SVA MFA Fine Arts is one of 30 New York-based organizations who will host free seasonal programs and exhibitions on Governors Island as part of its calendar of arts and cultural programs for 2019. Presented in a historic former military home on Colonels Row, "Life on an Island" will host three cycles of SVA programming.
The third of the three cycles will be "S.O.S.," a group exhibition featuring work by eight MFA Fine Arts alumni and one artist collective, curated by Alison Kuo. Featured artists include Kaja Andersen (2016), BombPop!Up, Zoë Frederick (2017), Owen Keogh (2019), Georgia Lale (2016), DS LEE (2013), Hee Sun Shin (2015), Roberto Vega (2018) and Regina Viqueira (2018).
Exploring the concept of “Life on an Island,” the MFA Fine Arts-hosted exhibitions will engage the diverse body of SVA’s alumni, current students, faculty, invited artists and partner arts organizations to exhibit work relating to the theme through a series of short residencies. Islands exist as multitudes. We are interested in engaging artists with the conceptual idea of ‘Life on an Island’ with its multiplicity of meanings. We are equally as interested in physical geography as we are in the conceptual and metaphoric associations: islands as isolated, islands as tropical paradise, rugged survivalism of castaways, colonialism, rising sea levels, island gigantism, etc. But perhaps, we are most interested in islands as metaphors for contemporary art world(s).