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Photo by Irene
Fertik UCLA Today
Staffer Jared Pankin (front row, left) poses with his mixed
media installation and fellow employees Manuela Friedmann
and Caron Cronin. In the back row, from the left, are colleagues
Ben Evans, Steven Simon, Shane Hope and Stephen Lehmer. Lab
assistants in various art media and staffers in student and
administrative services, they have all had their work shown
locally, nationally and internationally. Although “Staff
Infection” recently closed, the group hopes to stage
another exhibition. |
'Staff Infection' spreads pride among art staff
by cynthia lee
ucla today staff
Art students know them as troubleshooters — experienced staff
who can get them out of a jam. Have a technical or conceptual problem
with a painting? Lab assistant Ben Evans may be the person they
turn to. Hit a speed bump in the academic or administrative area?
Students can run to student adviser Caron Cronin or Manuela Friedmann,
assistant to the art department chair, for help.
But what students, and perhaps some faculty, don’t realize
is that these particular art department staff members and four of
their colleagues, all of whom work in administration, drawing, photography
and other media, are professional artists in their own right.
“It’s typical that students know about faculty work,”
said Shane Hope, a lab technician in new genres. “But it’s
atypical to have them actually look at what staff do. Even though
they deal with us day to day, they’re not very familiar with
our own work.”
To showcase their talents and celebrate the lesser-known accomplishments
and professionalism of staff, the seven — Cronin, Friedmann,
Evans, Hope and lab assistants Stephen Lehmer, Jared Pankin and
Steven Simon — launched their own art show, “Staff Infection,”
over the summer. It closed Aug. 6.
The show at the New Wight Gallery in the Kinross Building, normally
a showcase for work by students, cast them in a new light. All have
had work shown in galleries locally, nationally and internationally.
Most have M.F.A. degrees. Friedmann, Cronin and Simon have taught
art at UC Santa Cruz, UCLA Extension and CalArts, respectively.
“We’ve always been a tight community,” Simon
said. “Even though we work in separate areas, there’s
always been crossover. We know we can count on each other. But doing
this show has brought us closer.”
While the department allowed the staff artists to use gallery space
at no cost, the artists paid all costs associated with the show.
The pieces ranged from pencil and acrylic drawings by Cronin to
miniature Styrofoam-headed creatures that cluttered Hope’s
“Media Cart and Passages from the Hope Book of the Dead Foliage.”
One of the most intriguing pieces was Simon’s “Import,”
made up of woven reed matting, covered with thousands of dollar
bills, then coiled tightly around a metal spoke.
The artists hope to make the staff show a biannual event.
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