Supported by the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, and the College of Arts and Sciences

COVER: Chris Oliver, Accretion With Carport, 2004–05, wood, 5’x10’x18’

APRIL 29 THROUGH MAY 15, 2 0 0 5UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY

MASTER OF FINE ARTS THESIS EXHIBITION

MFA

We are pleased to present the work ofAmanda Ervin, Chris Oliver, Matthew

Peebles, Ryan T. Parr, Colleen A. Quinn,Kenneth Ragsdale, Sergio Sericolo, MattTiernan, and Val Tran, Master of Fine Artsdegree candidates for the spring semester2005. A tradition since 1983, the M.F.A. exhi-bition is a wonderful opportunity for theUniversity Art Museum to partner with theFine Arts Department. It also represents asignificant opportunity for students to exhibitwork they have created during the course oftheir studies in a professional museum set-ting, and to share those efforts with the aca-demic community, alumni, and audiences ofthe Capital Region.

We are very grateful to the Office ofthe President, the Office of the Provost, andthe College of Arts and Sciences for theirsupport of the exhibition and this publication,as well as to members of the faculty and tothe museum staff for their hard work anddedication throughout the exhibition process.

JoAnne CarsonChair, Fine Arts Department

Janet RikerDirector, University Art Museum

Kenneth Ragsdale

Whenever I attempt to remember the details of an event in which I waspersonally involved, the length of time between the doing and theremembering influences the closeness of the relationship between theactual and the fantastic.

What I think I remember is in a constant state of flux, the organi-zation and arrangement of particulars controlled and altered by everynew experience, to the point where even the mundane can bereformed into the epic.

All of my work is made with the intent to examine what remains ofthe actual, to reveal the process of alteration, and to explore the possi-bilities of the fantastic.

I look back at my life through the maze of my memories with nos-talgia, but without sentimentality, in order to realize the uncertaintywithin the familiar.

Every remembrance is a reinvention, and reality is not fixed, but inprocess.

Sergio Sericolo

My paintings, drawings, and digital prints pay a certain attention toSurrealism, but my work is not an expression of the subconscious.Rather, it reveals my own hyper-consciousness.

I draw into texts and found images (primarily from nature), allow-ing their original purpose and design to inform my process. Theseimages trigger memories; inorganic and anatomical elements are incor-porated into abstract landscapes, and forms are suggested throughthe running and splattering of paint.

An increased self-awareness emerges as I struggle to find con-nections between what I can and can’t control, between the real andthe imaginary, the natural and artificial.

Matt Tiernan

This work comes out of a state of synethesia. Sound can have shape,color, and literal mass or void. Music helps, but it is the sound thatturns the key, that makes the walls disappear. When working directlywith sound, I want to direct its power towards its visual component,creating ambient environments and visual thermodynamics.

Painting for me is not a literal depiction of sound. Color can makea sound, which will in turn suggest shapes and composition. It canalso work in the other direction. My paintings are the result of a sedi-mentary series of layers and sequences. In a sound piece or painting, Iam interested in the temporal aspects of experience––constant andpermanent change. Painting and sound move through, and are layeredin, time.

Amanda Ervin

Often, I wake up at 9am. I climb out from under the warmth of mydown comforter, never thinking what it would be like to wake up at 6,to work an intolerable job. Worse would be to not have slept at all,due to stress, mental disorder, or fear for safety—a fate that someendure as I take advantage of social affiliations and privileges.

Using interactive video, robotic photographs, synaptic thoughts,and images of myself performing autonomous actions, I simultane-ously disassemble and examine how complacency is manifested inmy own autonomous social interactions. Digitally manipulated con-versations in which I record my own voice in multiple personas formthe auditory subtext of my work. On the surface these conversationssound deeply personal but upon extended listening, they reveal noth-ing. The robotic, videogame quality of the dialogue suggests aninsurmountable marginalization of authentic feeling. My motivation todismantle and reveal the falsehoods in this marginalization under-scores the need to dismantle larger power structures that foster com-placency, suppress desire, and trivialize dissent.

