NEW WORKSHOPS by MIRA O’BRIEN

NEW WORKSHOPS in Berlin 
by MIRA O’BRIEN

Contemporary Art Camp for Easter Break

(Sign Up Now!)

• April 2-6 or April 9-13, Monday-Friday 10am-5pm
• Ages 13-18, 200 Euro for 5 days. Materials included.

This 5-day Workshop is perfect for the creative teen, curious what being an artist today is all about! In the morning we will work in the studio, with guided drawing exercises, presentations on themes in Contemporary art, portfolio development, and experimentation. Each day after lunch there will be a different excursion into the Berlin art world.  We will visit contemporary art exhibitions in museums and galleries, and visit artists at work in their studios. Direct contact with curators and artists will be the focus.  All instruction will take place in English, but Mira does understand German.

Richard Jackson, “The Laundry Room” 2009

Mira O'Brien, "When Breaking a Current" 2010
interactive installation/performance at the Volksbühne, Berlin

Back to the Drawing Board: drawing refresher

• 2 day intensive weekend workshop, date to be determined.  50 Euro per person.

This Workshop is intended for conceptual artists, photographers, video artists, or anyone working in a visual field that could use a drawing refresher!  How many years has it been since you took beginning drawing? Strengthen your visual muscles through drawing exercises designed to facilitate the switch to visual thinking in a hands on way. Learn or re-learn tools to help get your ideas down through sketching. This is not about drawing as a finished artwork, but drawings as a way of thinking and understanding.

Matt Mullican, “A Drawing Translates A Way of Thinking”

Spring Watercolor Workshop: the Berlin Landscape

• Spring 2012, 8 weeks/ once per week

An introduction to watercolor, with new techniques to be learned for the more experienced.  We will use the landscape of Berlin as a subject for practicing the subtle medium of watercolor.  Mira O’Brien often uses watercolor in her own work, and will guide the class through layering color and value, dry and wet brushstrokes, sketching with watercolor, and experimentation with new materials. 

    

J.M.W. Turner, “Storm Clouds (looking out to sea),” 1845

Mira O'Brien, "Overgrowth Series", 2011

CONTACT Mira O'Brien for more information or to sign up for classes! miraob@gmail.com

(Mira O’Brien is an American artist based in Berlin. She received her MFA in Painting from Yale University and her BA in art and philosophy from UCLA. Her teaching experience ranges from Yale to public schools in Los Angeles. Her work is exhibited internationally, recently in the Torrance Art Museum in LA, a solo show at Vierter Stock supported by the US Embassy in Berlin, east-Berlin’s historic theater the Volksbühne.  www.miraobrien.com)

Mira O'Brien in her studio, 2011

photo credit: Chloe Richard

ongoing...

Winter Drawing Workshop: Drawing from Life

• Monday 6-9 pm, January 16 - February 27
• 4 classes / 100 Euro

This course introduces basic techniques in drawing, with a focus on drawing from observation. Exercises explore technique, medium and strategies in visual thinking. The class is a perfect introduction for beginners, with something new even for the more experienced.

Each class is structured around a formal topic, with examples from art-history and a brief discussion. We will build technique through a series of guided exercises, followed by time for experimentation and longer drawings. We will draw from a live model and from still life creations.

We will make several excursions to draw out in the field, including the ready-made still lives of Berlin’s Natural History Museum, the statues in the Pergamon Museum, and a plein air site. 

more information http://berlincollective.de/study-abroad/workshops

Drawing Workshop Open House // January 15

Berlin Collective Drawing Workshop Open House
Sunday, January 15, 2012
3:00pm until 6:00pm

Mira's Studio: Wrangelstrasse 31a, Berlin (Kreuzberg)

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3pm - 4pm Open Drawing Workshop
No experience necessary!

4:15 - Artist Talk Mira O’Brien
In the artist's studio!

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Followed by Reception with Drinks!

Exhibition with work from the Fall Drawing Workshop!

Please join us and find out what the Berlin Collective Drawing Workshop has been up to! Participation is Free! Drawing materials provided.

The Winter Drawing Workshop starts Monday January 9, 6-9pm. 

Course description: http://berlincollective.de/study-abroad/workshops

More information at www.berlincollective.de
 & www.miraobrien.com

RSVP on the Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/104146093038643/

or to Mira directly miraob@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you there!

Navigating Darkness video

Navigating Darkness at the Tape Modern Berlin was a great success! 
Now you can take a very brief video tour through the exhibition.

video by Mahir Duman

Thank you to all of the participating artists:

ALAN RUIZ
ALIZA RAND

ANDY GRAYDON 

BONNIE BEGUSCH 

CHRISTOPHER KLINE

DONNA HUANCA

ERIK SMITH

FREDRIK STRID

FRIEDEMANN HECKEL

HENRIKE DAUM

HIROSHI MCDONALD MORI 

JACOB KIRKEGAARD 

JENNY YURSHANSKY

JOHN VON BERGEN

KONRAD MÜHE 

MARC BIJL 

MARIO ASEF 

MARLENA KUDLICKA 

MAX SUDHUES

MICHAEL KRENZ

MIRA O’BRIEN

MITYA CHURIKOV

NICOLE COHEN 

SANDRA PETERS 

SVEN STUCKENSCHMIDT 

SNAKE BRAID AND SEA URCHIN

TRYGVE LUKTVASSLIMO

Half way through the Fall Drawing Workshop, and I can say that we are making progress. We have made many blind contour drawings, we learned to see form in  negative space, and the subtle gradations of tonality. We have drawn from live models and we have a field trip planned to draw the not-so-alive animals in the Museum für Naturkunde. 


