Art and Design Adjunct Professor Receives Davyd Whaley Art Grant
Adjunct art and design professor Laura Krifka received the 2017 Artist-Teacher grant from the Davyd Whaley Foundation. The Davyd Whaley Foundation is dedicated to supporting artists of the LA area, and grants are given to artists to "fulfill their vision."
Krifka, who lectures on studio art for the Art and Design Department, has been at Cal Poly for one year and is scheduled to teach again next year.
Laura Krifka,
Art and Design Department
"I am continually impressed by how fearless the students are," Krifka said. "Cal Poly students seem to walk into class with a lot of bravery. They just dive into their paintings. It's very refreshing."
Students of Krifka have raved about her openness to artistic expression, as well as her uniqueness with the vision of her own artwork. The Davyd Whaley Foundation discovered Krifka's vision too, and made sure she would have the means to accomplish it with the Artist-Teacher Grant.
"I make paintings that dissect the way power and identity are constructed in visual culture," said Krifka. "I am interested in how the language of art history has blended with film and photography, dissolving distinctions between high and low and making visual factuality tenuous. My hope is that by using beauty and distortion, my paintings start to disassemble in weird and unexpected ways."
Examples of Krifka's artistic vision and accomplishments are available on her website, laurakrifka.com.