ABOUT
INTRODUCTION
Throughout my academic and art career, I have adopted a four-pronged approach to my task: pedagogy, research, creative activity, and academic governance. As an arts educator, researcher, previous chair of the Department of Art, a special assistant to the University President for the Arts, current Director of the University Gallery, curator and visual artist, and educational and art consultant, I have had a prosperous career and made contributions to the university and the wider academic/art community. My research interests are in art-related and educational issues, which I share through publications and extensive conference presentations nationally and internationally.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As an artist, I believe that it is important to eschew making works in a vacuum. I propose to answer the question of how my own artwork relates to the viewers and in what ways are my works in accord with the art world. Most of my works contain references to the abstract, open-ended and the processing (layering, adding and subtracting). But most of all, they are visual metaphor of human emotions. I do not represent or embellish nature. I am interested in sensations evoked with colors and ideas. Painting, like other forms of arts, is the most important tool for communicating. I am creating visual metaphor in abstract manners through color and texture.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
I have been the Cal State LA Fine Arts Gallery Director (now Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery) since 2017. This position has enabled me to share my curatorial knowledge and skills with the university and the larger educational and art community. I successfully managed the Gallery and curated notable exhibitions in venues such as commercial galleries, non-profit arts organizations, museums, and university galleries.
During my tenure as the Director, despite the pandemic, the Silverman Gallery offered nearly seventy exhibitions involving a broad spectrum of professional artists and art organizations, community-based people, alums, faculty, and students. These events have transformed the Gallery's profile from a university exhibition space into a professional community gallery and have elevated the Silverman Gallery as a significant feature of the Los Angeles art scene and an internationally known gallery.
Renaming the Gallery the Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery, following a gift from the Silverman family, was one of the highlights during this time. This position allows me to fully explore the university's mission through the Gallery: "Cal State LA transforms lives and fosters thriving communities across greater Los Angeles." I have provided diverse cultural and educational experiences and engaged in intellectual discourse through exhibitions and other educational events such as lectures, panel discussions, and field trips.
TEACHING INTERESTS
It is essential for art educators to be both informed in the practice of making art and its history, critical theories and philosophies, as well as to possess a command of teaching methodologies, instructional strategies, methods of assessment and educational policy.
My teaching is centered on the impact of visual representation in culture, and on art as a way of seeing the world at large and understanding it historically. The focus of my methodology has been the use of the art object and its underlying concepts as a vehicle for developing critical and creative thinking skills for students. I am interested in how students articulate, manipulate, and digest information through contextual analysis and from diverse perspectives. My mission and responsibility as an art educator is to empower students by assisting them to acquire the investigative tools for developing their own concepts in what they learn. I am committed to the creation of an educated and thoughtful public by developing my students’ critical and creative skills.
Teachers must always aspire to bring a solid foundation of research and methodology to the classroom experience. As both a research scholar and a professional artist I seek to provide comprehensive instruction that includes: art history, art principles, materials and techniques, pedagogy, theory, and practice. To maintain my currency in art I attend lectures, symposia, conferences and exhibitions; in addition to reading theory and history. All of these elements are essential to my teaching.
RESEARCH
I have avidly pursued research in art-related and educational issues such as art and culture, portfolio assessment in teaching and learning in art, professional development in art, learning style preferences of diverse students and professional visual artists, and aesthetics in historical context through publications and extensive conference presentations internationally and nationally.
CV - available upon request.
Dr. Mika Cho, Professor of ArtDirector, Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts GalleryCalifornia State University, Los Angeles