How can an artist visually describe the concept of a house or a home? What does the idea of a house symbolize? And what emotions does it incite?
The answer is wildly different for everyone, and New College students are sharing their own creative interpretations as part of the 2021 thesis art exhibition, what we do in the house that has no walls.
The show will run from April 14 to May 12 in the Isermann Gallery. Hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and crowds will be limited to 10 masked visitors at a time.
“The concept of a house without walls can indicate the freedom (or escapism) of a road trip, while also referencing the urgent need to break down violent borders,” exhibition organizers from the New College Art Department said. “A house can feel like an intimate home—filled with personality and light—or it can feel oppressive and inescapable.”
And seven student artists will be displaying their individual takes. Graduating seniors featured in the exhibition include Ayeola Omolara Kaplan, E. Barrett, Freddie O’Brion, Margaux Albiez and Yajaira Urzua-Reyes. The show also previews the work of first-semester thesis students Hannah Isabella Gatof and Magdalena Van Thienen.
Their artwork (3-D modeling, digital illustration, painting and printmaking) delves into everything from cultural identity, landscape and nostalgia to the complex relationships between spirituality, popular culture and politics.
“The culmination of the senior thesis [at New College] is a capstone exhibition, representing a yearlong, rigorous engagement with a body of artwork, centered around a focused theme or concept,” said Kim Anderson, an associate professor of art at New College. “And this has been an exceptional year, to say the least. This year’s cohort of thesis students did an outstanding job navigating a host of new academic challenges as they faced an entire academic year under the pressures of a pandemic requiring remote learning and Zoom critiques.”
Through a combination of hybrid and in-person meetings and tutorials, the thesis process required an entirely new degree of creativity and problem solving, Anderson explained. And, she said, these students met the challenge “with a renewed sense of passion and purpose.”
The group met weekly via Zoom for group critiques, research presentations and exhibition planning—all aimed at strengthening the students’ knowledge of the field and their command of unique approaches to art making.
“This year, the somewhat circuitous path each of the 2021 seniors navigated as a result of COVID-19 could not have been anticipated when they first entered the doors of New College as first-year or transfer students,” Anderson said. “I applaud each of them for their perseverance and sense of determination, evident in the quality and breadth of artwork presented in the exhibition.”
About the artists’ work:
In a society fearful of revolution, Kaplan’s artwork serves as a catalyst for a blissful awakening to the necessity and magic of collective paradigm shifts. She creates an empowering and electrifying visual experience through an exploration of identity, class and spirituality. Marginalized people are presented in positions of power in a demand for justice through the artist’s personal explorations of Jewish, Black and Eastern spiritual practices and philosophies in relationship to political movements.
Barrett invites viewers into a fantasy narrative universe that reflects the need for real-world representation within the anime genre. Barrett aims to honor the anime tradition while pointing out a need for diversity and inclusivity within anime as the style becomes increasingly globalized and influenced by the Americas. Barrett’s work celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community, people of color, Black and African people, and people with disabilities, offering new possibilities for representation within pop culture media.
In O’Brion’s series of 3-D-modeled digital spaces, the viewer interacts with and misinterprets the intimate objects of the artist’s daily life. Through the creation of these interactions, the work interrogates the social and institutional misrecognition faced by individuals with non-normative identities. Each composition creates glittering, disorienting arrangements of personal mementos, detritus and artifacts that exist—suspended in a whirlwind of disarray—for the viewer to digitally explore and manipulate.
Albiez conveys a whimsical narrative of a cross-country road trip. Her paintings subvert 19th-century American landscape painting traditions and are imbued with both humor and unease. Through vivid colors and unexpected details, she transforms the quotidian into the absurd. Whether situated in a parking lot or barreling down a highway, the figures of Albiez’s paintings invite viewers to contemplate the daring, foolish and delightful ways humans interact with nature.
Through a series entitled Lo Que Quedó de Ti, or What was Left of You, Urzua-Reyes’s paintings reflect the harsh reality undocumented migrants experience while crossing the Sonoran Desert. Her work embodies border violence by painting the desert as a graveyard filled with crosses and desert reliquaries, featuring human remains and personal mementos to remind viewers that behind each cross is a story, a name and a person.
Gatof’s mid-century-inspired posters analyze popular imagery and themes found within Hispanohablante Caribbean designs. Through her work, she intends to challenge the false narratives and stereotypes perpetuated through these traditions, aiming to reflect the richness and complexity of the region.
Van Thienen’s work features colorful still life paintings that combine Latinx cuisine and the American vernacular diet. The paintings embody cultural identity and her experience as an immigrant.
About the corresponding Senior Thesis Exhibition Catalogue:
Seven student artists and five student art historians are represented in this year’s Senior Thesis Exhibition Catalogue. This catalogue is the third iteration of an annual, collaborative effort—following a hiatus in 2020—between the Art and Art History Areas of Concentration at New College.
The project is designed to foster art and art history students’ skills in art criticism and publication, while responding to the remarkable creative endeavors of their graduating art student peers. Four of the art history students were paired with art thesis students to write interpretative essays on their work. In collaboration with an art student, two of the art history students have focused on the design and presentation of the catalogue.
Production has followed research, studio visits, interviews and group feedback from New College students and faculty. The catalogue has given students a better understanding of contemporary art criticism and its role in the exhibition process, promoted interdisciplinary collaboration, and highlighted the range and depth of the visual arts on campus.
The Isermann Gallery is located on the New College campus, 5315 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota. For more information on the exhibition, click here.
To view the catalogue, click here.
Abby Weingarten is the senior editor in the Office of Communications & Marketing.