The College of Visual and Performing Arts will present “The eNth Degree: MFA 2013” from May 22-26 at 25CPW Gallery, 25 Central Park West at 62nd St., New York City. Gallery hours are noon-8 p.m. daily. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, May 23, from 6-8 p.m.
SU’s annual master of fine arts (M.F.A.) exhibition includes 19 artists working in a variety of traditional and cross-disciplinary media, including painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, film, site-specific installation and performance.
The artists exhibiting are filmmakers Daniel Aguilera, Su San Na Kim, Tanya Schiller and Samantha Raut; media artists Jennifer Chan and Matthew Williamson; painter Ryan Crotty; illustrator Lori Klopp; photographers Andrew Frost and Joseph Lingeman; printmaker Tonja Torgerson; ceramicists Jee Eun Lee, Joel Weissman and Sarah Camille Wilson; sculptor Becky Reiser; and installation artists Caitlin Foley, Meyer Giordano and Misha Rabinovich.
“The eNth Degree: MFA 2013” unites a group of artists working exponentially beyond the confines of their studied fields, taking their work to a new level of art making, according to Andrew Saluti, assistant director of the Syracuse University Art Galleries and advisor to the exhibition.
“The artists included in this year’s exhibition use a contemporary methodology that transcends the preconceived definitions of artists’ roles, where a painter makes paintings; a ceramicist makes cups and bowls,” says Saluti. “Instead, they incorporate the materials and processes from their chosen disciplines into a grander scheme of art making.”
Ceramicist Weissman takes porcelain molds, once used as a therapeutic craft for patients in a psychiatric hospital, and casts them in iron, rather than clay, to redefine the object’s meaning. Printmaker Torgerson uses her knowledge of print processes to create site-specific installations: portraits of female figures dealing with physical and mental sickness. Sculptor Reiser incorporates traditional foundry casting with performance and video to create her intricate narrative—a reflection on domesticity.
Another element evident in “The eNth Degree” that has pervaded contemporary process is the development of collaborations that these artists employ. Among these collaborative projects is “Mobile Sauna,” a fully functional performance/experience created by the DS Institute, an artistic collaboration that includes Fulbright sculptor Maximilian Bauer G’12, steam expert ceramicist Zach Dunn G‘12, artist/social engineer Caitlin Foley and interactive installation artist Rabinovich.
