"Above And Below The Surface", Exhibition of Works by Graduating M.F.A. Students in SMU Meadows Division of Art, to be Presented at SMU's Pollock Gallery, April 4-16, 2016
Reception with the artists on Friday, April 8, 6-8 p.m. at Pollock Gallery
Paradise else where
The Pollock Gallery of the Division of Art at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts will present Above and Below the Surface, an exhibition of works by three graduating students in the Meadows School’s Master of Fine Arts program, April 4-16. The annual spring exhibition of M.F.A. candidates features works in a wide-ranging variety of styles and mediums.
Students Diamond Gray, Daniel Bertalot and Andy Davis think and feel through notions of the body and the land. They use multisensory installations and videos to engage these expansive terms according to their own specific identities and experiences. Humor serves as the point at which the boundaries of their practice meet.
Diamond Gray engages the black female body through research. She produces drawings and videos that investigate characteristics of blackness and whiteness as they are represented in various media. This work confronts emotions of indignation, confusion and sorrow.
Daniel Bertalot utilizes techniques of visual sabotage to simultaneously develop and disrupt formal relations between the surface of the wall and the surface of television monitors, which are both thought of as “screens.” Each video emphasizes how his camouflaged body is able and unable to escape the eye of the camera and, ultimately, the gaze of the viewer.
Andy Davis’s Habitable Diagrams asks: “Hmm...How to negotiate desires in relation to ecological catastrophe?” The performer inhabits the diagram through holes in its structure and interacts with objects painted on, attached to, or embedded within the work. The performer’s actions combine with various components to coalesce in what he calls “habitable diagrams” of subjectivity and self-critique.
The Pollock Gallery’s 2015-16 season will conclude with the Division of Art B.F.A. Qualifying Exhibition, to be held May 2-14, with an artists’ reception on Saturday, May 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.
The Pollock Gallery is located on the first floor of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center, 3140 Dyer St. on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 1-5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more information, call 214-768-4439 or visit here.