UNH Today

The Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition includes candidates Paddy Aidan, Tatiana Makarova, and Ron Prigat. A gallery talk for the Master of Fine Art candidates will take place, Wednesday, April 25, 12:10-1:00 p.m. The Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition includes pieces from graduating BA students; Molly Anderson, Samantha Applegate, Beatrice Couser, Rachel Goyette, Kaiwen Li, Sebastian Mandino, Lauren Maurice, Jiacheng Xu, and Wenjie Xu. Bodies of work from Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates; Samantha Elsaesser, Hannah Lacey, Patricia Leonard, Cierra Vigue, and Emily Wernig will also be on exhibit. The opening reception will take place Friday, April 13, 6:00-8:00 p.m. The Museum of Art is free and open to the public.

Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition

Representing the culmination of their two-year program as candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the Department of Art and Art History, UNH; Paddy Aidan, Tatiana Makarova, and Ron Prigat works will be on display in the Carter Gallery of the Museum of Art.

Paddy Aidan, Kalamazoo, Michigan, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Western Michigan University in Painting and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Oxbow School of Art before pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of New Hampshire. Her graduate work builds on the tradition of the human figure and domestic interiors, embracing the balance between comfortable and uncomfortable. It explores the emotional potency of presence, absence, and isolation with figures, color, pattern and the use of space. Aidan works with the idea of creating an optical, emotional, and auditory impression of a space before the viewer may interpret the piece.

Image credit: Paddy Aidan, Resolution/Solution, 2018, oil on canvas, 12” x 12”

Tatiana Makarova, Moscow, Russia, studied painting as a teenager in Moscow, earning a Folk Russian Art degree with a focus in Russian Iconography.  She earned a bachelor’s and post-bachelor’s degree concentrating in Graphic Arts at the Moscow State Straganov Academy, Russia, before coming to New Hampshire to pursue her Master of Fine Arts.  Makarova’s work is an attempt to piece together memories of previous experiences to recreate the concept of home.  She works through utilizing luminosity and color to assemble experiences, noting that her graduate work is a representation of her journey of internal reflection.

Image credit: Tatiana Makarova, The Hiding, 2017, oil on canvas, 36" x 36"

Ron Prigat, Jerusalem, Israel, studied at the Jerusalem Studio School of Drawing and Painting followed by five summers painting the landscapes of the Italian countryside.  His work stems from an admixture of observing life, the influence of painterly exemplars, and the goings on of his own mind. Prigat’s painting is an act of self-substantiation and clarification, an attempt to be fully present in a moment, and receptive to the phenomenon of light. He states “My paintings are poetry in the essence of an individual infused into my work.” Following graduation, Prigat will be attending a summer residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.

 
Image credit: Ron Prigat, Still Life with Skull, monotype, 2017, 11.8” x 11.8”

Senior Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition

The Bachelor of Arts program prepares students for the commercial art field and provides them with a strong background in fine arts and a number of vocational opportunities for entrance to graduate school.  The exhibit features one work from graduating students; Molly Anderson, Samantha Applegate, Beatrice Couser, Rachel Goyette, Kaiwen Li, Sebastian Mandino, Lauren Maurice, Jiacheng Xu, and Wenjie Xu, representing concentrations in drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts curriculum provides training for students who plan to enter professional graduate school or pursue careers as professional artists.  The Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition features works from five candidates who draw upon their own experiences and interests to develop a body of work to present in this annual exhibition. Their areas of concentration feature a variety of works in ceramics, drawing, painting, and photography. 

The exhibit features bodies of work from the candidates, Samantha Elsaesser, Fairfield, CT, (photography), Hannah Lacey, Evergreen, CO, (painting), Patricia Leonard, Sanford, ME, (photography), Cierra Vigue, Manchester, NH, (ceramics), and Emily Wernig, Guilford, NH, (ceramics, drawing).

The Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates will present a gallery talk from scholarly, captivating, and creative research in their concentration as part of the 19^th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference (URC). Candidates Patricia Leonard (photography), Cierra Vigue (ceramics), and Hannah Lacey (painting) will present Wednesday, April 18, 12:05-1:35. Candidates Samantha Elsaesser (photography) and Emily Wernig (ceramics, drawing) will be presenting on Thursday, April 19, 12:45-1:20. All presentations will be held in the Museum of Art.

Image Credit above: Julianna E. Sagliano ’19, BFA Photography, 2018, BFA Candidates, digital image