Ruby Merritt stands next to a plethora of petri dishes and test tubs. It isn't her science class; it's her contribution to the ongoing visual arts exhibit in the CFA Arts Gallery.
Seven first year graduate students in the MFA program were selected to display their avant-garde work in the CFA Art Gallery for the exhibit, First Year MFA Show: Drag Bar. Each piece in the gallery is a representation of a current contemporary issue or ideology represented through different mediums.
These students were selected for UB's rigorous, two-year, 60-credit MFA program. The regiment tracks the student's development and culminates with the presentation of a whole semester's worth of work.
Merritt displayed work that demonstrated her fascination with geology and examining evolving elements over time. Her display featured test tubes holding different substances that had developed to a certain density and form. The tubes were placed in plexiglass holders and were strung up by fishing wire 20-feet from the ceiling of the gallery. The fishing wire was used to make the elements appear to be floating in air.
"It's the materials that come out of natural processes like evaporation and erosion forming densities," Merritt said. "As the show progresses, my pieces will change and evolve to show constant transformation."
In the center of the exhibit, a silver medallion made of clay laid stretched five feet across the floor. This piece by Anthony DiMezza represented a moment of Irish history when the Fenian Irish Brotherhood, consisting of Irish-Americans, attempted to invade Canada in the 1860s.
For the opening reception, DiMezza organized the 155th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the Union Volunteers Fife and Drum Corp to march throughout the exhibit and stomp over the coin in a performance entitled F??g an Bealac!
Toward the back of the gallery was the art of Gary Sczerbaniewicz, whose pieces represented his background in woodwork and architecture.
One opus, "Cabinet," featured a wooden box hanging on the wall with three peepholes. At first, it simply seems like a box, but, when one looks through a hole on either side, one sees a vacant life-sized room. The house seems to once be inhabited, with a knocked over chair and clothing strewn around the floor.
"The idea was to create a scenario where the viewer has to put together elements of a real-life marriage," Sczerbaniewicz said. "That's what interests me, the theatrical evidence of existing life. It's the narrative aspect of art."
Two other MFA students, Alexander Derwick and Dave Leighty, shared one wall of the gallery. Both students had a background in printmaking, and their pieces represented different life themes.
Derwick explored the idea of a 'Lost Kids' scenario, which showed how kids make decisions without parental guidance. Some of the images had children carving their own tattoos and racing bicycles. He used a scratching method for each piece and layered the etchings on black and white backgrounds.
Leighty focused on young adulthood by portraying a performance space from his past. He took different elements of the building and rubbed them onto paper like a traditional grave rubbing. According to Leighty, it is a display of his entire consciousness of the space.
The group of seven MFA students curated the exhibit on their own, and held meetings throughout the semester to collaborate their works.
"We have so many little subtle undertones to our work that are just almost naturally linked," Merritt said. "It's a really great group that brings different aspects of contemporary art to the table."
The exhibit will be on display in the second floor gallery of the CFA until April 28.
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
