Five senior Drake art students will present a thesis exhibition of their work to conclude their undergraduate education at Drake University. “Working Room,” opening April 27, exhibits work that addresses a range of subjects including personal history, memory, social environments and norms, mapping and international perceptions, and origins of control.
“Working Room” will be exhibited in both the Anderson Gallery and the Weeks Gallery. The Weeks Gallery is located on the second floor of the Harmon Fine Arts Center. The entire exhibition is free and open to the public.
The exhibiting art seniors will show sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, printmaking and mixed media. The exhibit opens on April 27, with a closing reception on Friday, May 11 from 5–7 p.m. in the Anderson Gallery of the Harmon Fine Arts Center, 2505 Carpenter Ave.
Rather than act as a retrospective, “Working Room” features work representative of where each student currently locates herself conceptually as an artist.
“My work consists of wearable devices imagined to solve common but complex social situations many people have difficulty experiencing,” says Tatiana Klusak, a sculpture and graphic design double major. “While the apparatuses fully function, their impracticality denies their ability to resolve the situations they are intended to remedy. The work re-contextualizes archaic modes of torture into plausible, marketable objects for today’s individual — or social participant.”
“I have a strong attraction to the ideas of mapping, history and international perceptions throughout time,” says Nora Kreml, an art history and political science double major. “Power perceptions and relationships as well as historical myths of discovery intrigue me. My work is research-based as I attempt to visualize concepts from history and thought which may not have been explored previously.”
“Our relationships to people and objects inform us to how we are seeing, interpreting and perceiving,” says Ainsley Buhl, a drawing and sociology double major. “I strive to motivate people to see their environments as something not fixed, but rather fluid and subject to transformation. I want my sculpture to be carefully examined to elicit an experience of exploration that captivates the viewer through the process of discovery.”
“I try to encompass the idea of entropy through my work,” says Hayley Tatom, a painting and psychology double major. “Whether it’s the disintegration of time, relationships or matter, I express these concepts symbolically using techniques inspired by Flemish oil painting, watercolor and collage.”
“I view identity as constantly evolving,” says Stephanie Spitz, a painting major. “I believe it is continuously affecting and affected by a person’s environment. I question identity and relationships during the transition into womanhood. The focus of my work is based on the examination of self-knowledge, socio-cultural location and memory in relation to the construction of identity.”
The Anderson Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday 12–4 p.m. with extended hours of 12–8 p.m. on Thursdays. It is also open by appointment. The Weeks Gallery is open during regular building hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.