Artist Commons

A year-long, online artist development program to help artists level up their practice.

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

Applications are now open for the next Artist Commons cohorts.

Beginning this July, visual artists will spend a full year in conversation with mentors, art world professionals, visiting artists, lecturers, and a small cohort of peers who are serious about building a stronger, more sustainable art practice.

If you’ve been looking for better feedback and more structure for your work, this is your call to apply.

Early Admission Deadline: Monday, May 25

#ArtistCommons #ArtAdvice #ArtEducation

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

Do you have to a register an artwork to own the copyright to a piece you made?

@HaiverArt sat down with intellectual property lawyer David Shein to discuss artists' rights and what they need to do to protect their work.

#artistrights #artlaw #copyrightlaw #copyright

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

What do you need to grow as an artist?

[Haiver @HaiverArt]

- Do you want to learn more about how to navigate the business of art?
- Do you want an artist community invested in your longterm growth?
- Do you want real feedback on your work instead of just some kind words from your friends?
- Do you want to meet successful contemporary artists and learn from their experiences?
- Do you wish you had a way to bring art history into your practice so you can build on the shoulders of giants?

If you've been looking for a way to level up your art practice without spending an arm and a leg to get an MFA, @Artist_Commons is for you. This is the program that I wish I'd had when I was coming up.

Artists accepted into the program are paired with a mentor and a small cohort of peers at their level for weekly feedback sessions. Then tune in every month to lectures on the business of art, craft workshops from visiting artists, talks on various modern and contemporary art movements, and guest speakers working across the art world. You'll build deep community with your fellow members through online meetups including regular reading groups, a custom community app, and intimate discussions about art.

If you want to go into the next year with a clear sense of purpose for your art practice, we'd love to see your application and get to know you and your work.

The application deadline is less than two weeks away.

Our next batch of cohorts start in early July. Application deadline: June 15

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

Artist @sashastiles is one of the most innovative artists working with language today. In 2018, she turned the user agreements from big tech companies into an art piece.

By using found text, she created a visual meditation that slows viewers down on the exact words we usually scroll past and agree to without a second thought. That's what great art does. It gets us to linger and creates a space to think about the world around us — including our digital lives.

#LanguageArt #Poetry #VisualArt #DigitalArt #SashaStiles

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

What can an ancient technology like poetry teach us in this moment of existential fear around AI?

Artist @sashastiles sat down with Artist Commons' students last week to share her history of artmaking and to look at how poetry is uniquely attuned to help humanity process everything that's going on right now.

#ContemporaryArtists #Poetry #LanguageArt #MediaArt #SashaStiles

[Haiver @HaiverArt]

There's only 2 weeks left to apply to @Artist_Commons to join the next batch of cohorts

What artists get:
- Small Cohorts
- Weekly Feedback Sessions
- One-on-One Mentorship
- Lectures & Panels
- Portfolio Reviews
- Writing Clinics

Give your art the year it deserves

More info👇

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

We're delighted to welcome our next visiting artist in residence this quarter, Sasha Stiles (@sashastiles).

Over five weeks, she'll meet with Artist Commons' students for three sessions: a presentation of her body of work, a process lecture, and a candid interview about what it means to build a long-term career in the arts.

In this clip, she recontextualizes poetry as humanity's oldest data storage system, a way of preserving memory. For Stiles, poetry and technology aren’t opposites. They're part of the same human project to encode experience and connect across space and time.

#ContemporaryArtists #LanguageArt #Poetry #DigitalPoetry #ArtAndTechnology #SashaStiles

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

How do gallery directors think about the artist/curator relationship?

Here, Adam Berninger (@adamberninger), founder of Heft Gallery (@heft_gallery), sits down with Artist Commons director @HaiverArt to discuss the importance of relationship over contract.

For artists, the professional art world can feel like a maze of applications, emails, opportunities, and agreements. But the most meaningful collaborations are still built person to person.

#ArtBusiness #ArtistDevelopment #ArtWorld #Curators #GalleryDirector

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

@heyneff You can see more images from the series here: https://t.co/J2MwNieKfb

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

Great artists steal.

Richard Prince is famous for appropriating the work of other creators, so it's fun to see artist Michael Neff (@heyneff) turn the tables and appropriate Prince by removing the cowboy figures to turn these once Marlboro Man ads into pure, abstracted landscapes.

The resulting series, Your Land, was presented at Heft Gallery (@heft_gallery) last year.

#contemporaryartists #digitalarts #arttheory #workofart #appropriationart

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

Kehinde Wiley doesn’t hide his references.

He wants you to see that he copied from Ingres's original painting of Napoleon. The composition, the pose, the trappings of power.

Instead of asking viewers merely to admire power, his new painting asks us to reconsider how power is staged and performed.

As an artist, how do you use references in your work?

#ArtHistory #ContemporaryArt #PortraitPainting #OldMasters #KehindeWiley

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

This quarter, art historian Dr. Cristin McKnight Sethi spoke to Artist Commons' students about the history of quilting in contemporary art.

There are many ways for a figurative image to become a quilt. Cut fabric can be layered into a composition, or images can be printed onto fabric to be joined by hand. What’s beautiful is that both approaches still belong to the language of quilting, as exemplified in the moving work of Carolyn Mazloomi shown here.

