M.F.A. candidates draw inspiration from history, global perspectives
"The second of four final MFA showcases by the UCLA department of art will take place Thursday through April 12 at the New Wight Gallery in the Broad Art Center. Presented works will include frescos of abandoned buildings, interdisciplinary compilations and photographs examining auto repair shops in the United States and within former Soviet countries.
Graduate student Brannon Rockwell-Charland will showcase a variety of artistic pieces to relate black history and feminism to her personal life for her exhibit in the MFA showcase. (Anirudh Keni/Daily Bruin)
Graduate students Amedeo Polazzo, Brannon Rockwell-Charland and Aleksey Kondratyev will have their work highlighted in the showcase. Hanna Hur and William Wasserman’s works will also be displayed, but the former declined to comment and the latter did not respond to requests for an interview.
Amedeo Polazzo
The decay of abandoned buildings inspired Polazzo’s art.
The graduate student said he plans to present a combination of frescos and wall paintings in the showcase. His works, all untitled, feature places resembling suburbs, trailer parks or abandoned construction sites found in Central America or Southern Europe, he said.
Brannon Rockwell-Charland
Rockwell-Charland centers her artwork around family history and storytelling.
The graduate student plans to showcase an assortment of photographs, drawings, sculptures and personal documents. She said her artwork examines the roots of black history and feminism, relating them to her own life as a black woman.
Aleksey Kondratyev
Photographer Kondratyev initially traveled to Azerbaijan with the aim of capturing how countries around the Caspian Sea are connected to Southern California’s economy.
But he found the concept difficult to illustrate photographically, so instead, the graduate student shifted gears toward comparing auto repair shops between different post-Soviet countries and the United States. Kondratyev plans to showcase his ongoing project as a set of 16 framed photographs, with the four largest images focusing on auto repair workers. The other photographs are fragments of landscapes from the places he visited, such as the Caucasus Mountains."— Polina Cherezova, Apr. 2, 2019
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
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