BFA Exhibitions Open Today
Senior painting, sculpture, and graphic design shows
In the slide show above, Jeffrey Nowlin (CFA’10) and Sarah Mullin (CFA’10) talk about their work and finishing the year with the BFA Exhibitions. Photos by Kimberly Cornuelle
Amid paintings and inspirational quotes on the walls of Sarah Mullin’s studio space are plastic candy wrappers taped to a pillar — mementos of long days and nights spent with her studio mates on the fifth floor of the College of Fine Arts.
Mullin (CFA’10) takes teasing for her candy habit in stride, because it is a great way to draw friends into the tiny space and get feedback on her work.
Now that work is part of the BFA Exhibitions, an annual show in which CFA seniors in painting, sculpture, and graphic design show the result of four years of creative labor. The opening receptions take place tonight, May 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. at galleries in CFA and at the Sherman Gallery.
Making the push toward the year-end show has been “cathartic,” says Jeffrey Nowlin (CFA’10), whose sculptures will be on display at the exhibition, as well as with the CFA school of theatre STAMP project Eat Your Heart Out! His work will be exhibited at a reception after each of the play’s performances, on Friday, May 7, at 4 and 9 p.m., and Saturday, May 8, at 3:30 p.m., at CFA’s Juliane Ethel Leilani Miller “Jewels 2” Studio 356.
“It’s actually been therapeutic, going over my work and creating objects for two different shows,” says Nowlin, who made three totems for the play and small ceramic sculptures for the exhibition.
Nowlin chose BU because it was a place where he could get a liberal arts education in addition to his pursuit of the arts. “I wanted to take languages and study sociology and anthropology,” he says. “I’m interested in culture and how people relate to each other and to objects. I think it’s helped me be a more well-rounded artist.”
Mullin’s work includes three portraits and one larger painting, an image of her father staring at an amorphous black form, which she sees as a self-portrait, still forming. She also regards it as an example of “the next level of my work.”
“My freshman year, I got interested in painting things more realistically and really using color,” she says. “And I’ve never lost that, and I never became interested in abstraction. I still have a lot to learn.”
The BFA Exhibitions begin on Friday, May 7, at five galleries in two locations, each with an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The BFA Painting and Sculpture Exhibition is at the BU Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery, the Commonwealth Gallery, Room 102, and Gallery 5, all at 855 Commonwealth Ave. The BFA Graphic Design Exhibition is at the George Sherman Union’s Sherman Gallery, 775 Commonwealth Ave. Visitors are invited to take a self-guided tour. The exhibitions, which run through May 16, 2010, and the receptions are free and open to the public.
Kimberly Cornuelle can be reached at kcornuel@bu.edu; follow her on Twitter at @kcornuel.
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