UMass Dartmouth 2018 MFA Thesis Exhibition College of Visual and Performing Arts

March 31 –

May 12, 201

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2018 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION College of Visual and Performing Arts UMass Dartmouth 2018 MFA Thesis Exhibition March 31 – May 12, 2018 LOCATIONS:

University Art Gallery College of Visual and Performing Arts UMass Dartmouth 715 Purchase Street New Bedford, MA 02740 umassd.edu/universityartgallery facebook.com/UMassDartmouthGalleries New Bedford Art Museum/ArtWorks!

608 Pleasant Street New Bedford, MA 02740 newbedfordart.org instagram.com/nbam_aw facebook.com/NewBedfordArtMuseum June 1 – June 30, 2018 Soprafina Gallery 55 Thayer St, Boston

Robert Abele III Suzi Ballenger Christina Baril Robert (boB) Brzozowski Renata Cassiano Linan Chen / 陈立男 Orfeo Fabbri Emily Franicola Natasha Feliciano Jingyuan Luo / 罗 竟原 Ilir Mborja Anuja Roy Erin Monet Wheary Summer Wenyu Wu / 吴析夏 Jillian Shixiaoci Yu / 喻诗晓词

GREETINGS FROM THE OFFICE OF THE DEAN The CVPA Thesis Exhibition of our Masters of Fine Arts Degree marks one of the final steps in completion of the terminal degree in the studio arts. The exhibition presents artworks that arise from the successful completion of a rigorous selection of studio, history, and seminar courses, numerous group and individual critiques, and a degree of creative exploration that is unique in the academic world. The experience partially shapes the nature of each students creative identity – and correspondingly forms the continuing character of our institution. CVPA is proud to see the remarkable work and imaginative vision presented by this group of graduating students.

While participation in the MFA thesis exhibition designates the completion of an artist’s studio degree, it is equally the beginning of an adventure into the realm of being a practicing artist. In June, selections

from this exhibition will be on display at Soprafina Gallery in the urban arts district, South of Washington (SoWa), in Boston. The exhibition introduces the work of our graduating MFA students to an extended audience and offers an opportunity to view their work within a wider context of art world institutions. The exhibition also serves to reconnect us with the UMass Dartmouth community of alumni and friends living and working in the Greater Boston Region.

Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of this remarkable group of artists, and in our shared enthusiasm for their continued growth. We wish them continued success in their future creative endeavors.

David Klamen, Dean College of Visual and Performing Arts UMass Dartmouth

NOTES FROM THE EXHIBITION CURATORS We are proud to showcase fifteen graduating students representing a wide range of media including painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography and design.

The students utilize not only traditional techniques, but also laser cut objects, vinyl signage or stickers.

We also show an interactive site-specific installation created by a designer, and sculptures made by a fiber student, thus underlining the porous borders between various media and departments. The presented work is driven by compelling and engaging themes such as vulnerability, feminism, cultural differences, spatial explorations, and the disappearing life of the American farm.

New Bedford Art Museum/ArtWorks! strives to be a vital, innovative center for the arts that supports local artists and the advancement of their careers. This effort is not limited to mid-career artists in the South Coast creative community. The Museum also provides opportunities for emerging artists, such as UMass Dartmouth students and recent alumni. Our long-standing collaborative relationship with UMass Dartmouth is a point of pride for the Museum. CVPA faculty and graduates play crucial roles at the Museum; CVPA professors Kathy Marzilli Miraglia and Kristi Oliver sit on the Museum's Board of Trustees, many of the Museum's art educators are CVPA graduates, as is the Museum Director Ashley Occhino.

I am pleased to be able to collaborate with the New Bedford Art Museum/Artworks! Expanding this exhibition to their spaces has allowed us to create a stronger presence for CVPA and our student’s art in the downtown New Bedford community.

This year, for the first time, the Museum will share the culminating exhibition of CVPA UMass Dartmouth, Master of Fine Arts candidates with CVPA's University Art Galleries.

Both locations celebrate this eclectic group of grads. The Museum alone will feature ceramic works, sculptures, fiber works, digital art, prints, drawings, paintings, and a virtual reality experience in our Fiber Optic Center New Media Gallery. As a curator, I am always looking for compelling emerging talent and this year's batch of CVPA graduates are just that. Presenting the works of this group of artists is exciting, and I am confident that this exhibition will be one of many for these thoughtful and hardworking graduates.

Viera Levitt, Gallery Director UMass Dartmouth

Jamie Uretsky, Curator New Bedford Art Museum/ArtWorks!

R O B E RT A

BELE III

STATEMENT Standing in a fixed position, I search a landscape, interior or object looking for cross-sections of space that define the complex scene before me. I piece together multiple images to form one, in the end representing what I see, and as I see it. Plunging perspectives draw me in to the foreground and background fracturing the subject and slightly distorting it to reveal a purer representation. I focus on my domestic space: sometimes overwhelming and claustrophobic, this incredibly personal subject matter can also feel universal and familiar.

BIOGRAPHY Robert Abele III was born and raised in Bronxville, New York. The coastline and tidal pools on the Long Island sound where he spent his childhood summers were a rich source of inspiration. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1993 and studied at the Art Students League for 10 years. Robert is a passionate teacher and has taught Plein-Air painting and drawing at a Westport Massachusetts non-profit for 4 years. He plans to continue teaching and building his art practice after graduation.

Double Decker Oil on canvas 48’’ x 48’’ Kitchen Oil on canvas 18’’ x 24’’ Spice Rack Oil on canvas 36” x 48’’ Stove Oil on canvas 24’’ x 36’’

SUZI BALLE

NGER

STATEMENT My work addresses a fettered past.

Ephemeral elements are restrained in ways that are unexpected yet familiar.

My aesthetic is informed by the freedom I felt (and still feel) in the outdoors; and the exhilaration I find revealed in nature.

Past experiences of constraint and limitation contract with distorted and expanding fibers.

BIOGRAPHY Born and raised in Indiana, Suzi Ballenger completed her BA at Keene State College in New Hampshire and has worked in New England as a weaver and teaching artist since 1996. She has invented and trademarked specialized tools for weaving. Suzi’s current research in hand papermaking is informed by her love of thread and fiber and was supported by workshops at the Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii and an internship at Dieu Donné Paper Studio in Brooklyn, New York.

Catch and Release (detail) Paper rope and sisal twine 18” x 10’ Suggestive (detail) Handmade abaca paper, sisal twine, linen thread 5’ w x 6’ l x 5.5’ h 1.00794 u.

Steel, handmade abaca paper 22” x 22” x 52” Algae Bloom (detail) Linen, silk 22” x 22”

CHRISTINA

BARIL

STATEMENT The building blocks of an individual – what holds them up and what ties them down – construct the complex and contradictory layers of the psyche. I find myself captivated by extreme cases of this particularly human trait, aware that these contradictions may encourage feelings of uncertainty, vulnerability, and insecurity. Interpreting these aspects of psychological identity, my sculptures are physical manifestations of the self-aware and unrelenting mind, and act as interlocutors traveling between reality and fantasy, conscious and subconscious, ego and id.

BIOGRAPHY Christina Baril was born and raised in New York City. In 2006, she graduated from the College of William and Mary with a double major in Art/Art History and Marketing. Christina has worked at a number of arts and cultural nonprofit organizations including the Newseum in Washington, DC, the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in Rutland, VT, and the 911 Memorial in New York, NY. Baril’s work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the Northeast, and Gerald Bland gallery in New York City currently represents her work.

Itchy on the Inside Glazed stoneware, resin, plywood 62” h x 44.5” x 21” At Odds Glazed stoneware, lead, steel 50” h x 44” x 36” Dipped in Winter Glazed stoneware, plaster, cinder blocks 56” h x 25” x 19.5”

R O B E R T (b

oB) B R Z O Z

OWSKI

STATEMENT Heroes and villains, gods and monsters. We have become characters in a media driven reality.

We are bombarded from all angles with what our reality should be like. Our beliefs are based on our perception of this reality. We seek to identify with characters from movies, television and literature. If we are no more than characters within a story, what story are we telling?

From the mythologies and religions of prehistory we have sought to define the natural world around us and justify our actions. Our minds seek to make order out of nature’s chaos, separating virtue from sin. It is with the display of these sins and virtues that I implore the viewer to look within themselves. The differences between us should be embraced as something that we all share. The use of the figure in my work is a basis from which a shared understanding begins; it is a commonality that we all have to embrace. We can be monstrous heroes and godly villains.

BIOGRAPHY boB was born a Bicentennial baby in Connecticut.

He has a life-long love of anthropology as well as working with metal. After multiple starts and stops in higher education, he enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University for his BFA in sculpture. He returned to New England to attend the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for his Master’s degree. Using mythology, history and media tropes, he works with the figure in order to understand the human condition.

Humility (detail) Steel, bronze 27” x 16.5” x 4” Chastity (detail) Steel, bronze 18” x 4.5” x 4” Diligence (detail) Steel, bronze 17.5” x 19.5” x 11” Greed (detail) Steel, bronze 11.5” x 15” x 4”

R E N ATA C A

SSIANO

STATEMENT My sculptures explore, through the language of abstraction, the construction of identity as a fluid structure that constantly transforms constituted of gender, race, language, experience, environment and geography. I conceive selfhood as an inner sinew, a cultural connecting tissue engulfed in experience, place and time: encased by the skin of memory. In the sculptures, glaze takes the place of flesh and blood, activating the piece — which by the ceramic process becomes a sentient being. This entity contracts and expands, breathes, moves and gestures. Sometimes the energy within is so vivid that it bursts out, ripping through the clay skin. By cutting into them, like an archeologist of the sinew, I begin to understand the transformations within: the defined but most importantly, the undefined.

BIOGRAPHY Renata Cassiano is a Mexican-Italian artist born in Mexico City. Cassiano works predominantly in the medium of clay but her background in painting and drawing takes a big part in her ceramic practice. Educated in Mexico and the US, she has had the opportunity to work in different clay environments from a ceramics factory in the north of Italy, a residency center in Denmark and with artists such as Nina Hole and Gustavo Prez.

Her work has been exhibited in Mexico, USA, Denmark, Cuba, Japan and Hungary and can be found in public collections in Taiwan, Germany, Denmark, Latvia and Slovenia.

Ciervo Dormido / Sleeping Deer Stoneware, highfire glaze 14.2” x 20.4” x 8.2” Chest Muscle Stoneware, glaze 14.1” x 10.6” x 9.8” Cascajo / Rubble Stoneware, glaze 10” x 21.6” x 9.1” Il Tempo era una Ragnatela de Nervi Tesi / Time Was a Spider Web of Tense Nerves Stoneware, glaze, fire brick, 17.7” x 19.6” x 11”

LINAN CHE

N / 陈立男

STATEMENT I love typography. Since I started studying graphic design, I have been collecting all kinds of design pieces which have attractive typeface in them. I love collecting as well as designing new typefaces. I believe creating a new typeface can enrich the diversity of thegraphic design world. Inspired by nature, history and even science, I enjoy mixing all kinds of elements together to develop more interesting typefaces for people. People have the right to have fun.

BIOGRAPHY Linan Chen was born and raised in Hangzhou, China. He majored in Visual Communication during his undergraduate study and graduated with a BFA from Shanghai Institute of Visual Art in 2016. Linan’s typeface design considers a wide range of elements. Linan believes that design is an absorption-explosion process, in which he transforms inspirations into design projects. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Visual Design with a focus on Graphic Design at UMass Dartmouth.

Morris Type Laser cut wood 6“ x 6” (26 pieces) Atom Poster 1 Digital print 23.5” x 35.5” Atom Monster 3 Digital print 8.3” x 11.7” Atom Poster 2 Digital print 8.3” x 11.7”

O R F E O FA B

BRI

STATEMENT I am not always interested in the wholeness with my figures spirit and health. I am often interested in their human, physical or psychological brokenness. For me, fragmentation is simply rendering the realm of things.

