{"id":79184,"date":"2021-05-07T10:12:46","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T14:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=79184"},"modified":"2022-10-28T08:55:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T12:55:02","slug":"bfa-thesis-exhibition-offers-mesmerizing-look-at-seniors-work","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2021\/bfa-thesis-exhibition-offers-mesmerizing-look-at-seniors-work\/","title":{"rendered":"BFA Thesis Exhibition Offers Mesmerizing Look at Seniors\u2019 Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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May 7, 2021<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"BFA<\/h3>\n

On view through May 14, the expansive show features more than 60 artists<\/h3>\n

This article was first published in <\/span><\/em>BU Today <\/span>on May 7, 2021. By<\/em> Sam Drysdale (COM\u201921). Photos by Cydney Scott<\/em><\/p>\n

EXCERPT<\/h5>\n

We dare you to walk by the College of Fine Arts without pausing to take in the vibrant abstract painting of multicolored stripes hanging in the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery window. The arresting canvas, <\/span>A Lifetime of Skies,<\/em> <\/span>painted by Cailyn Masson (CFA\u201921), offers a hint of what\u2019s inside and across the street at 808 Comm Ave: a mesmerizing combination of painting, sculpture, printmaking, and graphic design comprising this year\u2019s <\/span>BFA Thesis Exhibition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The work by 61 talented School of Visual Arts seniors is on view through May 14 at the Stone Gallery and the Commonwealth Gallery, both at 855 Commonwealth Ave., as well as in satellite shows in CFA\u2019s fifth floor studio areas and the first floor hallway at 808 Comm Ave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese artists have been steadfast to their work and their community of artists over this past year. This perseverance is a testament to their commitment to craft and sharing a conversation around art,\u201d says show curator Leah Triplett Harrington, a Boston-based writer and curator of the nonprofit public art accelerator <\/span>Now + There<\/a>. \u201cThey are making, and breaking out of, any preconceptions or parameters for doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, this year\u2019s BFA exhibition is titled <\/span>Breaking Out.<\/em> <\/span>The theme was developed by the branding team graphic design seniors and grew out of conversations about the need to escape the Zoom boxes that have dominated our lives this past year and rediscover beauty in physical spaces. The title is also a reflection of how Zoom has offered us glimpses into people\u2019s private lives, allowing us to find spaces between the physical and digital, the private and public.<\/p>\n

Mary Yang<\/a>, a CFA assistant professor of art, graphic design, says her students wanted to focus on finding a silver lining in the past year. The theme, she says, is also a reflection of their growth as individual artists. \u201cBreaking out can be going outside their comfort zone, trying something different than what they had been making before this year,\u201d Yang says. \u201cI think breaking out also means going out and making change and letting their work be impactful in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement about the show\u2019s theme\u2014\u201cWe\u2019ll realize that all this time, breaking out means shining together\u201d\u2014underscores, too, the sense of community the artists wanted to emphasize by coming together.<\/p>\n

The ways individuals found community, redefined home, and sought some kind of inner peace throughout the pandemic are reflected in the hundreds of artworks on view throughout the exhibition spaces.<\/p>\n

[bu_slideshow show_id=”79194″ show_nav=”1″ transition=”slide” nav_style=”icon” autoplay=”1″ transition_delay=”5″ width=”auto” shuffle=”0″]<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Design team member Emerson Lawton (CFA\u201921) helped curate the room\u2019s layout. One of her pieces in the show is a collection of morbid keychains and souvenirs, which are drawn from her thesis on the commodification of tragedy. …<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawton says she\u2019s proud of the work she and her peers have done to create the show. \u201cI want people to see that we were all able to come together and put everything into a physical show,\u201d she says. \u201cWe weren\u2019t sure if that was going to be possible this year, so the fact that we were able to get everyone to collaborate on this one space is so exciting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Dana Clancy<\/a>, director of the School of Visual Arts and an associate professor of art, painting, says she is impressed with the growth she has seen in the BFA program\u2019s graduating seniors this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve evolved in finding their own voices, but at the same time what I\u2019ve also noticed is just how much more they know about a larger context,\u201d she says. \u201cI hope that people come to the exhibition, and seeing it in person, are surprised and see that the material resonates with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The work by 61 talented School of Visual Arts seniors is on view through May 14 at the Stone Gallery and the Commonwealth Gallery, both at 855 Commonwealth Ave., as well as in satellite shows in CFA\u2019s fifth floor studio areas and the first floor hallway at 808 Comm Ave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14125,"featured_media":79191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[192],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/79184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79184"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/79184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94861,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/79184\/revisions\/94861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79184"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=79184"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=79184"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=79184"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=79184"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=79184"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=79184"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=79184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}