Published: February 26, 2009

The annual Senior Art shows have been a longstanding tradition at Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC), now entering their 20th year. This year, 20 senior art majors, chosen by competitive application, are presenting their works in media that include drawing, illustration, painting, photography, film/video and graphic design. The senior shows will be presented at either the Center Gallery, located in the Lowenstein lobby, or the Pushpin Gallery in the visual arts complex and will be exhibited for approximately two to three weeks.

On Feb. 14, Jaclyn Perrone, FCLC ’09, started the series in Center Gallery with an exhibit of paintings entitled “The Inner City.” She drew inspiration from places she has been while visiting friends in Midtown, Chelsea, Washington Heights and Spanish Harlem. Perrone describes her paintings as “cityscapes from memory.” She says that she merely recalled the places—buildings, streets and trees—from memory and began to paint. This resulted in bold, beautiful, black-and-white artwork using India ink on Claybord. Her exhibit was up until Feb. 26.

Stephanie Butikis, FCLC ’09, opened her exhibit on Feb. 26 in the Pushpin Gallery. It is a collection of drawings that she describes as “abstract gestural self-portraits.” To create her drawings, she used spray paint and oil crayon on large-scale pieces of colored paper and clear acetate. Although a lot of her inspiration came from personal experience, she also drew her ideas from the work of Cindy Sherman, an American photographer.

Butikis said, “My work is somewhat of a cathartic release, an expression of who I am and the ‘self’ I choose to portray to the public.” Butikis’s exhibit will be up until March 5.

Aubrey Stallard, FCLC ’09, will begin her photographic exhibition on Feb. 27. To create her artwork, she used a Nikon FG camera with color 35mm film. American photographers William Eggleston and Jodie Vicenta Jacobson were major sources of inspiration. But she also pulled ideas for her photographs from life experiences. She says that she has been working out this project inside her head since spring of last year. She describes the people in her photographs as “in-between refuges or sanctuaries, not really belonging to a particular place, wandering, and searching, reaching for such a sanctuary, but remaining decidedly on the outside of it.” Her exhibition ends Mar. 9.

These shows are a part of the department of visual arts thesis series. For these art majors, these projects are the finale of a two-part program, which includes a fall-semester Senior Seminar, taught by Casey Ruble, adjunct assistant professor of visual arts and artist-in-residence, and a spring-semester course called Capstone Seminar, taught by William Conlon, professor and director of visual arts.

However, to be able to exhibit is no easy feat. Students must pass a
junior review the year before to be eligible for the senior thesis projects. For the review, students submit their portfolios in hopes of being selected under intense scrutiny. Last year, only 17 were selected, and three were added later on.

Ruble said, “In order to be awarded a show, a student must pass what is called Senior Review. This entails writing a proposal for the show and presenting a portfolio of the artwork the student has completed toward his or her thesis. The faculty review board assesses the proposal and portfolio and grants exhibition slots accordingly. The proposal must be conceptually sound, and the portfolio must be technically and formally solid.”

The student is responsible for his or her exhibition but must work with a faculty advisor from the art department. It is through these exhibitions that art majors get the opportunity to show off their work, profiting from the exposure as well as a valuable amount of experience doing the project.

“The opportunity to have a solo or two-person show in a gallery space in the heart of New York City, the art capital of the world, is quite rare, especially for undergraduate students,” said Ruble. “The receptions for the exhibitions generally draw a healthy attendance, including Fordham alumni who are now working in the art world in a professional capacity.”

From passing the provisions of the “Junior Review” to being able to showcase their artwork for all eyes to see, all of these artists have come a long way. These art students have expended a tremendous amount of effort to ultimately prove themselves in the Senior Art shows. It is something spectacular you will have to see for yourself to possibly understand the hard work that these student artists have put into it.