MFA Thesis Exhibition – Nine Artists
January 15 – February 1, 2004
Tisch and Koppelman Galleries

Opening Reception: January 22, 2004
5:00 — 8:00pm

About the artists:
Elaine Bay


Sean Horton
Sean Horton’s humble paintings merge high Modernist Color-field strategies with a folk-art sense of pathos. The seemingly contradictory notions result in casual, self-deprecating and often humorous abstractions which are as charming as they are pitiful.

Micah Malone
It is my intent to explore the relationships among craft, ornament, labor, and commodity.

Amruta Patil
India, 3000 BC. Hastinapur was on the brink of the bloodiest war the land had seen. Kali Yug was about to begin. The earth would turn red with blood. Fathers would light the pyres of sons. Vultures would circle the sky like a dark rain cloud. But on that balmy summer afternoon, who could have guessed? Draupadi was alone in her chamber, combing out her hair. In the gaming hall, her five husbands were about to lose everything they ever had. Destiny waited for the roll of dice. 
 
Amruta Patil is a writer and artist. These images are part of her graphic novel, “Parva/The Epic”.

James Pintar
Taking cues from cinematic manipulation, domestic convention, design tropes, and narrative device, this exhibition includes large-scale paintings, sculpture, and Iris prints that explore and expose constructions of male identity, power, desire, and violence. Tentatively titled “1-800-RED-SUIT,” the show weaves ideas concerning patriarchy, competition, conquest, and victory into a metaphorical quilt or tapestry of a fictional life-cycle, one which both critiques and celebrates the act, or the history, of painting.

Daria Polichetti
The ongoing debate taking place in the field of contemporary genetics research is, in its essence, a debate over the effort to control our nature, and to liberate ourselves from all moral, natural, and perhaps one day, biological limits. The paradox inherent in this effort is that whether our imperfections have been identified or whether they are hidden – we are, all of us, lacking. And as we move closer towards our own ideal, those of us who live and breathe today will slowly fade – as none of us will ever measure up.

Daniel Rich
My recent paintings employ graphically translated representations of politically charged spaces and architecture. Political charge is designated by the subject’s real function in the world – its location, historical context, and the juxtaposition of the image with other seemingly related representations.

Jonathan Santos
Landscape/history paintings based on the contemporary site of the Battle of Lexington Green; the angles and compositions are the gaze of fallen or falling revolutionaries.

Lauren Warner
My paintings of mountains are inspired by indoor wall murals depicting the spectacle of nature found in resorts and other tourist destinations. The paintings are composed with National Park scenic overlooks in mind – planned vistas where viewers experience ideal panoramas. Invented these images of mountains or taken from Xeroxes of mountain photography, form an impossible vista – a twice-removed fantasy of nature unspoiled.


The Gallery serves as the host venue for the MFA-candidate thesis exhibition, the culminating experience for students enrolled in the joint program of Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.