Faces are blurred and the form (body) blends into the environment... vulnerability, innocence, fear, and isolation from mankind are shown with a single figure or with multiple figures in my painting. My dark pallet, figures alone with the surreal structures in their environment seem to reveal and hide the occupant’s unsettling presence. My paintings are fragments of stories or dreams; through them I explore “personal places where I have lived.”

BIOGRAPHY Orfeo Fabbri was born in Massachusetts, son of European parents. He has a certificate in drawing and painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Fine Art in painting. Orfeo has exhibited in Massachusetts and New York. His passion for making arts has grown stronger, leading him to pursue his MFA. He focuses on concepts while he tells his narrative. The process is similar to poets who use their poetic language combining words with symbolism. Having worked for many years as a hairdresser in Boston, New York and Miami, Orfeo lives on Cape Cod.

Let the Water Flow Over Me Conte on mylar 53” x 40” Figure at Night Oil on board 14” x 14” Muriel Oil on board 12” x 12” Surrender Oil on board 16” x 12”

N ATA S H A

FELICIANO

STATEMENT I am intrigued by the human experience: birth, maturity, loss and mutual comfort. I am constantly surprised by my own emotional reactions. Happiness, disappointment, serenity, cruelty — all these attributes are human. As a print maker, I use woodcuts to exhibit the intricacy of human interaction during turmoil, while my drawings reflect the complicated nature of those emotions within a single person. Both are inspired by each other and center around the body as a communicator.

BIOGRAPHY Natasha Feliciano was born in Willimantic, Connecticut and spent much of her life visiting the land of her family in Puerto Rico, playing music, dancing and growing an awareness for studio art. During her BFA study at the University of Connecticut, she became passionate about figurative work, and outreach programming for mental illness. She has an active exhibition schedule, most recently in National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), the 2017 Collaborative Aggregates Scholarship Exhibition through UMass Dartmouth, and Connecticut Printmakers Invitational.

Entre Nosotras / Between Us Girls Woodcut relief on rives BFK rag 48” x 48” Consumido / Consumed Strathmore 400 series, vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, charcoal pencil, graphite, sand paper wiping 32” x 50.5” Fuerza Sin Luz / Strength Without Light (detail) Strathmore 400 series, vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, charcoal pencil, graphite, sand paper wiping 32” x 45”

E M I LY F R A

NICOLA

STATEMENT I create sculptures and objects that serve as quiet reflections of moments and images growing up on a small family farm. The work speaks of the passage of time; expressing changes in my environment (and must come to terms with) that I encounter each visit home. Charged by sitedug clay, metal, and plaster, these ambiguous mechanical forms act as historical markers of a stage of aging and deterioration of a cultivated land, family, and domestic space.

BIOGRAPHY Emily Franicola was born and raised in rural Western Pennsylvania. In 2014, she graduated from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA with a BA in Studio Art. After completing her undergraduate studies, she spent six months as a ceramics resident at Cub Creek Foundation, and worked as a technician for various studios in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Growing up in a farming community, Emily finds inspiration in her family’s soil, and in the weathered machinery that inhabit the cultivated landscape.

Hang Your Hat Prospected clay, stoneware 48” x 22” Peasant’s Log Plaster, tie wire 24” x 17” x 1” Our Survived Bys Stoneware, found objects, 13” x 17” x 2” Lost Parts Prospected clay 18” x 3.5” x 1”

J I N G YUA N

LU O / 罗 竟原

STATEMENT In the field of graphic design, artists always consider the relationship between the elements within a plane. All of the information is contained on a two-dimensional surface and arranged to harmonize visually. However, graphic designers also have their own limitations; they have to rely on graphic material.

Both material and real space are limitations.

My work asks: What is the best way to break the rules? How can the information flow be presented more directly? With the development of technology, augmented reality has gradually found increased applications in our lives. Artists are able to easily use the phone’s camera or HoloLens to add more planes in a real room.

Moreover, each piece of information can be put in a specific location. The connection between information and the real world becomes clearer.

BIOGRAPHY Jingyuan Luo is a Chinese creative innovator, branding strategist, and designer with more than 7 years of expertise creating impactful visual art.

