Pieces of artwork created by three senior fine arts majors were presented to the public at Martha Gault Art Gallery in the Maltby Building in an opening reception on Monday evening as part of the 2019 Fall BFA Art Exhibitions.
The three exhibits, which will be shown up until Dec. 12, encompass three different styles of art, including photography, painting and sculpture/printmaking.
Brianna Hannon’s “Everything is Vine” is a photo collection that centers on the small, graceful details of nature’s recovery. In each photo, plants poke through their frames to the wall of the gallery.
“The way that wildflowers push their way through concrete, how trees grow through gates, and how vines creep up walls and wrap around railings is truly poetic,” Hannon wrote in her artist’s statement.
In the statement accompanying her own work, Christine Murcko describes her “Serenity” as a resemblance of the sort of environment that she finds most calming. Begun in September, it is a series of colorful abstract landscapes lacking any trees and buildings. The five oil paintings give a glowing effect that Murcko accomplished by using blending and glazing. Each scene took approximately three weeks to complete.
“I want them to serve as calming visuals for people who have anxiety and stress, so [the paintings] all have a peaceful atmospheric quality to them,” said Murcko, who admitted she deals with such issues frequently. “Just creating them to help others who feel the same way was the main point behind it.”
University President William Behre has even expressed interest in purchasing the painting with a green, hilly terrain.
Jessica Giuliano’s “Fallen” is an immersive exhibit, surrounded by walls, that aims to create an environmental experience rather than a piece that is solely looked at.
“I hope they have their own view on what it is and that they actually get to go in and see all different sides of it,” Giuliano said of exhibit visitors. “Instead of going into a normal gallery and it’s like ‘You have to be ten feet back and not touch this.’”
It is a number of prints in a three-dimensional form, combining sculpture and printmaking and incorporating astrology with a comet.
“I thought it would be cool to make a meteor crash that you can actually go into and experience, because usually those things are blocked off by the government,” Giuliano said on the source of inspiration.
Giuliano, who works at a bowling alley in nearby Butler, brought her boss to the exhibit, who then posted about it on Facebook, helping the artist to get her name out there.
“I feel accomplished,” Giuliano said. “It was unbelievably stressful and, if I would do it again, I’d definitely do it differently time management-wise.”
Giuliano, who like Murcko and Hannon graduates after the semester, added that she has more ideas for artwork and would like to be part of alumni show in the future.
