That was the inspiration for Dunne (Wakefiedl, R.I.) with his disturbing yet humorous pieces in the Senior Seminar exhibition featuring students in studio arts Professor Annu Palakunnathu Matthew’s art class. The exhibition is on display at the One Way Gallery, 140 Boon St., in Narragansett.
The Senior Seminar class is a capstone experience in the studio arts program. After experimenting in various media in their sophomore and junior years, the students initiate their own projects and focus on that one cohesive project, for an entire semester. Students exchange critical perspectives on the work with each other, participating faculty and visiting artists. As they prepare to work in the real world, they also interacted with professionals in the field.
According to Matthew, this year’s class was male-dominated, with themes ranging from zombies to cloning. North Kingstown’s Randell Stevenson explored the fine line between humor and the grotesque with his commemorative zombie war plates, while Foster’s Nick McKnight used painterly abstractions as internalized reflections of the natural world.
Through found footage, sound and sculpture, Westerly’s Chad Amos Self built on the theme of child development and the search for perfecting wisdom. Coventry’s Dan Tacey’s paper creatures have a child-like animated quality to them, alluding to a corrupted child’s perspective of substance abuse.
Through exploration of the line between the abstract and the actual image, Catrin Richards’ (Bedwas, Wales) paintings aim to disorientate the viewer from the portrayed object, thus, allowing the viewer to re-evaluate their previously held associations of objects they encounter every day. Samuel Morrissey’s (Wakefield) photographs of the Rhode Island coastline employ the use of selective focus to alter the reality of the landscape, while Rebecca Wood (Richmond) combine photography and painting creating images that exist between the real and unreal.
The exhibition runs until Sunday, Dec. 19 at One Way Gallery. For more information, call 401.284.4390 or email Matthew at 18percent@uri.edu.