ONLINE Course - via Zoom

Day of the week: Wednesday

Time: 6:00-8:15 pm (EST) / 3:00-5:15 pm (PST)

Length: 2 hrs. + 15 min.

6 Weeks of Classes: June 5, June 12, June 19, June 26 – no class July 4th week – July 10, July 15 (Monday)

About This Course

The Crit Assignment: Abstraction and The Unconscious is a 6-week online course, led by renowned artist and writer, Sharmistha Ray. In this course, artists will have the opportunity to present their work twice to the class. In the first round of critiques, artists will receive feedback from Sharmistha and peers. Based on the discussion within each crit, Sharmistha will provide each artist with an individualized assignment. The assignment is intended to challenge and help reinvigorate each artist’s approach and artistic practice. All artists will have two weeks to respond to the assignment before their second critique.

The Crit Assignment is an excellent course is you are seeking constructive feedback and fresh perspectives on your work. It is especially fruitful if you are needing help out of creative block! This course will encourage you to discover new materials, seek new methods of making and dive into new conceptual ventures. During this course, artists will receive a special visit from Guest Artist Rhonda Wheatley.

“Abstraction and The Unconscious” is the overarching theme of this course designed by Sharmistha. All artists who are interested in exploring this theme are welcome to enroll, whether you make work that is 2D or 3D, or work within figuration to abstraction.

Guest Artist

Rhonda Wheatley is a multidisciplinary artist, intuitive energy worker, and educator whose installations and interactive projects are grounded in the speculative and metaphysical. Her recent projects include solo shows at Glass Curtain Gallery (Columbia College), Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC), and Aurora Public Art; group shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Buffalo AKG Art Museum (NY), and Art League of Houston; and performances as part of the MCA’s In Progress series and at Gallery 400 (UIC). As part of her practice, Wheatley has also facilitated workshops centered in healing and personal transformation with organizations and academic institutions including Creative Capital, Ox-Bow School of Art, The University of Chicago, Threewalls, 3Arts, DePaul University, Indiana University, Chicago Artists Coalition (CAC), 6018North, and more. Additionally, she teaches at HPAC and has taught contemporary art at Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis. Wheatley currently serves as a Resident Healer with the Terra Art Design Chicago “Restorative Wellness and Community Healing” pilot program. She was a 2023 Jackman Goldwasser Radicle Resident at HPAC and a Loghaven Fellow and received CAC’s inaugural Coney Family Award and a 3Arts ‘Make a Wave’ Grant. She received her MA from DePaul University and BA from Loyola University.

Artists in this course will:

• Will participate in an intimate class size of 8 artists max

• Receive 2 opportunities for 30 minute critiques & feedback from Sharmistha + peers

• Each artist will be provided a personalized assignment based on the feedback from their first critique

• Receive the opportunity to collaborate with artist peers in Zoom or in-person studio visits outside of class

• Receive written feedback from peers and faculty every presentation via Zoom chat

• Learn about new artists, suggested films, readings, and exhibitions to see

• Artist Talk + Q&A, plus a consciousness-raising workshop for tapping creative intuition by Rhonda Wheatley

Faculty Bio

Sharmistha Ray (they/them) is a visual artist, art critic, curator, and educator. Their artistic practice delves into the complex inheritance of multiple cultures through their queer identity and modes of abstraction. Working primarily in painting and drawing, they have also made work in sculpture and installation, curated projects, and written prolifically on art. In addition to their solo work, they co-founded the spiritualist feminist art collective Hilma’s Ghost which acts as a collaborative model for research, artistic production, pedagogy, and community. Ray’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions and projects internationally at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Galería RGR, Mexico City; Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT; Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL; Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens, NY; The Parallax Center, Portland, OR; The Armory Show, New York, NY; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY; and Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, India, among many others. Ray is the recipient of the Montblanc Young Artist Worldwide Patronage Award, TED Fellowship, and Joan Mitchell MFA Grant, and has been an artist-in-residence at Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY; and Art Cake, Brooklyn, NY. Reviews of their work have appeared in The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Artnet, Hyperallergic, Art India, Take on Art, and TimeOut Mumbai. Ray received a dual degree MFA in Painting and MS in Theory, Criticism and History of Art, Design and Architecture from Pratt Institute and BA from Williams College.