Pursuing a master of fine arts degree is an endeavor of years of creative commitment. After much intensive study, tonight will mark the final UCLA exhibition for five of this year’s graduate candidates.
Running April 1-9 in Broad Art Center’s New Wight Gallery, the MFA Exhibition #2 is the second of four spring group shows featuring graduate students’ thesis presentations.
The opening reception for the exhibition to the UCLA community is today from 5 to 8 p.m. after the first day.
The event includes works by graduate students Katie Aliprando (sculpture), Jane Jin Kaisen (interdisciplinary studio), Job Piston (photography), Chadwick Rantanen (new genres) and Katrina Umber (photography).
The exhibition follows the fall show, which featured samplings of all 20 MFA candidates.
“(The fall show featured) works in progress, while this show is more of a final project for the two to three years we’ve been in graduate school,” Kaisen said.
Graduate students chose to collaborate with fellow MFA candidates to exhibit a culminating presentation of their artistic careers at UCLA.
“Most of us all came in the same year and have been working with each other and developing a dialogue for a while. I’m honored to work with the rest of the artists,” Piston said.
The show offers a wide range of artistic media and styles, including film.
“For our show we got together and tried to get different mediums that worked well together. The New Wight Gallery is a big space that allows the work to function really well as a whole, but also for the individual,” Kaisen said.
Kaisen is exhibiting her feature-length film, “The Woman, the Orphan and the Tiger,” a project that blends elements of documentary and experimental filmmaking.
“I’m interested in the art of filmmaking ““ the more experimental parts. There are a lot of performance parts in the film (that add) more psychological layers to documentary,” she said.
“The Woman, the Orphan and the Tiger” is a product of a three-year project fueled by Kaisen’s interest in geography and global feminist issues.
Her film offers a look at the violent impact of militarization, specifically concerning several generations of women and children affected by the Korean War.
On the other hand, Piston attributes much of his inspiration to portraiture.
“My interest in photography came primarily from ideas of how to represent the self,” he said.
“I want to know what it means to do that in the 21st century and how technology changes the way we represent ourselves and each other,” he added.
In a series of pieces inspired by paparazzi photographs and “throw away” images, Piston presents images of the covered self ““ draped in fabric, obscured, or masked.
“I’ve been interested in people covering their faces and wanting to block themselves from the camera,” he said.
Piston further explored notions of the self in a text work incorporating magazine headlines.
“I was taking something very public and private that could be reconfigured into private language to show the own individual,” he said.
Though students work closely with staff throughout the course of graduate studies, artists must meet with a committee of faculty to review the final thesis presentations.
“The presentation of a convincing final thesis presentation is definitely a key element in their progress toward getting the MFA degree,” said Russell Ferguson, chair of the art department.
While the group exhibitions mark the final shows for MFA candidates, they also signal the beginning of their careers in the art world.
“(The exhibition) is about showing what the students have done while they’ve been in the program, but in a secondary way it marks a transition from school into a more professional context,” Ferguson said.