University at Buffalo (UB)
April 7–April 30, 2011
Adrian Bertolone, Bradley Phillips, Christopher Fox, Eduardo Velazquez, Liz Rywelski, Mary Johnson, Necole Zayatz, and Ripley Whiteside.
First Year MFA show
The exhibition features the artwork of Adrian Bertolone, Bradley Phillips, Christopher Fox, Eduardo Velazquez, Liz Rywelski, Mary Johnson, Necole Zayatz, and Ripley Whiteside. This dynamic exhibition will include a variety of mediums and styles including live music, performance, printmaking, video, painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography.
Adrian Bertolone received a BFA in Printmaking from the Cleveland Institute of Art while also maintaining a steady practice of audio/video work. In addition to exhibiting prints, drawings, and videos in galleries and public spaces, the artist has been performing experimental audio in bands/acts and solo for over 10 years in Cleveland and around the USA. www.babanaseatgirl.com
Bradley Phillips received his undergraduate degree from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. His work explores visual representations of cognitive processes. These liminal spaces expose a psychological interstice that provides insight into ontological understanding. www.bradley-phillips.com
Christopher Fox received his BFA in Graphic Design from Grand Valley State University in 2001. He is a professional designer and has been a full-time professor for four years, teaching graphic design at the undergraduate level. In 2008, he founded Not Design, a collaborative design and letterpress studio in Grand Rapids Michigan. His work focuses on site-specific installation, human-scale interaction, and typographical manipulation aimed at engaging audiences through educational structures.
Eduardo Velazquez is a Caribbean painter and performance artist whose work deconstructs established identities and gender roles through the medium of paint, photography, body, and video. He utilizes painting and performance as tools to investigate how desire becomes manifest in one's body, identity, and personal postcolonial history. Influenced by the tradition of camp imagery, Velazquez uses intentional homoeroticism to present an intimate portrait of gender performance. He contributes to different queer activist movements in New York City and has spoken at Jacob Riis Foundation, Museum of Queer History, and El Museo del Barrio.
Liz Rywelski is a tactical and conceptual artist whose work encompasses both private and public performances, haul shopping, videos, drawing, and photography. During her first year at UB, Liz has become exponentially fascinated by game studies discourse surrounding concepts of the spoil-sport, ruleset. and critical play. In her practice, Rywelski conducts a sort of fieldwork as she re-skins, un-plays, and subverts the role of a consumer. Liz Rywelski has shown her work internationally and is an alumna of Philadelphia’s independent art collectives Space 1026 and P.I.FA.S. She received her B.F.A in Drawing at Moore College of Art and Design. www.lizrywelski.com
Mary Johnson, originally from Pittsburgh, lives and works in the Buffalo area. She studied abroad in Italy and graduated with her BA from Gordon College in 2008. Her work investigates the fragmentation of memory, and the absence of it -forgetting- and uses objects as characters for points of departure.
Necole Zayatz has shown her single-channel video work nationally including the Burchfield Penney in Buffalo, NY, and internationally including The European Media Arts Festival. Currently, in her first year at the University at Buffalo, she is concentrating on integrating the use of physical computing practices with other studio-based practices to better enhance viewer experience through participation.
Ripley Whiteside graduated with a BFA in drawing and painting from UNC-Chapel Hill. Anchored by a privately developed definition of nature, his work is situated at the confluence of depiction and natural history. www.ripleywhiteside.com