School Notes: School of Art
July/August 2022

Celebrating faculty, alums in Venice

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean Kymberly Pinder, with assistant professor and acting director of graduate studies in sculpture Aki Sasamoto, traveled to Venice in April to celebrate and support the work of Yale School of Art faculty and alums included in the 59th international art exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

With the Yale Alumni Art League, the Yale School of Art hosted a conversation and reception at the Hotel Monaco and Grand Canal on April 21, in which Dean Pinder and exhibiting Biennale artist Sasamoto shared their thoughts on art, exhibiting, and academia.

In addition to Sasamoto, School of Art alumni Felipe Baeza ’18MFA, Ficre Ghebreyesus ’02MFA, critic in photography Elle Pérez ’15MFA, and Christina Quarles ’16MFA have work represented at the Biennale, and the Biennale’s 2022 visual identity is based on works by Baeza.

Also in Venice are prominent Biennale collateral exhibitions featuring alums Stanley Whitney ’72MFA and Kehinde Wiley ’01MFA. Stanley Whitney: The Italian Paintings is presented by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, and Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence at Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The Biennale and The Italian Paintings are both open through November 27, 2022; An Archaeology of Silence closes July 24.

Faculty member named associate dean

Co–Director of Graduate Studies in Painting and Printmaking Anoka Faruqee has been appointed associate dean of the school, filling a position that has been vacant since 2018. Faruqee has been a faculty member in painting and printmaking for over a decade and has led the department since 2015. She begins her new role in September.

Faruqee’s fellow codirector, Meleko Mokgosi, will lead the department as sole director at the start of the new academic year, with Oscar Cornejo continuing in his role as graduate coordinator. Faruqee will continue to teach in and outside of the painting and printmaking department as associate dean, while developing and leading new collaborative administrative priorities and projects.