Chris Oliver

My work combines a spontaneous building process with an interest inarchitecture. Buildings and groups of buildings are materializations ofhuman decisions, coupled with natural cycles of growth and decay.A red farmhouse becomes a water-bottling facility, and a three-storystainless-steel tank is added. As the business grows, an enormoussteel building, also red, is added, which now dwarfs the originalcrumbling structure. A uniform row of staunch 1950s brick ranchhouses with their quiet, low hip roofs lies within a sprawl of 1850sVictorians in various stages of decay.

The endless supply of architectural instances such asthese––how they look, how they function, and what they mean––per-meates my work. My sculptures evolve much as architectureevolves, always in response to the purpose of the moment andalways in response to what is already there.

Matthew Peebles

My self-portraits act as grotesque effigies to my anxieties, insecuri-ties, and vices. Quirky and awkward, beautiful in their artlessness, mywork makes light of these darker issues. Loosely autobiographical,my work transcends my own self-involved and destructive reality.Using abnormal scale, distorted anatomy, and specific suggestions ofform, color, and texture, I twist these fears and shortcomings into auniversal fiction.

I sculpt with paper because of its economical and malleablenature. I have discovered that in many ways I have more control withpaper than with other sculptural media. There are no molds, no fir-ings, or other variables to interfere with the finished product. Thislevel of control in my process of creation makes up for the lack ofcontrol in my own life.

Ryan T. Parr

Through my series of imagined landscapes, I weave painting, draw-ing, animation, and photography into fantastic visions informed bythe rolling countryside of my native Iowa and my annual visits toSpain. Islands float in space and serve as both palaces and prisons.

My work is continually in flux. I leave single compositions onthe wall of my studio for a month, or sometimes for years. Like theactual landscapes from which they are derived, my imagined land-scapes await future development.

Colleen A. Quinn

Subconscious bursts of color and form lead me to alternativeabstractions. The exploration of a new bliss––large or small––startson paper. Automatically my pursuit becomes a system with guide-lines and direction. Aerial views of the earth’s surface, cosmic gar-dens, and the stars above––these angelic nothings emerge intoimagined everythings. Obsessive repetitions and vibrant explosionsof lines, waves, curves, dots, webs, and squares in jellyroll pen andSharpie marker erupt into metallic red, tropical yellow, pool blue, andkiwi green acrylic paint. These are the tangible tools that lead to mytranslucent truths.

Val Tran

My paintings are built out of bits of painted paper and armies of pushpins. This process stemmed from my frustration with the imposedboundaries of conventional painting. I quickly became enthusiasticand obsessed by this new means of artistic exploration.

I create landscapes from memory in which fleeting moments areembedded in the painted surface through methodical means.

Unexpected use of color, texture, and pattern reinforces myinterest in expanding the definition of what constitutes a painted sur-face and how it can be constructed.

1. Amanda ErvinFetishize My Politics, 2005Paper, electronics andsound, dimensions variable

2. Kenneth RagsdaleWhirligig, 2005Charcoal on paper53" x 41"

3. Sergio SericoloOphelia, 2005Oil on canvas36” x 48”

4. Val TranHer Dream, 2004Mixed media16’ x 8’

5. Chris OliverAccretion With Carport,2004–05Wood5' x 10' x 18'

6. Ryan T. ParrEskailera, 2003-05Gesso, ink, oil on canvas51” x 51”

7. Matt TiernanUntitled, 2005Oil and mixed media on canvas8’ x 10’

8. Mathew PeeblesEveryday Problems, 2003–04Tissue paper, paper, glue,cardboard, polystyrene,Wire28” x 40” x 22”

9. Colleen A. QuinnHow do you get there from here, 2005Acrylic paint, Sharpiemarker on vellum10’ x 30’

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