The vast variety of the work on display in the MFA Thesis show at the Tisch and Koppelman Galleries is breathtaking. A Christmas tree made out of fur is displayed directly opposite huge self-portraits in gaudy, neon colors. Farther into the show, a clock powered by wind and a turquoise room decorated with deer heads and old furniture are on display. These works represent different artists drawing on very different ideas and influences.
The MFA Thesis show features nine artists who are candidates for the completion of Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts' joint graduate program. Set up so that each artist has an individual space, the galleries seem to hold a number of shows rather than one coherent exhibit. Instead of bombarding the viewer with many different types of work, each "cubicle," as one artist humorously called his space, allows the viewer to focus on just that artist's work.
The variety of the pieces in the exhibit cannot be overemphasized. It's as if the concentrated art environment of the graduate program forced the artists to think about a way to distinguish themselves in a competitive environment. Patty Adams chose to paint over huge digital collages. Ashley Billingsley focused on the nature of sight with her paintings of suburbia, while Lana Citowsky used video clips to act out popular sayings like, "barking up the wrong tree." Kelli Elise Thompson's huge portraits used unrealistically bright colors to create a disturbingly detailed image.
Artist Ollie Wagner's recreated a living room, mixing violent and domestic imagery to get viewers to think about violence in everyday life and how humans perceive foreign violence. Huge canvases splattered with black and white paint and random objects fill Cullen Washingtons Jr.'s space, an exploration of the hero in the urban landscape. Ursula Zeigler's performance work, "Guided City Hikes," involves people walking from the SMFA to the Tufts University Art Gallery, where Zeigler has set up a site — with a table, a fountain, a tree and a little lean-to or cairn — designated for thought about the meaning of the hike.
Another artist showing at the gallery is Robert Hernandez, who works with ink and paint on sheets of plywood. His work is loaded with imagery, filled with line drawings of people, soldiers and recognizable images from pop culture. The repetition of image after image creates a sense of confusion and forces the viewer's eye to move without rest. The constant movement of the human eye from image to image was a specific goal of Hernandez's work, replicating the inability of the human mind to grasp any of the visual imagery thrown at us by the news, the media, the government or other people, he said at the gallery opening. The pictures' restless nature mimics the restlessness of a modern mind with an inability to focus profoundly on any one thing.
The final artist in the show has a completely different goal for his work. A self-described "philosophizer" and "toy-maker," William Whited brings a refreshingly inquisitive, almost child-like feel to his work and to the show. Whited uses scientific concepts such as Einstein's theory of special relativity for inspiration. One piece, the "Wind Clock," seeks to illustrate Einstein's theory that the way humans perceive time is not how time actually unfolds, by creating a clock that is powered by the wind. This means that the little hands on the clock go fast when the wind blows fast and slow when there is just a breeze. Whited said at the opening that one of his goals is to live by wind-clock time, thinking of time as a changeable, malleable thing. He uses unconventional forms of art to raise questions about our relation to the world around us and time, themes which are ever-present in society and in art.
The MFA thesis show provides gives visitors a glimpse of just a microcosm of the contemporary art world. Each artist's style is incredibly different, and seeing all of their work in one gallery space is not only an enjoyable way to pass a few hours but also makes one give deeper consideration to each individual piece. Artists take inspiration from many different sources, but it is in situations like this that it is easiest to see the themes that connect all of the pieces, as well as themes that are unique to each artist. These comparisons end up highlighting things about the works that might otherwise go unnoticed.
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MFA Thesis Exhibition
At the Koppelman and Tisch Galleries, through April 26
Tufts University Art Gallery
40R Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA
617-627-3518
