Advanced Painting Intensive
VA S4105D - 6 POINTS
SESSION A: May 25–July 3, 2026
INSTRUCTORS: Naomi Safran-Hon (Director), Dana Lok (Co-Director), Matthew Deleget, Jasmine Wahi, Monique Long, Kenny Rivero, Baseera Khan
Day & Time: MTWThF 10 AM–6 PM
VISUAL ARTS
SUMMER 2026
The Advanced Painting Intensive offers personalized mentorship to up to twelve students through individual and group critique, technical tutorials, workshops, and insights into the New York gallery and museum scenes. Participants will also benefit from lectures and critiques by nationally recognized visiting artists.
The six-week, six-credit workshop is structured similarly to Columbia’s MFA degree program and is designed for individuals seeking to challenge and advance their artistic skills in an immersive and supportive environment. The workshop aims to help participants develop a strong visual portfolio and a comprehensive written package suitable for MFA programs applications.
The Advanced Painting Intensive features the following elements:
Individual studio spaces on 115th Street and Broadway, New York City
Individual critiques by faculty
Group critiques
Lectures by nationally known artists
Studio visits of NY artists
Visits to galleries, institutions, and museums in the NYC area
Tutorials on assembling portfolios appropriate for applications to MFA programs
A seminar on career development
A workshop on the development of a strong artist statement
TO APPLY
Students interested in the Advanced Painting Intensive must submit a portfolio of 10 images of their work for review. You must also include a Statement of Intent that is up to 500 words with your educational background, including degrees and independent courses, and your reasons for applying to the program. Accepted students can register for the course upon notification. Applications will open in March—check back soon for more information.
Program Elements
The Advanced Painting Intensive is a full-time immersion program modeled on the MFA program, and students must be able to dedicate the full 6 weeks to participating in classes, field trips and studio practice. Meetings will be held Monday-Friday between 10am-6pm.
Slide Presentation
Early in the first week of the program each artist will give a brief slide presentation of their work.
Individual critiques
This is the core of the program. Each artist will be visited by the two primary faculty in their studios to discuss, evaluate and encourage growth and clarity in their studio production. Conversations in this setting can be wide ranging, extending beyond direct discussion of works of art to discussions of films, novels, science, history and beyond. All studio exchanges are intended to enrich and broaden the scope and depth of each artist’s work and thinking.
Visiting Artist’s Lecture
Each week a prominent painter will present a lecture followed by an individual studio visit with each artist in the program. Four lectures will be held in weeks two through five. Past Visiting Artists have included Jessica Dickinson, Jackie Gendel, Josephine Halvorson, Marc Handelman, David Humphrey, Patricia Treib, and Stephen Westfall.
Group Critique
A group critique will be held at the end of week three of the program. Each artist will present their work to the group over the course of the day to receive critical and constructive feedback from faculty and fellow students.
Professional Practice Seminar
This two-part seminar will serve to develop each artist’s skills in areas such as writing artists statements and grant applications, presenting work in formal lectures, and learning to evaluate and connect to resources and opportunities. This class will be taught by a specialist in professional development for artists. Additionally, the primary faculty will be available for consultation regarding the quality and character of various graduate programs throughout the United States.
Critical Issues Seminar
A weekly seminar will be held with readings and discussion on key issues in contemporary art. Readings for this class will be provided in advance of each week’s seminar.
NYC Field Trips
Frequent both guided and unguided visits to museums and galleries in New York City will be a part of each week’s programming.
Final Exhibition
At the end of the program in week six there will be an exhibition of student work at the LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University School of the Arts, to celebrate and view the work completed in the program.
The Painting Intensive is a full-time immersion program, and students must be able to dedicate the full 6 weeks to participating in classes, field trips and studio practice. Classes will be held Monday – Friday.
