UMass Dartmouth 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibition

March 30 – May 6

Katy Rodden Walker

This annual exhibition celebrates the Art + Design work of graduating students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts graduate program in a large-scale exhibition at the Star Store Campus.

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Elizabeth Peña-Alvarez Katrina Benner Jordan Blankenship Daniel S. DeLuca Kelly Devitt Yurie Hayashi Joseph Schairer Katy Rodden Walker

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Joseph Schairer

GREETINGS FROM THE OFFICE OF THE DEAN I am very pleased to offer my hearty congratulations to the MFA Class of 2022—for this amazing show and even more for your accomplishments so evident in the work we are enjoying. This MFA exhibition is the culmination of two to three years of intense work, of experimenting, starting over, pushing boundaries, introspection, and the host of emotions that come with this all-consuming experience. It is a moment to celebrate, certainly, but it is also important to remember that it is a beginning rather than a terminal point.

The eight artists represented here have achieved much, but they are also standing on the threshold of the next exciting phase of their artistic careers and creative lives. We wish them the very best as they set off on this new journey.

This exhibition also marks a return to in-person MFA shows, and it is wonderful to see the work together with the artists who created it.

Katy, Daniel, Elizabeth, Kelly, Yurie, Joe, Katrina, and Jordan: While we can gather to celebrate this milestone with you, we remain cognizant that much of your graduate schooling happened during the difficult period of a pandemic and global health crisis. The work presented here is a glowing testament to your ability to overcome this unique crisis.

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It is also rooted in your experiences of virtual education, social isolation, and societal anxiety. The power of creative expression to comfort and sustain as well as question or criticize is an extraordinary thing, and all of us at CVPA are grateful to be part of this vibrant arts community. I would like to thank the faculty whose rigorous expectations have pushed you all to new and exciting places in your work. Your success is what sustains us, and it is a pleasure to share in it.

A grateful acknowledgement goes to Viera Levitt whose tireless work as Gallery Director both brings us this exhibition and always enriches the whole of our community. Thank you, Michelle Bowers and Paula Medeiros, for your work in producing this catalog and the gallery’s online presence. Last but certainly not least, I am extremely grateful to the family and friends of our graduates for providing the support that our faculty and staff cannot. The accomplishments we are applauding would not have been possible without you.

With best wishes, Lawrence Jenkens

Kelly Devitt

Daniel S. DeLuca

NOTES FROM THE EXHIBITION CURATOR As our eight graduating students install this exhibition, I am amazed at their focus, dedication and talent all coming together as a unified whole. The exhibition, to the credit of the artists, does not shy away from the darkness of the past, the two pandemic driven years shrouded in violence and looming climate catastrophe, but showcases as well, a light of hope and a path to get there. From intimate and quiet to loud and bold, this work presents the complexity of our times as well as the internal worlds of these young artists, engaged in exploratory journeys.

I want to congratulate all exhibiting artists, their advisors and the graduate committee members, all of whom have put their time, energy and souls into advising these students and helping all of us explore the depth and complexity of this moment of time.

Viera Levitt

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6 Yurie Hayashi, Joseph Schairer, Kelly Devitt

7 Jordan Blankenship, Elizabeth Peña-Alvarez, Daniel S. DeLuca, Katrina Benner

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Elizabeth Peña-Alvarez STATEMENT

It is said that in life, suffering is inevitable. We suffer with physical and emotional pain from disease and death. We suffer from loss, such as the end of a marriage, impairment of a limb, or the death of a child. After a series of successive traumas, it is more than resiliency or perseverance that enables one to move forward. With a shift in perspective, traumatic events can be viewed as catalysts for change. As the ancient Sufi poet, Rumi, wrote: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” Clarity of purpose is illuminated by re-assembling remnants of the previous way of life, however, with a more curatorial focus. This is known as Post-Traumatic Growth, which is the essence of my work.

In my artwork, I investigate physical and emotional trauma and the concept of Post-Traumatic Growth by incorporating universal dichotomous themes such as life and loss; growth and destruction; beauty and darkness. My visual vocabulary is informed by observations of the natural world, including flora, and human anatomy. These images are integrated into my Resurrection, 2021 Stoneware, porcelain, aspergillum, and ash 30" x 24" x 20"

large-scale ceramic, hand-built, highly textural, biomorphic sculptures, with focal points of meticulous detail, which are hybridized forms of botanical and anatomical elements, invoking transformative and transcendent growth. These forms are sometimes juxtaposed with metallic glazed liturgical objects, providing the opportunity for glints of light.