For more information regarding the next Berlin Collective Drawing Workshop, check back on this blog or write to miraob@gmail.com to reserve your place. The next class starts January 10, 2012 and will meet Tuesday from 6-9pm.


best,
Mira

"Excellent for first-timers! Challenging for slightly more experienced!

Stimulating for experienced artists too. You've got nothing to lose.

Mira's Life drawing class was our highlight of the past summer. "

              - Marta Hansan, Visiting Scholar, Max Plank Institute for the History of

                Science, Berlin. Participant in the Summer Drawing Workshop 2011

Berlin Collective Artist Holly Zausner Who Lives Between Berlin & NYC: Upcoming Exhibition

EXHIBITION DATES

November 4 - 26, 2011

OPENING RECEPTION:
November 4, 5 - 9PM

UNSEEN

Holly Zausner’s work is about transformation through mediums both literal and metaphorical. For this body of work, she has transformed Unseen a super 16 mm film made in 2007, which was shown at the Bode Museum, into a series of black, white, and colored collages.

In the film Unseen, the artist searches through key locations and museums in the city of Berlin attempting to find metaphorical space and literal rest for two rubber sculptures, one female and one male. As Zausner and her two rubbery protagonists move through the city, a non-linear narrative unfolds. They encounter sites central to the life of the city, like a bread factory and a newspaper plant, as well as historical sites, like a defunct amusement park in the former East. In the beginning of the film, a skywriting plane spells out the word unseen about the city and the window of the artist’s gallery explodes onto the street. Airports, train stations, and large avenues are curiously empty of people, two real tigers patrol through the sculpture garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie, and the carved baroque saint statues in Berlin’s Bode-Museum seem to eye Zausner and her two companions as they move through thegalleries. Evocative dialogues result between urban environment and art, body, and production, instinct and will, while a strong sense of displacement and unrest alternates with a sense of understanding and acceptance.

Zausner’s fascination with the imagery from the film compelled her to reexamine the content and the structure of the different scenes through collage. She re-edits the film and redefines the structure, which enables a new way of looking at the source material. Using repetition and reconfiguration, the collages are a different way of exploring the act of filming, editing, and making the sound, which are all components that create the foundation and meaning of the collages.

Each collage consists of 1,824 images taken from the film that are 13/16 x 15/16 inches and mounted on 40 x 60 inch museum boards. Each image is hand cut and adhered to the board with double foam stick tape, emphasizing the handmade quality of the pieces and increasing their visual energy.

With each collage, Zausner recreates another version of an individual scene from the film through variations of color and black and white images. The complexity of the details create an abstraction when looking at the work from a distance, while up close the figurative or abstract images create rhythmic patterns which depict individual moments in the film. With her collages, Zausner allows us to step back and have an overview, while at the same time, makes it possible to capture the details.

For additional information on this exhibition, please call the UT Downtown Gallery at 865.673.0802 or visit us online at http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

UTDowntown Gallery - 106 S. Gay Street., Knoxville, TN 3790T.
ph: 865.673.0802 - email: mberry8@utk.edu - web: http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

The University of Tennessee School of Art

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Sarah McFalls
The Ewing Gallery
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
865.974.3200

Fall Drawing Class link

Now you can find updated information regarding Berlin Collective classes on our new homepage!
Workshops

Matisse drawing with pole!

berlincollective.de

Fall Drawing Workshop: "Drawing From Life"

Fall Drawing Workshop: ‘Drawing from Life’
Herbst Zeichen-Workshop: ‘Zeichnen von Leben’

Starts October 10

Mira O’Brien, Instructor

This course introduces basic techniques in drawing, with a focus on drawing from observation. Exercises explore technique, medium and strategies in visual thinking. The course will be tailored around the interests and levels of the individual students.

Each class is structured around a formal topic, with examples from art-history and a brief discussion. We will build technique through a series of guided exercises, followed by time for experimentation and longer drawings. We will draw from a live model and from still life creations.

We will make several excursions to draw out in the field, including the ready-made still lives of Berlin’s Natural History Museum, the statues in the Pergamon Museum, and a plein air site.

Location: Mira’s studio in Kreuzberg, Berlin

Schedule: Monday Evenings, 6-9pm
- With several extra excursion meetings
-Workshop offered from October 10– December 19, 2011
- Students are encouraged to participate for any length of time, but are requested to commit to 4 weeks at a time

Cost: 30 Euro per class, 4 classes for 120 Euro
- A referral earns a discount! Bring a friend and you each get 4 classes for 100 Euro!

To sign up contact:
miraob@gmail.com

(Mira O’Brien is an American artist based in Berlin. She received her MFA in Painting from Yale University and her BA in art and philosophy from UCLA. Her teaching experience ranges from Yale to public schools in Los Angeles. Her work is exhibited internationally, notably in the Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, a solo show at Vierter Stock supported by the US Embassy in Berlin, and a project in east-Berlin’s historic theater the Volksbühne.)