FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MICA presents the M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition
Ethereal Heist
April 13 – 22, 2007
Decker, Meyerhoff and Fox 3 Galleries,
Fox Building, Maryland Institute College of Art
Reception: Friday, April 13, 6–9pmThe Maryland Institute College of Art proudly presents the work of eleven of its Master of Fine Arts candidates in Ethereal Heist, April 13–22. Encompassing the work of artists from four of MICA’s graduate programs the show presents a wide range of media including painting, photography, performance, video, sculpture and installation. The work is the culmination of two years of inquiry and experimentation by a group of emerging artists:
Ramsay Barnes, Hoffberger School of Painting — Barnes uses boyhood ephemera to address issues of personal identity. Working in a combination of collage, photography, drawing and painting, his multiple media offerings attempt to reveal the multiplicity of human experience.
Lesly Deschler Canossi, Graduate Photography and Digital Imaging — Re-examining institutional archives with her camera, Deschler Canossi’s work addresses the compulsion to collect and the relationship this impulse has with photography.
Kelly Egan, Graduate Photography and Digital Imaging — The technological acceleration of culture and its effects lie at the center of Egan’s efforts. A blur of information, his photographs scan a rapidly shifting landscape, leaving a specter of form and distance.
Michael Hurst, Mt. Royal School of Art — Referencing pop art tradition, Hurst’s paintings challenge the viewer to see past romanticized notions of urban culture. Poking fun at the fantasies generated by these incomplete impressions, his use of high-octane color and graphic line serve as a substitution for what has been left unsaid.
Stuart Jackson, Hoffberger School of Painting — Moving between classic mythology, personal narrative, and contemporary catastrophe, Jackson’s paintings address how history is built on both truth and falsehood.
Jodi Lieburn, Mt. Royal School of Art — Inspired by theatre, Lieburn uses installation, performance and photography to craft scenes from discarded materials.
Jackson Martin, Rinehart School of Sculpture — The collaboration between natural and cultural elements is the core of Martin’s work. Utilizing steel, glass, wood, plants, soil and water, he melds order and control with the uncertain and the unpredictable.
Nathaniel Rogers, Hoffberger School of Painting — Rogers re-introduces the American middle-class through his subversive combination of scenic elements. He forces the mundane and the bizarre together in small-scale, detailed oil paintings. The result is a socially critical expression of basic interaction, morality, and value, which survives, frozen in time, safe from pending disaster.
Michael Sandstrom, Mt. Royal School of Art — Sandstrom’s mixed-media works investigate how an individual’s perspectival reality is influenced by societal group consciousness. Treating memory as a cultural rather than an individual faculty, Sandstrom's works challenge us to reconsider what our perceptions of reality truly signify.
Won-Sun Shin, Mt. Royal School of Art — Shin’s work employs a variety of forms and media to address a range of cultural themes and influences. Her explorations and research strive to make bridges between feminism, pop culture and dreams.
Liz Wade, Hoffberger School of Painting — Elizabeth Wade’s paintings confront the anxiety generated by American media culture by addressing the internal world of the individual. In her work, initial readings of childlike naiveté peel back to reveal layers of savage eroticism, tenderness, aggression, humor, and loneliness beneath.