Other times, they incorporate ash, the remnants of life lost, which provides the nutrients from which new life can grow.

BIOGRAPHY

Elizabeth Peña-Alvarez is a sculptor based in Cranston, Rhode Island. She received her BFA from Swain School of Design and her MFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Her work is nationally exhibited, and she is the recipient of the Windgate Fellowship, from the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She was born and raised in Miami, Florida, where the abundant and varied vegetation's lasting impact continues to drive her studio work.

Blossoming (detail), 2021 Earthenware and porcelain 44" x 24" x 24"

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Katrina Benner STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHY

My MFA research spans the female body, sex roles, and relationships uprooted by trends of self-commodification dictated by social media platforms. My life’s challenges and experiences feed the conceptual content of my work and this catharsis acts as a foundation of the process. My work in fine art, printmaking, and digital painting culminates in portraits, pattern projections, and wallpaper obstructions to abstract, cover, and encode contradictions and paradoxes of morality and truth. Planographic building of visual terrains represents layers of boundaries incurred by women in a sexualized urban culture.

Katrina Benner is an artist and designer from New England, residing in Fall River, Massachusetts. She received her GED in 2013, followed by graduating Summa Cum Laude with an Associate Degree in Fine Art from Bristol Community College in 2016, and a Bachelor's in Printmaking with honors from Rhode Island School of Design in 2019. Katrina is the recipient of numerous awards including the Corporal Kristina Paglio Commitment to Service Award (RISD) and the John A. Chironna Memorial Scholarship Award for Printmaking (RISD).

Sexy Selfie Wallpaper, 2022 Digital projection, 2' 20" (video still)

She has assisted printmakers Johnny Adimando and Thomas Lyon Mills, in addition to ongoing volunteer work with the RISD Alumni Association that includes work with the National Braille Press. Katrina’s work has been exhibited in the 2018 RISD Printmaking Triennial, 2016 Fall River Live Art Throw Down sponsored by Gnome Create, and the National Student Works On Paper Biennial 2015 at William Paterson University.

Street Conversations, 2022 Digital collage with woodblock and screen print, 2' 07" (video still)

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Jordan Blankenship STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHY

The development of my articulated functional forms comes from the experience of using objects in my daily routines, creating rituals that encourage a desire to slow down. I respect comfortable and efficient design responding to a culture that moves too fast and has too much.

Jordan Blankenship is a functional ceramic designer; she explores developing modular ceramic sets that play with systems and outcomes that challenge expected limitations.

Blankenship holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida Gulf Coast University and is working towards her Master of Fine Arts degree in ceramics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Currently, Jordan’s collections can be found through partnerships with retailers across the United States.

Jordan works from her studio in Estero, Florida where she continues to hone her craft.

My ceramic sets facilitate modern life's daily rituals that bring us joy by rethinking the very way we live with them. Each component can adapt to individual preferences, entertaining the duality between the domestic household's simple and complex habits. I use design thinking to understand everyday spatial challenges; by creating versatile custom cabinets for my work. I develop solutions that help enrich our everyday moments offering intelligent, compact, and efficient solutions while in use or being stored.

From the Collection 4.5: 1 of 165 pieces, 2022 Ceramic, wood and cork Dimensions variable

Detail of Collection 4.5 and 8.25, 2022 Ceramic, wood and cork

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Daniel S. DeLuca STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHY

My work evolves from interdisciplinary research and creates conditions for interactive experimentation through performative, sculptural, socially engaged, and conceptual practices. This project-based work utilizes context-sensitive strategies to connect meaning to form on a variety of scales.

Creating playful points of connection, engaged discussions, provoking questions, and disrupting conventional patterns of behavior are all important aims of my projects in general.

They are designed to utilize resources at hand, be minimally invasive, temporary, and respond to the complex set of indices created by the unique assemblages of vernacular materials in any given location.

Daniel S. DeLuca is a project-based and concept-oriented artist, currently working on site-responsive artistic research projects involving cybernetics, systems, and artificial intelligence. Daniel is an artist and organizer, having created performance projects for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is the former director of Mobius Inc., an experimental artist group and artist-run center in Boston. Daniel has presented work nationally and internationally with Grace Exhibition Space (New York City), Defibrillator Gallery (Chicago), Living Arts (Tulsa), Le Lieu (Quebec City), Venice International performance Art Week (Venice, Italy), Bbeyond (Belfast), and in numerous public contexts. He is an MFA candidate and Distinguished Art Fellow in the graduate program in Sculpture at UMass Dartmouth.

