As summer is growing nearer, graduate students in the LIU Post art department are scrambling around in the campus’ Steinberg Museum of Art at Hillwood, preparing for their annual Masters of Fine Art Exhibition, this year called “Nexus of 12.”
The 12 refers to the number of student artists who will be exhibiting.
“It’s a reflection of work from twelve artists who have learned and grown together,” said Carrie-Anne Gonzales, one of the MFA graduate students in the show. “Nexus of 12 shows the universe’s incredible ability to harmonize individual paths and beings in and through itself.”
The show will have a variety of mediums, chosen by the artists themselves, ranging from photography to print making and video art and painting.
Alongside the “Nexus of 12” in the Steinberg Museum, which will be exhibited for six weeks, the artists will also show their work in the SIA Gallery in Chelsea in NYC.
The shows are a part of the mandatory thesis course for the students, and show some of the body of work they’ve done throughout their academic careers at Post.
“Your job is to create art… all of the time,” Gonzales said. “To see where it takes you, to reflect on it, to see what drives you and how far you can come. We all have our own process and way of getting there.”
Gonzales, a photographer, has a pretty rigid process, after over 20 years of being a photographer.
“I start with sketches, or charcoal drawings, or cut outs or collages of an idea and then I stick it to my studio wall,” she said. “There are many things up there!” Her work shows the struggle of women, relationships and of the working class. For her thesis project, she gives a nod to the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiro.
“Like Siqueiros, my pieces also reflect on social and political subjects of today,” she said.
Although the students work on their theses during their senior year, they can show anything they’ve made.
“Most artists usually have some kind of theme and/or ideology that ties the works they’re exhibiting together,” said Nicholas Frizalone, another graduating MFA student artist.
He is showing paintings and drawings. “
It’s helpful to me because I get to experience what it’s like to exhibit alongside artists of other disciplines and backgrounds,” he said.
The show in the Steinberg Museum opens on April 11, and will be up through May 6. It is located in the Hillwood Commons on the LIU Post campus.
The show in the SIA Gallery in Chelses will be up from April 13 to April 20, with an opening reception on April 14 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Steinberg Museum hours: Monday – Friday 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.; Wednesdays 9:30 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Saturdays 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
This article was originally published in the Pioneer, the award-winning student newspaper of LIU Post, www.liupostpioneer.com, and is republished here by Blank Slate Media with the permission of the Pioneer.
