Released: August 19, 2020
Photo: Portrait of Francis Bacon,11x23x8” High fired ceramic mended, gold leaf
Exhibition features 21 sculptures by SFCC faculty member John Boyce
Santa Fe Community College’s Visual Arts Gallery will present a virtual online exhibition, “Painterly Objects,” featuring the work of SFCC sculpture faculty member John Boyce from August 28 through October 8.
The SFCC Campus and the college’s Visual Arts Gallery are closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. “We really want to keep the community engaged with SFCC’s Visual Arts Gallery and the art department,” said Linda Cassel, Director of SFCC’s Art on Campus. “We followed extreme COVID-19 safety precautions in setting up the exhibition. The exhibition is stunning. We are excited to share images and a video for a virtual exhibition at https://www.sfcc.edu/painterly-objects/.”
The video of the exhibition was produced by SFCC Film Equipment and Lab Technician Ashley Martinez.
John Boyce bio:
Artist John Boyce was born in Philadelphia in 1958. His mother was a fashion illustrator. Boyce said, “So I always thought of art as something you could do.”
At Cal Arts (1976-1980) Boyce studied with Judy Pfaff and Jonathan Borofsky as his mentors. After Cal Arts he went to Hunter College. He said, “I dropped out after a year. That was the first time I studied with Lynda Benglis, while there I also studied with Robert Morris, Rosalind Kruass, and Alphonse Schilling. He said, “Though I did not complete my studies it had a great affect upon my later life.”
Boyce then got a job at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture. While there the team primarily produced the work of J. Seward Johnson. He said, “When I was there, they did the work of some very interesting artists. I enjoyed doing work for Larry Bell, Joel Shapiro, Judith Shea and Isaac Witkin.” Boyce worked closely with Witkin for about 12 years. Boyce added, “He had a greater influence upon my artistic practice than any formal teacher ever could.”
While working at the Atelier he began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania at the graduate school of art in sculpture for a year and a half. It was also while he was at the Atelier that he started to fly gliders, which he has continued to do for the last 32 years.
A job offer brought him to Santa Fe, where he was hired by Dwight Hackett’s Art Foundry to manage that establishment. Boyce said, “Unfortunately for Mr. Hackett and myself it soon became apparent that management was not amongst my many talents.”
He then began working at the Santa Fe Community College, where he has worked for the past 20 years. Most of his time at SFCC was as an adjunct instructor and technician.
Boyce said, “I was able (after a gap of almost forty years) to return as a student to complete my master’s degree at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (2014-2016). While there I was fortunate to study with Viet Le, Dont Rhine and Mike Cloud.”
For the past three years he has worked as a full-time instructor in Sculpture for SFCC. He lives in Lamy.
Of Note: Very limited access to the exhibition is available by appointment by contacting the artist via email at john.boyce@sfcc.edu. For more information about the gallery, contact SFCC’s Director of Art on Campus Linda Cassel at linda.cassel@sfcc.edu or 505-428-1501.
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