We knew VCU had a kick-ass art school.
And now there's one more reason to love it:
VCU prof, Michael Jones McKean, just won a Guggenheim Fellowship.*
The 34-year-old sculptor moved to Richmond four years ago after spending several years city-hopping for fellowships and residencies in places like the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.
"It got to the point where it was hard to get my work done by being itinerant. It made sense to be in one place," McKean says.
Considering the size and scope of some of McKean's sculptures, that's probably a good idea.
A recent installation includes a ghostly re-constructed riverboat that gives the illusion of being 100-feet long. The same installation, entitled "Riverboat Lovesongs for the Ghost Whale Regatta" includes an 800 gallon acrylic water tank, a 10 horsepower three phase special effects fan, a 1986 Super Jumbo boom box and a Hall and Oates soundtrack.
His work goes from the monumental -- such as using 2,000 pounds of clay in one sculpture -- to the ephemeral. His latest project, "The Public Rainbow Project," seeks to create rainbows over public buildings. He already started by creating a rainbow over his studio on Mulberry Street.
Check out the photos below in the slideshow to get a visual.
McKean keeps a studio in a white garage on Mulberry Street in the Fan. He has a home in Bon Air. His favorite spot to grab a bite to eat is Nate's Taco Truck. And he loves working with his fellow artists and sculptors at VCU.
But McKean doesn't spend much free time in the RVA. He doesn't have many hobbies.
"All my time is funneled into the work here, between my house, VCU and the studio. That's my triangle," McKean says.
McKean travels often -- several times a month -- to cities like Quebec, Berlin and New York to show his work at galleries or talk about it.
If you're not an art student at VCU, you may not be familiar with McKean's work because even though his work has been shown nationally and internationally, he has yet to have a Richmond show.
"I don't have any collectors here," McKean says. "I just have a studio and a job."
But for the immediate future, McKean has his eye on sights beyond the Richmond horizon.
This month alone, McKean is heading to Quebec, Athens and Tel Aviv for gallery shows and to speak about his work.
Next fall, he'll take time off from teaching to be an artist-in-residence in Brooklyn at the International Studio and Curatorial Program.
After that, McKean says he'll use the Guggenheim to spend more time in the studio and to travel to launch several projects that he's been working on, such as The Public Rainbow Project. He'll be creating rainbows over buildings all across Nebraska.
But for now, you can take a look at his work here:
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*McKean isn't the only VCU prof to win a Guggenheim. Past winners include poet David Wojohn (you can check out his awesome poems here) as well as professors Elizabeth King and Hilary Wilder.
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