Student Spotlight: Annette Hur ‘19

The Student Spotlight series aims to highlight the work of current MFA students, asking them to share thoughts on their practice by answering curated and peer-submitted questions. Annette Hur ‘19 is a first-year Visual Arts student. 

What themes or subjects are you currently addressing in your work?

Psycho-corporeal duality of our body and the face that is often associated with banal everyday binaries: masculine/feminine, seduction/obstruction, expression/invasion (violence), alienation/assimilation. Those binaries which cause substantial amount of discomfort (sometimes awkwardness) in my body on a daily basis become the entry point of my work.

What materials are you working with at the moment?

Oil paint predominantly.

What challenges do you face in your practice?

As an abstract painter, every formal decision comes into context and leads to ideas. Creating conceptual-formal decisions making is always a challenge. I may not consider it a ‘challenge’ (I would say that is just how it works), but I always try to push myself to the outside of my comfort zone, so I can fall and climb up every time I paint.

Are there any themes or materials you’re interested in exploring in the future?

I have just started mold-making and printmaking (etching) which I would like to keep exploring. I have worked with ceramics—lovely material—before I started grad school, and I plan to go back into it soon!

Who are artists or works of art that inspire you? Who are contemporary artists that are doing interesting work?

Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Manet, Louis Bourjois, Marlene Dumas, Elizabeth Murray,  Cecily Brown, Chris Ofili, and more.

Audre Lorde, Judith Butler, Susan Sontag, Maya Angelou, Siri Hustvedt, and more.

What has been your favorite class at Columbia so far?

I really enjoy the Visiting Artists Lecture Series.

How do you think artists can continue growing as artists?

Think harder and make yourself vulnerable. Also, learn how to let things go sometimes.

You can read more about Annette’s work here.