2015 PennMFA Thesis Exhibition in Brussels

University of Pennsylvania, Interdisciplinary MFA Program
Down to Earth / Terre à Terre / Van Nature

The PennMFA Program will present the 2015 thesis exhibition in Brussels, Belgium. The exhibition is the culmination of a six month exchange between the graduate students and curator Agata Jastrząbek. During their residency in Brussels, the students will install selected works, visit artists’ studios, and complete their engagement in this highly experimental exhibition project.

The thesis exhibition project acknowledges that emerging artists work from a globalized state of culture and respond to a new perception of site specificity. The exhibition presents work impacted by a collective discussion on the premise that travel, cultural exchange and the examination of cultural relativism are all markers of a profound evolution in our vision of the world.

Down to Earth / Terre à Terre / Van Nature
June 5 - July 1, 2015, Opening reception: Friday June 5, 6 - 9pm
Hangar H18, Place du Châtelain 18
B - 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium

PennMFA Thesis Exhibition Artists
Natessa Amin, Jacob Been, Jennifer Berman, Charles Hall, Ava Hassinger, Daniel Haun, Corey Herynk, James Howzell, Sascha Hughes-Caley, Ashley Kuhn, Katie Locke, Chiara No, Joan Oh, Jing Qian, Derek Rigby, Lydia Rosenberg, Kasey Short, Michelle Yue Wang, Wilmer Wilson IV, Annie Zverina

Exhibition Curator
Contemporary curator of art Agata Jastrząbek lived in Brussels from 2009 to 2013 and since 2013 has been based in Vienna. Her recent projects include an exhibition of Agency Kobe Mathys at Elaine Levy Project in Brussels (2012), Residue with artists-in-residence at WIELS, Brussels (2013) and Prolongation (2012) in collaboration with Joëlle Tuerlinckx and Objecte aus Wien with Laurent Dupont-Garitte at the gallery Nachst St. Stephan in Vienna, Austria, Strawberry Sausages (2014) in Luxemburg and Employe mit Love (2014) in Berlin. She has directed and co-performed in Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism (2014) with Olga Raciborska. 

Penn MFA Program
The Master of Fine Arts program at Penn is focused on the professional development of visual artists. Through workshops, seminar courses, international residency opportunities and interactions with curators, writers and artists, the program provides an open intellectual framework to foster independent methods of artistic research. In addition to seminars within the Fine Arts department, graduate students are encouraged to pursue topics of science and the humanities through an impressive selection of courses offered across the university.

Download the PennMFA Program Catalog
http://www.design.upenn.edu/fine-arts/graduate