Temple Rome Exhibition Opening Featuring Stephen Talasnik (TYL ‘79)
Temple University Rome is very pleased to announce the launch of Mission(Im)Possible, a virtual exhibition series devoted to established artists who received their BFA/MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University, and who attended Temple University Rome or who have a relationship with Rome. We are excited to inaugurate with NY-based artist Stephen Talasnik, and his exhibition Disegno Interno, on March 23, 2021, at 2:00pm ET/7:00pm CET. The artist will be present on zoom and will discuss his work in conversation with curator Shara Wasserman.
Stephen Talasnik (TYL ‘79) participated in the Graduate Painting Program at Temple University Rome in 1977/78, and his connection with Temple University continued through the 1980s, when he taught at Tyler School of Art, and at Temple University Japan. Stephen graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, and there studied photography with Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan; the artist credits this early exposure to photography as a catalyst for his life-long involvement with drawing. During his MA studies at the Temple University Rome campus, he continued this study of drawing, this time through architecture, as he explored and sketched the monuments. Stephen later spent 3 years teaching at Temple University Japan in Tokyo, a time he refers to as his exclusive drawing period. He travelled extensively throughout South East Asia, studied indigenous buildings and their natural building materials. This eventually translated into large-scale ephemeral projects where architecture, engineering, sculpture and drawing fuse together to create marvelous hand-woven constructions that recall invented cities and otherworldly designs, set in evocative landscapes. A dialogue with Japan and Rome continues to inform his work.
For the Mission Impossible exhibition, Talasnik will present three installations, two independent series of sculptures, and a selection of drawings created during lockdown.
The exhibition will be introduced by a video interview between Stephen Talasnik and Prof. Jeffrey Kingston, Director of Asian Studies at TUJ and a friend of the artist since 1987.