American artist, curator, and writer, Lauren Fensterstock will be in residence at the University of Georgia as the 2018-2019 Dodd Chair. Fensterstock will work closely with faculty and students at the University of Georgia and will teach a graduate seminar in the fall and in the spring. Her fall course entitled From the Invisible to the Infinite: Mapping Studio Practice in Context, will probe artistic production via a variety of lenses from the molecular, to the systematic, linguistic, and global. While in residence, Fensterstock will also develop a new body of work that will be exhibited at the Dodd Galleries in the spring of 2019. She will give a public lecture in March of 2019.

Fensterstock is best known for creating elaborate sculptures and installations that explore the evolving history of our relationship to nature. By merging contradictory historic perspectives—from the Baroque to the Picturesque and Minimalism—she reveals the cultural roots of our concept of nature. Her intricate artworks are constructed in the material associated to women’s crafts, such as quilled paper and shell work, emphasizing the capacity of these media to reflect on the complexities of the world beyond the domestic sphere. While in residence at the Dodd, Fensterstock will research the making of large sculptures in the form of portals. At first appearing like monumental black slabs, these portals juxtapose the stark geometries of Modernism with detailed rococo patterning, while the inclusion of black mirrors will merge real and illusory space.

Fensterstock has held appointments at the Rhode Island School of Design and Virginia Commonwealth University, and previously served as Academic Program Director of the Interdisciplinary MFA in Studio Arts at Maine College of Art and as Interim Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art. She is a United States Artist Barr Fellow whose work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at MOCA Jacksonville, The John Michael Kohler Art Center, The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and Drexel University. Other recent and upcoming exhibitions include Rijswijk Museum, Austin Contemporary, Des Moines Art Center, Wichita Art Museum, Gibbes Museum, and the Brandywine Museum. Her work is represented by Claire Oliver Gallery in New York. Lauren holds degrees from the Parsons School of Design (BFA 1997) and SUNY New Paltz (MFA 2000).

Founded in 1970, the Dodd Chair is a short-term appointment of high distinction intended to honor artists of international standing who have achieved an extraordinary record of exhibition. Artists selected for this position teach and work at the Dodd and hold the rank of full professor, following in the footsteps of Elaine de Kooning, Mel Chin, Willie Cole, David Humphrey, Lola Brooks and Paul Pfeiffer among others. The Lamar Dodd Professorial Chair was established to honor the Dodd’s first Chair, Lamar Dodd, for whom the art school is named. It is an integral part of the Dodd’s commitment to excellence across disciplinary boundaries and reflects the school’s belief that arts research is an essential component of the academic mission of the University of Georgia.