"M.A. thesis" Exhibitions
80 Washington Square East
This event has ended.
Natalie Alarcón presents The Elements, a series of abstract, atmospheric mixed media paintings inspired by the ephemeral beauty still found in an increasingly imperiled natural world. "I want [my paintings] to raise the issue of protecting our environment by re-attuning our instincts to it. I am interested in that space in-between abstraction and representation, structure and freedom, reality and dream."
Carolina Alfonso de la Paz applies gold leaf in delicate, starry patterns to overlapping layers of vivid pigment. Illuminated, like an alchemic experiment, reveals the lure and fascination of all that is gilded. Tiny glints of light spark the canvases, dancing like fireflies in a summer night sky. "Light to me is everything. I impregnate my work with it, with the translucent sky of my country ... the sea and its reflections ... the snowed volcanoes, and the sun."
Shari Bachman's Relaxation offers a welcome respite from daily cares with softly-colored paintings of floating, fluid line and graceful gesture. "I bridge the gap between drawing and painting, applying oil paint without eliminating the [underlying] charcoal gesture. I focus on the isolation of a single object in a space that [either] confines or defines it.... This is an attempt to savor moments and specific details which could have been missed."
Melissa Dargan creates grand-scale urban murals in I Talk To Everyone, a vital and kinetic installation of contemporary park-scene portraits. "I document life through paint.... I use generous amounts, with moments in which the paint becomes sculptural. My palette consists of highly saturated, bright colors and tonalities that are often mixed directly on the canvas. I use a palette knife to spread the paint like a baker spreads icing on a cake."
Justin Dobish captures silent moments in Lake George, a nostalgic, black and white painted tribute to a cherished era when technology did not dictate our leisure time. "These paintings evoke the ... sense of being stranded ... when one finds [one]self suddenly removed from the frenzy of everyday life. They emphasize the importance of family and shared quality time ... and encourage the viewer to slow down ... to find and relish fulfillment."
J.D. Durrans honors the quiet courage of civilians who somehow continue with their lives, though trapped within a theater of war. Raw, red pigments are pressed upon violently rent and torched canvas. Sono Rossa II celebrates the human spirit while it also chronicles acts of cruelty. "My art is a record of my immediate experience ... I endeavor to pay homage to those who have survived ... I strive to give them a dignified voice that is universally understood."
Yesenia Gonzalez documents her own children in Stilled, a poignant, evocative photo-essay. "Expressions, feelings, and situations from everyday life ... are often overlooked, yet are no less important. I choose those moments when my children express feelings that are more a projection of my state of mind than theirs. Our relationship allows me access to delicate moments they would not be so willing to share if someone else were present."
Ellen Hochberg shows New Leaf, a contemplative and diaristic installation of graphite drawings accompanied by a single bed cloaked with a hand-sewn quilt of oil paintings. Delicately embossed metallic leaves are also scattered along the floor in token of people the artist has known. "It is important to reflect upon our journey through life. Not just whiz through life, but to stop. Look forward. Look back. We are not the same people we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow. We need to take time to think about the steps along the path ... not just the destination."
Abby Kaplan builds an audio-visual environment with multiple channels of looped video and layered sounds. Up-Close intentionally disorients the viewer, confronting them with an unexpectedly close view of a subject typically observed from afar, while enveloping them with sounds that do not match imagery. "I adapt digital technology to mimic an old-fashioned cinematic style-the black and white tonalities pay homage to the birth of film and video. By juxtaposing [digitally created] sounds, with images of nature, I create a binary between old and new."
Linda Meo mixes gesso and blue pigments to illustrate her partly autobiographical and hauntingly elusive dreamscapes titled Sogni E Ricordi. Figures are painted in oils and seem to float within fields of blue. "The blue becomes the space between reality and magic. It may be the veil of transition, the symbol of the contact that remains between the world of the dead and the world of the living. Or, it may simply be a summer sky. It is a place where anything is possible."
Emily C. Smith paints swimming pools with pretty, pastel-hued pink and blue oils. The pools beckon to the viewer, offering a brief glimpse into a safe, serene realm that we all yearn to occupy. "[They] are symbols of the ultimate in recreational relaxation and sublime tranquility. To be alone and quiet is the objective of these painted landscapes. I feel all too often that relaxation is unattainable, therefore, I paint these scenes to enter into them emotionally."
Stephen J. Smith juxtaposes oil paintings and video in Speed, a bold, visual introduction to the simultaneously exciting and dangerous world of car racing. "I am interested in the similarities between painting and automobile racing-particularly the connection between accidents and control.... I'm compelled to see how far I can push the boundaries of bright color, gestured brushstroke, movement, and texture, which symbolize speed, violence, noise, adrenalin rush, and the risk of driving."
Kate Sykes manipulates clay, artfully transforming unshaped primordial sediment into iridescently glazed and fired Life Forms. "Death, birth, growth, contraction, expulsion, molting, and seeding are evident in the final outcome. [My] work is inherently biomorphic; it resembles what one might come across if looking in a tidal pool, an abandoned garden, on the forest floor, or even under a microscope. Viewers will be intrigued by the play of familiar versus alien, as the lines between the real and imaginary worlds are blurred."
Media
Schedule
from July 30, 2008 to August 08, 2008