This seminar will be a free-wheeling, no-holds-barred, dynamic dialogue that will engage you directly, and challenge you. It will be fun, enlightening, and rigorous. We are keeping Power Crit small in number participants so you and your work will be front and center.
Jeff and Dan will be looking at examples of your work in advance, so on the first day, they will be ready to engage you intelligently about your work. Jeff and Dan will also address your questions submitted in advance, so your experience will be tailored to you and the professional mysteries that YOU most want to address.
As curators, educators, speakers, and artists, Jeff and Dan are uniquely positioned to provide you with a uniquely well rounded and dynamic learning experience that will jump start both your studio practice and your career in exciting new ways.
This experience is not a cookie-cutter class, but a unique, probing, investigatory look into who you are as an artist, where you could use improvement, and what your next actionable steps might be.
The concept of this seminar is founded on the idea of the critique and the salon. This is the most important place to start, and we will be learning about each other’s work, and diving deep into your motivations, your process, and the potential further realization of your voice.
No topic will be off limits as your questions about art-making, the creative path, and furthering your career are addressed. You will discover answers to questions you never thought you had, as we all explore the possibilities of your work in the world.
Move Forward
Explode in the studio, and move forward in your career. The Hirst/Addington Crit-Symposium is uniquely qualified to open up new possibilities in your studio practice and your professional trajectory. These sessions will dig deep into your artwork in an attempt to understand its meaning, identify your voice and then project It forward as you enter a fruitful new stage in your career.
Personal Focus
In this workshop you will become more in-tune with how your process and the conceptual underpinnings of your work overlap. You might explore changes in the way you conceive of your work, you might make physical changes based on technical suggestions and observations made during the seminar, and you will see professional advancement thanks to real world advice about preparation, presentation, and exhibition.
Uniquely Qualified
As practicing exhibiting professional artists, curators, educators, and speakers Jeff and Dan bring a broad range of experience to these sessions.
Reflective
Dan and Jeff will help you explore what you are hoping to find in your work. If you are looking for guidance, we will help you discover new ideas that you may have not previously considered. If you already have a developed direction we will help you further flesh out your vision to take your work to the next level. We will draw, not only on the discussion leaders' experience, but on the experience of those in the group. This will be community-building expereince.
No Limits
And nothing will be off limits. This will be that rare opportunity to ask Jeff and Dan anything from studio practice and aesthetic inquiry, to questions about Gallery practice and exhibition opportunity.
Discovery
One of the primary benefits of a rigorous critique process is the likelihood of discovering things about your own work that you might never have discovered on your own. In this seminar, a group of 5 other artists will also be looking at and addressing your work. This safe-space dialogue will reveal ideas about your current work, and spark new ideas about what comes next. You will also participate in this exchange of ideas as you analyze and discuss the other participants' work.
What previous Power Crit participants are saying:
The critique workshop by Jeff Hirst and Dan Addington is empowering. Jeff and Dan spent time in advance reviewing the work and then gave thoughtful and insightful comments about what is working and not working successfully, along with suggestions for possible adjustments in approach and technique. The critiques were immensely valuable and I always left me with food for thought and new ideas to consider. The style of the critique sessions was conversational and not threatening, yet it was also direct and honest, which resulted in quality feedback. Highly recommended. -Mark
I would absolutely recommend Power Crit to other artists as a valuable and instructive way to learn how others see their work. Going forward, it has provided me with a clear direction for where I want to focus my creative ideas. -Jane