wake
FIU BFA Spring 2009 April 17th - May 10th
wake FIU BFA Spring 2009 April 17th - May 10th
Catalog Design Johana Maldonado Cover Photographers Cristina Molina & Jose Valdivia
Director’s Foreword BFA EXHIBITION 2009
The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum Florida International University 10975 S.W. 17th Street Miami, FL 33199
The students in this BFA exhibition continue to share
Museum Hours: Tuesday- Saturday: 10am-5pm Sunday: noon - 5 pm Monday: Closed
caliber. The innovative and multi-media approach
t: 305.348.2890 f: 305.348.2762
to the traditional ways of making art is evident in
e:artinfo@fiu.edu thefrost.fiu.edu
the excitement of the new Frost Art Museum and the many opportunities that come with presenting their work in a space with other exhibitions of the highest to art that is characteristic of so much contemporary art and that expresses the interests of students today in technology, installations, and unusual approaches this intriguing exhibition. All the works are reflections of the world today, through the eyes of the next generation of artists.
Carol Damian Director and Chief Curator The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum
Anthony Arriola
Monuments  c-print
photography supakina@yahoo.com Here are forgotten tree stumps, destroyed grass turfs, and faulty plant installations. I am not simply making portraits of disuse, but I am questioning mankind’s need for dominance and control over his surroundings.
S antiago Castillo
Souvenirs mixed media
drawing santiago.castillo@me.com Each drawing depicts a place to which I have been. These slanted, edited memories are reconstructed on the abstracted two-dimensional surface with brush and line. The travel log now relives in a coded, patterned and redirected attempt to describe the feeling of being here and there – facts and fabrications collide. The reality of the places or events I’ve experienced is long gone. All that is left is what my memory retained – not as it has been portrayed in atlases or fancy postcards found at souvenir shops – as my own brain chooses to remember it. Inks and paint – suspended in polyurethane-covered layers of paper – act as a means to resurrect these lost realities.
W illiam Faust
Field of Vision charcoal on paper
drawing biljan7@aol.com Utilizing large scale for my idealized landscape drawings brings a sense of energy to a fictional yet ancient place. Rhythmic crops and dark angry skies reflect internal tempests. Landscapes are works of the mind - a response of the senses. With all the places I’ve been and images I’ve seen, it is these “mental landscapes” that remain. Using charcoal on paper invokes an internal authority to draw without perjury or propaganda, and reveals a way of navigating the landscape. Subtle changes in the mark making process express the variation in our shared experiences and histories, and awaken embedded memories.
Izlia Fernandez
Little House stop motion animation
drawing izlia@izliafernandez.com “The stars twinkled in their reflection on the rippling water. There he stood, the lone house on stilts. What was it looking for? What was it dreaming about?� A house is not just a house. It is a collective location meant to keep our things, both real and ephemeral. The physicality of large format drawing helps me to act out a familial narrative of lost youth and rite of passage. This small playhouse acts as a character, portraying a trek through faraway forests, going in with expectations, but leaving with unexpected transformations. When lost playthings are no longer our most prized possessions, they become relics of a distant person from another time.
Fear and Sadness Began to Burn Inside acrylic/india ink on paper
Whitney Irvine
Polaroidish c-print
photography wirvi001@fiu.edu This body of work contains certain images that have been altered by process. The images started as Polaroid’s taken with expired film on a Polaroid Spectra camera then later re-shot with a 35mm camera. They were then enlarged into C-Prints. Because of the process and time the images have been altered and changed - the colors have been distorted and the depth of field has been flattened. This work is about questioning the process of photography and the enjoyment of an analog medium that is becoming extinct.
C assandra Martinez video coolcass77@yahoo.com The dynamics of how human relationships work has always been of interest to me. It is a challenge to comprehend how people are able to form tight relationships between one another considering different genders, age groups, and races. The interviewing method makes it easier for me to communicate with my subjects on a more personal level, facilitating an accurate analysis of each individual’s mindset and character through the words they express and by the stances that they decide to take, whether consciously or subconsciously. Video plays back a life time of finely tuned movements, postures and tonality which aids in the process of understanding how people’s motives betray intentions. Here, my subjects are middle aged Cubans who like to expound on their gender roles where the men are men and women are women.