He pairs a broad range of creative leadership experience in brand strategy and graphic design with a deep understanding of the psychology behind design to create effective campaigns and team narratives.

Information Field Type Progressive and Unity 8” x 8” (26 pieces)

ILIR MBOR

JA

STATEMENT My digital work raises awareness of the surging world of artificial intelligence, and voices its’ undoubful consequences to the future of humanity. The point of my thesis is not to create fear and isolation, but to stimulate understanding, and more importantly, connectivity. Staring AI in the face ought to reflect our identity buried within; perhaps not in terms of DNA, but in the elements that comprise our tangible form.

BIOGRAPHY Ilir Mborja was born and raised in the southeastern city of Korçë, Albania. At the age of fourteen, shortly after a civil war broke out in his homeland, Ilir migrated to the United States with the purpose of a better education. In 2012, he received his BA in Interactive Media from Becker College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he received the Senior Scholar Award: Best Game Designer. Since 2014, Ilir has been holding an Adjunct Faculty position at Becker College, teaching courses in the field of art and design.

He has also worked as a digital artist at Skyskan and National Geographic, creating visual effects and 3D models for the documentary film Asteroids: Mission Extreme. He is currently completing his graduate studies in Digital Media with the goal of becoming an educator at the college level.

EjeX Modeled in the software Maya, textured in the program Quixel

A N U JA R O

STATEMENT My work explores yoga and its manifestations. It is the simplification of a complex subject into a visual language, readable by all. My installation investigates the accessibility and exchange of data-driven information in the context of exhibition spaces. I curate content that enhances sensory awareness and embodiment.

The culture of graphic design and human sense organs is curated to set the emotional tone of the environment. My hope is that the character of these materials and their mnemonic arrangements can create spatial metaphors for emotional states.

BIOGRAPHY Anuja Roy was born and raised in New Delhi, India. In 2014, she received her BFA in Applied Arts from College of Fine Arts (Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath) and subsequently worked in a design agency before enrolling in the graduate program at UMass Dartmouth. Coming from the region where the renowned Madhubani Art originated has given her a purpose and encouraged her to delve deeper into the fields of Art and Design.

She is currently pursuing her MFA in Visual Design with a focus on both Graphic Design and User Experience/User Interface Design.

Svadishthana Digital print 23� x 30.54�

Sahasrara chakra Digital print Muladhara chakra Digital print

Y

ERIN MONE

T W H E A RY

STATEMENT My work derives from the application of ordered systems onto material. I create visual art as a means to understand space. The method of my practice is circular: a three dimensional object creates a two dimensional printed work which is folded back into a three dimensional sculpture. The physical discovery of marks on working surfaces like table tops or floor boards inspires an intimate investigation of my working environment. Through my process, I am able to make visible what is only perceptible through touch. Patterns observed in the prints are qualified, categorized, and converted into systems that determine form. I gravitate to the logic and control realized in numerical patterns.

Guided by a space or observed pattern, I use my systems to create proportions which in turn determine forms. Predictable and consistent, the application of these proportions to living materials initiates an unpredictable relationship, a tension between order and chaos, geometric and organic.

BIOGRAPHY Erin Monet Wheary was born in Portland, Oregon. She received a BA in Studio Art (Sculpture and Printmaking) from the University of Puget Sound (2013). She was awarded a Chism Summer Research Grant which enabled her to begin her work synthesizing sculpture and printmaking. Following her graduation in 2013, she was an artist in residence at Halle 14 at the Spinnerei in Leipzig Germany. Her work has been featured in various publications and has been exhibited in New England and the Pacific Northwest.

the Space between Intaglio print on rag paper Site specific installation Dimensions variable Unstoppable | Immovable Corrugated fiberboard 10’ Pilgrimage: Laureles Grade Corrugated plastic and intaglio print 4’ x 7’

SUMMER W

E NYU W U / 吴

析夏

STATEMENT My work examines the materialized society and radical feminism. First of all, the concept of plastic wrap derives from the efficiency of pop culture and women’s pursuit and longing for staying young, yet plastic wrap also represents a used item. Secondly, in this fast-food and materialized society, luxury products and women are objects of desire. Men who obtain fame and richness desire women, while women desire luxury bags. In mathematical terms, women are equivalent to bags in the range of interest. This phenomenon can be expressed by materializing women in feminism.

