The Marva and John Warnock biennial residency program has quickly become an important catalyst for dialogue encompassing contemporary issues of art making, pedagogy, interdisciplinary and collaborative work, art in the community and art as activism. Mark Brest van Kempen is the fourth artist selected for this bi-annual residency program that aims to expose students to new, innovative, and diverse contemporary art practices, while providing an opportunity for trilateral exchange amongst students, faculty, and the public at large. The artist-in-residence will lead a Master Class that takes the form of intensive workshops throughout the semester.
A former Utahn and graduate of the University of Utah (BFA ‘85, MFA San Francisco Art Institute ‘91), Brest van Kempen is “excited and honored” to be chosen for this elite residency. He is looking forward to working with the students and collaborating with others on several large-scale projects in which he will work directly with Utah’s beautifully rich and diverse environment as his material. Brest Van Kempen has created a variety of artworks using the landscape itself as sculptural material. From his Free Speech Monument on the UC Berkeley campus to Land Exchange at the National Academy of Art in China, his work explores the range of emotions and issues that are embodied in our complex relationship to the environment, land, and place. He has received numerous commissions for permanent public art projects, including the San Francisco Art Commission, the City of Palo Alto, the City of Seattle, the Haas Foundation, and was recently invited by the German government to submit designs for a national reunification monument in Leipzig.
We are deeply grateful to the Warnock family for their generous support, allowing the department to have ongoing opportunities to engage with artists of his stature. We would also like to thank Dean Tymas Jones, the Marriott Library, and the UMFA through their new ArtLandish series for continued support.
