Graduate Painting/Drawing
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I work in the tradition of field naturalists, seeking and gathering data, artifacts, and specimens outdoors, transporting them inside for closer observation and study, displaying them in museum-like diorama settings. I combine populist myths and reinvented historical obscurities with contemporary social dilemmas, connecting past and present, drawing attention to unsolved issues. Throughout my projects I profile the space where water meets the land, traditionally marking the periphery of urban society, what lies beyond rigid moral constructs, a sense of danger and possibility. Duke Riley, MFA 2008 |
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In my process I use painting, collage, and printmaking to make work that is related to a Eurocentric artistic tradition, while remaining linked to a trash aesthetic and the commoditization pervasive in today's world. I concentrate on re-interpreting woven patterns, luxury items, and symbols representative of class structures and dissimilar social conventions. This sort of cross-cultural interaction, especially in relation to folklore and mythology, is like a mapping of the visual precedents that effect gender roles, stereotypes, and ideas about American identity. Yasimin Keshtkar , MFA 2009. |
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Contradiction is the foundation of my figurative art. The work is composed of life-size, carefully choreographed human bodies on a ground purged of contextualizing marks around the figures. By treating these bodies like formal elements instead of human individuals, I transform them from people into symbols of people. In this way, a subtle violence comes into my work. Leah Yerpe, MFA 2009 |
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I paint traditionally, in the Western sense. I am Pakistani but I like to use a visual language which does not belong to my cultural heritage. My work has the air of sturdy, varnished nineteenth century history painting and portraiture. The illusion that it belongs in the shelf of history is a guise that I use to approach the complexities of my own life as a subject of the globalizing Third World. By using the vocabulary of Western academic painting, I distance myself from my background to find a parallel in something classically epic and beautiful. Salman Toor, MFA 2009 |
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Design apparel by emphasizing both technical and creative aspects of the industry
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