Visual Arts

Examine art through contemporary and historical perspectives.

With classes like drawing, painting, jewelry, Screenprinting, digital photography, fiber art, mixed media, and a range of special topics courses, you can develop your skills and examine art through contemporary and historical perspectives. Our Center for the Visual Arts hosts different exhibits, conversations with visiting artists, and connects you with study abroad programs so you can be exposed to art of all forms and cultures.

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CLASSES YOU MIGHT TAKE

Sculptural Fibers

The fabric of the universe, a wrinkle in time and space—our physical universe is frequently described through fiber metaphors. Fiber processes are algorithmic. They grow exponentially, they fold, they tear, they wrinkle. These processes function as a pliable plane that can be bent, stretched, and turned inside out. This course offers students an opportunity to explore fiber processes through this sculptural lens. Topics include knitting, crochet, basketry, and lace as they come together to form sculptural armatures and objects. Together we will explore the physical properties of fiber and textiles and how they take up space and function in our world.

Introduction to Jewelry and Small Metals

This course will provide students with the basic skills needed to design and fabricate their own jewelry and/or small sculptures. Offered at the Baltimore Jewelry Center, a metal and jewelry makers-space, this class will cover piercing, filing, finishing, fabricating, soldering, forming, basic stone setting, and basic embellishment techniques as well as simple clasps. Designed for beginning sculpture, metals, or jewelry students, the projects may include a pierced pendant or brooch, a hollow constructed ring, a linked bracelet or necklace with clasp, and a bezel-set pendant or brooch. Students will become familiar with the safety, use, and maintenance of studio equipment and hand tools. No prior experience is required.

Oil Painting

This course is designed as an introduction to the tools, techniques, and concepts of basic painting for the serious student. Studio assignments focus on developing strong observation and rendering skills focusing on issues of light, color, and composition while experimenting with traditional and contemporary practices in painting. Lectures and a museum trip give students an art historical context in which they place their own discoveries as beginning painters. Oil paint will be used. No previous experience is necessary.

Faculty Spotlight

JOHN STECK JR.

Senior Lecturer and Photography Coordinator, Center for Visual Arts

A Silver Memory

On view at Moreau Gallery, John Steck Jr., a visual artist and educator in Baltimore, MD, uses light-sensitive emulsions to create photographs that fade and form over time. Steck Jr., a maker of photographic images and ephemeral objects, addresses our complex relationship with time, memory, and impermanence in his upcoming solo exhibition. This exhibition will be held at the Moreau Center for the Arts at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN through September 26, 2024.

Steck has exhibited across twenty states and five countries. His most recent solo exhibition, In the Shadow of the Bloom, was at the Hartman Gallery at Bradley University, in Peoria, IL. In the summer of 2023, he exhibited and presented at Yamaguchi University in Japan as part of Time and Measure, the 18th Triennial Conference for the International Society for the Study of Time. He has been included in over fifty publications, including a feature in Art21 Magazine as part of an article on the ephemeral nature of art. Steck has also attended artist residencies in Iceland, Ireland, Canada, and throughout the States. In 2016 he received a Fellowship Award from the Vermont Studio Center and in 2018 was a recipient of the IAP grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

Image: Center for Visual Arts

Trusting the Process at the Center for Visual Arts

For almost half a century, the Johns Hopkins Center for Visual Arts (CVA) has offered students a kind of learning not typically found in labs, archives, or lecture halls.

Join the Club

Hopkins students are eager to pursue their interests outside the classroom. With 450+ student-led organizations, here are just a few you could join:

Hopkins Insider

Ink and Paper

by Sarah C.