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Additional Summer 2026 Instructors
Monique Long, Visiting Critic
Monique Long lives and works in New York City. She is a writer and arts professional with an interdisciplinary practice. A curator of contemporary art, Long has a special interest in Black narratives and making, popular culture, and fashion history. She has organized exhibitions at institutions including Princeton University Art Museum, Portland Museum of Art, Guild Hall, Museum of the African Diaspora, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and many others. Prior to 2017, Long held curatorial positions at The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of Arts and Design. Long is also a critic who has contributed to publications widely on contemporary art and personal essays. Her most recent exhibition on view at Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh.
Kenny Rivero, Visiting Critic
Kenny Rivero (b. 1981, New York; works in New York. MFA Yale 2012, BFA SVA 2006.) Rivero's work, which spans paintings, collage, drawings, and sculpture, explores the complexity of identity through narrative images, language, and symbolism. His aim is to deconstruct the histories and identities he has been raised to understand as absolute and to re-engineer them into new wholes, with new functions. His creative process allows him to explore what he perceives as the broken narrative of Dominican American identity, socio-geographic solidarity, familial expectations, race, and gender roles. Rivero cites the hybrid qualities of salsa, hip-hop, house music, jazz, and merengue-as well as Vodun and Santeria, which were present in his daily life growing up-as core influences on his decision-making in the studio. Kenny Rivero's work is represented in notable public collections including The Baltimore Museum of Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; El Museo del Barrio, New York. NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Collection of Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; and Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL.
Baseera Khan, Visiting Critic
Baseera Khan is a New York-based visual artist interested in materials, color, and their economies. From public art installation to sculpture, painting to performance and music, Khan collages the effects of these relationships to labor and family structures, religion, and spiritual well-being. Khan has performed and exhibited at several locations in the past years sharing this diverse practice.
Their public art commission for The High Line , NYC, Painful Arc II, Shoulder High, was installed from 2023-24, and a permanent public art commission, New Leaf, was installed for Help USA, Brooklyn, NY in 2025. Khan has mounted museum solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. (2023), Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY (2021-22), and a solo touring exhibition at Moody Arts Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, TX, and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, OH (2022- 23). Other recent solo exhibitions were at Simone Subal Gallery, NYC and 10 & Zero Uno in Venice, Italy (2024), also in London, U.K., at Niru Ratnam Gallery (2025). Several recent group exhibitions are Paul Robeson Gallery at Rutgers University, NJ (2025), 12 Gates, Philadelphia, PA (2025), Patel Brown, Toronto, Canada (2025), Ruttkowski;68, NYC (2025), Jupiter Gallery, NYC (2024), North Carolina Museum of Art, NC (2024). Over the years Khan has shared work at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2021), New Orleans Museum of Art, LA (2020), Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, Munich, Germany, and Jenkins Johnson Projects, Brooklyn, NY (2019), Sculpture Center, NY (2018), Aspen Museum (2017), Participant Inc. (2017).
Khan's performance work has premiered at several locations including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Art POP Montreal International Music Festival. Khan completed a 1-moth residency at Plop, London, U.K. (2024), Lux Art Residency, San Diego (2021), a 6-week performance residency at The Kitchen NYC (2020), and was an artist in residence at Pioneer Works (2018-19), Abrons Art Center (2016-17), Khan was an International Travel Fellow to Jerusalem/Ramallah through Apexart (2015) and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2014). Khan received the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Michael Richards Award for Visual Art (2024), and was the Hirshhorn Museum Gala Artist Honoree for 2023 and the 50th Anniversary Honoree (2024). Khan won an Artist Prize for the MTV/Smithsonian Channel TV docu-series, called The Exhibit (2022-23). Khan is also a recipient of the UOVO Art Prize (2020), BRIC Colene Brown Art Prize, and the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant (2019), NYSCA/NYFA and Art Matters (2018). Their works are part of several public permanent collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, MN, and the New Orleans Museum of Art, LA. Khan received an MFA from Cornell University (2012) and a BFA from the University of North Texas (2005).