Melanie Brewster, ‘24
School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents “New Ways of Doing Things” an exhibition of work by 10 students in the MFA Art Practice program, curated by Jacquelyn Strycker. Register here. The exhibition will be on view from Thursday, July 13th, through Monday, July 31st at the SVA Flatiron Gallery, 133/141 West 21st Street, New York City.
The show features work by Melanie Brewster, Dana Donaty, Elena Kalkova, Maria Markham, Grace McCoy, Josh Stein, Jerry Strohkorb, Valerie Vermuelen, Melissa Wheeler, and Antonia Wright. The artists question, challenge, resist and deconstruct hegemonic structures, offering us “New Ways of Doing Things.”
Melanie Brewster’s Rose Quartz Weighted Blanket critiques capitalist wellness practices with a paradoxical mix of both humor and sincerity. It offers us “both and.” Va
Dana Donaty’s Charmed disarms the viewer with a Seussical approach to the patriarchy.
Elena Kalkova reproduces chunks of concrete walls in Russia graffitied with anti-war messages in a silent scream against the grips of facism.
Maria Markham’s Ghost in the Machine (Fragmented Modernities), gives us a spaciotemporal grid that activates space and challenges notions of time as sequential. All of our systems are interconnected.
Grace McCoy’s altar queers The Profane and the Sacred.
Josh Stein transforms colored hot glues into 111 Gestures– a surrealist dream of manual moveable grammar.
Jerry Strohkorb’s paintings cry out against the dehumanization and inequity of the American healthcare system.
Valerie Vermuelen’s arched thin red line cutting through the black abyss offers us a portal to Hope.
Melissa Wheeler performs sympathetic magic in a post-Roe world through her pregnant clay vessels.
Antonia Wright’s And so with ends come beginnings is a metaphor for the dualities of ecstasy and anxiety of living in a paradise for ground-zero sea-level rise.
MFA Art Practice is a low-residency, interdisciplinary graduate program that has combined online and in-person learning for over 10 years. A carefully selected, small group of candidates comes together at our NYC campus for three successive, intensive summer residency periods. In the intervening fall and spring semesters, students engage in required, rich-media online coursework from all over the world. Participants combine personal narrative with critical theory to be active citizen artists.
MFA Art Practice aims to facilitate a global conversation about the arts. Ultimately, the program endeavors to foster an atmosphere of risk-taking and experimentation, and to create a community of artists and culture producers who look beyond a consensus driven approach to how we define what’s important in contemporary art.
The SVA Flatiron Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00am–6:00pm. In accordance with SVA COVID-19 protocols, in-person viewing is open to SVA students, faculty and staff. All visitors to the Flatiron Gallery must pre-register through an RSVP link no less than 48 hours prior to the selected event date and time. Masks are encouraged but not required.
School of Visual Arts has been a leader in the education of artists, designers and creative professionals for seven decades. With a faculty of distinguished working professionals, a dynamic curriculum and an emphasis on critical thinking, SVA is a catalyst for innovation and social responsibility. Comprising 7,000 students at its Manhattan campus and more than 41,000 alumni from 128 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. For information about the College’s 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, visit sva.edu.