Senior Exercise Strengthens Art

GAMBIER, Ohio (March 12, 2008) The media include collage, painted acrylic glass, and stop-motion animation. And the messages explore the imagination of childhood, the American dream, and the war in Iraq.

Welcome to the Senior Exercise in Studio Art. Groups of three or four artists display their work in a series of shows from March 17 to April 19 in the Olin Art Gallery. The exhibition of a cohesive body of work is just part of the exercise, which includes a written statement and an oral defense before each member of the studio-art faculty.

"They're taking on the cloak of being a professional artist," said Barry Gunderson, professor of art. "This is the culminating event for senior studio art majors."

The seniors form their own topics and articulate them through related works in their chosen medium. "They are stepping out into the art world," Gunderson said. The quality of the work, over the years, is typically superb and approaches the graduate-school level, he said.

Opening receptions at the gallery for each of five student shows will be held from 7:00-9:00 p.m. on the Mondays of each exhibition week. The gallery, in the lower level of the Olin Library, has special hours during the senior exercises, including 7:00-9:00 p.m. Mondays; 10:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays; 10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Fridays; closed Saturdays and Sundays. All gallery programs are free and open to the public.

These are the artists and their descriptions of their work:

March 17-22
Lawrence Keaty of Shanghai, China. In a series of drawings "mangled and congested, meticulous and detailed," the work illustrates "a sense of the 21st century metropolis."

Adam Rasmus of St. Louis, Missouri. Rasmus explores "themes of conflict and societal decay" in mixed-media collage panels.

Eli Rosen of Newton, Massachusetts. A series of paintings feature invented organic forms.

March 24-29
Nora Gavin-Smyth of Glencoe, Illinois. Identity, loss, and catastrophe are the ideas behind a multi-media installation with projected video, sculpture, and found art.

Katharine Harlan of Oxford, Ohio. Her paintings explore themes of aging, mortality, and rejuvenation.

Zachary Weaver of Catonsville, Maryland. Portraits are "shattered" into pools of light and color, reassembling the subjects in a study of visual perception.

March 31-April 5
Madeline Courtney of Snohomish, Washington. The nature of human-object relationships is probed in Courtney's wunderkammer of taxidermy and found materials.

Rosalind Paradis of Brookline, Massachusetts. Paradis creates imagery of celebrity and war on etched and painted acrylic glass against a "manic static background" to explore the contrast between news-media presentations of the war in Iraq and celebrity news.

Abram Shriner of Shorewood, Wisconsin. Scientific graphs and diagrams are brought into play by Shriner in a series of paintings focused on landscape abstractions.

Evelyn Volz of Austin, Texas. Working with larger-than-life objects of wire and papier-mache, Volz's sculptures capture the American dream, contrasting "appearance, possibility, and hope with disappointment, disillusionment, and reality."

April 7-12
Marion Anthonisen of Sacramento, California. Childhood imagination and the memories of events and household objects take shape in painted works on board and fabric.

Charis Durrance of Montpelier, Vermont. Durrance's work sorts out the connections between control and anxiety and safety and fear.

Chelsea Raflo of Duluth, Georgia. Visual narratives were created with stop-motion animation and digital technology with an infusion of surrealism to convey childhood memories and family stories.

Elizabeth Shapiro of Portland, Oregon. Seeking ways to convey the beauty of the natural world, Shapiro built imaginary landscapes with mixed-media collages.

April 14-19
Elly Deutch of Chicago, Illinois. A video and audio installation critiques the experience of growing up in the United States.

Blair Gazza of Quogue, New York. Color photographs depict images of places Gazza "designed and built."

Emily Zeller of Defiance, Ohio. Zeller uses photography to document abandoned public spaces and buildings that were once important to local communities.