Senior exhibition, collection at museum of art

The Annual Senior Exhibition, a popular show of work by graduating art majors, is complemented by highlights from the permanent collection at the Bates College Museum of Art this month and next. The senior exhibition runs through May 26 and Collection Highlights through Aug. 23. Both are open to the public at no charge.

“This year’s senior thesis exhibition includes photographs, sculptural reliefs, geometric abstractions, digitized prints, text-based paintings, sculptures and an installation with an audio component,” says Robert Feintuch, a lecturer in the art department and the seniors’ adviser. “The work addresses a range of subjects and the exhibition reflects the variety of students’ interests. I think it looks terrific in the museum.”

The artists are:
• Krista Chase of Milwaukie, Ore. who made a series of paintings and drawings that investigate natural light, geometric abstraction and a color palette derived from the observation of clouds.

• Elizabeth Coulson of Devon, Pa., with sculptures made from unusual materials such as plungers, peanut butter, feathers and jelly beans.

• Kelly Jackson of York, Pa., who exhibits abstract paintings and drawings that explore the use of printed and handwritten texts as compositional elements.

• Adina Mori of Los Angeles, Calif., who has created a series of black & white photographs depicting Barbie nude. The doll is shown in a variety of poses ranging from a classical nude to a contemporary porn star.

• Megan Simmons of Buffalo, N.Y., whose wall sculptures in silver wire are based on close observations of branches; a related group of prints is based on branches and leaves.

• Jay Surdukowski of Concord, N.H., who has created a multimedia installation from photo-mechanical images, a piano with music floating out, and elements drawn onto the museum wall. The work is a comment on genocide and is based on the structure of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” with 32 graphic pairings that correspond to the musical score.

• Jillian Welenc of Beverly, Mass., who has made enlarged laser prints in response to a note she received from a one-hour photo developer that labeled some of her photographs “unsuitable.” She combines images of the photographs with text to comment on the concept of “unsuitable” in relation to the male and female forms.

Meanwhile, the museum’s Lower Gallery is given over to highlights from the museum collection. Among them are eight Marsden Hartley drawings from the Hartley holdings that the museum was founded to preserve. There are also recent acquisitions, several by Maine artists such as Brett Bigbee, William Thon and Winslow Homer.

Also on display is a work by the 19th-century French artist Jean-Baptiste Corot — a “cliché-verre,” created by scratching an image into a coated glass plate that was then placed on photo-sensitive paper and exposed to light.

The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. and 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sun. For additional information, please call 207-786-6158.