Can’t Live With Them Can’t Live With Out Them video still
Jonathan Mendelson sculpture/installation jmend027@fiu.edu
Palm Trees on Rocket Fuel mixed media installation
I paint super-mutant radioactive cave paintings. I am spray painting with photons. When the viewer is immersed in the piece, they are bombarded by these self illuminating light waves as well. My cities seek to change the power of sublime to include human technology as a force of nature.
C ristina Molina
Silky Smooth Hair Relaxer 
video cmoli006@fiu.edu
production still Use this product, and you can be beautiful too! There, glowing from a television screen or shining on a billboard lies the declaration of happiness and glamour. Images in advertising, personal narratives and true stories are the Muse for these stop action videos. The slapstick humor of a Keystone Cop silent movie and the dark comedy of Film Noir come together in these works to make a comment on the over exaggerated vanity of women. These morality plays start out with a promising outcome, but end in total disaster.
Johanna Monserratte
Mojada acrylic/watercolor on plaster
drawing jmons001@fiu.edu Lines etched into a basin-like form allude to sonic moments where condensation thickens, and drops slide down a plastic curtain. This is a place where I can hear myself. The chromed plumbing and sweaty porcelain are exaggerated mirrors that invite an unconventional self portrait.
Daniel Ortiz
Cloudburst acrylic/oil on canvas
painting dgo1783@gmail.com Whether it is the epic representation of the bipartisan rivalry of American politics, or the deliverance of innocent hostages through the sacrifice of terrorist lives. The intent of my work is to present ideological conflicts as ample as the canvases they are painted on.
Gridlock acrylic/oil on canvas
S terling Rook
Play and the Changing Paintings
sculpture hadesone84@hotmail.com
mixed media I remember when I was a kid, playing in my backyard with the hose, watching the water stream through the grass and the weeds. I remember thinking that the water looked like a flood in a jungle. I made these paintings-toys to create that sense of play we all used to have.
Jessica Shoemaker
Namshe (series) ink/characoal
drawing jshoemaker001@yahoo.com Figures emerge through layers of melting color and faded atmosphere, struggling between emerging and becoming submerged in internal realms. Stemming from the suicide of a loved one I began questioning the concept of the soul and incorporating the transcendence of visionary art, and the analysis of consciousness in expressionism and symbolism. Each drawing is a personal glimpse similar to the passing visions in my meditation and the artwork becomes a vehicle for an internal journey. This journey explores the idea of the soul leading to an excavation of identity represented by implied figures amidst ambiguous layers.
Jose Valdivia
The Pencil of Figments
photography valdiviaography@comcast.net Photographing the landscape placed me on the edge between tranquility and fear. The solitary aspect of nature, as well as its overpowering presence, and the mystery of what lies within lead me to pursue the vast amount of trees I would frequently see while driving. I Placed dirt, sand, rocks and roots on the surface of the printing paper bringing its contents closer to reality in contradiction of its abstraction. The black is the space to explore and seek without limitation. As the light is the constant destination in the photograph. In essence the landscape is the opening to exploration of uncharted territory within myself.
gelatin silver print, toned with wine/coffee, resin coated
L eila Walker
Microcosm of a Paradigm mixed media
sculpture littlewing21@hotmail.com Four encrusted figures are engaged in different states of a life dilemma. One frozen in witness of its own demise, towers over the chain of events, both ostracized and entrapped within its own turmoil. Another attempts to heal the wounds and as a third watches from a distance wondering whether to intervene. The fourth has its back to the entire grouping not wanting to engage. Wrapped in plaster, wire and bandage-like gauze, the surface provides a legend of the implied damaged state, pushing against a contradiction of mending, healing, and alienation.
