Graduating seniors from Kent State’s School of Art have their Bachelor of Fine Arts work on display in the Center for Visual Arts through May 3.
All of the seniors’ work, from glass blowing to acrylic on canvas, can be found spread across the CVA. There is work in almost every available space, including the Crawford Gallery near the CVA lobby and the Mezzanine Gallery.
Nora Gast, a graduating senior with a BFA in studio art with a concentration in glass, has her work displayed in the Crawford Gallery.
“I’m really grateful to have that much work up at once,” Gast said. “That’s not something that I think happens very often for young artists. To finally be able to lay everything out and see how the pieces not just work installed by themselves but work in conversation with the rest of the room and the rest of the art is so mind-blowing to me.”
Gast’s work is made up of different kinds of glass working techniques and mixed media all centered around one topic: nostalgia.
“Making this show gave me so much clarity about the experiences I had in my childhood and was actually a very healing thing for me to produce this work,” Gast said.
In the middle of the room, there is a piece made from an Osage orange tree from her mother’s home in Maryland that connects to the blown glass versions of Osage orange fruit lining the path. Gast said that the pieces are centered around the idea of moving away from her past and into her future toward adulthood.
Across the hall, in the Payto Gallery, Auden Wolf, also a graduating senior with a concentration in glass, has a similar theme of clarity through hindsight.
Gast said that while they have visually different styles of work, they both connected through the emotionally tough themes of their art, a process she found “therapeutic”.
“I chose glass for these pieces due to the nature of glass; It can either be fleeting and brittle or solid and permanent,” Wolf said. “Those elements really inspire my work and how they can fit with the concepts of each piece.”
For example, Wolf used a technique called pâte de verre for the glass letters. Pâte de verre is a casting method that involves hand-packing layers of glass in a refractory mold to make the glass more fragile than it originally was. This choice resembles the fleeting and fragile nature of emotions.
Wolf’s work is a reflection on a “restrictive” childhood in which they were not permitted to use their voice. Wolf said the collection was inspired by the ramifications of a lack of acceptance they felt in their childhood, “in general, but also as a trans person.” They were left with an inability to communicate. In this collection, his work speaks for him.
His writing is either carved, formed or drawn into glass, “giving each word a sense of permanence and importance.” These words are given a life of their own. They are allowed to breathe and finally be freed from the confines of Wolf’s mind. They are allowed to be distorted, blown up or even shattered. By allowing the unspoken words to be free and laid to rest, Wolf can now allow the beginning of their true voice.
“It [writing] gave me control and safety when I didn’t have either,” Wolf said. “Every piece in this show is a response to events in my life when my input wasn’t allowed, finally giving me a say and a space to reflect.”
The work featured in the CVA galleries are culminations of BFA undergraduate work.
“Everybody works so hard, all of the graduates,” Gast said. “It really is, maybe I’m a little bit biased, but it’s some of the best BFA work I’ve seen, like just across the board.”
The pieces will be on display until May 3, with a reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on May 3 at the CVA.
Tessa Poulain is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
