Alberto Rey, Visiting Artist
Alberto Rey has been a professor of painting, drawing and illustration at the State University of New York at Fredonia since 1989. He crafts an ongoing series of "piscatorial" paintings of fish and their natural habitats. The steelhead trout of western New York are a favorite species, and the images tie Rey's personal experience roaming the streams and rivers of the region to a broader, environmentally conscious understanding of the natural place. According to him, "the connection between nature and culture seems to have been lost, as most of our social and economic reliance has moved to an urban setting." The goal of his project is thus "to reaffirm the lost connection by re-introducing the fish and landscape that are characteristic to a region through the use of traditional and contemporary mediums."
Born in Havana, Cuba, Rey immigrated to the United States and received his M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the University of Buffalo, NY, in 1987. He is also Executive Director of the Chautauqua Center for the Visual Arts at the Chautauqua Institute in New York. Rey is an accomplished angler and an Orvis-certified fly-fishing guide.
His work is in the collections of 17 museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; Museo Extremeno e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo, Badajoz, Spain; and the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY.
John Bylander, Workshop LeaderJohn Bylander is a UVa graduate and has been a camp counselor/educator for kids of all ages. He has participated in public programs with youth as an intern with the Brooklyn Children's Museum, and volunteered in the computer labs at Charlottesville Public housing sites during his time at UVa..
Johanna Drucker, Faculty Sponsor
Johanna Drucker is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and was the first director of the Media Studies program which she created at the University of Virginia on arrival in 1999. She has a PhD in Ecriture (University of California, Berkeley, 1986) and has been on the faculty of Yale University, Columbia University, the University of Texas at Dallas, State University of New York at Purchase, and Harvard University where she taught art history, theory, and practice. Her publications have been in the field of 20th-century art history, the history of writing and the alphabet, artists' books, experimental typography, and visual and concrete poetry.
She taught a group of young printers in a printmaking camp this past summer, also sponsored by the UVa Art Museum.
LoriAnne Barnett is an Environmental Educator in Charlottesville. She has had extensive experience teaching children of all ages, working with youth in various capacities for almost 18 years. She is currently completing a thesis in Environmental Education. Her experience extends to working with children in traditional and non-tradational classroom and school settings.
Greg Kelly, The BridgeGreg Kelly is the Director and Co-founder of The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative.
Andrew Plemmons Pratt, Project CoordinatorAndrew Plemmons Pratt is a graduate student in the UVa Department of English. He was formerly a summer residential counselor at the UVa Curry School's Summer Enrichment Program. His academic and professional work focuses on design in social justice and non-profit contexts: www.appratt.com.
Maggie Sullivan, UVa Arts BoardMaggie Sullivan is a student member of the UVa Arts Board.
Doug Brody,UVa Arts BoardDoug Brody is a student member of the UVa Arts Board.