July 25 – August 23, 2008
An exhibition curated by James Manning
Featuring the art of Mike Farley, Cathleen Faubert, Georgie Friedman, Pete Froslie and Lizzy Martinez.
Presented at The New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University.
About Nascent:
Nascent featured the work of 2008 graduates of Boston area art schools.
This show came together very quickly in just a few short weeks in late spring 2008, and was indeed a bit of a needed break from the very involved string theories exhibition that I was working on at the same time. Each spring I take time to go and visit as many of the graduating student shows in the Boston area as I can. Of the dozen or so students exhibits (and perhaps 100 or more artists) I saw this time around, this group of five stood out as having a connection to me.
In contrast to the Stephen D. Paine scholarship exhibitions, I do not consider Nascent as a ‘best of’ Boston students but rather a group of artists whom I saw as all having a similar aesthetic sensibility. I also did not approach this as if it were a student exhibition, rather it was an exhibit of artists who just happened to also be graduating students.
In this case I was drawn to each artists sense of dark humor and play and their willingness to present something of an alternate twist to reality, where something subtle yet substantial was altered.
Thematically, the works of the five artists in this exhibit are loosely tied together by each artists own manipulations of the perceptions of reality; life forms re-imagined, new landscapes and histories envisioned.
As a long time supporter of student and ‘emerging’ artists, I believe it is especially important to support and encourage artists as they make the leap from student to life as a professional artist. Life as a student can be an isolating experience working within the same group withing an art school for several years. Exhibitions such as this one are an important step as it gives these artists a chance to show the very best of their student output to a new audience of peers that would have not have had the opportunity to see this work otherwise.
For me, one of the most exciting parts of being a curator is when I can let the artist play in the gallery space and create their own little worlds.
I really enjoy introducing artists who would not otherwise have met or had the opportunity to collaborate with each other.
Mike Farley (2008, BFA, New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University)
Farley explores how separate natural elements can be combined to create new life forms.
His work is informed by the natural world, organic structures, and biology.
Cathleen Faubert (2008, MFA, Museum School/Tufts University)
Faubert focuses on the intersection of hedonism, escapism, excess, the uncanny and the carnivalesque.
In her photographs she is seen floating above and crashing into mounds of cotton candy, frozen in time in a perfect moment of bliss.
Georgie Friedman (2008, MFA, Museum School/Tufts University)
Friedman creates an idealized, meditative environment by seamlessly integrating separate sky and water elements in her projected video installation.
Pete Froslie (2008, MFA, Massachusetts College of Art & Design)
In his work, Froslie explores diverse tangents, from alchemy to alternate histories and questions our common perceptions.
The life of John Wilks Booth is re-imagined and re-examined by his interactive, multimedia installation presented in Nascent.
Lizzy Martinez (2008 MFA, Boston University)
Martinez is a painter who has extensively studied the anatomy of cadavers.
In her work she is quite literally looking at her own ‘inner workings’ while creating a complicated personal mythology.
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