VPA’s Sandra Kahn Alpert Visiting Artist to lecture April 12

Stephen Talasnik, the inaugural Sandra Kahn Alpert Visiting Artist in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA), will present a lecture on Tuesday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. in Shemin Auditorium in the Dorothea Ilgen Shaffer Art Building. The free, public lecture is part of the Department of Art’s Visiting Artist Lecture Series in VPA. Parking is available for $4 in Booth Garage. Patrons should mention that they are attending the lecture to receive this rate.

As the Sandra Kahn Alpert Visiting Artist, Talasnik is spending the semester working with the Graduate Seminar in the Department of Art, which consists of master of fine arts candidates in ceramics, fiber arts/material studies, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, printmaking and sculpture.

The Sandra Kahn Alpert Visiting Artist Endowed Fund was established by Alpert, a 1945 alumna of VPA, and her husband, Clement Alpert, to bring leading artists and designers to campus for the purpose of engaging in direct interaction with art and design students and faculty.

Born in Philadelphia, Talasnik developed an early interest in engineering and architecture, particularly in visionary and “fantastic” design. He studied art and design at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Tyler School of Art and taught drawing and design at Temple University’s Japan campus before moving to New York City.

After exclusively pursuing the art of drawing, Talasnik started making sculpture in 2000. His work is in numerous public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Albertina (Vienna), the British Museum (London), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), the Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal), State Museum of Berlin (Germany) and the National Gallery of Art. His recent solo and site-specific exhibitions include those at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, N.Y.; Battat Contemporary in Montreal; and Marlborough Chelsea in New York City. Learn more at http://www.stephentalasnik.com.

For more information about the lecture, contact Stephen Zaima, professor of painting, at (315) 443-9400 or szaima@syr.edu.