Graduate Students’ Work on Display in ‘Ghosted’ at Herter Art Gallery

Neural Net in Pink, Nick Criscuolo
Neural Net in Pink, Nick Criscuolo

“Ghosted,” the annual MFA midway show presenting works by six second-year graduate students in the department of art, will be at the Herter Art Gallery March 20 to April 3.

The opening reception is Tuesday, March 20 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. The reception and exhibition are free to the public.

Working across media, scale, and themes, the artists are conceptually united through their affinity for the immaterial, intangible, remembered, spoken or fantasized. Presence (physical or immaterial) is paramount.

Ghosted alludes to the earnest manifestations that presence takes within each artists’ work. Ghosts of the past, present, future, and celestial haunt their work, though these apparitions register in different material, forms, methods and themes.

For Kristy Childress, childhood memories and remembrances of places she’s once lived echo throughout her painting, drawing, and sculptural practice.

Althea Keaton uses printmaking, drawing, animation, and comics to present and process abstract emotions of love, longing, and the fear of loss.

Nick Criscuolo, using virtual reality systems and digital animation, creates immersive, new worlds that exist only as simulacrum.

Margaret Wilson, concentrating on image-making and its roots in the Middle Ages, considers imagery and its immaterial and conceptual forms in her installation and performative work.

In her current work, Leah Burke also examines how culture is embodied personally and collectively. During a recent visit to Puerto Rico, Burke surveyed the post-hurricane landscape and visited relatives, documenting her experience through photographs and sound.

Emily Tareila, an artist and facilitator, also distills the landscape; in her work light and plants encourage conversation and contemplation. Tareila uses the cyanotype­–a photographic method that uses the sun or moon–to join the astral with the physical.

The exhibition is curated by Leah Triplett Harrington, a Boston-based writer, editor, and curator focused on modern and contemporary art.

Herter Art Gallery is open Sundays 1-4 p.m. and Monday through Friday 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.