This show was curated by
The School of Art & Art History
Juan Martinez William Burke Tori Arpad-Cotta Pip Brant R.F. Buckley Kathy Dambach Carol Damian Eduardo del Valle Annette B. Fromm Mirta G贸mez Daniel Guernsey Clive King Jacek Kolasinski Bill Maguire Mette Tommerup Constantino Torres Barbara Watts
Board of Trustees
Cesar l. Alvarez Jorge L. Arrizurieta Betsy S. Atkins Thomas Breslin Albert E. Dotson, Sr. Patricia Frost R. Kirk Landon Miriam López Albert Maury Arthur “AJ” Meyer David R. Parker Claudia Puig Rosa Sugrañes
University Administration
Modesto A. Maidique President
Ronald M. Berkman
Executive Vice President; Provost
Robert Conrad
Vice President of University Advancement
Pete Garcia
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics
Sandra Gonzalez-Levy
Dr. John Rock
Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs; Founding Dean, College of Medicine
Vivian Sanchez
Chief Financial Officer; Senior Vice President of Administration
Steve Sauls
Vice President of Governmental Relations
George Walker
Vice President of University & Community Relations
Senior Vice President of Research & Graduate Education; Dean, University Graduate School
Jaffus Hardrick
Douglas Wartzok
Vice President of Human Resources
Rosa L. Jones
Vice President of Student Affairs
Javier I. Marques Chief of Staff
Cristina Mendoza
Vice President of Compliance; General Counsel
Vice President of Academic Affairs
Corinne Webb
Vice President of Enrollment Services
Min Yao
Chief Information Officer; Vice President of Information Technology
Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum
Carol Damian
Lynn Garcia
Mary Alice Manella
Klaudio Rodriguez
Julio Alvarez
Elisabeth Gonzalez
Ailyn Mendoza
Susana Rodriguez
Etain E. Connor
Stephanie Guasp
Amy Pollack
Art Shields
Jessica Delgado
Yelipza Gutierrez
D. Gabriella Portela
Chip Steeler
Julia P. Herzberg
Linda Powers
Andy Vasquez
Catalina Jaramillo
Ana Quiroz
Paola Villanueva
Debbye Kirschtel-Taylor
Alejandro Rodriguez Jr.
Sherry Zambrano
Miriam Machado
Special thanks to the Graham Center Art Gallery coordinated by Christopher Rodriguez for donating money for this catalog, and the Serenity Center for Therapeutic Services. The Frost Art Museum receives ongoing support from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners; the State of Florida Department of State, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts; the Steven & Dorothea Green Endowment; Funding Arts Network; Dade Community Foundation; CitiPrivate Bank; Target; and the Members & Friends of The Frost Art Museum.
Director and Chief Curator Security Manager Development Director Director of Communications and Marketing
Nicole Espaillat
Museum Assistant
Ana Estrada
Curatorial Assistant
Annette B. Fromm
Museum Studies Coordinator
Ana Garcia
Museum Assistant
Visitor Services and Events Assistant Administrative Assistant Museum Assistant Museum Assistant
Consulting Curator Curatorial Coordinator Curator of Collections/Registrar Museum Education Coordinator
Budget & Finance Manager Communications Coordinator Special Projects Museum Intern
Curator of Education Museum Assistant Museum Assistant
Museum Assistant Museum Intern Security Guard
Exhibition Designer Museum Preparator Museum Intern
Assistant Registrar
P ip Brant associate professor of drawing/painting Seems like when students huddle in their respective classes, the ideas imbedded in their work takes on linking themes. I find this not unlike couples who live together and take on the same illnesses. Within this family of 14 students are, themes of apocalyptic, urban utopias from the past and the future. Also linked to the theme of the sublime, is the romantic fantasy of the everlasting sleep, the kind of beauty that exists in seeing a fresh bird corpse. Others seek to reconnect with past utopias, with unlikely playthings involving dirt or products that promise beauty, but only deliver Snow White’s slumber. I invite you to don a lacy white shirt and return to a time when an alabaster carving served as a portrait for a queen’s yearling son’s fat thigh. Wake.