MFA Thesis Exhibition, Part 1

The Department of Art at the University of California, Irvine is pleased to present the solo exhibitions of MFA candidates Brian Bowman, Anna Kim, Donaldo Morales, and Grant Speich. This is the first round of 2023 MFA thesis exhibitions. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, April 22 from 2–5pm.

S.H.T.F.
Brian Bowman
Room Gallery 

Using sculpture, video and photography, Bowman weaves ideas around virtual and domestic space to form an opinion about the question of adaptability. Where the progression of modernity has led us back into an existence of wildness, how can our perceptions of a mediated existence structure a space for survival? It is this movement of people and things, towards the space outside, that aims to constantly redefine the parameters of this liberated domestic condition.

combustion alphabet
anna kim
University Art Gallery

New audio and video works from Anna Kim observe language at its seams, bringing instances of mis-pronunciation and mis-remembering to the forefront. Ultimately, glyphs inspired by lost strands of the artist’s hair serve as a proposal for a new alphabet system. 

Ghosts, Ancestors, and Empire
Donaldo Morales
University Art Gallery

Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present.
And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future. - Sonmi-451
 

DEAD WEST
Grant Speich
Contemporary Arts Center Gallery

Speich documents changes in the ecological landscape in order to preserve, remember, and return to what may be lost. His artmaking practice mirrors historicized moving image practices by sourcing found footage and archival sound to reconstruct proto-cinematic apparatus. DEAD WEST is a collection of video installations deconstructing American mythology through landscape, process, and the Western genre.