Art as Ecosystem: Eric Fischl with Glenn Fuhrman, Dorothy Lichtenstein, and Rick Lowe presented in association with The Church

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Academy of the Arts President Eric Fischl draws together experts to measure art’s health and vitality. Join FLAG Art Foundation’s Glenn Fuhrman, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation President Dorothy Lichtenstein, and MacArthur Genius artist Rick Lowe on an exploration of what is possible and what is yet to dream. Get inspired by the passion and leadership of arts professionals in this not-to-be-missed series.

  • Dorothy Lichtenstein

    Dorothy Lichtenstein is President of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, which is dedicated to the encouragement of a broad understanding of the art of Roy Lichtenstein and the artists of his time, and was established after the artist’s death in 1997. After studying art history at Arcadia University (formerly Beaver College), she became director of the pioneering Bianchini Art Gallery in New York, organizing exhibitions and projects dealing with emerging Pop art, and with William Coply, edited and published portfolios of artists' works for The Letter Edged in Black Press. Dorothy Lichtenstein has remained committed to art and culture as she serves on the Board of Studio in a School and Studio Institute, the Board of Directors of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Board of Directors of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, the Board of Trustees of the Stony Brook Foundation, the Board of Directors of Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), the International Advisory Board of the LongHouse Reserve, the Director’s Advisory Council of MASS MoCA, and the Advisory Committee of the Pollock-Krasner House & Study Center, and is a Lifetime Trustee of the Parrish Art Museum. She is equally committed to scientific research as she also serves on the Leadership Council of The New York Stem Cell Foundation. Dorothy Lichtenstein is a recipient of the Chevalier of Arts and Letters from the French Government.

  • Rick Lowe

    Rick Lowe lives in Houston. His exhibitions include; Phoenix Art Museum, Contemporary arts Museum, Houston, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Los Angeles, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Glassell School, the Kumamoto State Museum, Kumamoto, Japan, Venice Architecture Biennale. Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy, Nasher Scuplture Center, Dallas, TX, and Documenta 14, Kassel, Germany and Athens, Greece. Community building projects include; Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas; Watts House Project, Los Angeles, CA; Arts Plan for Rem Koolhaus designed Seattle Public Library with Jessica Cusick; Borough Project for Spoleto Festival with Suzanne Lacy and Mary Jane Jacobs, Charleston, SC; Delray Beach Cultural Loop, Delray Beach, Florida; a project for the Seattle Art Museum in their new Olympic Sculpture Park with David Adjaye;  and a project for the Anyang Public Art Program 2010, Anyang, Korea. Among Rick’s honors are; Rudy Bruner Awards in Urban Excellence; AIA Keystone Award, the Heinz Award in the arts and humanities, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Governors Award, Skandalaris Award for Excellence in Art Architecture, U.S. Artists Booth Fellow, in 2013, President Barack Obama appointed Rick to the National Council on the Arts, and the Creative Time Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, and in 2014 he was named a MacArthur Fellow. In 2015 he received the University of Houston’s President’s Medallion Award. Academic appointments include: Loeb Fellow at Harvard University (03), Mel King Fellow at MIT (14), Auburn University Breedan Scholar (15), Stanford University Haas Center Distinguish Visitor (16). In 2015, he received honorary doctorate degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Otis College of Art. In 2016 he joined the University of Houston as an associate professor of art.

  • Eric Fischl

    Eric Fischl is an internationally acclaimed American painter and sculptor. His artwork is represented in many distinguished museums throughout the world and has been featured in over one thousand publications. His extraordinary achievements throughout his career have made him one of the most influential figurative painters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

    Fischl was born in 1948 in New York City and grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. He began his art education in Phoenix, Arizona where his parents had moved in 1967. He attended Phoenix College and earned his B.F.A. from the California Institute for the Arts in 1972. He then spent some time in Chicago, where he worked as a guard at the Museum of Contemporary Art. In 1974, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to teach painting at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Fischl had his first solo show, curated by Bruce W. Ferguson, at Dalhousie Art Gallery in Nova Scotia in 1975 before relocating to New York City in 1978.

    Fischl's suburban upbringing provided him with a backdrop of alcoholism and a country club culture obsessed with image over content. His early work thus became focused on the rift between what was experienced and what could not be said. His first New York City solo show was at Edward Thorp Gallery in 1979, during a time when suburbia was not considered a legitimate genre for art. He first received critical attention for depicting the dark, disturbing undercurrents of mainstream American life.

    Fischl's paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints have been the subject of numerous solo and major group exhibitions and his work is represented in many museums, as well as prestigious private and corporate collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modem Art in New York City, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, St. Louis Art Museum, Louisiana Museum of Art in Denmark, MusÈe Beaubourg in Paris, The Paine Weber Collection, and many others. Fischl has collaborated with other artists and authors, including E.L. Doctorow, Allen Ginsberg, Jamaica Kincaid, Jerry Saltz and Frederic Tuten.

    Eric Fischl is also the founder, President and lead curator for America: Now and Here. This multi-disciplinary exhibition of 150 of some of Americaís most celebrated visual artists, musicians, poets, playwrights, and filmmakers is designed to spark a national conversation about American identity through the arts. The project launched on May 5th, 2011 in Kansas City before traveling to Detroit and Chicago. 

    Eric Fischl is a Fellow at both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Science, and is the president of Guild Hall's Academy of the Arts. He lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY with his wife, the painter April Gornik.

  • The Church

    The mission of The Church is to foster creativity among the diverse communities on the East End and honor the living history of Sag Harbor as a maker village. It functions as an artist residency, exhibition space and creative center. Housed in a deconsecrated 19th century Methodist church, The Church aspires to be a place where local and national artists and creatives can work, meet and inspire each other. Founded by artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik, The Church began operation in 2021. Championing new and traditional technologies through collaboration, education and outreach, we strive to be an asset for the community in all its richness and heterogeneity.

Sponsors

All Education Programming supported by The Patti Kenner Arts Education Fellowship, with additional funding by an anonymous donor, Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Endowment Fund, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
All Theater Programming is supported in part by Ellen Myers, Marders, the Daryl & Steven Roth Foundation, and funding from The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Hess Philanthropic Fund, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, The Schaffner Family Foundation, and Vital Projects Fund, with additional support from Brown Harris Stevens, Saunders & Associates, and public funds provided by Suffolk County.

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