#TextileArt #FiberArt #ArtHistory #ContemporaryArt #CarolynMazloomi

[Haiver @HaiverArt]

A year can change an art practice.

9 months ago, I launched @Artist_Commons because every time I did a studio visit I kept hearing artists ask for the same few things: more structure and rhythm in their practice, better feedback on their work, practical knowledge about the business of art, mentorship and.

Since then, 40 students from 16 countries have joined our year-long program.

In the last 16 weeks alone, we’ve hosted 34 lectures, panels, and interviews for our students with contemporary artists, curators, critics, philosophers, art historians, collectors, and art world professionals.

Students have heard from artists like Mitchell F. Chan, Sasha Stiles, Jenn & Kevin McCoy, Sarah Rothberg, and Andrew Benincasa. They’ve learned about the business side of art from former Sotheby’s director Brian Beccafico, NYT film critic Alissa Wilkinson, gallery director Adam Heft Berninger, and collector Whitney Hart. They’ve studied what drives their art with philosopher Dr. Rebecca Millsop, and explored the history of contemporary art movements with professors Polina Rud, Amy Raffel, Cristin McKnight Sethi, Cheyenne Rudolph, and many others.

But the heart of the program is what happens week after week: artists bringing their work to their cohort and receiving feedback, developing language for what they’re making, learning to ask better questions, and building a rhythm that can actually sustain their practice.

It’s been a deeply meaningful first year for the artists who joined in January, and we’re still less than halfway through.

Our next batch of cohorts begin in July. The early application deadline is today. Standard deadline is June 15.

If this is the kind of support you’ve been wanting around your work, we’d love to get to know you and your practice.

#ArtEducation #ArtistDevelopment #MakingArt #LearningArt

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

What changes when an artist puts an ordinary object on a gallery wall? When does a bed stop being a bed?

Art historian Cristin McKnight Sethi looks at Robert Rauschenberg's combines, like his 1955 piece BED, which blur the line between art and everyday things.

We recognize the bed, but we’re asked to see it as painting. We see the paint, but we can’t forget the object underneath. That’s the power of the combine: it makes art and life occupy the same surface.

#ModernArt #Assemblage #TextileArt #RobertRauschenberg #ArtHistory

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

Pacita Abad’s quilted trapuntos blur the line between painting, textile, and relief sculpture. She activates the surface with layered fabric, paint, stitching, shells, buttons, and other materials. Every material choice adds weight and rhythm.

Developed between 1981 and 2001, the result is a material encounter inspired by Indigenous masking traditions.

#TextileArt #AsianArt #ArtHistory #FiberArt #Trapunto #MixedMediaArt #PacitaAbad

[Long-Form Art @LongFormArt]

Really love to see what @HaiverArt is doing with @Artist_Commons.

We previously did a deep dive on Episode #6 of Long Form Conversations.

Worth a listen! Full episode links below. 👇

YouTube: https://t.co/0aWSCt3lwx

Spotify: https://t.co/wA7U3972oM

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

A strong composition often has an invisible structure underneath it.

In this clip from his Artist Commons residency, papercut artist Andrew Benincasa (@andrewbenincasa) looks at the use of triangles throughout Renaissance painting as a key compositional technique.

Even in the jumble of limbs and bodies, the triangular structure glues the artwork together. That's the hidden power of compositional forms. Once you start seeing them, you'll notice the underlying triangles and other shapes in all kinds of images, including movie posters.

#ArtHistory #Michelangelo #Raphael #LeonardoDaVinci #RenaissanceArt #Composition #CompositionInArt #VisualArt #Drawing #Painting #ArtistCommons #ArtEducation #StudioArt #FigureDrawing #ContemporaryArtists

[Eddie Wharton @eddiewharton]

Consider applying if you’d an value ongoing peer feedback on WIPs

@HaiverArt also orchestrates a deep curriculum on art’s history, philosophy and business

Artists across a wide range of career stages can benefit since you can pick and choose where/how to engage

[Silo Has ART @siloHasArt]

A really super cool program for artists to look into! Applications are open and this program has helped me immensely as an artist so far 🙏

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

We often approach art by asking what kind of thing it is.

A painting. A sculpture. A performance. An installation.

But some works resist that first step.

Sónia Almeida’s work refuses to give us a stable category, and that refusal becomes part of the experience. The viewer has to keep adjusting: what am I looking at? How am I supposed to engage with it?

Sometimes the most important thing an artwork can do is make the category itself feel uncertain.

#PhilosophyOfArt #Philosophy #ArtHistory #ArtEducation #ArtTheory #ContemporaryArtists

[Artist Commons @Artist_Commons]

What would a year of in-depth, honest support do for your art practice?

Artist Commons is a year-long, online development program for visual artists. Each month you'll receive feedback on your work, learn how to navigate the art business, dive into art history for inspiration, and hear from working contemporary artists.

Accepted applicants are paired with a cohort and mentor to help you set goals and build a sustainable studio rhythm. With each quarter, you'll gain confidence, professional fluency, and a network that grows with you.

If you're craving focus and support, apply to join the next batch of cohorts starting in July and give your art the year it deserves.

Application Deadline: Mon, Jun 15

#ArtCommunity #MakingArt #StartingArtist #BeginnerArtist #LearningArt