Works by graduating students Joseph Buehrer, Qina Chen, Ali Fisher, Julia LaBay and Rachelle Raymer-Gilbert are on display in UT’s BFA Thesis Exhibition 2012 in the Center for the Visual Arts Gallery on the University’s Toledo Museum of Art Campus.
The free, public exhibit can be seen from Monday, April 9, through Sunday, May 13. The opening reception will be held Friday, April 13, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Buehrer of Temperance, Mich., uses drawing, photography and digital media to create artwork to illustrate a fictional narrative titled “The Divine.” Authored by Buehrer, “The Divine” is a chronicle of a dystopian future, a world slowly recovering from an environmental disaster and ruled by a totalitarian government.
Chen, who is from Wuhan, China, is inspired by the collision and fusion of Asian and Western cultures. Within this multicultural context, Chen reflects on the emotional impact of her teenage years, creating digital paintings that possess surreal, dream-like qualities.
Fisher, a Division I collegiate runner from Lebanon, Ohio, creates artwork that combines drawing, printmaking, photography and digital technology to analytically explore the duality of control and chaos found in the athletic experience.
LaBay from Holland, Ohio, who works primarily with sculpture, revisits her personal history for inspiration. Rather than molding realistic portraits of past experiences, LaBay seeks to create metaphorical interpretations that serve the present.
Raymer-Gilbert, who is from Vallejo, Calif., studies the nature of motherhood, utilizing photography as her medium. In particular, she records moments and objects that symbolize the transformative nature of the mother-and-daughter relationship.
See UT’s BFA Thesis Exhibition 2012 Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information, visit the UT Department of Art at www.utoledo.edu/cvpa/art.
