SoFA gallery set for student shows

Similar yet different – sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking meet at the School of Fine Arts Gallery in “IU School of Fine Arts Student Shows 2.”

The art, on display since Tuesday, will be celebrated with an opening reception 7 to 9 p.m. Friday.

Work by IU Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts students in four different artistic areas will be on display from 12  to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday in the SOFA Gallery through Feb. 6.

But students put more than just their work into the gallery display. During set-up, students also helped plan the layout of the exhibit and installed their artwork.

“We all figure out what looks best side-by-side,” said Jeremy Sweet, a graduate student in printmaking.

Sweet said the layered masks in his prints, titled “Jahbetaire” and “Jagindrag,” were influenced by his extensive travels to Mexico.

Danielle Head, a second-year graduate student in photography, has a series of five self-portraits on display titled “Mantasies.”

Head said each photograph is of herself dressed up as different men she sees in her fantasies. It was significant, she said, to be in each photograph.

“It is important that they are portraits of me, not another model, because my fantasies are about me, not another model,” she said. “They are personal ideas instead of general ideas.”

The portraits, she said, are based on off-beat male characters that look weird or sleazy that can be found in retro movies from the ’60s and ’70s.

“I’ve always been drawn to strange men than the prostitute with the heart of gold or the femme fatal,” she said.

Zachary Dubuisson, also a second-year graduate student in photography, has two photographs on display based on the theme of human moods.

Dubuisson said when looking for a mood to capture in a photograph, there are times when he sets up for a staged photograph, but he also walks around and finds a subject without going through the staging process. This happened, he said, when he captured a photograph of another graduate student he saw with a busted lip.

“I wanted the viewer to want to see more and ask why is his lip busted,” he said, referring to this particular piece. “These are pieces of a story.”

In addition to photographs, gallery viewers will see non-traditional styles and techniques of work, including; internet-based work; video art and flash-based animations.

Dubisson and Head both said they were looking forward to seeing the artwork of their fellow students on display.

“You are in your own little world and so busy you don’t have time to see work in other departments, so it is always interesting,” Dubisson said.