Visual Arts

Students departed the families departed sending you all love

Heading to commencement—channeling the spirit of our Visual Arts Program filmmaker friend, partner in mischief, Professor Profundo Rosso McLaren—Go Rams!

Another fabulous evening with the visual arts family for their senior thesis exhibition reception. What a dream team!

Postcards to home: Graduation highlights exhibition. Featuring the work of the 2026 Visual Arts Program Senior Thesis Students. RECEPTION 5/12 @ 6pm in the Butler Gallery

Dear Visual Arts family, I wanted to let you know that I have decided to accept a position as Fordham’s Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education. Here’s the way I see it: our University is a giant cargo ship, the kind that takes miles and miles to change direction and is incapable of making a hard right or left turn. With that as my metaphor, I will do my best to course-correct things a point or two off the bow in the right direction for our students and faculty, and have fun while doing it. We are still deciding who will take over as head of the visual arts program; nevertheless, I am certain that whomever it is will do a fabulous job, energetically leading our merry band of pranksters into the next decade. It has been my absolute pleasure and privilege to serve in this role over the years, advocating for our students, putting out small fires here and there (Ed Ruscha reference), and, best of all, singing your praises to anyone who would listen to me or read my missives. This is easy for me to do, since you are fabulous. When I sat in the Department of Theatre and Visual Arts room 423 in the fall of 1996, interviewing with Bill Conlon for a position teaching one photography class as an Adjunct Professor, I couldn’t have dreamed that 30 years later I would get to sit in that seat. Suffice it to say, it has been a really cool ride, and I plan on having even more fun moving forward. As part of my “agreement,” I will still be teaching photography here in New York, in my Tokyo class, and in the Rome summer program, so it’s not like I’ve moved to Antarctica or anything. You will still find me scrubbing the dark room with Joe and Anibal, and where there is an espresso machine (we have them in both art complexes), I will still be there—not in spirit, but literally—as my gig is across the University and not limited to either campus. OK, my friends, enough for now, it’s back to work. As Willy Wonka once said, “so much time and so little to do...” Warmly, Stephan

Dial in from around the world to Fordham and learn about photography in summer session 2 remote!

Dear all, This is short and sweet since a picture says it all get set——and——action! Picture 1 Maximum capacity of film lovers achieved last night for Films Worth Talking About, Even If Difficult: Retratos Fantasmas [Pictures of Ghosts]! A tremendous thank you to our outstanding students for their fresh insights and probing questions, as well as to our dynamic superstar Professors Audrey Evrard and Carl Fischer, for leading a spirited discussion about this enchanting and generous work about cinema, family, and the family of film fans, past and present—filmic dogs and cats, too! One closing image from the screening shows that there are many of us, cinephiles around the world, who come together in our dark communal spaces and look up at the glowing screen with awe, curiosity, and joy. Then we talk about it... Picture 2 So, close the curtains—this season’s a wrap, and we hope to see you in the next with more challenging cinema, fabulous faculty, and dynamic discussions!

Tonight: Tuesday, April 14, 6 pm, Lincoln Center, Visual Arts Complex, RM SL24L Panelists: Associate Professor of French Audrey Evrard, Department Chair, Languages & Cultures, and Professor Carl Fischer, Professor of Spanish, Department of Languages & Cultures. Moderated by Professor Apicella-Hitchcock, Head of the Visual Arts Program. Open to all. There will be pizza and a raffle prize. Retratos Fantasmas [Pictures of Ghosts], from acclaimed Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, “Is a multidimensional journey across time, sound, architecture, and filmmaking that explores the rich, complicated history of the filmmaker’s home city of Recife—the coastal capital of the state of Pernambuco—through the great movie theaters that served as spaces of conviviality during the twentieth century. Paeans to dreams and progress, these temples of cinema have also come to reflect major shifts in Brazilian society and politics. Combining archival documentary, mystery, film clips, and personal memories, Pictures of Ghosts is a map of a city through the lens of cinema, offering a delightful tour…” About season two This spring, Films Worth Talking About, Even If Difficult, expands its programming into a broader interpretive territory. “Difficult Films” is not limited to films that are emotionally challenging or politically provocative; it can also refer to visually experimental, sonically demanding, historically complex, or multi-threaded or temporally shifting films. Ultimately, the series is a cinematic pretext for hanging out, eating, and talking—a communal exercise where we discuss, discover, and sometimes disagree, which is all part of the experience.

Coming in May to Fordham University’s Susan Lipani Gallery: Amused Medusa New work on paper by Matthew Bakkom Curator: Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock May 13, 2026 – September 30, 2026 Reception: May 21, 2026, 6 pm Featuring: ...tenderising ingredients, Aristotelian retaliations, supersonic percussion, isometric eroticism, rayless slayers, assistant satanists, interlaced credential, nameless salesman, windless swindles, stencil clients, cheater teacher, cruelest lectures, monster mentors, impure umpire, germinal maligner, sacred cadres, sporadic picadors, cosmic comics, relapsed pleaders, dishonest hedonists, American Cinerama, Germanic creaming, unsoiled delusion, insatiable banalities, Chelsea leaches discover divorces, busted debuts, resinous neurosis, oceanic cocaine, trance nectar, sauciest suitcase, bluest sublet, nectarous courtesan, striptease tapestries, silence license, baritone obtainer, partitioned trepidation, colonialist oscillation, aspirant partisan. leader dealer, promise imposer, sultanic lunatics, senator treason, pirates parties, tearless stealers, slyest styles, and hustling sunlight. These works were produced over the last year in Rotterdam, Minneapolis, and New Orleans, using a set of K-6 stencils to extend the artist’s abiding engagement with anagramic phenomena. Amused Medusa ink on paper 8”x 8” 2026

Pictures of Ghosts, 2023, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho Tuesday, April 14, 6 pm, Lincoln Center, Visual Arts Complex, RM SL24L Panelists: Associate Professor of French Audrey Evrard, Department Chair, Languages & Cultures, and Professor Carl Fischer, Professor of Spanish, Department of Languages & Cultures. Open to all. With pizza and a raffle prize. Pictures of Ghosts, from acclaimed Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, “Is a multidimensional journey across time, sound, architecture, and filmmaking that explores the rich, complicated history of the filmmaker’s home city of Recife—the coastal capital of the state of Pernambuco—through the great movie theaters that served as spaces of conviviality during the twentieth century. Paeans to dreams and progress, these temples of cinema have also come to reflect major shifts in Brazilian society and politics. Combining archival documentary, mystery, film clips, and personal memories, Pictures of Ghosts is a map of a city through the lens of cinema, offering a delightful tour...” About season two: This spring, Films Worth Talking About, Even If Difficult, expands its programming into a broader interpretive territory. “Difficult Films” is not limited to films that are emotionally challenging or politically provocative; it can also refer to films that are visually experimental, sonically demanding, historically complex, or with multi-threaded or temporally shifting narratives. Ultimately, the series is a cinematic pretext for hanging out, eating, and talking—a communal exercise where we discuss, discover, and sometimes disagree, which is all part of the experience. The Office of the Arts & Sciences Dean invites you to step outside your regular streaming queue, experience something different, and join a community of curious film lovers throughout the year. Please bring your friends, an open mind, and have a question ready. Additionally, to sweeten the deal, we offer raffle items connected to the film. By participating, you could walk away with a special prize AND a different perspective.