What I'm Doing Now!

As the artist-in-residence at UCSC in 2012, I will be making a large-scale cut-out art installation at the Sesnon Art Gallery. Please check out the project's blog http://naturalselectionartshow.blogspot.com

Tokyo - Landing

Arriving in Tokyo via the Narita Airport, losing a day because of time zones, adds an extra bit of the surreal to the beginning of a 6-month journey of living in Japan and studying traditional Japanese arts and crafts. With the previous 6-months being consumed with planning and imagining how it will be; suddenly there is a shift - a conflation of what will be and what is.

At the International House in Roppongi, I felt immediately welcomed by the hospitality of the staff and by the kind handling of our Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC) contacts Christopher and Manami.
Never having been to Japan before, I was impressed by the meticulously tended Japanese Garden with blossoming plum and cherry trees, the rice paper sliding screens and the space-aged bathroom.






The most delicious and anticipated breakfast I've ever tasted.

Japan-United States Friendship Commission Fellowship

National Endowment for the Arts
JUSFC Creative Arts Fellow 2010 - in Visual Arts

Established in 1975, the Japan-US Friendship Commission awards 5 fellowships a year to US scholars in the arts to learn about, study and be inspired by Japanese arts (architecture, dance, literature, poetry, theater, music, and visual arts).

The purpose of the Commission's programs is defined in the Japan-United States Friendship Act as "aid to education and culture at the highest level in order to enhance reciprocal people-to-people understanding and to support the close friendship and mutuality of interests between the United States and Japan." This is important because as stated in the Act,"the continuation of close United States-Japan friendship and cooperation will make a vital contribution to the prospects for peace, prosperity and security in Asia and the world."

Katerina Lanfranco, Visual arts, March 8 - August 31, 2010

Katerina plans to visit Japan to study isekatagami (paper cut-outs), ikebana (flower arranging) and ukiyo-e (a genre of woodblock prints). Since 2006, she has explored the use of paper cut-outs. Her interest in them stems from their physical directness, compositional detail and complexity. Likewise, in her works she often references floral motifs and plant forms, which she sees as having a similarity to ikebana: an art form in created response to the inherent beauty, symmetry and formal patterns found in plants. As her paintings are a result of the investigation into the creation of other worldly landscapes, inspired by the ukiyo-e tradition, she feels she would benefit from further study into that genre as well.
www.katerinalanfranco.com

http://www.i-house.or.jp/en/ProgramActivities/arts/ArtistsProfile.htm
in Japanese http://kyotokaterina.blogspot.com/

Hawaii! Kauai!!

Kauai, Hawaii 2010

National Tropical Botanical Gardens - Beautiful and inspiring plants.

After visiting the Botanical Gardens, I craved some fresh island fruit and lady luck took me there: Farmer's Market


Chico fruit, apple bananas, butter apples, sugar cane, mangoes etc...

Snorkling along the Napali Coast


On the boat trip along the Napali Coast I spotted sea turtles, humpback whales, and a pod of 50 dolphins.




Waimea Canyon - Kauai is a small island, only 33 miles across. This canyon is huge and breathtaking.

REAL(ist) Show

REAL(ist) Group Show with color catalogue and essay
Selby Gallery, Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.
2009-2010 Curated by Kevin Dean



After driving the entire way down to Florida from NYC, I installed "Below a Sea of Stars" a mixed media cut-out installation at the Selby Gallery. Tackling 3 display cases, a video component, and the gallery foyer - the artwork was given its own life in Sarasota. Challenging but fun.

Arctic Book Club - Group Show

Installation view of "Midnight Sun" and "Glacial Specimens"


"Midnight Sun", 2009, hand-cut paper, height 80 inches.
(From the catalogue) Midnight Sun is a cut-out of a large isolated iceberg in silhouetted form. The shape is constructed from a complex of positive and negative spaces and shapes. The piece was made in response to the extreme climate and light conditions of Greenland. The form, like the island itself, drifts alone in the ocean and exists partially above and below water. The piece's contrast of dark and light are symbolic of the region's Polar Night (total darkness) and Midnight Sun (total light). The epic landscape form, only partially explosed above water, can also be thought of as a metaphor for epic journey that is described in the book.


"Glacial Specimens" 2009, flame worked glass with clay and acrylic paint.
(From the catalogue) Glacial Specimens is a work that consists of several small mixed media glass sculptures. Each sculpture is unique, and yet relates to the others in trying to capture the ephemeral nature of snow crystals and ice forms. They are phantasmagoric in their static states. They operate as a metaphor for what is barely attainable and unknown about a foreign land.








Sam in front of the iceberg.

E.F.A. Profect Space
323 West 39th Street, NYC.
Opening Reception September 17th, 6-8pm.

