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DISCIPLINES

The Department of Art has an open structure allowing students to move freely between disciplines. Students can focus on one area of exploration or build an interdisciplinary program of study.

  • Mountain - Melissa Gonzales (BFA '20) - Conveyor Belt, Acrylic Box, Clay - 2020

    Our ceramics courses combine essential skills with critical art thinking. Students are mentored to learn the traditions of ceramics and to expand upon these to arrive at original solutions. BFA and MFA ceramic students are granted individual studio spaces and storage. Former students include an NCECA board member and an NCECA emerging talent artist. Our students continue to exhibit nationally and abroad with many opportunities to exhibit and travel during our program.

    Students are involved in every aspect of the ceramic process including opportunities to build and fire kilns according to their needs. Students are encouraged to utilize the sculpture area's resources so that materials, methods and equipment from both areas can serve students in their artistic practice.

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  • Mammoth Cave i - Janessa Lewis (BFA '22) - Graphite and Silkscreen - 2022

    The Art Department maintains traditional figure drawing courses, as well as a series of courses which explore intensive observational and process-based drawing as a self-sustaining medium. As they progress in these classes, students will synthesize art historical practices with the current dialogues surrounding drawing in contemporary art, examining key artists, movements, theories and methodologies.

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  • Tailoring Student Learning project - Jeff Cornwall (MA Art Education '15)

    The Art Education area prepares students to become both artists and active forces for good in their communities. In addition to their study of traditional studio methods, students design curricula that reflect current practices in art and art education. The Art Education area sees consistent success placing students in teaching, research, and leadership positions within the field. The student chapter of the National Art Education Association is one of the strongest professionally affiliated student groups on campus, and has received national attention for its standards of scholarship, service, and activity.

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  • Return - Leilani Bascom (MFA '22) - Multi-channel video installation - 2022

    Our New Genre courses allow students to explore non-traditional approaches to art making including installation, video, digital, sound, performance, and everything in between. Beginning with an overview of the histories of these practices and an in-depth examination of noteworthy contemporary work, students gain critical knowledge and expand their sense of possibility. Through these courses students learn to prioritize their ideas and to find the best means by which to activate them.

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  • In Arcadia - Madeline Rupard (BFA '16) - acrylic on panel - 2017

    As a central part of the studio curriculum of the Department of Art, painting prepares students to engage in the broader visual culture by exploring contemporary issues and methodologies as well as more traditional problems in painting. The program provides students with strong visual and conceptual reasoning skills, which are critical in each individual student’s search for identity and place among their peers and other professionals.

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  • Merging - Carrie Jube Everett (BFA '20) - photograph - 2020

    Through our photography courses we provide students with the technical knowledge and the means to explore the ever-expanding range of applications of the photographic image within contemporary art. Students are introduced to key artists, movements, and related theory, and are encouraged to think critically about the role of photography within culture.

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  • No. 1-3 of Redlining Series - Aïsha Lehmann (BFA '22) - intaglio prints- 2021

    Printmaking in the BYU Department of Art is seen as a means of artistic expression rather than a process for mass-producing pictorial objects. Students are encouraged to first attain proficiency with a variety of print mechanisms and then develop conceptual reinterpretations of the ever-expanding medium. It is an objective of the print area to cultivate a more self-initiated approach that innovates and redraws the boundaries of the contemporary print. This objective is enhanced by one-on-one attention and participation in individual and group critiques, access to the print collections at the BYU Museum of Art, visiting artist lectures and demonstrations, occasions to participate in collaborative exchange portfolios, and opportunities to participate in a newly-founded print study program which trains students in the techniques of master printers.

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  • Woodhill - Jeffery Hampshire (BFA '21) - steel - 2021

    Sculpture students will explore a broad range of contemporary and traditional sculptural practice through a rigorous investigation of concepts and materials. They will develop technical mastery, creative problem-solving, personal sensitivities and critical self-awareness about their own work as they participate in a curriculum that concentrates on a blend of theory and practice. The program embraces new technologies and emerging genres on a foundation of tradition sculptural methodology.

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