• Program Description
• Course Requirements
• Faculty
• Facilities
• Senior Gallery
• Junior Gallery
• Sculpture Process Gallery
• Fundamentals Gallery

Diane Falkenhagen, Affiliate

BFA, University of North Texas
MFA, University of Houston

Diane Falkenhagen has been a practicing studio artist for over 30 years. She received her B.F.A. in 1977 from the University of North Texas and her M.F.A. in 1981 from the University of Houston. She is a native of Galveston, Texas but has also lived in Brazil, Alaska and England.

Diane is best known for her fabricated, one-of-a-kind art jewelry that incorporates mixed media and pictorial imagery. Her work has been exhibited widely and has been published in American Craft, Metalsmith, Ornament, Southwest Art, and the New York Times, as well as in the books: Color on Metal, 500 Brooches and 500 Necklaces. Aside from her studio work and teaching at the University of Houston, Diane lectures and leads workshops throughout the U.S. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmiths), and a former member of the Metalsmith magazine Editorial Advisory Committee.

J. Hill, Visiting Assistant Professor

Professor J Hill has an extensive exhibition record including many individual and group exhibitions in venues such as The Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston Glassell School, Project Row Houses, Houston, Diverseworks Artspace Houston, Lawndale Arts and Performance Center Houston, The Galveston Arts Center, Galerie Olivier Houg, Lyon France, The Arlington Museum of Art, Galerie Sonja Roesch, Houston, Texas, and William Campbell Contemporary Art Fort Worth, Texas. He has lectured at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Nave Museum, Victoria Texas, Museum Of Fine Arts Houston, and has received numerous grants, awards and honors including a Cultural Arts Council of Houston, Harris County Fellowship Award and the Artists Fellowship foundation grant. In addition Professor Hill currently serves on advisory boards for Project Row Houses, Houston and Lawndale Art Center, Houston and Diverseworks Artspace, Houston.

Hill participates in both traditional gallery exhibits and community based projects. Using materials and strategies as varied as traditional ceramic material, internet based radio and community performances centered around neighborhood domino matches, Professor Hill's work has a sense of humor, acknowledges context, and constantly searches for new and inventive means of presentation. His work is socially based and often uses language as a signifier of social context and structure. This has led him to explore the relationship of things as seemingly varied as the Cherokee national anthem and the local vernacular of southern African-American neighborhoods.

Paul Kittelson, Associate Professor & Area Coordinator

BA, University of California, Santa Barbara
MFA, University of Houston

Since 1983, Professor Kittelson has shown his work regionally and nationally in numerous one-person and group exhibitions. His work was selected for: "Contemporary Art Houston" at the Shanghai Museum of Fine Art, Shanghai China (2006), "Food Matters - Explorations in Contemporary Art" at the Katona Museum of Art in New York (2003) and The Altoids Curiously Strong Collection at the New Museum in New York (1999). He has received a Creative Artist Program Award (1997) from the Cultural Arts Council Houston, An NEA Arts-In-Education Grant (1996) and a Mid- America Arts Alliance Grant (1989).

Kittelson participates in both traditional exhibits and public projects that have ranged from early site-specific works using discarded materials- "Stegosaurus" (1986) and "Mindless Competition" (1988)- to numerous community based projects: "Travisaurus" (1992), "Douglass Elementary"(1996) and Cunningham Elementary (1995). His more recent accomplishments include large-scale commissions at prominent locations in downtown Houston: "Bayou Beacons" (2001) and "Heritage Lanterns" (2005). Kittelson's expressive use of materials and witty sense of subject matter have carried over into his recent gallery exhibitions: "Bending Venus" (2004) and "Elsewhere" (2007) at Barbara Davis Gallery. Both series dealt with domestic imagery (food and furniture) in an absurd and evocative fashion that is characteristically Kittelson.

Cory Wagner, Assistant Professor

BA, Montana State University-Billings
MFA, Rinehart School of Sculpture
MFA, Maryland Institute College of Art

Cory Wagner has exhibited widely in the Northwest, Mid-Atlantic and East Coast regions of the country including a recent two-person exhibition at Kendall Buster's studio gallery, Flat International, in Richmond, VA. His sculptures have been included in many group shows including exhibitions at School 33 Art Center, Maryland Art Place, and Area 405 in Baltimore; Montpelier Cultural Art Center in Laurel, MD; the Target Gallery in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA; Conner Contemporary in Washington DC; Artspace, Grafix, and Northcutt Steele Gallery in Billings, MT; Moore College of Art and Design and Icebox Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, and the Laverne Krauss Gallery and Wilkenson House Gallery in Eugene, OR. Wagner recently completed a private commission in Brooklyn, NY and a public commission for the city of Baltimore. In 2006, Wagner was included in a group exhibition titled Bearable Lightness... Likeness at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, New York. Projects for 2007 include an outdoor sculpture project at the Arlington Art Center in Arlington, VA curated by Twylene Moyer, the Managing Editor of Sculpture Magazine and participation in a group exhibition at Repetti Gallery in Long Island City, New York.

In 2007, Wagner was the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center and is a current fellow with the CFEVA in Philadelphia, PA. Currently, he is also the Assistant Director of the Mica in TriBeCa Summer Intensive, a studio program open to undergraduate and graduate students from across the country held each summer in New York City.

Wagner's work can take a variety of forms and often defies categorization but includes installation, sound, video, performance, drawing, and traditional object making.