Works created by 12 graduating seniors of the Department of Visual Arts and New Media will be on display in an exhibition opening Friday, April 15 in the Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery.
The exhibition, titled “Untitled 12,” opens with a reception on Friday, April 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery is located on the first floor of Rockefeller Arts Center.
Participants, listed according to their concentrations, are: Animation and Illustration – Rachel Crennan, Meghan Fitzgerald, Ashley Minton and Matthew Zarzecki; Graphic Design – Madeleine Curtis, Chelsea DeSanto, Elizabeth Higman and Ashley Ludlow; Ceramics – Ryan Huff; Sculpture – Megan Lewandowski; Photography – Cielo Ornelas MacFarlane; and Drawing and Painting – Alisia Rodriguez.
Gallery Director Barbara Räcker said the diverse exhibition includes illustrations, a collaborative animation, graphic design marketing campaigns, mixed media installations, photographs and paintings.
Crennan’s illustrations focus on the character Spaceman, which represents the artist and her search for identity. Curtis has created a marketing campaign for the historic (since 1933) local bar Black Jack’s Pub. DeSanto’s project documents her three-month experiment of living without the Internet. Fitzgerald’s illustrations of “evil stuffed animals” capture personality and life in inanimate objects.
Higman explores the branding of Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse with redesigned signage, maps and a brochure. In Huff’s mixed media installation, a crumbling figure made of raw clay is “attempting to live up to his own potential for the last time.” Lewandowski includes both industrial functional and sculptural work in the exhibition. The sculptural piece is a multi-component environment created using light bulbs filled with water. Ludlow investigates family memories linked to objects and stories through a semiotic analysis of icon, index and symbol.
Minton and Fitzgerald reinterpret Aesop’s fable in their animation “The Raven and the Swan.” In her photographs, Ornelos MacFarlane examines the way people experience and shape nature. Rodriguez paints intimate scenes of daily life. Her installation of working sketches is a contrast to the finished paintings and will give viewers a glimpse of her creative process. Zarzecki’s large triptych painting “Last Call” is about inevitable mortality and the fear of the unknown.
“Untitled 12” is also supported by the Fredonia College Foundation’s Cathy and Jesse Marion Endowment Fund. The exhibition will be on display through April 22.
Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. from Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 6 p.m. Friday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. For more information or a group tour of the exhibition contact Räcker at barbara.racker@fredonia.edu or 716-673-4897.
