Abhishek Kulkarni

This is a phot of me was at the Yale Fellowship, in summer 2023. It was in front of the artist studio spaces called the Art Barn. I was riding a bicycle first time in 20 years. It belonged to a younger student. Riding the bike again reminded me of the pure joy I used to experience as a child in Mumbai. Art does the same!

Degree: BFA (sculpture)

Expected Graduation Date: Spring 2024

2023 Scholarship
David McCosh Memorial Scholarship in Fine Arts

I Am Originally From Mumbai, Maharastra, India (now a US citizen)

WHY I CAME TO THE UO AND HOW I CHOSE MY MAJOR
My initial journey to the University of Oregon was two-fold—and neither initially involved art. My spouse got a job at UO, moving our family from Boston to Eugene. I initially  expected to take pre-med classes to fulfill the requirements of applying to medical school. Instead, on a bit of whim, I took Sculpture 1 and that experience changed everything. I realized that I could apply the same research methodology which attracted me to science (my previous career) while having none of the constraints that are part of working in a research lab. I realized that I could pursue art, which I previously thought of as a tool in my work, as THE work…applying scientific rigor and methods to understand how different materials can be used, but with the goal of creating new expression and meaning. I realized that an art program is the environment I needed to thrive and tap into my creative practice. I feel at home in the studio. Having taken classes with Prof. Tanaz Farsi, Prof. Amanda Wojick, and Prof. Sylvan Lionni, I am on my journey to learn the completely new and different language of art.

I took a class on Assemblage with Prof. Farsi and working in assemblage was a different kind of research as compared to scientific research and it was something new and exciting to me. I was learning to juxtapose forms as a method of sculpting, rather than compositional blending. The process involved bringing together objects through filtering, selecting, and assembling, rather than fabricating. As I became entrenched in this new method of working, I was intrigued by the concept of object ontology. Using the techniques of assemblage, I plan on exploring the concept of “objecthood” and what turns an object into a thing. According to Bill Brown, the distinction between an “object” and a “thing” is entirely based on functionality. In a show curated by Prof. Ciglia, he notes “When an object stops identifying with its own usefulness, it therefore becomes a “thing” that carries an individual soul, an expression of a layered experience which, by introducing the subjective dimension, inevitably refers to a human component, preponderant despite its absence.” I am deeply interested in exploring this “thingness of things” and how it relates to human experience. I feel sculpture is a perfect major to explore this topic further.

UNIQUE QUALITIES I BRING TO MY STUDIES
Since a young age, I have dedicated free time to sketching, drawing, and painting. Expressing myself through artistic pursuits is how I often feel I best communicate. For most of my life, art was primarily a hobby, as I pursued both undergraduate and graduate studies in biomedical sciences. This educational decision was not motivated by parental and economic encouragement alone (although growing up in India, these were certainly compelling factors). I have always been fascinated by science. I find both beauty and rigor in the scientific process and enjoyed a 12+ year career in drug development research. In my time with both major pharmaceutical companies and small biotech start-ups, I conducted fundamental research related to sarcopenia, multiple sclerosis, idiopathic fibrosis, and most recently, immuno-oncology. No matter the disease mechanism or scientific approach, however, I always created visuals through sketching or painting to help me understand and grasp complex cellular mechanisms or design an experiment. Given my prior graduate training and long career in biotech research, I know I thrive in a challenging environment where I am required to manage several projects at the same time. The School of Art and Design community offers a rich environment where I can learn from faculty who themselves are developing major exhibits within and outside UO, tackle new artistic endeavors with the support of faculty mentorship every week, and learn and grow from my peers, who have a different generational perspective than my own as a non-traditional, older student.

MY INFLUENTIAL PROFESSORS
I have found four professors quite influential—Prof. Tanaz Farsi, Prof. Simone Ciglia, Prof. Amanda Wojick, and Prof. Sylvan Lionni. Engaging with sculpture, painting and art history has been a wonderful learning experience, as the curriculum, assignments, and learning goals worked together synergistically. I learned about medium specificity and how it changed from early 19th century to now from Prof. Ciglia. It was fascinating to learn about the whole movement from liberation of words in poetry to liberation in objects in painting, as well as the role of important artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, etc. in the movement of sculpture towards assemblage. I practiced these movements in my classes with Prof. Farsi, Prof. Wojick and Prof. Lionni. I admire Prof. Farsi’s art for its social relevance as well as minimal complexity. With Prof. Wojick, I have truly come to appreciate the use of color to highlight a form and with Prof. Lionni I have learned to understand the amount of time and effort that goes behind what may appear to be simple. minimal forms.

MY GREATEST LEARNING EXPERIENCE AT UO
The greatest learning experience for me has been the young students. I am 20 years older than most students and their enthusiasm and creativity have been a source of inspiration. Their social awareness has also taught me a lot about standing up for myself.

AFTER GRADUATION
I would love to be a professor and a working artist. My greatest hope is to bring humor into contemporary art similar to my inspirations—Dave Robbins and Sylvan Lionni. I am planning to use my current education and lessons I have learned (as mentioned above) to apply for an MFA program. Sounds cliche but I have learned that good art, while sometimes can happen quickly, mostly takes years of incubation and patience. And like fine wine it needs the right amount of aging. This is very important for me to remember in today’s age of quick gratification. This is a lesson I am going to carry with me throughout my life.

YOUR GIFT
Sculpture is an expensive endeavor. And while I generally tend to work off of cheap thrift store and construction materials, the costs build up really fast. I appreciate the value of this constraint as it pushes me to be creative with my resources and over the years I have developed a language that uses a lot of upcycling. This scholarship will be important as it will allow me to develop this language further. I will be able invest in recycled material and develop tools that further enable me to reduce cost of production while still bringing my vision to life.

Thank you! Scholarships like these make it possible for non-traditional students such as myself to follow our dream in what is universally considered to be an unlucrative field of study. Thank you for your generosity and providing resources that allow me to bring my vision to life without compromising my integrity.