NYAB Event - "17 Degrees" Exhibition

"17 Degrees" Exhibition

SVA Gramercy Gallery

This event has ended.

School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents "17 Degrees," an exhibition of thesis work by the 2011 graduating class in the Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Digital Photography Department. The exhibition is curated by faculty member and New York gallerist Michael Brian Foley.

Katrin Eismann, chair of the MPS Digital Photography Department explains, "Throughout the school year, I was deeply impressed by the support and mutual respect that the students gave one another. Highlighting the artistic range of our students, this exhibition stands out in terms of concept, image quality, and presentation as a true showcase for contemporary photography."

"17 Degrees" features the work of 17 students from around the globe, some of whom were enrolled in the new online/summer residency program and others who studied in the on-campus program. Both groups of students participated in an intensive summer session on campus to produce the work on view in the exhibition and collaborate on the accompanying catalog and Web site.

Juan Achiaga's Love in the Rough is an ironic interpretation of intimate situations in which love and desire are linked with sensuality and violence. The people in Hua Bai's Observable Imagination perform a double role, as both the terminal of observation and the starting point of imagination. In The Figure Redrawn, George Brenner challenges the conventions of photographic portraiture, creating details of the nude body that often defy our expectations of form, structure and identity. In Moving Meditation, Karli Cadel explores contemporary movement as a means of self-expression, through photographs of dancers at work. A Blessing by Josephine Dvorken explores the relationship between a man and his housekeeper after a 45-year-long companionship in intimate portraits that speak to issues of memory, self and devotion. and the space around is a series of domestic landscapes in which Teresa Fischer explores people's personal space and memories, focusing on objects as containers full of meaning. In Search for Meaning, Carlos Gutierrez presents surreal images inspired by Man Ray.

Melissa Harrison's Muse explores the process of photographing women in a way that reaches beyond the visual conventions of fashion to something essentially feminine and purely emotional. In Evolutionary Family, Alisha Jones uses surreal portraiture to explore the most influential people in her life by making visible the impressions they have left on her. In his The Neurosis in the City, Bojune Kwon explores city life through images of moving crowds in which the figures are blurred and expressionless. Hyun Woo Lee's Looking in Squares creates geometric abstract images using squares to suggest how he looks at and thinks about the world. Vignettes of Urban Nature by Alexina Liao is a short film that investigates the delicate and constantly changing relationship between nature and our built environment.

In Fleeting Beauty, Deborah Martin chooses not to dwell on the specific moment of a flower's bloom but instead captures the ephemeral nature of flowers by photographing them at various stages of their life cycle. In Gaze, Michael Morrison interprets various forms of observation and interaction between men and women through cinematic motifs found in fashion imagery. Julie Saad's Rewilding brings to life a world in which two urban couples find their homes invaded with plants and animals. Rocio Segura suggests that When we Dream, as his work is titled, our minds are free to do everything we would never do in real life, and our hidden fears and desires come to the surface. In Kai Wang's Intersections, the movement of a city at night blurs busy streets into urban landscapes that, despite their vibrant hues, evoke an unexpected loneliness.

[Image: Juan Achiaga "Love in the Rough"]