Spring 2021 Senior Thesis Exhibitions

Flux Theory

Flux Theory
March 24- 28, 2021
  • Gregory Allen
  • Brandon Ashwell
  • Emma Cummins
  • Taylor Giordani
  • Jason Mills
  • Emily Scally
  • Casey Sherman

High Contrast Collective
April 2-6, 2021

Website: High Contrast Collective

 High Contrast Collective is a one-time-only showcase for the class of 2021 illustrators. Despite using different mediums and targeting our work towards a variety of markets, a unifier of this show is the level of contrast. Together we exhibit a vast usage and array of color, composition, value, and light. We hope this art resonates with you. Thank you for taking the time to view the culmination of all our hard work.

Julia Donigan,Sydney Rose Gauthier, James Goodwin Jr., Michaela Lu, Taylor Nevins, Vicky Ortega, AJ Principato, Anne Russell, Samuel Swedberg, Katherine Wojcik

the nature of things
April 12-16, 2021
Montserrat Gallery

Website: https://thenatureofthings2021.com/

"the nature of things" investigates transient states of human experience. Through interaction and expression with a variety of materials and concepts, the artists demonstrate their own unique perspective of our relationships with the ephemeral whether they be objects, ideas, people, or memories. 
  • Chris Carchipulla
  • Jack DeBusk
  • Adam Klebon 
  • Maeve Lally
  • Lexi Palmberg
  • Thomas Rutigliano
  • Cameron Silva
  • Holden Willard

After the Ground & Before the Sky
April 12-16, 2021
Schlosberg Gallery
 
The artists in this exhibition present their personal reactions to how humans choose to thrive in the organic world, while also relating to spiritual aspects as well. The work exhibited presents an exploration in bridging the spiritual and natural world. The work also expresses the bridge between humans and nature; how we are closer to it than it seems.
  • Josh Bonifaz
  • Ally Ferdinand
  • Dean Mariowtiz
  • Jess Musso

Fur, Feathers, and Flippers

April 12-16, 2021
301 Gallery

Fidencio Dapretta is a fine art photographer from Houston, Texas currently working on his BFA in photography, video, and film at Montserrat College of Art. He works with the visual arts to study and document the lives of animals, both in nature and in captivity, through the lens and uses the camera to bring people closer to wildlife as a reminder that we are not the only species that call Earth home. By documenting wildlife, he hopes to get viewers lost in the beauty of nature and improve the relationship with the natural world as well as bring awareness to wildlife conservation efforts.
 
"The most important thing I’ve learned from photographing animals is that having patience is the key to most things in life. Having the patience and willingness to go out and wait for a picture that can only be planned partially and mostly revolves around what the animal decides to do that day, makes every trip I take an adventure full of unexpected surprises and encounters. When I view my photos after a shoot, I realize it’s the love and interest I have for animals that keeps me determined to go out and get these images. The video, A Walk In The Sanctuary, is one of my many walks through the woods showing what it’s like to be in my place and what I see. The video is surrounded by a series of images of the wildlife one might be lucky enough to encounter. The series is dedicated to the species of New England. Using focal length, aperture, and composition to express the animals in a way so that viewers can leave with a better appreciation for the creatures we share this region with."
 
Alexis Wehler is a digital photographer who specializes in landscape, portrait, and animal photography. Her landscapes are taken in wild settings that reminisce on what the world used to be. Wehler also works in mediums such as graphic design, painting, sculpture, and printmaking to bring awareness to the Endangered Species List. Her work includes a depiction of the animal and gives a description on how they can help save a species. Wehler’s influences include Nigel Barker, Paul Nicklen, Andy Warhol, National Geographic, and the Endangered Species list.  Her inspiration for her work comes from her love of animals. To see the world getting treated so poorly and those who inhabit it influence Wehler to reach out and learn, and help others to learn from her artwork. She continues to explore these topics in her field of study today.

Fidencio Dapretta
Alexis Wehler

DEAD AIR

April 21 - 25, 2021

Website: https://www.deadair.live/

In broadcast media, Dead Air refers to the wasted airtime between programs. Our show emphasizes the way this concept has translated to our daily lives over the past year; heaps of space and potential, sacrificed for the common good. The act of compiling our work into an exhibition also challenges this idea, showing all that we have created amidst (and in spite of) the Dead Air.

MJ Terry - TaRYN E. CRANNELL - Kilian Gallagher - JENNA FRITZ - Seán McWilliams - Kyle R. Moran - Arthur Lauretano - Ian Norton - Nelson J. Castro - Samantha Urany - Anya Voshchullo - Ariana Gomez - Alexcis Ausanio-Moses

 

 


Eidolon
A Senior Thesis Exhibition

April 21-25, 2021
Schlosberg Gallery

During these uncertain times, Rebecca, Laurel, Celeste, and Mollie respond visually in the way they create compelling works of art. Each body of work involves introspection, analysis, and investigation as images develop individually and one from the other. 

The process of introspection takes place in solitude and manifests onto paper, canvas, tile, and wood. The word “Eidolon” captures the common thread among these works, as each artist addresses its meaning in a different and compelling way. Eidolon means “idealized person or thing”, or “Specter or phantom”. Although each artist has their own language of expression, each addresses these words in some capacity. 

  • Laurel Driskill
  • Celeste Huezo
  • Rebecca Nagle
  • Mollie Ralston 

Experimentations
A Senior Thesis Exhibition

April 21-25, 2021
Paul Scott Library

Experimentation, meaning a scientific process used to determine something. In this day and age we are all using Experimentation to control an uncontrollable life situation. Everyone reflecting on our pandemic ridden lives are using their time to experiment with different controlled subjects, like hair, clothes, food, and especially for us, art.

