The first of the solo exhibitions—from photography to inventive use of text—by senior studio art majors in the Department of Art and Art History will open Wednesday, March 31, in the Gallery at the Art and Music Library at the University of Rochester.
Sara Missel works primarily with text and addresses the translation of ideas and emotions into words and their relation to the visual. Her projects, which will remain on display until April 6, employ a variety of materials that layer meaning and challenge viewers.
Matt Ellsworth makes use of photography to emphasize or invent visual pattern and the pattern of everyday ritual where it may not at first be evident. Ellsworth's work questions where repetition and symmetry ends and obsession and compulsion begins. His work will be shown from April 9 to 14.
Jae Yoon utilizes both digital output and Internet-based approaches in the making of his art. In one body of work, he constructs his thesis by hybridizing advertising slogans and publicity pictures in unexpected combinations. His work, which will be on display from April 17 to 22, often addresses the depth of the American culture's connection to the corporate.
The art of Kimberly Hampton attempts to address the bridges between our organic reality and its digitized simulacrum by incorporating and juxtaposing materials from both realms. By taking an object through several reproductions, she draws attention to the substance of the object itself and how our conception of it is skewed through the filter of a digital world that is becoming increasingly virtual. Her exhibit will be shown from April 25 to 30.
In the final show, Stacey Hunt will display her computer animation that extends and amplifies everyday occurrences. Her work is humorous and dark. While she vents, she sarcastically exaggerates common events that irritate us. Her exhibit runs from May 3 to 8.
Last fall, seniors John Breedy and Liz Thi exhibited their work. Breedy's large-scale charcoal drawings offered character studies that spanned the gamut from humorous to menacing. Thi's work confronted her identity as a female Asian and the dilemma posed by her immediate cultural situation and the expectations of her traditional ones.
The hours of the gallery, which is located on the ground level of Rush Rhees Library on the University's River Campus, are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, and noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The exhibits are free and continue through May 8. For more information, contact (585) 275-4476.