Painter, installation artist, fabricator
to work with students next semester

This spring, Texas A&M students will have an opportunity to work with an acclaimed painter, an installation artist and a digital fabricator and earn college credits in the process as part of the College of Architecture’s Spring 2011 Artist in Residence program.

Interested students from all disciplines can sign up for one or all three one-hour credit workshops featuring: Ron Cheek '89, Jan. 31 – Feb. 6, a contemporary representational painter who focuses on figurative and still-life subjects; Sally Weber, Feb. 20 – March 1, an installation artist who works with holography and light; and/or Elena Manferdini, March 20 – 25, principal of Atelier Manferdini, an architectural office specializing in the cutting edge of computer-aided design of exotic forms.

The program is sponsored by Texas A&M's Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, the College of Architecture and the Department of Visualization.

Ron Cheek '89, Jan. 31 – Feb. 6, is a contemporary representational painter who focuses on figurative and still-life subjects. Although contemporary in subject matter, his paintings reflect the sensibility of Old Master style and academic process.

Cheek earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from Texas A&M in 1989.

Subtle themes in his work reveal a keen interest in psychology and religion, as well as a love for simple beauty and design in nature. His work is labor intensive and rendered directly from life.

Sally Weber, Feb. 20 – March 1, is an installation artist who works with holography and light. She is known for her solar, environmental and architectural installations using large-scale holography.

Weber has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally and received numerous public art commissions both in the U.S. and overseas.

Elena Manferdini, March 20 – 25, is principal of Atelier Manferdini, an architectural office specializing in the cutting edge of computer-aided design of exotic forms.

Manferdini's practice applies construction and manufacturing technologies from the aeronautic and car industry to the field of architecture, object design and fashion. Her work has been exhibited internationally in both architecture and art museums.

She is slated to work with students on a piece that will be installed at the Langford Architecture Center after her departure.

Students can choose one or all of the workshops, each of which is one credit hour.

For more information, contact AIR chair Carol Lafayette at lurleen@viz.tamu.edu or 979.845-5691.

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.