In photographs, sculpture, ceramics, prints and paintings in a variety of media, 15 art majors cap their Bates College careers with the popular Annual Senior Exhibition, which runs at the Bates College Museum of Art through May 25 and is open to the public at no charge.

"Because the exhibition has been given ample room and is installed on both floors of the Museum of Art, it looks especially beautiful," says Robert Feintuch, a lecturer in the art department and the seniors' adviser.

Rachel Cochrane, of Belfast, Maine, is exhibiting small drypoints that include self-portraits and portraits of friends.

Nine painters are among the exhibitors. Elizabeth Calihan, of Wilmette, Ill., has worked on a series of nudes based on compositions she cropped from Rubens' "Shivering Venus." Aidan Earle, of Peterborough, N.H., is showing large paintings that combine abstraction with perspectival architectural images. Her most recent work makes connections between conflicting or contradictory forms of representation.

In his self-portraits, Brent McCoy, of Hardwick, Vt., combines "realistic" figurative depictions with ironic or satirical elements to poke fun at various facets of masculinity. (See the current Bates slideshow for McCoy images.) Chloe Ottenhoff, of Alma, Mich., has used ink and paint on burlap in self-portraits that explore identity, mood and intimacy in ways that are familiar and disturbing.

Constanze Pirch, of Hartberg, Austria, has painted monochromatic abstract images in a large square format. Her work combines symmetrical Islamic patterns, handwriting and bright color. Nathan Rogers, of San Anselmo, Calif., makes mixed-media paintings that focus on natural forces and the passage of time in everyday life.

Coming to Bates from Surrey, England, Shana Small uses portraiture as a means to make dramatic, visually intense paintings. These use black and white to focus on the planar structure of the face and to simplify form. Julia Stawiski, of Grand Rapids, Mich., shows abstract paintings and drawings focusing on the rhythmic unification of color and line.

Jane Marshall, a painter from Boise, Idaho, has grappled to find a fresh way of depicting classical Greek statuary. She combines geometric compositional elements, painterly surfaces and drawings from classical sculptures.

Two students are showing photographs. Katherine Austin, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, has made large color images of friends and family that emphasize unguarded, intimate moments. For his thesis project, Robert Hyde, of Gloucester, Mass., has made 12 black and white photographs of Lewiston-area locations that invoke an atmosphere of commercial and industrial abandonment.

In sculpture and ceramics, Ryan Champagne, of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has made pieces that combine body casts with thrown pottery. He will also show photographs that abstract the human figure. In her modular sculpture Mollie Holt, of Sun Valley, Idaho, uses transparent images of doors that she photographed locally. She hangs the images in otherwise empty Plexiglas cubes. Kathrene Tiffany, of Boston, bases her ceramics on classic forms from Asian ceramics. Her work includes bowls and vases in porcelain and stoneware.

The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sundays. For additional information, please call 207-786-6158.