BIOGRAPHY Wenyu Wu (Summer) was born in Nanning, China. She attended Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology University and graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2015. After her undergraduate studies, Wenyu designed for many companies such as Wolflink and Lifestone as graphic designer in Beijing. Her thesis work focuses on gender study and feminism.

Plastic Wrap 1 (Luxury brands, plastic wrap, transparent skirt) Digital photography 24” x 36” Disposable Bags (Garbage bags, black feathers) Digital photography 24” x 36” Marriage (Wedding dress, plastic wrap, supermarket plastic bags) Digital photography 24” x 36”

JILLIAN SH

I X I AO C I YU

/ 喻诗晓词

STATEMENT I consider culture as a site of multiple identifications – a psychological locale where we navigate back and forth across our multiple worlds. My bi-cultural upbringing has inspired me to have to study identity formation. It places me in an unbiased outsider’s position, extricates me from the shadow of Western hegemony, and allows my body of work to initiate a crosscultural conversation through personal dialogues with selected cultural norms, contexts, and presentations.

My work explores the extent to which an Eastern narrative can be visually translated into a Western context, or vice versa — as well as represent emotional commonalities that are universally perceived. It also serves as an alerting reminder that Western culture has become so prevalent a marker of economic success and cultural popularity, it deprives other cultures of their traditions in which they once took great pride.

BIOGRAPHY Jillian Yu was born in Shenyang, China, and immigrated to Canada at the age of 15. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art Honours at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Orignially an interior architecture student at Rhode Island School of Design, she changed majors, and transferred to UMass Dartmouth for an MFA in illustration. Jillian is an academically-trained pianist, composer and singer, and her diverse background also includes art history as well as bilingual writing.

Cinderella Watercolor on paper 12” x 16” The Crow Watercolor on paper 9” x 12” Sleeping Beauty Watercolor on paper 12” x 16”

ROBERT ABELE III Painting www.robertabele@rocketmail.com

RENATA CASSIANO Ceramics renatacassiano81@gmail.com www.renatacassiano.com

SUZI BALLENGER Fiber realfibers@aol.com suziballenger.com

LINAN CHEN / 陈立男 Design chenlinan8929@vip.qq.com

CHRISTINA BARIL Ceramics nina@christinabaril.com www.christinabaril.com

ORFEO FABBRI Painting orfeof@comcast.net www.orfeofabbri.com

ROBERT (boB) BRZOZOWSKI Sculpture brzozowski.sculpture@gmail.com

NATASHA FELICIANO Printmaking printmakertash@gmail.com

EMILY FRANICOLA Ceramics emfranicola@gmail.com emilyfranicola.com

ERIN MONET WHEARY Sculpture erinwheary@gmail.com erinmonetwheary.com

JINGYUAN LUO / 罗竟原 Design jluo@umassd.edu

SUMMER WENYU WU / 吴析夏 Design wanderingsummer@gmail.com

ILIR MBORJA Design Ilir_Mborja@yahoo.com IlirM.wordpress.com

JILLIAN SHIXIAOCI YU / 喻诗晓词 Design jilliansyu@gmail.com

ANUJA ROY Design anuja.roy1992@gmail.com anujaroy.com

2018 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION College of Visual and Performing Arts UMass Dartmouth

EDITORS Viera Levitt Laura Franz

PUBLICATION ASSISTANT Anuja Roy

PHOTOGRAPHS Hank Gatlin Viera Levitt Archives of the students

DESIGN

ISBN: 978-0-9666437-9-4

Teresa Huynh Austin Leclair Kassandra Santilli Matt Oliva

University Art Gallery UMass Dartmouth CVPA 715 Purchase Street New Bedford, MA 02740

PRINTING

508-999-8555 gallery@umassd.edu umassd.edu/cvpa/galleries facebook.com/UMassDartmouthGalleries

Mallard Printing

ISBN 9780966643794

9 780966 643794