Blog Archive

February 27, 2023

Dionn Reneé (BFA '04) Wins Design Contest with Sony's "Woman King" Film

Author: Emily Herbein

After entering a design contest hosted by Sony Pictures and Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Dionn Reneé (BFA ‘04) was named one of 10 “Selected Creators” worldwide whose work was used to promote the 2022 film Woman King starring Academy-Award winner Viola Davis.  “I thought that my chances of winning weren’t high, but when I saw what the movie was about — empowering women, fighting for freedom — I wanted to submit no matter what,” Reneé says. “Everywhere the film went, the artwork was used for the official marketing campaign.”  Reneé, who studied graphic design at Tyler, says her art style speaks to the film’s message because “it has this powerful quality. It’s a still, but there’s movement to it, which is something that I learned from my graphic design and painting classes that I still hold on to. I approached the project with this child-like excitement,” she says.  Read More

February 23, 2023

Temple Ambler's Secret to Forced Plant Growth for PHS Flower Show

Author: Emily Herbein

Benjamin Snyder, Manager of the Tyler School of Art and Architecture Greenhouse Education and Research Complex at Temple Ambler, Temple Horticulture senior Ethan Smith, and Landscape Architecture sophomore Owen Lambert are working to convince 852 plants from 65 different species that less than two weeks from now would be the perfect time to bloom. Read More

February 22, 2023

Tyler Alumni Host Panel in Museum Life and Arts Administration

Author: Emily Herbein

Tyler alumni Princeton Cangé (BFA '19), Laura Igoe (PhD ‘14), Victoria Ravelo (MFA ‘21), and Jennifer Zwilling (MA ‘01) held a panel titled “Museum Life: Careers in Arts Management” moderated by Dean Susan Cahan to discuss their backgrounds in art education, curation, making, and administration. Read More

book cover
February 20, 2023

Mariola Alvarez publishes book on Neoconcretism

Author: Jane DeRose Evans

Alvarez's book, The Affinity of Neoconcretism: Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Brazilian Modernism, 1954–1964, has been published by University of California Press. About the Book The 1950s and early 1960s in Brazil gave birth to a period of incredible optimism and economic development. In The Affinity of Neoconcretism, Mariola V. Alvarez argues that the Neoconcretists—a group of artists and poets working together in Rio de Janeiro from 1959 to 1961—formed an important part of this national transformation. She maps the interactions of the Neoconcretists and discusses how the artists and poets collaborated to challenge existing divides between high and low art and between fields such as fine art and dance. This book reveals how art and intellectual work in Brazil occurred within a local political and social context and also emerged from the transnational movement of artists, artworks, published materials, and ideas. Read More

February 15, 2023

Dr. Muge Durusu publishes in Nature and is interviewed by Washington Post on ancient climate change

Author: Jane DeRose Evans

Dr. Durusu's article, "Signs of ancient climate crisis as the Hittite empire unravelled," Nature 08 Feb 2023 led to her being interviewed in the Washington Post for the article "Drought may have doomed this ancient empire — a warning for today’s climate crisis" 08 Feb 2023. Check out both here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00271-2 and https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/08/climate-ch... Read More

February 14, 2023

Jessica Hische (BFA '06) On: Making It Work as a Professional Illustrator

Author: Emily Herbein

Jessica Hische (BFA ‘06) is a leading creator in her field, dominating every corner of text and typography, logo refreshing, and literary cover design. Her most acclaimed projects include a collaboration with director Wes Anderson on his film Moonrise Kingdom, for which Hische designed a signature title and credit text; a new take on Fender’s classic Squier guitar logo, and branding Neiman Marcus’ 2022 holiday culinary collection. With more than 15 years of experience, Hische has worked jobs within every niche between corporate and freelance — typography and film credit design, children's book illustration, and big-brand identity  — and now works for herself, on her own time.   Read More

Li Machado headshot
February 13, 2023

Li Machado (PhD candidate) appointed a curatorial assistant at Benton Museum of Art, Pomona College

Author: Jane DeRose Evans

Li (he/they) officially joined on January 30 as a curatorial assistant, a position made possible with support from the Getty Foundation through its Getty Marrow Emerging Professionals Pilot Program. This is from the official announcement: "They specialize in Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx Art with a research emphasis on memory art and memorials, presence, and absence. Li’s current work builds on recent histories of queer art, queer worldmaking and youth culture, and transnational identity formation in the context of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, particularly Los Angeles. A current Temple University Future Faculty Fellow, a recipient of the inaugural Marcia Hall Research Award, and a former Getty Marrow Undergraduate Intern, Li was also the president of the Art History Graduate Organization at Temple. Read More

February 9, 2023

Architecture Professors Pablo Meninato, PhD and Jeffrey Nesbit Discuss Their Recent Books

Author: Emily Herbein

Pablo Meninato, PhD, Associate Professor of Architecture and Jeffrey Nesbit, Assistant Professor of Architecture each published books in 2022. Meninato's Informality and the City: Theories, Actions and Interventions explores architecture and environmental design’s impact on informal spaces and Nesbit's Nature of Enclosure unpacks the evolution of designing enclosed spaces and what that means for developing technology and civilization. Nesbit, who is new to Tyler this academic year, focuses much of his outside work and research on urbanization, infrastructure, and the evolution of “technical lands.” Meninato studies the principles and mechanisms that govern an architectural and urban project. Read More

February 7, 2023

Cecilia Secaira (MEd '23) Displays Rhizomatic Cloud Sculpture, "inter/liminal lingering"

Author: Emily Herbein

Cecilia Secaira (MEd '23) works as a graduate assistant and peer advisor in Tyler's Art Education program. With a varied background across several fine arts disciplines ranging from ceramics to textiles, Secaira says her time at Tyler has opened her eyes to her love of art education. Through her practice, which settled in the crafts space, she uses making as a form of self-discovery, research, and communication. Her latest work, "inter/liminal lingering," is a rhizomatic cloud sculpture that employs a/r/tography research techniques and critical thinking skills, all while encouraging viewer engagement and self-relfection. Below, Secaira reflects on her practice and work ethic. Describe your artistic background. Read More

February 1, 2023

Tyler in Rome and the Interconnectedness of Art, Architecture, and Culture

Author: Emily Herbein

In 1966, Temple University’s Rome Program opened its doors in the historic Villa Caproni, a classic multi-story Roman palazzo turned full-support academic center seated just off the east bank of the River Tiber. For more than 50 years, Tyler students have been encouraged to spend a summer, a semester, or a full year in Italy in order to fulfill a variety of graduate and undergraduate requirements in both the fine arts and built disciplines. Hailed as a cultural, social, and historical hub, Rome offers a view of the ancient and modern worlds coexisting with a vibrancy found little elsewhere.  Read More