The interplay between the conceptual architecture, subjects, site, in-situ resource utilization, and community engagement create a kind of feedback mechanism in the system of the work. Each component and design element feeds into the other which helps characterize the work as an indeterminate, contingent, and fugitive practice.

Untitled Business, 2022 Installation detail Dimensions variable

Squaring Theresa, 2021 Interactive sculpture made from found materials 10' x 1' x 3' 15

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Kelly Devitt STATEMENT

Anxiety morphs into many forms in the daily lives of our human bodies. As society progresses and technology grows, apprehension lurks. My goal as an artist is to start a larger conversation about mental health and put a visualization to how humans unintentionally communicate true feelings.

instants. My sculptures capture the moment when we as people feel most vulnerable, much like putting our nakedness on display.

Emotion is often shown through the disruptions that take place on the surface of the body. When we are scared, the hair on the back of our neck rises and goosebumps begin to form. When we are embarrassed, the blood rushes to the face and we grow hot to the touch. As humans, we try our hardest to contain these emotions so that we do not stick out, but our skin shows those around what we are not willing to share.

Kelly Devitt is a ceramic artist who primarily creates sculptures depicting emotions physically expressed through the human body. Born in Iowa, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Integrated Studio Arts from Iowa State University in 2017. Shortly after, Kelly continued to work as a Ceramic Research Assistant for the Department of Art and Visual Culture as well as the Computation + Construction Lab at Iowa State University. In 2019, Kelly moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts to continue her education pursuing her Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics. It is Kelly’s goal to work in education and participate in residencies around the Midwest region of the U.S.

I create ceramic sculpture that imitates skin, but as a whole, holds an ambiguous yet familiar shape. These pieces have individual personalities that reflect on moments of human emotions and how our bodies react in those overwhelming

On the Mend, 2022 Ceramic, silicone, medical sutures 35" x 24" x 24"

BIOGRAPHY

Falter, 2022 Ceramic, silicone 28" x 24" x 24"

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Yurie Hayashi STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHY

My work is drawn from the painstaking scrutiny of models I create from cheap objects, fabrics, wood, etc. I find lying around in my studio. Often, brightly colored abstract shapes, patterns, and words represent the chaos of relentless information bombarding our everyday lives. A cacophony of colors, shapes, and visual puns reflect my perceptions on our discordant world.

Yurie Hayashi was born in Japan and grew up in a small countryside town. She first attended Osaka Gakuin University, then decided to major in Fine Arts in the United States, ultimately earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. Hayashi will earn her MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in May 2022.

Feast on My Brain, 2020 Oil on canvas 80" x 126"

Feast on My Brain (detail), 2020 Oil on canvas 80" x 126"

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Joseph Schairer STATEMENT

Recent explorations in my work have centered around themes of existentialism, and more specifically, the weight that has come with a realization that in an inherently purposeless universe, it is up to each person as an individual to find their own reasons to continue to exist. The “voids” in my work, often manifested as dark and lightless portals to an ambiguous nothingness, represent a personal battle with these thoughts. They represent an admittance that, much like the physical substance of the voids that I create, the answers to questions concerning “everything” that I find myself desperately pondering will never present themselves in an explicit way.

Although I have spent my lifetime being nearly paralyzed with fear that the responsibility of giving my existence a purpose lies with nobody but myself, I have recently taken a more optimistic approach to these thoughts. Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre has a quote verbalizing this idea, saying that: “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, Oblivion, 2020 Pastels, charcoal, paint, and steel on plywood 36" x 70" x 2"

he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.”

Perhaps the void doesn’t have to be terrifying. Perhaps it represents the freedom for a person to elevate themselves to levels far beyond those that could have been achieved by following a path laid out by anyone but themselves.

BIOGRAPHY

Joseph Schairer is a mixed media artist and sculptor based out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelor of Science in Studio Art with a Sculpture concentration from Southern Connecticut State University in 2019, and is currently working towards his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In his free time, Joe enjoys playing video games, consuming science fiction, and contemplating the nature of existence.

Crib/Coffin, 2022 Welded steel, canvas, copper wire, plywood, black velvet 12.5" x 24.5" x 7.5" 21

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Katy Rodden Walker STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHY

My work oscillates between macro and micro scales. I use diverse materials in making both object-oriented reflected forms, and experiential physical installation spaces. I use the familiar platform of the lens to both influence and attract the viewer and to manipulate and challenge their attention.

