collectively conceived and managed by the student cohort, which will take place in the President’s House and Memorial Hall’s gallery. Coursework will involve workshopping curatorial proposals, soliciting an on-campus open call for work, and overseeing the installation and design of the exhibition. Additionally, visiting curators and artists will give lectures throughout the course, as well as activities such as studio visits, screenings, and research.

Preference will be given to Painting Students.

Elective

This is a course in which first-semester seniors who have already demonstrated unusual commitment, ambition and initiative within their majors will pursue and discuss independent work in a setting that reflects, as closely as possible, the interdisciplinary conversation that actually takes place around advanced art practice today. The course is intended to allow those working within medium-specific vocabularies to test how their work will make meaning in an art world in which a variety of disciplinary histories and conventions coexist, clash, and inform one another, as well as to provide an opportunity for students whose work bridges two or more disciplines (or involves performance/new genres/post-studio approaches) to learn from one another and from faculty capable of addressing all of these sorts of practices. This is a demanding critique course with additional seminar components (readings, screenings, discussions, slide presentations, etc.), and as such students can expect a workload equivalent to a core studio requirement within their major.

Acceptance into the course will be based on a GPA of 3.25 or greater as well as the recommendation of faculty and department heads from the student's major and on review of previous work. Candidates will be identified in discussions between the instructor and department heads during the preceding spring semester. Successful completion of THAD-H490/PAINT-4507 (Contemporary Art & its Discourses) or equivalent coursework is a prerequisite, ensuring students have a shared understanding of the art historical context for interdisciplinary. The maximum enrollment is limited to seminar-size (c. 15 students) in order to provide sufficient attention to each student's work in group and individual critiques while still allowing for seminar-style discussions.

Elective

This course would address many practical issues to do with becoming a professional artist after graduation. Some of these issues are: the commercial gallery, the not-for-profit gallery, museums, graduate programs, auction houses, grants, documentation of work, archival storage of work and restoration of artwork. Professionals from the gallery, museum and other fields will be invited to the class to share their expertise with the student. Artists will be invited to talk about their professional experiences. It is a seminar class addressed particularly to the senior painting student.

Elective

This is a comprehensive course designed to test the student's ability to create, complete, and document a Degree Project of his or her choosing. The Degree Project should be a distinct, carefully conceived, exhibition-ready body of work which reflects the issues and objectives of your art. The Senior Degree Project is distinct from your Woods-Gerry Gallery exhibition, although its work can overlap with that exhibition.

Open to Senior Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

This is a comprehensive course designed to test the student's ability to create, complete, and document a Degree Project of his or her choosing. The Degree Project should be a distinct, carefully conceived, exhibition-ready body of work which reflects the issues and objectives of your art. The Senior Degree Project is distinct from your Woods-Gerry Gallery exhibition, although its work can overlap with that exhibition.

Open to Senior Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

This is a comprehensive course designed to test the student's ability to create, complete, and document a Degree Project of his or her choosing. The Degree Project should be a distinct, carefully conceived, exhibition-ready body of work which reflects the issues and objectives of your art. The Senior Degree Project is distinct from your Woods-Gerry Gallery exhibition, although its work can overlap with that exhibition.

Open to Senior Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

This is a comprehensive course designed to test the student's ability to create, complete, and document a Degree Project of his or her choosing. The Degree Project should be a distinct, carefully conceived, exhibition-ready body of work which reflects the issues and objectives of your art. The Senior Degree Project is distinct from your Woods-Gerry Gallery exhibition, although its work can overlap with that exhibition.

Open to Senior Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

This period is designed as an advanced critique course which involves visits by resident faculty, visiting artists and critics, with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art.

Major Requirement | MFA Painting

This period is designed for development and presentation of a body of work supported by a written thesis in consultation with resident faculty, visiting artists and critics during the semester. A final exhibition of work will be evaluated by a jury of Painting Faculty Members.

Open to Graduate Painting Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Painting

Three Critics will offer graduate students the opportunity to get inside the art critic's head and learn how writers think about the visual. Students will be exposed to a wide range of viewpoints and discourse on contemporary art issues as defined by the interests of three different, practicing critics. Each critic will become part of the RISD community for approximately one month, conducting 3 sessions on campus and one in New York or Boston. On-campus meetings will consist of lectures, reading and writing assignments, group critiques and one-on-one studio visits. Off-campus trips will include visits to museums, galleries and artist studios. Small groups of students will be expected to lead several classes. Outside coursework and full participation in class discussion required for successful completion.

Major Requirement | MFA Painting

The Image & Difference explores the ways in which photography is and has historically been central to the production of a wide array of forms of difference, and to the normalization of inequities within and between communities and nations. Students will develop means of better understanding how both images and ideas act on us in the perpetuation of forms of differentiation in our contemporary experience of social, political, sexual, racial and economic difference. Discussions will also center on reckoning with how images and ideas might simultaneously offer means of resistance through examination of creative strategies devised by communities or artists to evade, subvert or refuse these exercises of power. The class demands a willingness on the part of all its members to confront unpleasant, ethically reprehensible acts, events, objects and images and to speak to and about them openly, and with care.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

Majors are pre-registered by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Photography students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

Over the past decade, photography books have seen a resurgence within the art world, this time transcending their original use as survey or catalog to become ideal spaces and platforms to experience and disseminate work. Today image-based printed matter functions in a multitude of ways, all of which at their core are driven by the mechanics of sequence and editing. Through class discussions, using RISD's Fleet Library and Special Collections, and individual research - students will form a personal vision of what images mean in the book form. Our focus will be equally on content, concept, production & technique. The semester will culminate in each student having devised, sequenced, edited and produced a fully resolved and realized photography book.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $125.00

Elective

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

The Sophomore Studio is focused on the of each student's expressive vision so that she/he can create photographs with compelling content. Through group critiques and individual meetings with the instructor, students will refine their skills as photographers and learn how to verbally articulate issues in their own work as well as the work of others. The greater part of the class will geared towards creating an open an dynamic environment where students engage in the give and take of constructive feedback on their progress. The critique schedule will be enriched by readings, multimedia lectures and class field trips throughout the semester. Attendance at all department visiting artist lectures is required.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

A continuation of PHOTO-5302, providing an open and dynamic environment where sophomore can create photographs and engage in constructive feedback on their progress.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography