'Showcase Showdown' displays MU artist diversity
MU students' work shows growth and diversity in the graduate program.
Published Jan. 26, 2010
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Graduate student Catherine Armbrust's piece, 'Fall 2009,' sits on display in the Bingham Gallery as a part of the Graduate Student Showcase. For her project, Armbrust asked her fellow art graduate students to fill jars with objects representing themselves.
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"Gravity" by Debo Crites (front) and "Propagandist" by Ian Shelly (back) are two of the pieces of artwork displayed from Jan. 22- Feb. 4 in the Bingham Gallery. The exhibit, entitled The Showcase Showdown, annually hosts artwork of current graduate students in the Master of Fine Arts program.
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Nineteen mason jars line a shelf in the center of the Bingham Art Gallery. At first glance, the jars appear to be nothing more than the contents of a crafter's supply shelf, filled with various fabrics and paints. A deeper look reveals a window into the artist diversity and growth within the MU graduate art school, featured in the gallery's exhibit, "The Showcase Showdown."
The jars, each a piece of graduate student Catherine Armbrust's work, "Fall 2009," represent individual members of the graduate school population.
Armbrust asked each member of the school to fill a jar with materials that symbolize themselves as an artist and as a student. The result was a hodge-podge of jars filled with everything, from yarn and clay to plastic swords and cigarettes.
For some students, it is the materials that dominate their semester's work. Armbrust's jar holds the arm of a doll implanted in a thick layer of diorama grass, two materials used heavily in her current work. The arm is reaching upward, symbolizing her reaching forward in her first year of graduate studies.
For others, the contents represent a concept displayed in their work. Graduate student Eric Sweet's jar is filled with a simple shape: squares. Conceptually, Sweet's work focuses on the hierarchies of everyday life. Because all sides of a square are equal, squares are a nonhierarchical shape.
Like the contents of the mason jars, the artwork displayed at the exhibit encompasses a variety of styles, mediums and concepts, unique to the diverse graduate school population. Political outcries take shape in oil on canvas, side-by-side elegant works of mixed media.
"I wanted to do a collaborative piece because we (the graduate students) are all so different — our work, our personalities, the concepts that we're working with and the materials we're using," Armbrust said.
"The Showcase Showdown" is an annual exhibition, displaying work from graduate students working toward a Master's in Fine Arts from the MU art department. Eric Sweet, Association of Graduate Art Students president, coordinated this year's exhibit.
"The exhibit is a good opportunity for the artists to gain experience putting on a show," Sweet said. "It also gives viewers an opportunity to experience the diversity in visual art occurring at the university."
Although this year's exhibit showcases many of the same artists as last year, the art itself differs drastically from what was in the previous show. The evolution of artists' bodies of work is displayed through new mediums and concepts than in years past.
"What fosters this diversity is the critical approach to art we take, in trying to find a new way to express our ideas, while still considering the roots of our work," Sweet said.
The exhibit features work from various graduate student artists including Eric Sweet, Catherine Armbrust, Ian Shelly and Nancy Brown. It will remain at Bingham Art Gallery, located in A126 of the Fine Arts Building, until Feb. 4.