Out of Bounds Student Exhibition
About Studio Arts

The Department of Studio Arts encourages rich experiences in visual arts and creative expression. We believe that curiosity and hands-on engagement in the making of art prepares all students with skills in problem solving, ideation, and the articulation of abstract concepts that enrich and contribute to the dialogue in visual art and other fields.

Experiences
Student and Instructor discuss artistic prints
Academics
See, think, and make through explorations in diverse media with a curriculum grounded in traditional and contemporary approaches.
Student examines sculpture piece while taking notes
Research
Follow your creative pursuits across and beyond the university with the guidance of committed faculty artists and educators.
Students layout print materials on a grid
Facilities
Produce and share your work and engage with others in the creative community here at Pitt and beyond.
Featured Courses

Fiber Studio 1 - SA 0150 (31309)

Monday & Wednesday 1:00 -2:40pm
 
In this introductory course we will explore a range of “choreographies of touch” foundational to fiber art. Techniques covered will include: Needlework (embroidery, beading/sequins embellishment), Looping (crochet, netting), and Weaving (spinning, tapestry weaving). These techniques will be applied in the creation of a final creative project.
 
Fiber arts have a rich and complex history in all human cultures. Examples of work from historic and contemporary sources, and the position and perception of fiber arts in contemporary cultural debates will be examined. Lectures, readings, and discussions will provide exposure to key ideas about contemporary art practice as well as providing historical frameworks to contextualize classwork.
 
Instructor: José Santiago Pérez - jsp137@pitt.edu
 
Image: Lindsay McShane

SA 0150

Featured Courses

Computational Art Practices 02: DrawBot - SA 0171 (29720)

Monday & Wednesday 6:00 - 7:40pm
 
Learn to create graphic designs, automate photo manipulations, generate animated type + graphic assets for web and projection, plus many other creative possibilities using python programming with the DrawBot app. Referencing a breadth of practitioners from Nam June Paik to Cory Archangel to Mariko Mori, this studio course will assist students in developing multifaceted approaches to art-based coding and digital production design. Students will critically engage with and explore the rich possibilities of digital remix cultures on the internet and blend the technological with less conventional approaches for analog simulations of the digital.
 
Instructor: Triton Mobley - triton.mobley@pitt.edu

SA 0171

Featured Courses

Photos Studio 2 - SA 1280 (31311)

Monday & Wednesday 10:00 - 11:40am

Photo Studio 2 builds on the skills, ideas, and approaches introduced in Photo Studio 1 while expanding the possibilities of what photography can be. Students will explore different ways of making and working with photographic images through a range of processes, materials, scales, and forms—including cyanotype, risograph printing, image and text, and sculptural approaches. The second half of the semester is dedicated to an independently developed final project, giving students the opportunity to follow their own interests and develop a more personal approach to both the form and content of their work.
 
Instructor: Melissa Catanese - MAC527@pitt.edu

Images: Asking About Desire ©Shala Miller

SA 1280

Featured Courses

Print Studio: Screenprint - SA 1365 (31312)

Tuesday & Thursday 10:00 - 11:40am
 
This course approaches screenprinting as a medium of artistic expression. Students will learn screen preparation, printing techniques, and a range of hand-drawn, photographic, and digital stencil processes while exploring color, layering, mark, value, and texture. Through both editioned and experimental approaches, students will develop personal imagery and investigate the creative possibilities of screenprinting on paper and beyond. As the semester progresses, students will build an increasingly complex body of work and consider how screenprint can expand into one-of-a-kind works, installation, and other forms. 
 
Instructor: Sean Morrissey – seanpmorrissey@pitt.edu 
 
Images: Emily Mattise, It’s a metaphor for pizza, 2025 + Claire Fukichi, Birch Wood Forest, 2023 

SA 1365

Featured Courses

Performance Art - SA 1390 (28543)

Tuesday & Thursday 3:00 - 4:40pm
 
Drag is that glittery, fabulous, unequivocally queer genre of performance that is known to dazzle, inspire, or terrify its audiences. To see drag as a serious object of intellectual inquiry shows us how politics and identities become aestheticized. This new course will explore the way that drag has historically involved fantasy as a mechanism for reworking the body and identity within queer subcultures. Critical conversations will take place alongside a studio component, allowing students to research performance as an embodied practice. This will involve learning and applying theories of movement, costuming, makeup, and more - to the development of a staged drag performance.
 
Instructors: Scott Andrew – scottandrew@pitt.edu and John Musser – jjm183@pitt.edu 

SA 1390

SA 0150 Poster
SA 0171 Poster
SA 1280 Poster
SA 1365 Poster
SA 1390 Poster

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