AND THEN...

Curated By Jonathon Rosen & Ed Valentine

SVA GRAMERCY GALLERY

209 E 23rd Street, NYC

OPEN GALLERY HOURS

July 9-26 2016

M-F 9-7PM, SA 10-6PM

RECEPTION

Friday July 22, 2016 / 6-8PM

Get your free ticket under Register above on the right.

The MFA Visual Narrative program at the School of Visual Arts is pleased to present “And Then”, the thesis exhibition featuring the graduating class of 2016.

This year’s show displays the work of the eight students completing the program this summer. The stories in the show reflect two-and-a-half years of hard work in a way that is as unique as every student. As individuals, all have gradually evolved to find their voices and preferred visual medium throughout the duration of their studies. For each one, the final work is as much the result of a personal journey as it is a symbolic projection or realization of professional ambitions.

Meanwhile, in order to engage viewers, students designed immersive installations that are physical manifestations of their story as they display or house the story itself —whether in print or digital form—in the gallery. Andrea Schmitz’s animation about a mysterious, otherworldly door that haunts a teenager, aptly titled Door, appears on a screen embedded within a door resembling the animated one. Anelisa Garfunkel’s illustrated book titled A Conjuring In The Gyre recounts a young girl’s journey on a boat in the Pacific Ocean; appropriately, the hardcover book will be nestled on a sailboat in the middle of the gallery.

Like most of the faculty, the curators of the thesis show, Jonathon Rosen and Ed Valentine, have active, separate careers—Rosen as an artist and animator, and Valentine as a writer and puppeteer. This supports students’ insight into real world industries where they can employ their new expertise, which has always been a core tenet of the program.

MFA Visual Narrative at School of Visual Arts is a low-residency interdisciplinary graduate program in visual storytelling. Students learn to tell stories through visual arts combined with creative writing, in a way that synergizes the two areas. The forward-thinking curriculum gives equal importance to developing students’ skills in either realm, while also encouraging students to engage with the latest technology that could serve as tools and platforms in their work. The rich and diverse faculty have collectively navigated the worlds of publishing, literature, filmmaking, screenwriting, theater, graphic design, gaming and a wide variety of other professions. The skills they teach make real world viability inherently integral to curriculum. The low residency program, which is designed to accommodate working individuals, consists of three intensive studio summer sessions in New York City that are complemented with online sessions taught during the two intermediate academic years.