The Department of Visual Arts has announced that Michael Namkung, a San Francisco native, has been named the 2010 James Rosenquist Artist in Residence at NDSU. He will work during the spring semester in the studio dedicated for the program at NDSU’s Downtown Visual Arts Department, interacting with students, holding public lectures and opening his studio to visitors. Namkung will present a public lecture on Thursday, Jan. 28, at 3 p.m. in Renaissance Hall room 114.
Namkung performs kinesthetic drawing experiments that use the physicality of his body as the medium. An amateur athlete, he uses his athletic training regimen to inform his creative research, which he defines as an exploration of what happens when the activity of drawing is infused with the language of athletic training.
Through video, performance, installation and audience participation, Namkung investigates questions of process, materiality and perception, specifically in terms of their relationship to the body. At NDSU, he will teach a seminar course and the residency will culminate with an exhibit and donation of a piece of artwork to the James Rosenquist Artist Residency Collection. Additional information about Namkung is available at www.michaelnamkung.com.
“Mr. Namkung’s art is stunning and I know that he will make an indelible impression on our students as well as on the community,” said Thomas Riley, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at NDSU. “We are very excited that he has accepted the Rosenquist residency this year.”
Namkung earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and a Master of Education degree in teaching from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts in drawing and painting from San Francisco State University. He has taught at the Center for Elders and Youth in the Arts in San Francisco, San Francisco State University and the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, Calif. His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery, the LAB, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the POW! POW! Action Art Festival.
In addition to the James Rosenquist Residency award, Namkung has been awarded several graduate fellowship awards and the Jack and Gertrude Murphy Fellowship in the Fine Arts, San Francisco.
The James Rosenquist Artist in Residency Program for Visual Arts at NDSU honors James Rosenquist. Born in Grand Forks, N.D., Rosenquist is considered one of the greatest living artists of the Pop Art movement of North America. His work and career are internationally known. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from NDSU in May 2005.
NDSU introduced the James Rosenquist Artist in Residency Program in 2006 with its inaugural artist, Hedi Schwöbel, of Ludwigsburg, Germany. One of her artistic installations included sculpted salt blocks placed in area pastures with cattle near Casselton and Leonard, N.D. The second artist in residence, sculptor Jonathan Pellitteri, used his experience as a mason and carpenter to create artwork that included various mediums and processes representing his observations of the world around him. The 2009 artist in residence, Min Kim Park, explored issues revolving around gender, ethnicity and identity using multimedia performances.
“The thriving Rosenquist Artist in Residency Program has brought international artists to campus over the past three years, providing additional learning options for NDSU students, as well as high school students, alongside activities with the regional arts community,” said Philip Boudjouk, vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer, which funds the program.