The 2023 Master’s of Fine Arts (MFA) group exhibitions are now open to the public beginning in mid-January of this year and will end at the end of February.
The show has work from eight different MFA students showcasing their talents, which include painting, photography, fiber arts, book arts, sculptures and vinyl.
Two of the participating artists, graduate students Ursula Gullow and Akintayo Akintobi, shared about their pieces and inspiration for their work.
“I’m a non-traditional student in that I’ve had a career as a working artist for about 20 years,” said Gullow. “I chose to enroll in grad school at ETSU to learn ways of working with materials that are unfamiliar to me, such as ceramics, wood and video. I’m using these materials to augment my painting practice. I’m also interested in art history and theory which is another reason why I decided to join the grad program at this stage in my life.”
The artists want the audience to be able to look at the display and understand what they were feeling when creating their masterpiece.
According to Akintobi, the vision behind the art was to create a sense of “nostalgia, nihilism and necropsy.” Akintobi has two paintings and a sculpture within the exhibit.
One if Akintobi’s pieces, “Mother and Child,” he explained to be about himself and his own mother.
“It’s artwork that shows the mother nurturing and caring for her child as he grows and develops. As the child grows older, the roles begin to reverse and the child starts to take care of the mother, just as she did for him during his childhood. The artwork highlights the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child, and how their love and care for each other continues to evolve throughout their lives.”
Gullow’s artwork has been cut into, torn open, pasted upon, and manipulated more than a standard painting typically is.
“The pieces I’ve included in this show are my efforts to deconstruct the traditional format of painting which is generally thought of as a rectangular work that hangs flat against a wall,” Gullow added. “The largest piece I created which is entitled, ‘Flesh and Figment, Brain and Breath,’ is constructed of torn canvas that appears to be spilling out of the painting. The frame is composed of several steam-bent wood stretcher bars that curve around each other like a lattice.”
Gullow said this piece was her favorite.
“I’m purposely parodying the worst things about painting like a warped canvas or a torn canvas.”
This exhibit showcases many different styles of art and lets the artist be themselves, other artists included in this exhibition are, Benjamin Conley, Delaney Rogers, Bradley Owens, Caitlin Maltbie, Annie Hutchins and Laura Schroeder.
For more information on the MFA program, visit etsu.edu/cas/art/academics/programs/mfa.php.
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