The sculpture program offers courses that explore a wide range of processes and techniques including: woodworking and fabrication, clay modeling, molding and casting in plaster and resins; metal fabrication with electric arc, MIG and TIG welding, oxy/acetylene welding / cutting and plasma cutting. Other resources include a centrifugal casting machine, investment studio and large outdoor work space. A recently installed foundry includes a Speedy Melt furnace, gantry crane and wax burnout kiln, facilitating aluminum and lost wax bronze casting. While the initial study in sculpture begins with traditional processes, students are also introduced to installation art, environmental art, performance art and the use of sound, video and time-based projects realized in a spatial context. The curriculum facilitates a functional knowledge of the history and theory of sculpture, an understanding of aesthetic principles, and their application to sculptural works. Sculpture majors are also required to take classes in ceramics, glass and drawing.
Course objectives and syllabi require students to create their own projects and engage in individualized material and process research in conjunction with their instructor. In sculpture classes students choose not only what ideas they wish to state through a work of art, but also what materials they will use to state them. This philosophy is aligned with the department’s Intermedia program at the graduate level, and corresponds to an increasingly relevant definition of what it means to be a contemporary artist.
Darryl Lauster is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Texas at Arlington and is the head of the sculpture area. He has exhibited nationally at the Louise Wells Cameron Museum of Art, Appalachian State University, Millennium Plaza Park, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, the Nicolaysen Art Museum, the John Michael Kohler Foundation and the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. His work can also be found in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He has received grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Peter Reed Foundation, and has served residencies at the Ucross Foundation, the Wassaic Project and the Byrdcliffe Art Colony. He also serves as the Collections Manager of the Samuel Gray Society, an institute dedicated to 18th century American history. His work is based in the research of American history and mythology, and utilizes digital media, printmaking, sculpture and installation.
Area Coordinator
Distinguished Senior Lecturer
ASSOCIATE CHAIR, MFA DIRECTOR
PROFESSOR
Department of Art & Art History
Adjunct
Email: amy.stephens@uta.edu
Adjunct
An exploration of sculptural forms, concepts, and methods through various media. Emphasis on contemporary processes and individual expression. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: ART 1306. For non-art majors, permission of the instructor.
This class is designed for students to continue the development of advanced three-dimensional work and engage in a cross section of various media which may include installation, performance, sound, kinetics, video and virtual media.
This class will explore work in sculpture employing methods specific to foundry casting and related mold making processes. Students will develop expertise in wax model preparation, silica-based slurry mold processes, and chasing and finishing bronze and aluminum castings. Conceptual development will build on previous sculpture experience adapted to foundry requisites as well as the discovery of new techniques not previously encountered.
Interested in the programs offered by the Art & Art History department? Talk to an advisor!