M.F.A. graduates to exhibit art in ‘Butterflies & Other Monsters’ at Gallery 312 in Chicago

“Morning Swim,” 2001, by Clay Stauffer

One week after their convocation, 10 Master of Fine Arts graduates from the University’s Midway Studios program will present their work in a group showing at Chicago’s Gallery 312. The exhibition, titled “Butterflies & Other Monsters,” will open at 11 a.m. Thursday, June 14, and remain on view through Saturday, June 23. A reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, June 15.

The exhibition will feature a range of media, including painting, video, sculpture, photography and installation. The artists in “Butterflies & Other Monsters” come from diverse backgrounds and address a wide variety of aesthetic and conceptual concerns through their work.

Kevyn Bates will present paintings of scenes depicting lower- and middle-class life, many that represent single mothers and their households.

Mike Benedetto, who will present a selection of works in video, wrote in his artist statement that he decided to become an artist while “wandering the wide stretches of wet sand from one rotting sockeye salmon carcass to the next.”

Audrey Preuss Blessman’s investigations of child sexual abuse include a look at the mechanisms that keep incestuous situations and their stories concealed.

Georg Burwick’s video and sound projects draw on sounds and images present in everyday occurrences. “Through the creation of a hyper-reality, I am trying to bring these objects and situations into a new light,” he explained.

Large-format photographs by Jennifer Greenburg focus on women and their subcultures. She describes her series “Doughnuts for Dinner: Single Grrls” as an examination of young women who are attempting to assert their autonomy, despite opposing cultural and social expectations.

Through her use of color and spatial relationships, Martina Nehrling creates paintings that achieve a momentary equivalence in the relationship between figure and ground. She describes her images as “dangerously colorful.”

Digital and still photography by I. Carmen Quintana reflects the body’s imperfections.

Movement through the vernacular, metropolitan landscape is the focus of paintings by Clay Stauffer. His images for the show will explore the illusory nature of automobility.

Anthony Titus derives the motifs for his paintings and sculptural installations from cartoon animation.

Geometric sculpture by Eric Tucker investigates phenomenological principles of flatness and illusory space.

The University’s Master of Fine Arts degree is a two-year interdisciplinary program that focuses on intensive critical dialogue. “Butterflies & Other Monsters” is co-curated by Whitney Rugg, curatorial intern, and Stephanie Smith, Associate Curator at the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art. The University Visiting Committee on the Visual Arts, the Division of the Humanities and the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art all support the Midway Studios M.F.A. exhibition.