Grunwald Gallery of Art displays mixed medium work

“Nothing toxic, nothing decaying and no live animals”: These are the rules for displaying in the Grunwald Gallery of Art.

The third round of IU Master of Fine Arts semester thesis shows premieres today at the Grunwald Gallery. Megan Abajian, PR liaison for Grunwald, said that without these restrictions, live animals would be shown.

“The show is an opportunity to showcase the development and the resolve of a lot of the issues students have been working with their work,” Abajian said. “They have been experimenting with different processes, mediums, critical thinking — it’s just a culmination of their research since they have been here.”

Abajian said this round of thesis projects mixes mediums, a technique she said she appreciates because she works primarily with collages. Abajian said she believes interdisciplinary work appeals to more modern audiences due to the influence of information on the contemporary attention span.

“There’s traditional painters who believe painting should be painting should be painting,” Abajian said. “And we’re also dealing with painting in a contemporary context that questions, ‘How do we maintain people’s attention for longer than an MTV soundbite?’”

Abajian said she is partial to the work by Shane Rodems, a painting that features high-chroma colors and is “very interactive.”

Sculptor Terrence Heldreth’s work is also featured. 

“It’s just a great way to wrap up the MFA process here — show with some of your peers in a really professional setting,” Heldreth said.

Heldreth is a sculptor whose work exercises “a different way to communicate.” He shows a variety of pieces primarily made of wood, dirt and water that are made to represent his West Virginian family history.

But Heldreth’s art is not limited solely to his history. The collection presents “generational family history, what’s important to remember, what we remember that’s irrelevant, why we leave things, that sort of thing.”

Heldreth described the structures as looking like church furniture. His ancestry beckons to Baptist Christianity, although Heldreth is not personally religious.

This disjunct reflects Heldreth’s art well, as his work emphasizes the way that perspective changes throughout time.

Seven artists have work displayed for the gallery’s thesis show. Their mixed medium works will be shown until May 5.