I apply the lens, lighting, projection, and various integrated technologies and materials as a departure point to frame and reflect upon the interdependencies between humans, technology, and the natural world, illuminating the depth and complexity of our systems and connections, from the cellular level to the collective whole.

Katy Rodden Walker is an interdisciplinary artist interested in exploring complex relationships and interconnectedness between humans and non-humans, challenging perceptions of boundaries between humans and the environment at a micro and macro scale. She uses various materials to blur boundaries and create connections within space, and to illuminate what is largely unseen. Katy earned her Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies with minor in Japanese, from Bates College. She studied Japanese language and cultural studies through the Associated Kyoto Program at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, where she also studied ceramics after class.

Currently, she is an MFA Candidate in Ceramics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Blooms, 2021-2022 Upcycled plastic, string, filament, electric motors, wood, lights, projection, sound 25' x 16' x 10'

Enmeshed, 2022 Clay slip, glue, cheese cloth, wire, string, lights 15' x 11' x 10' 23

24 Katrina Benner, Kelly Devitt, Daniel S. DeLuca

Katy Rodden Walker, Joseph Schairer, Elizabeth Peña-Alvarez, Kelly Devitt

26 Daniel S. DeLuca, Kelly Devitt, Katy Rodden Walker, Yurie Hayashi

Elizabeth Peña-Alvarez, Jordan Blankenship, Yurie Hayashi, Daniel S. DeLuca

Elizabeth Peña-Alvarez

Jordan Blankenship

Katrina Benner

Daniel S. DeLuca

Ceramics elizabethepena@gmail.com Instagram @elizabethesther401

Printmaking kbenner@risd.edu Instagram @artimislight

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2022 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION

Ceramics jordanbceramics@gmail.com Instagram @jordanbceramics jordanbceramics.com

Sculpture daniel@danielsdeluca.com Instagram @danielsdeluca danielsdeluca.com

Kelly Devitt

Joseph Schairer

Ceramics Devitt.kelly@gmail.com Instagram @Kelly.Devitt kellydevittceramics.com

Sculpture joseph.schairer@gmail.com Instagram @josephschairer.art josephschairer.art

Yurie Hayashi

Katy Rodden Walker

Painting yurie.h.1221@gmail.com Instagram @yurie.h.1221

Ceramics katyroddenwalker@gmail.com Instagram @katyroddenwalker katyroddenwalker.com

2022 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION

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2022 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION

College of Visual and Performing Arts University of Massachusetts Dartmouth March 30 — May 6, 2022

EDITORS

Jessica Fernandes Gomes Spencer Ladd Viera Levitt

PLANNING AND LOGISTICS

Jessica Fernandes Gomes Shingo Furukawa

GALLERY ASSISTANT

Azam Majooni

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Chris Diani Viera Levitt Jeff Smudde Student Archives

DESIGN

Michelle Bowers Evan Grant Ashley Miranda Samantha Scully Evelyn Youssef

UMass Dartmouth acknowledges the land that we occupy and on which we sit today as the traditional and ancestral home of the Wampanoag tribes, including: the Mashpee, Nauset, Nantucket, Pennacook, Pokanoket, Pocasset, Seaconke, and other indigenous nations of Southeast Massachusetts. Without them, we would not have access to this gathering and to this dialogue. We take this opportunity to thank and honor the original caretakers of this land.

THANK YOU

We would like to thank Associate Professor Michelle Bowers and her Graphic Design students for designing promotional materials, Paula Erenberg Medeiros for creating our online gallery website, and Dean Lawrence Jenkens for his ongoing support.

UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

College of Visual and Performing Arts UMass Dartmouth Star Store Campus 715 Purchase Street New Bedford, MA 02740 Viera Levitt, Gallery Director email: gallery@umassd.edu phone: 508 999 8555 CVPA at UMass Dartmouth is a proud partner of AHA! (Art, History, & Architecture) Night — New Bedford’s free Downtown cultural event and collaborative organization.

PRINTING

Mallard Printing ISBN: 978-1-733803649

Offering an art school experience within a four-year, research university setting, CVPA at UMass Dartmouth offers programs in Art + Design, Art History, Art Education, and Music.

CVPA courses are taught on two campuses: Paul Rudolph’s distinctive architecture of the main campus in Dartmouth, and the Star Store Campus in Downtown New Bedford.

umassd.edu/cvpa/galleries

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umassdartmouthgalleries

umassdcvpa

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Katy Rodden Walker, Katrina Benner