The exhibition of Seven Selves on display at Kean University
By Jennifer Deligne
Seven artists from Kean University have put their art and personalities on display in the Seven Selves exhibition as their graduate thesis in the James Howe gallery. Angkana “Bee” Dellith, Alicia Bynoe, Julie Barkin, Matthew McCarthy, Celeste Regal, Brian Nicewicz and Perry Tyroler shared the space and made their own nook unique next to their fellow colleagues’.
The exhibition was accurately named since with every artist’s work, a feel of their inner selves are shown. The graduates took risks and were unafraid to delve into touchy subjects.
Colors immediately take over once in the exhibition. Warm, highly blended earthy tones to the left, blues, blacks straight ahead and dramatic water-color paintings to the right, making every turn one to wonder about.
All of the works ranged in style and genre. Paintings glorifying the Buddhist religion by Dellith are assembled in a story-telling manner with over 30 individual paintings used to make up the whole work.
Bynoe used dark and gloomy water-colors in order to show her perception of a neighborhood, while McCarthy uses gloomy colors to display the story of the death of three birds.
Both artists displayed their view of the two topics with a series of paintings, making the meaning more defined.
Regal took her portion of the exhibition and centered it on the topic of rape. There were several angles she took in demonstrating the pain and struggle women go through after being tormented. Two short-read books, three separate framed depictions of an insect signifying an invading predator and a photograph of a woman who was disfigured by a man each tell similar stories in different, stimulating forms.
Other artists used color and form as their main expression. Nicewicz uses figures of enlarged alcoholic cells in his prints.
With the use of color and swayed strokes, his works seem to be in motion for the viewer. Nicewicz focused on blending science and art to create vivid, but unconventional portrayals of the human body.
Tyroler’s prints involve vibrant colors and various shapes to conceive settings or figures which are assembled to be aesthetically pleasing.
Circles are mostly used throughout the prints and Tyroler places the shapes in “Landscape” as both the circle of the sun as well as the circles of a bicycle.
Barkin brings to the exhibition a unique approach to landscape paintings by taking the viewer underground to caves. Four separate paintings show the “inner cave,” “jogged cave,” “cavernous,” and the “outer cave.” The thick colors in the paintings insinuate all of the layers of Earth and the dimensions it creates.
The seven artists revealed their pasts, passions, interests and beliefs through their creations. They bring to light their purest definition of art, which is expression of the true self.