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BFA Culminating Exhibitions
Abundance
A Culminating Exhibition
For the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree
By
Kristy Moreno
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Mentors
Professor Cameron Crawford
Professor Sue Whitmore
Artist Statement:
My current body of work examines the systems and bonds between social, political, and personal narratives. These narratives intersect to embody forms of relativity, healing, and resilience. By producing these physically paused moments, I introduce a space for reflection that investigates the journey of my personal point of view, individual habits, and character.
My sculptures and prints are my thoughts made physical from studying the human condition and my reactions to the injustices becoming unveiled during this past year. As I thought about the I.C.E. raids, concentration camps, and prisons that directly affect Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities today, I began experimenting with combining personal photographs, screen printed elements, and lyrics in order to tell a story that others could possibly relate to. In the way that Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen often depicted the residents of San Francisco, I chose to portray Chico organizers along with my own fictional characters to actively visualize a future abundant in mutual aid. When combining ceramics and printmaking, I participate in recording historical events, spreading awareness, and thus manifesting brighter futures based on science fiction such as writer Adrienne Maree brown does when explaining that all activism is a form of science fiction. In overcrowding these physical spaces with overlapping details, I acknowledge the clutter that inevitably distracts us from practicing empathy and acknowledging our own humanity.
- Kristy Moreno
Showcard for "Abundance"
"BSO Exhibition - Abundance"
"BSO Exhibition - Abundance"
"BSO Exhibition - Abundance"
"BSO Exhibition - Abundance"
"Conflict Theory"
"Resilience"
"Just Doing My Job"
"Ocilla, Georgia"
"Decolonize"
"Decolonize"
"Decolonize"
"Trucha"
"Trucha"
"Trucha"
"Can't Stop Us Now"
"Can't Stop Us Now"
"Sit Where I Can See You"
"Sit Where I Can See You"
"Abundance"
"Existence is Resistance"
"Ancestors"
"Ancestors"
Previous BFA Exhibitions
- William Bays - "Echoed Masses"
Echoed Masses
A Culminating Exhibition
For the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree
ByWilliam Bays
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Mentors
Professor J Pouwels
Professor Trevor LalagunaArtist Statement:
This body of work centers around the repetition of images that depict the recurring memories of overwhelming situations. As individual pieces, the works appear as smaller, singular, moments; but as a whole, they portray an accumulation of experiences. As more moments are created, they begin to interlock and weave together to form a physical representation of the barrier that blocks the positive lightness in my life. This installation has been created to encompass the entirety of the space to show the severity and scale of the events.
Working on these drawings every day expresses a catharsis due to the repetition and expressive nature of charcoal. The medium allows for intense darks to form as it is built up and smudged into the tooth of the paper. By using this high contrast and transformability, the work can develop and change in an instant. The history of the process cannot be removed by simply covering it or erasing it, once a mark is made and in the fibers of the paper, its memory resides there forever. Like Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning Drawing, even after months of erasing, the original image was still there in some ways.
In the end, the room may be covered over to form a barrier, but like bricks in a wall, every experience within the installation is similar yet unique. With every piece there is imperfection, revealing cracks that show the purity of the wall in ways erasing can’t. By displaying this installation, I hope to help viewers understand how common Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be and how impactful it can be on someone’s mind.
- William Bays
- Misty Findley - "Feast"
Feast
A CULMINATING EXHIBITION FOR THE BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS DEGREE
By: Misty Findley
Mentor: J PouwelsThis series explores how depictions of raw meat can be used to discuss the nature of beauty in terms of art. The lush painting style of the meat is in reference to High Renaissance paintings which glorified violent scenes of martyrdom, as well as the still-life paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, which often depicted fresh and exotic food and game with rotten fruit and reminders of mortality.
In these paintings, meat becomes a glittering landscape through cropping and focusing on the rich details, the textures, and the luster of the meat. Chicken feet have been cut into, bent, and arranged to emphasize the alabaster color of the skin against the vivid hues of their insides, making it apparent that these are truncated remnants of what was once a living being.
This work, like the famous scene in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange where the protagonist performs Gene Kelly’s “Singing in the Rain” while committing atrocities, or the flowery prose style of the monstrous protagonist in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, gives space for the uncomfortable grey area where beauty and trauma converge.
- Misty Findley
- Gisela Ramirez - "Avanzando"
AVANZANDO
A CULMINATING EXHIBITION
FOR THE BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS DEGREE
By
Gisela Ramirez
Mentors: Professor Eileen Macdonald
Professor Sue Whitmore
Professor Dillon Rapp
Through the course of time, human migration has changed the ways traditions are practiced. Cultures continuously grow. They shift and transform, becoming more diverse, often combining with other cultures with the emergence of new generations. My work focuses on how Mexican-American traditions are viewed across the borders and generations, through exploring my own cultural identity. By memorializing the shift in new and old traditions and seeking to create a sense of belonging, my work opens up a narrative for others who may feel disconnected or want to reconnect with their cultures.
My work relies on re-contextualizing objects, placing them in different environments. Exaggerating perspective and scale, I’m able to create dream-like narratives that reflect instability and change. I utilize traditional printmaking techniques because of the long process and ability to create variables. Using repeated imagery creates a metaphor for how traditions evolve and change through time, I explore emotion through obsessive mark-making with line and texture. I seek to find my own voice among artists like Humberto Saenz, Ester Hernandez, and Cathy Lu, who advocate for and represent minorities by addressing issues of activism, immigration, and the authenticity of merging cultures.
I would like to extend my deep appreciation and gratitude to my three mentors, Kelly Lindner, friends, family, and those who have guided me through the years. Your wisdom and knowledge have shaped my development as a student and an artist. Without your guidance and support, this exhibition would not have been possible.
- Jillian Harris-Rivera - "Precarious Belongings"
Precarious Belongings
A Culminating Exhibition
For the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree
ByJillian Harris-Rivera
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Mentors
Professor Cameron Crawford
Professor Sue WhitmoreThrough the construction of forms that reveal tangible connections between different elements, this current body of work seeks to understand how support can be given and taken. Process informs the final product of these forms by placing attention on the methods of building, firing, and glazing. The groupings of pieces vary but maintain the individual element’s form, allowing me to build and display reactively.
My ceramic forms have grown into groups of large, abstract, and stacked environments. Clay is necessary for this act because it introduces a material that’s alive and malleable. In a similar way that ceramic artist Marisa Finos relates her vessels to the human body, my forms are exploring how the environment we inhabit can give further understanding of our bodies and their relationship with others. The precarious act of stacking and forcing a support system adds complexity to the balancing of interconnectedness between pieces. This allows each form to have an important role while still having the ability to influence the other. Multiple firing methods for a single piece are important because it allows the various layers of surface treatments to create fluctuating transformations. By acknowledging the distinct characteristics of each form within a group such as ceramic artist Magdolene Dykstra does, I also choose to emphasize how we build relationships to connect with others as well as offer support.
- Misty Findley - "Feast"