Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support the IDS in College Media Madness! Donate here March 24 - April 8.
Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

IU Art Museum welcomes another round of MFA thesis exhibits

MFA and BFA thesis shows began last week at the Grunwald Gallery, but the fine arts school’s space is not the only venue for this year’s exhibits.

The IU Art Museum will open an exhibit featuring its first round of MFA artists this Wednesday. Among the artists in the first round of the show on display from Wednesday to April 12 is painter Joseph Kameen.

Kameen said his work attempts to rephrase larger philosophical questions in a visual context.

“Like a translator might take artistic license in order to most clearly express an ancient idea to contemporary audiences, I filter these ideas through an aesthetic and an imagination based on science fiction, fantasy, video games and the internet, making them personally accessible and relevant,” ?Kameen said.

The sources of inspiration for these pieces, Kameen said, are usually the practical world: news aggregation sites, encyclopedias, podcasts and journals, as well as primary philosophical texts.

His work, he added, relies heavily on allegory metaphor as well as digital ?imagery and animation.

This is in contrast to earlier works, which drew from more Romantic styles of painting.

“In an attempt to push my painting’s capacity for potential meaning, the images slowly became more complicated and dense, which brought with it a new, more vibrant color sensibility,” ?Kameen said.

He said the most important development in his art is gaining separation from critique and expectation.

“It seems we can never be ‘free’ of influence, but I feel I have grown more personally convinced about what I want from a work of art and the ways it can be achieved,” Kameen said. “I have accepted that these ideas may and must clash with those of the market or my superiors.”

The second round of artists will display its thesis exhibits at IU Art Museum from April 15 to 26.

Sculptor Paige Mostowy’s pieces will be part of this ?second show.

Mostowy said in an email the sculptures in her thesis are made up of discarded domestic objects that reflect misremembered instances or relationships.

“Nostalgia and loss are deeply rooted within the work by way of abrupt tears and breaks in furniture and knick knacks, furthering the perspectival shifts that occur within a family unit,” Mostowy said. “Archival video and audio create quick glimpses of instances, reinterpreting the way memory and perspective slips over time.”

The pieces are deeply rooted, Mostowy said, in the theme of loss and trauma within the home.

“It was still deeply rooted within the themes of ?perspective and memory, yet by using home video footage and current audio recordings to recreate literal conversations and events within my personal history, the work was hard for others to interact with,” Mostowy said.

Art, Mostowy said, is a good format through which other worldviews can merge with one’s own.

“I believe it is important for people to both express their own beliefs and interact with perspectives different from their own,” Mostowy said. “Creative practice gives me a sense of place and an access point to a conversation driven community.”

Kameen said he sees art as a way to free oneself.

“The act of personal creation, if allowed to be, can be one of the most free, liberating and agency-confirming actions possible,” Kameen said. “It is intensely human.”

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe