School of Visual Arts MFA Thesis Show

Split Ends: School of Visual Arts MFA Thesis Show
Curated by Tim Saltarelli
February 22 - March 9, 2013

OPENING RECEPTION on Thursday, February 28, 6-8pm
Visual Arts Gallery, 601 W. 26th Street, NYC
Monday-Saturday, 10am-6pm (closed March 8th)

School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents Split Ends, the second of two MFA Fine Arts Department thesis exhibitions. Curated by Tim Saltarelli, Split Ends is comprised of work in various media by Rob Campbell, Feng-Tsung Chan, Matthew Eck, Anna Costa e Silva, Nick Fyhrie, Keith Hoffman, David Jacobs, Marc Bradley Johnson, Sara Mejia Kriendler, Emily Langmade, Dongsuk Lee, Kwantaeck Park, Jamie Sneider, Denise Treizman, Ates Ucul, Naormi Wang and Brian Whiteley. The exhibition will be on view February 22–March 9 at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26 Street, 15th Floor, New York City. The gallery will be closed on Friday, March 8, 2013.

Exhibition curator Tim Saltarelli says, “Structured around a number of video and sculptural installations, punctuated by series of paintings and works on paper, Split Ends establishes a platform for the reflection and analysis of our contemporary moment. Though the title alludes to the diversity of the 17 artist practices contained within the exhibition, prevalent among its concerns are the ways in which images, consumer goods, architecture, fashion and design condition not only the body, but also social and interpersonal relations.

“These concerns are articulated through the use of often already identifiable objects and latter-day ready-mades. While the constitutive images and elements of many of the works in Split Ends demonstrate a certain uncanny familiarity, these elements, often the cast offs and excesses of material culture, are reconfigured and combined in often precarious or tenuous ways. The resulting art works manifest an interest in ephemerality and foreground the importance of the process of their own formation. In so doing, the artists in Split Ends take the known world and reinvent it, make it strange and redirect it towards a different end.”

The Visual Arts Gallery, located at 601 West 26 Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, 15th floor, is open Monday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm; closed on Sundays and public holidays. Admission is free. The Gallery is accessible by wheelchair. For further information call 212 592 2145.

The MFA Fine Arts Department offers a specialization in painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking, new media, and mixed media, while fostering an ideology of stylistic pluralism. The two-year, 60 credit degree program encourages artists students to follow a personal course of intellectual and expressive development as they experiment with diverse artistic persuasions, discovering new aspects of their creative abilities and gaining greater technical mastery.

Led by Department Chair David L. Shirey, the program features a roster of internationally renowned artists as faculty members, including Polly Apfelbaum, Jake Berthot, Petah Coyne, Kenji Fujita, Marilyn Minter, Gary Stephan, Jackie Winsor and Fred Wilson, among others.

Graduates from the program include Katherine Bernhardt, Luca Buvoli, Andy Collins, Steve DeFrank, Inka Essenhigh, Kate Gilmore, Johan Grimonprez, Michelle Lopez, Gary Peterson, Brian Rutenberg, Sarah Sze and Phoebe Washburn, among others.

For more information on the MFA Fine Arts Department, please visit sva.edu and sva.edu/graduate/mfa-fine-arts.

School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and clear direction of purpose.