MFA Thesis I
MFA 2009 Thesis Show I features the work of graduating Masters of Fine Arts students from various disciplines and diverse backgrounds. Included in the exhibition is Jimena Bermejo-Black, Michelle Carter, Beth Cohen, Tom Griggs, Victoria Jacob, Phil Jung, Bar Kastershtain Mizne, Amanda Lohnes, and Zacharias Papantoniou.
Photo: Tom Griggs
Jimena Bermejo-Black is a multi-media artist who invites the viewer to challenge and step outside the boundaries of the constructed identities and stereotypes that we typically embody. Working with live performance, video, and interactive installations, Bermejo-Black has reconstructed the security and immigration environment. Provoking an internal inquiry, participants are demanded to reconcile their feelings about "the other", discrimination, alienation, and their self-preservation.
Michelle Carter makes oil paintings outdoors, in response to the motifs and forces of nature that she encounters on the coast. Through subsequent permutations, she further explores issues that range from color and space to the representation of turbulence in the environment. Her work includes drawings, etchings, and large-scale studio paintings.
Working in several different media including photography, performance, and video, Beth Cohen explores issues of class identity, nostalgic views from the perception of both adult and child, and the confusion of a clear timeline in one's life's history as one moves back and forth between formal static portraits of furniture, and recreated snapshots of childhood. Where does one's adult life exist within the complex relationships of family and the spaces that these moments happened in?
Tom Griggs' photographs display a world of quick friendships, lost relationships, failed attempts to connect, isolation, and transience. His 35mm color digital images, taken generally at night or inside, make use of artificial ambient lighting to create saturated colors, soft edges, and a melancholic mood that weave disparate spaces and people into a single imagined world.
Victoria Jacob's recent paintings are built on the structure and composition of Renaissance paintings infused with a contemporary narrative. Jacob takes everyday scenarios and tweaks them so that they become hyper ironic. Her work comments on the frequent absurdity of living in the twenty-first century.
Phil Jung: The interior of the car offers a thin skin between public and private space. The interior, which is often littered with personal artifacts, offers a cryptic portrait of their owners. The composite of both the interior and exterior reflect who we are, where we come from, and maybe where we're going. My work is an examination of all these things.
Bar Kastershtain Mizne: "Me Am I" is a visual poem presenting a clash or identities between three characters: Me, I and the Girl. It is an installation of two mirroring video projections, reflecting the similarities and differences between three characters which are one. The installation defies the traditional film screening format; the viewer is physically and mentally caught between the two screens and has the freedom to choose which screen to watch and also the right to alter his choice at any time.
Amanda Lohnes: "Projections on Family" explores family storytelling through gesture, time, memory, and occupation of space. Consisting of 24 paintings, embroideries and etchings on stretched silk, and a 24 channel video with sound projected on a surface of silk, the installation maps out relationships between family members and creates new narratives through juxtaposition (whether that is one person placed next to or on top of another or one moment of clarity against the chaos of another).
Zacharias Papantoniou: The current work is still exploring older issues in a more literal way.
Reception: Thursday, April 16 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Bakalar and Paine Galleries