Spring Break
MFA Students Show Artwork
Sarah Kopman-Fried
Issue date: 4/2/07 Section: Focus
Five of UConn's most advanced art students showed off their skills at opening of the Masters of Fine Arts exhibition at The William Benton Museum of Art on Friday afternoon. The exhibit, which runs from Friday until May 6, features work from Daniel Ballesteros, John O'Donnell, Rebecca Parker, Blake Shirley and Ari Tabei.
Rebecca Parker, a graduate student who described herself as "primarily a performance artist," submitted a series of prints featuring herself standing on top of a dinner table, while the guests at the table continued to eat.
In this particular piece, Parker said that she invited a group of people over to her home for a "performance." The guests took their seats around the table she had set and Parker began to serve the first course. However, as the guests began to eat their dinner, Parker proceeded to climb on top of the table and stand in the center of it until they were finished with that course. Afterwards, Parker climbed down from the table, served the next course and then climbed back on top of the table. She had a photographer take pictures of the entire evening.
According to Parker, "The prints, like most of my work, play with the idea of the roles of women in society today."
Having spent most of her childhood in the South and attending college in Tennessee, Parker said, "Growing up, my view of women was totally shaped by being from the South. Down there I was raised with this very traditional view of who I was expected to be as a woman. That's why most of my art really deals with the subject of trying to negotiate what womanhood means for me."
One of the most popular exhibitions of the evening was the video art submitted by John O'Donnell. His submission featured a variety of surveillance cameras, projectors and televisions, used to showcase the movements of various props including toy carrots, globes and stuffed animals.
"The video stuff is pretty intriguing," said Matt Swartz, a 2nd-semester piano performance major. "You have to watch it for awhile to figure out exactly what's going on." Swartz and several other students were drawn to the Benton's exhibit because many of the graduate students are actually their teachers.
"John [O'Donnell] is actually my drawing teacher. His exhibit here is a little surprising because it's not like anything we do in class, but I still think it's really cool," said Jackie Campbell, a 2nd-semester fine arts major.
Taylor Devens, an 8th-semester pharmacy and art history major agreed, saying, "I'm a huge John O'Donnell fan. I definitely think he has some of the best work here."
Other submissions for the exhibit included a set of prints by Daniel Ballesteros, oil paintings by Blake Shirley and 3-D art featuring tissue paper by Ari Tabei.
Rebecca Parker, a graduate student who described herself as "primarily a performance artist," submitted a series of prints featuring herself standing on top of a dinner table, while the guests at the table continued to eat.
In this particular piece, Parker said that she invited a group of people over to her home for a "performance." The guests took their seats around the table she had set and Parker began to serve the first course. However, as the guests began to eat their dinner, Parker proceeded to climb on top of the table and stand in the center of it until they were finished with that course. Afterwards, Parker climbed down from the table, served the next course and then climbed back on top of the table. She had a photographer take pictures of the entire evening.
According to Parker, "The prints, like most of my work, play with the idea of the roles of women in society today."
Having spent most of her childhood in the South and attending college in Tennessee, Parker said, "Growing up, my view of women was totally shaped by being from the South. Down there I was raised with this very traditional view of who I was expected to be as a woman. That's why most of my art really deals with the subject of trying to negotiate what womanhood means for me."
One of the most popular exhibitions of the evening was the video art submitted by John O'Donnell. His submission featured a variety of surveillance cameras, projectors and televisions, used to showcase the movements of various props including toy carrots, globes and stuffed animals.
"The video stuff is pretty intriguing," said Matt Swartz, a 2nd-semester piano performance major. "You have to watch it for awhile to figure out exactly what's going on." Swartz and several other students were drawn to the Benton's exhibit because many of the graduate students are actually their teachers.
"John [O'Donnell] is actually my drawing teacher. His exhibit here is a little surprising because it's not like anything we do in class, but I still think it's really cool," said Jackie Campbell, a 2nd-semester fine arts major.
Taylor Devens, an 8th-semester pharmacy and art history major agreed, saying, "I'm a huge John O'Donnell fan. I definitely think he has some of the best work here."
Other submissions for the exhibit included a set of prints by Daniel Ballesteros, oil paintings by Blake Shirley and 3-D art featuring tissue paper by Ari Tabei.
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dining room furniture
posted 10/18/07 @ 7:40 AM EST
good read. thanks.
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