Graduate students’ artwork will be on display in the Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibit and the Alt+Shift Exhibit until March 22.

The two exhibits showcase the work of two graduating MFA students and current MFA students together for the first time in the program’s history. The exhibits opened March 4 and will remain open and free to the public in the Center for Art and Theatre.

There will be an artist reception on Thursday, March 14 in the gallery from 5-7 p.m. The artists will be able to meet with the public and discuss their art in more detail during this event.

Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition

The work shown in the MFA exhibition is the culminations of the effort students have put in over the past three years.

“It’s essentially the complete visualization of their research and hard work,” Marc Mitchell, gallery director and assistant professor at GSU, said.

The graduating students also go through a thesis defense on March 11 and 12 where they are asked questions regarding their work and research.

The artists each have a focus and perform extensive research on that focus to better visualize it for viewers.

“It became clear to me that younger people don’t have much to do with nature now, I began to feel a sense of urgency to tell people about it,” Virginia Russell, graduating MFA student at GSU, said.

Virginia’s exhibit “Earthbound” focuses on combining functional, utilitarian objects such as plates and bowls with aspects of nature.

“My wish is that people will use the things that I make and consider what they stand for in nature,” Russell said.

“Shadowlands” is the title of the second graduating student’s, Kimberly Riner, work.

“My work started with the deaths of my mother and my brother, I did research into different cultures’ grieving patterns and used that information combined with my own experience to come up with my imagery,” Riner said.

“It’s almost surreal to have my work on display, all my work over the past three years is up, all of this has me excited for the future of my art,” Riner said.

Alt+Shift Exhibition

The Alt+Shift exhibit shows the work of first and second year MFA students, whereas the MFA Thesis Exhibition is showing artists who have completed their work and research, Mitchell said.

“I am seeing what I can do with a minimum of materials and colors and using a very thoughtful, detail oriented method” Scott Foxx, current MFA student at GSU, said.

“It’s always a pleasure to see my work displayed in a professional space. Where something hangs creates a particular context that informs how the work is read,” Foxx said.

The majority of the current MFA class has their work on display at the exhibition.

Mitchell said, “We really wanted to show the full spectrum of creativity we have in the MFA program at GSU. All of our students are researching vastly different things and it’s great to see them get the spotlight for their work.”