Art exhibit more strange than standard

At the first-year MFA exhibition’s opening reception on Saturday, the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery filled with many things typical to a gallery party­­—an open bar, a smattering of hipsters, and many talented artists.

However, the art featured in the show—which runs through April 17—is anything but typical. Sculptures made out of mud, indoor quarries, a spinning pumpkin, and a woman in full 18th-century dress rolling out wallpaper are all part of the work that the 27 students present, filling the walls of the gallery with a vibrant display of talent.

The Master of Fine Arts students offer a diverse body of work. In one room, the viewer can encounter School of the Arts student Emily Henretta’s, “Remainder Space,” a collection of recycled printing paper forming what seems to be either an altar or a miniature city. Viewers can then turn around to come face to face with School of the Arts student Brie Ruais’s “27 Pots as Years,” a stack of potted plants that appear to teeter precariously on their base, climbing up to the ceiling.

The show somehow manages to cram the gallery with an eclectic array of pieces without straying into carnival-like crowdedness. Swimming in a sea of impressive work, gallery visitors don’t feel like they are in the Times Square of contemporary art, but are instead pleasantly overwhelmed, their eyes fighting to take it all in at once.

School of the Arts student Nick Paparone’s comical “Four Seasons”—this is where the spinning pumpkin comes in—could be considered a metaphor for the enjoyable insanity of the MFA show. His sculpture features a collection of tchotchkes that call to mind each season—a snowman, a tree in bloom, a sunbathing girl. Paparone feels that the manipulation of traditional themes is “a right of passage for every artist, like making out with somebody for the first time, or egging a house,” and so he turns the four seasons into an expression of “consumption and taste.” He does so with gusto—the snowman is taken apart and incorrectly reassembled, and the items are vomit-covered. It is a sculpture some students could look at for hours without becoming uninterested and without a slight smile ever fading from their faces.

The word “fresh” is often overused when describing new talent, but the MFA students’ works have a crisp, refreshing vibe. These artists are not jaded, and this attitude filters through in their creative expressions. As a result, their work is fun to experience. When asked how the show was going, School of the Arts student Christopher Jehly smiled and gestured to his pieces, impressive oil paintings depicting roadkill and reanimation. “It’s just great to be surrounded by people who are as excited [about the artwork] as you are,” he said.