Senior artists exhibiting their work include (from left) Elizabeth Thida Htway, Charlotte Mahaffy, Regan Haran, Emily Rodriguez, Casey Kocher, Claire Szathmary and Aubre Robinson.
The Fall 2023 senior show “Meraki” opens at the Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec.1.
On display through Dec. 10, the exhibition includes paintings, reliefs, ceramics, drawings, sculptures, photographs, graphic designs, illustrations, and animation by students including Regan Haran, Casey Kocher, Charlotte Mahaffy, Aubre Robinson, Emily Rodriguez, Claire Szathmary and Elizabeth Htway Thida.
The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. The Marion Art Gallery is located on the first floor of Rockefeller Arts Center.
“Meraki,” the title chosen by the seniors, is a modern Greek word derived from the Turkish “Merak” meaning labor of love, to do something with pleasure. Modern Greeks often use the word to describe doing something with soul, creativity, or love — putting something of yourself into what you are doing, whatever it may be.
- With wood and bronze sculptures, a piece of furniture made out of a found object, and pulp paintings Regan Haran, a sculpture major from Bloomfield, demonstrates his aptitude in creating objects using various mediums.
- Casey Kocher’s photography series “El Espíritu del Ecuador” documents the people of Riobamba, Ecuador. Kocher is a photography major from Rochester, NY. The photographs also chronicle the important work her sister and numerous other doctors and volunteers did to provide gynecology care, general medicine, dentistry, and eye care to over 75 people per day in the central highlands of the Andes Mountains.
- Charlotte Mahaffy, a drawing and painting major from Southold, NY, describes her project “Moving Land” as a series of landscapes — both real and imagined — portrayed on ceramics, canvas and sculpture. The series includes landscapes on ceramic mugs, large landscape paintings, and relief landscapes created with wood.
- In her branding campaign for the Serene Sleepwear Collection, Aubre Robinson, a graphic design major from Hornell, NY, combined her graphic design skills with her love for the art of dreams. Using computer graphics applications, photo editing software, soothing colors, and a round-edged font, she hopes to transport visitors “into the world of dreams, where peaceful slumber and vivid imaginings intertwine.”
- For her animated children’s book, Emily Rodriguez, an animation and illustration major from Manhattan, created characters from various religious backgrounds who gather to share their beliefs with each other. At a time when the world is witnessing (on a daily basis) unimaginable death and destruction caused by conflicting religious agendas, Rodriguez’s advocacy of interfaith dialog and a focus on positive and tolerant religious values resonates.
- Claire Szathmary’s “Café 356” is a fictional business that not only serves delicious coffee but also embodies the spirit of hope and compassion. Customers are able to drink coffee while playing with dogs that are currently on the euthanasia list; the dogs can also be adopted. Szathmary, a graphic design major from Sanborn, NY, used her graphic design skills and Adobe Suites to create a branding campaign which includes signage, posters, menus, dog accessories, and more.
- “‘Window View’ is a series of stippled ink drawings that revisits my past, my memory, the places I frequent, and the views that surrounded me for the past four years,” writes Elizabeth Htway Thida, a drawing and painting major from Buffalo, NY. COVID lingers in these empty scenes; unburdened by people and the visual noise of daily activities, the viewer experiences a world on pause through these drawings that observe space, structure, and landscape at the intersection of perspective lines.
“Meraki” is supported by the Department of Visual Arts and New Media, Fredonia College Foundation’s Cathy and Jesse Marion Endowment Fund, and Friends of Rockefeller Arts Center.
Gallery hours are: Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 4 p.m,; Friday and Saturday, noon to 6 p.m,, and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. For more information or to schedule a group tour of the exhibition, contact Gallery Director Barbara Räcker at (716) 673-4897 or via email.
