Welcome to new MFA Faculty
In addition to current MFA faculty and staff Amos Latteier, Rebecca Duclos, and Rachel Katz, the graduate program at MECA is thrilled to welcome two new professors, Andrea Ray and Peter Simensky, who will be teaching with us beginning this summer and fall, respectively.
Andrea Ray, Inhalatorium 2004
Professor Andrea Ray is a New York-based installation artist whose work primarily investigates the effects of ill-perceived relations and misdiagnosed conditions between subjects and their environments. Her projects often incorporate sound and architectural components and are supported through focused research across a number of fields and disciplines including psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, utopian studies, literary and aesthetic theory. Andrea received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1989 and her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1994. She attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in 1996 and has taught widely and maintained an international studio practice ever since. Andrea brings with her a tremendous intensity and care in her interdisciplinary and intermedial teaching that has been honed at institutions such as the Kansas City Art Institute, Hunter College, Cooper Union, the College of New Jersey, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Parsons The New School, and the Malmö Art Academy in Sweden. Andrea will teach the summer Perspectives course, both Research Methdologies courses for 1st and 2nd year students in the fall, as well as the Interdisciplinary Studies and From Impetus to Analysis courses in the spring term. The MFA at MECA is thrilled to have Andrea join the faculty this June.
Peter Simensky, Neutral Capital 50 (Real Real Fictions) 2007
Professor Peter Simensky is a Maine-born, New York-based artist whose work spans numerous media including sculpture and installation, three-dimensional design, collage, video, photography, performance, print, and textiles. Peter received his BA at the University of California, Berkeley in Art History and Studio Art in 1999 and his MFA at Hunter College in 2003. In the same year Peter was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Peter’s expansive network of artists and writers (developed in part through his position as a photo editor at Artforum from 2001 to 2003), as well as his extensive teaching experience at Hunter College, University of California San Diego, and New York University will be a significant asset to the program in the fall when he joins the MFA as a consultant to assist with the crucial pairing of MFA students and individual studio advisors in each student’s home community. In the fall term Peter will also be teaching the Companion to Contemporary Art Since 1945 course for 1st year students as well as the Guided Studies and Studio Thesis courses in the fall and spring terms, respectively, for graduating students. The MFA is excited to welcome Peter who will begin his work with us in mid-August.