Within this group of artists each one expresses the idea of experimentation in different forms. In these works each artist uses different life experiences as inspiration for their work. Emerald Coviello uses mirrors and paintings to reflect an inner self and experiments with the view of self. Leislie Dami uses photography to explore the idea of treasure through items left behind. BJ Harris uses audio, photography, writing, and painting to explore gender identity and how to express it. Each artist has work over the year collecting information, living, and expressing each experiment. Each planning to explore these ideas and continue to reflect on these ideas in the future.

  • Emerald Coviello
  • Leslie Dami
  • BJ Harris

Up-close // Transparent
A Senior Thesis Exhibition

April 25 - May 16, 2021
Salem Ink
201 Derby St
Salem, MA 01970

Reception: April 29, 2021

 

Our work explores themes such as transparency, permanence, and our relationships with ourselves and nature. In the last year, we all have had plenty of time to reflect on ourselves and our relationships. This show is a culmination of the discoveries we have made during this extended time of retrospection. We all have different ways of working and we’ve taken different paths in our art and our lives but we are all intersecting in this show.

Gretchen Darche is a multimedia artist who is interested in using stained glass and mirrors to represent ideas like transparency, reflections, and the relationship between how we see ourselves and how others see us, and the role that tattoos can have in dictating our self-image. She uses traditional tattoo motifs as well as traditional and original flash designs in her work. The mirrors in her work allow the viewer to see themselves as part of the artwork, and the refractions and shadows of the glass can allow the viewer to “wear” the glass tattoos. 

Gretchen is from northern Rhode Island. She uses many different materials and mediums in her sculpture work. She will be graduating from Montserrat College of Art in May 2021 with a concentration in sculpture and an art history minor.

Jace Ricci is a printmaker who focuses on etching. He works to capture the feeling of both the calm and hitched breath of nature. His work explores the ever so subtle presence of nature. He uses copper plate etching as his main medium and works with the delicacy of line. His smaller works allow the viewer to be able to approach the piece closer up and appreciate the delicate details within the pieces.

Jace is from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. His etching work focuses on smaller linework. He will be graduating from Montserrat College of Art in May 2021, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in printmaking.

Genevieve Rumrill is a photographer whose current work is based around journal entries she made during the beginning of the pandemic to about 6 months in. Within the work, she is exploring the need for intimacy and togetherness while being isolated in a small town having very minimal interaction with anyone outside of immediate family. The work consists of a mix between photography, collage, and bookmaking. She strongly encourages viewers to flip through the pages of the book with hopes that feelings similar to her own are evoked when it's read. 

Genevieve is from Union, Connecticut. Her photography work focuses mainly on Intimacy and our connection to nature. She will be graduating from Montserrat College of Art in May of 2021 with a concentration in Photography, Video, and Film.

Amanda Seaman is a printmaker who specializes in many different forms of printmaking. Throughout her seminar experience, she has experimented with many different printmaking methods. This includes monoprinting, lithography, etching, screen printing and woodblock relief. She has also been experimenting with ballpoint pen drawing, gouache paintings and found objects. Her whole life, Amanda has been inspired by nature especially when it finds its way back after being destroyed by human-made things. This intrigue is what got her into urban exploring in the first place and why she is especially interested in using abandoned building/overgrown nature photography as a reference for her art. Amanda also includes some fantasy based subjects within her work that may remind the viewers of an enchanted forest. She wants her art to be kind of like an escape from reality or a portal into another world. 

Amanda is from Long Island, New York and is currently living in Salem, Massachusetts. She will be graduating from Montserrat College of Art in May 2021 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a concentration in printmaking.

Noises Keys Make
A Senior Thesis Exhibition
May 10-16, 2021
Founders' Gallery
 
The exhibition Noises Keys Make contains work from Painters Sarah Gilberg and Emily Davis. Anything else expressed about a painting through words is irreducibly subjective.
Emily Davis works in digital assemblage and is a painter who takes digital appropriation into representational paintings.
 
Sarah Gilberg is a New England based painter who works with memory.
 
"I have been exploring concepts of what is important to me regarding personal development. I am trying to convey the feeling of comfort and growth through my pieces in a way that the viewer can experience for themselves. In certain pieces I have removed the figures present in order to give the viewer the sense of being in the landscape alone, or with whoever they choose to imagine to amplify the feeling of comfort/contentment. The locations I choose to paint are ones I visited frequently with family or alone. I rely heavily on memory while I paint. This semester I have been working with more muted palettes to create more of a hazy memory-like feel."
5KPH
May 3-21, 2021
301 & Frame 301 Gallery
 

Interiors/Exteriors Class
with Liz Nofziger

  • Coco Haseltine
  • Kelly McDannald
  • Daniela Serratore
  • Cam Silva
  • Kerrigan Upton

5KPH is built from our collective frustration with the continued gun violence in the United States. As of April 30, 2021 there have been 14,112 gun violence deaths in the United States in 2021 to date. This averages to 117 deaths per day, or 5 people killed per hour.

Fifty-six wood and plaster representations of imagined guns form a giant automatic weapon in the left storefront window. Orange vinyl ammunition emerges from the barrel, crosses the vestibule, and connects to a speech bubble eruption in the second storefront window. This form consists of a mass of tally marks that offer a snapshot of the deaths due to gun violence as of Friday, April 30, 2021.

Five times per hour — or every 12 minutes — this window will be animated by light and a force of air creating movement linked to the statistics. Beyond the resonant action performed by the work itself, this window will evolve each day. In a performative gesture the artists will add the inevitable new tally marks over the run of the show as the number of deaths increase each day. The statistics referenced factor in all deaths by gun violence, and come from: https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/