Opening reception: Saturday, June 3rd | 1-4pm

Appearances aside, behind, inverted and twisted reveal new layers. Marked by a three-dimensional reconfiguring of larger-than-life photographs, the six students of San Francisco Arts Education Project’s Interdisciplinary Arts subjected themselves to collage -like makeovers that challenge attempts to define them from the outside.

The Interdisciplinary Arts Class of 2017:
Bella Fernandez
Marina Kyle
Jasmine Liang
Janet Lin
Kyra Monterrosa
Kristin Tan

Skin Deep and the Interdisciplinary Arts Program are funded in part by the Crankstart Foundation, the Germanacos Foundation and Macy’s. The San Francisco Arts Education Project’s Interdisciplinary Arts Program is a fully scholarshipped visual arts intensive for a small group of high-school students taught by renowned San Francisco artist Agelio
Batle and his wife, Delia Batle, in the Batle Studio. The program has been designed to develop:

• technique– with some instruction to strengthen basic drawing along with basic skills in collage and 3-D fabrication. Students are also be taught to make and think in sculptural terms using primarily found material.
• artistic voice– skills are applied to artworks that explore the idea of “self,” personal interests and personal history. Among other tools, students use Pinterest as a way of collecting images that excite them.
• creative thinking – students are given a variety of free association exercises to help expand creative thinking, or, as Agelio calls it, sideways thinking. Students are encouraged to address questions that have no correct or incorrect answer but rather lead to a searching, mind-opening thought process leading to unique solutions.

In the just-concluded school year, which ran from October 2016 through May 2016, six students participated in discussions about contemporary art and artists, with regard to content, form and technicalskill. Building the aesthetic thinker is vital to the art process, with thought an important preliminary skill before beginning hands-on work in the applied arts.