Becoming an artist is a lot more difficult than people might think. Not only are ability and ideas involved, there is also that one ingredient sometimes essential for success: people skills. With the MFA 2010 Exhibition, the student artists who are showcased learned not only how to properly present their work, but how to interact in a group setting.
The exhibition, running until Nov. 12 at the New Wight Gallery at Broad Art Center, was started by UCLA Department of Art Chair Russell Ferguson in 2007 as a way of showcasing the works of graduating Master of Fine Arts students.
“I thought it would be nice in the fall quarter to have the exhibition to show the whole graduating class together so that the UCLA community can see what is coming out of the program this year all at once,” Ferguson said.
The works being displayed include paintings, sculptures, photography and video from the 20 students who are graduating in spring 2010. Yet, the exhibition is not only a way for people to learn about the works of UCLA MFA students. It is also a learning experience for these students as well.
Ben Evans, who is the coordinator for the New Wight Gallery, is in charge of teaching the students involved in the exhibition how to properly display their work.
“Many of them have not seen their work hung in a professional setting. They’re not used to the lighting, for instance,” Evans said. “Where they work in Culver City, they don’t actually have halogen lighting to actually see what the real colors of their work look like, so when they hang it up here in the gallery, it’s a totally foreign experience for them.”
For most of the MFA students, it is their first time showing at the New Wight Gallery, which is a museum-quality space. For Matthias Merkel-Hess, a graduate student in fine arts, the experience of showing at the gallery has been an educational one.
“I think it’s nice when you have the opportunity to put a piece in the show. I enjoy putting something new in just to see how it works and to see how it looks, and to see it outside of my studio,” Merkel-Hess said.
Merkel-Hess’ work, a sculpture titled “A Monument to Enjoying Life,” is a commemoration of his time in the program and everything that he has learned about himself as an artist because of graduate school.
“I’m just arriving at this place where school has … given me a better idea of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it,” Merkel-Hess said. “I’m glad I had this time (at UCLA), and I made a little monument to that.”
During the initial processes, the 20 students were required to meet with each other and discuss what they were going to show and where in the gallery they wanted to display it.
“You work together and everyone is pretty low-key about it. We all want what’s best for everyone,” Merkel-Hess said.
Evans, who is also a practicing artist, considers the ability to interact with other artists a valuable one. According to Evans, when professional artists are displayed in a group show, they have to take into consideration not just their own works, but the works of other artists.
“Whenever your work is shown in a group setting, as an artist, you’re always going to have to adjust the way you think about your work a little bit because it’s being seen now in the context of other works,” Evans said.
The exhibition is one out of two that third-year MFA students will partake in before they graduate. The other exhibition will take place in the spring.
In preparing for graduating and entering the professional world, Merkel-Hess said he considers his time in the MFA program to be a productive experience.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen next year for me, but I would say that I’m definitely in a different place than before I started school. I’m just more confident in what I’m doing,” Merkel-Hess said. “I’ll be sad, I think, to end my time here after the spring.”
While the exhibition has ended up being an educational experience for the art students whose work is being showcased, Ferguson found the works in the exhibition to be of an excellent caliber and considered them to be a look at the newest group of emerging artists.
“(The MFA students) are beginning the transition from students to professionals,” Ferguson said. “I think that’s one reason the exhibition can be interesting for other people in and out of the UCLA community, … because it’s a chance to see a mixed group of young artists right at the beginning of their professional careers.”