Dinner with Tété-Michel Kpomassie

Jean Barberis of Flux Factory hosted an artists' dinner before the night before the opening of Arctic Book Club at Flux Factory's new location in L.I.C.

Flux Factory & EFA Project Space Collaboration

Curated by Jean Barberis from the Flux Factory and Michelle Levy the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, EFA Project Space.
A book club was the conceptual framework for the Arctic Book Club exhibition. Twelve artists who were invited to participate starting in the Spring of 2009 to read, discuss, and make art in response to Tété-Michel Kpomassie's 1981 book, An African in Greenland at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts studio building at 323 West 39th Street in Manhattan.

Midnight Sun - in progress at the EFA Studio for the Arctic Book Club studio residency.
The concept of the show furthered the goals of the EFA Project Space to create space for collaboration with other art and cultural organization and thus bridging gaps in the art community and expanding audiences for the arts.

tART Panel Discussion at A.I.R. Gallery

Picnic Panel, Making Room, at A.I.R gallery in DUMBO, August 27th, 6pm, organized by Anna Lise Jensen. The discussion was in connection with the tART exhibition and focused on the theme of making room(s) for (and by) female artists and the definition and relevance of "feminist space."

Address: A.I.R. Gallery, 111 Front Street, #228, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Berlin Visit Summer 2009

German Museum of Technology
(Deutsche Technik-museum)























World's Garden (Gärten der Welt) in Marzahn







The Balinese Garden - black orchid Tacca chantrieri


The Japanese Garden
A Berlin and Tokyo city project built by Zen priests.


The Islamic Garden

tART @ A.I.R. Gallery

tART at A.I.R.
August 1 – August 29, 2009

A.I.R. Gallery
111 Front Street
Brooklyn, NY (DUMBO)

tART at AIR is an exhibition curated by Kat Griefen that includes the work of 35 artists who are part of the tART collective. tART is comprised of 46 emerging women artists nationwide, whose network facilitates dialogue, collaboration, learning and teaching, public engagement, and activism.

This exhibition is, in part, an examination of the Feminist Art Movement's influence on subsequent generations of female artists. The exhibition is presented “salon” style.

A.I.R. Gallery and the tART collective are both organizations founded by women with the intention of fostering a strong community and public presence for women in the arts. Both A.I.R. Gallery and tART function as support networks, which continue to strengthen and celebrate women’s roles in the field.



(In front of Monica Carrier's drawing.)

The exhibiting artists are: Liz Ainslie, Jill Auckenthaler, Suzanne Bennett, Monica Carrier, Sydney Chastain-Chapman, Laurie Close, Melissa Cowper-Smith, Ann deVere, Maria Dumlao, Madora Frey, Tara Giannini, Rachael Gorchov, Anna Lise Jensen, Elsie Kagan, Katherine Keltner, Selena Kimball, Essye Klempner, Katy Krantz, Katerina Lanfranco, Lisa Lindgren, Rebecca Loyche, Cybele Lyle, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Sandra Mack-Valencia, Ilse Murdock, Danielle Mysliwiec, Asya Reznikov, Susan Ross, Carrie Rubinstein, Nikki Schiro, Yasmin Spiro, Melissa Staiger, Rosemary Taylor, Petra Valentova, and Julia Whitney Barnes.

http://www.tartnyc.org
Black Botanical, 2008, 14 x 11 inches, hand-cut paper

Cultural Corridor IV - Pittsfield, M.A.

"Pollentia" 2009, gouache and flame worked glass, 72 x 72 inches

Selections from the Cultural Corridor IV.

Featured artists: Natasha Poleshuk Navidad, Katerina Lanfranco, Ruth Hardinger, Brece Honeycutt, Sandy Winters, Renee Bouchard, and John Maziarz

June 27 - July 26, 2009.

“Selections from” is an annual exhibition curated by Peter Dudek that gathers the widest possible range of activity by artists who live and/or work in the “Cultural Corridor”. The Berkshires is a vital part of the Cultural Corridor that has been forming between New York City and southern Vermont. New artists have gathered here in recent years amplifying and broadening the artistic mix of an already culturally rich area.

Storefront Artist Project
124 Fenn Street, Pittsfield.

Byrdcliffe - Summer Artist Residency

Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock, NY



A one month artist residency
June 30 - July 26, 2009
Pollock Krasner Award recipient
Run by the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild the artist residency provides the opportunity for people to discover and develop their creative and artistic spirit. This year's master artist was Gregory Amenoff. They are dedicated to the preservation of the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony as an arts haven, natural environment, and historic site. Their goal is to present and foster the creative arts for the enjoyment and education of the people of Woodstock, the region, and beyond.

The Byrdcliffe gang on July 4th.






In my studio with an awesome view of the forest in Upstate New York.


In Nathania Rubin's Studio with Julie Durkin and Bob Marty.