April 15
through
May 20, 2001

Beginning April 15, a diverse showcase of contemporary art will debut at the Ackland Art Museum on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. New Currents in Contemporary Art: 2001 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition is an annual show featuring recent works by UNC-CH graduate students in the visual arts. This year's exhibition includes: Emily Holt, Jonathan Jacquet, Ashley Edgerton Oates, Lesley Patterson, Kelly Popoff, Cariana Rambuski and Sam Van Aken.

	Click on images to enlarge.

Emily Holt's mixed media installation titled The Outcasts combines miniature stages and puppet-like characters. As Holt notes in her artist's statement, "the clues may be well hidden, but look for any connections between the characters, sets and props."

The carved sculpture of Jonathan Jacquet also shows a flair for drama, but not in the same whimsical fashion of Holt's work. His four wooden figural pieces ask questions of the human condition and leave the answers open for interpretation.

In a "narrative forest of scepters and crowns," Ashley Edgerton Oates has made tall steel structures anchored in concrete to deal with issues of memory and invites viewers to walk through this "forest." In a related but separate piece, Oates works to capture memory through a large-scale photogram (a filmless process where the silhouettes of objects are captured onto photographic paper).

In precise and detailed mixed media and book art, Lesley Patterson also works through memories - many of which she has collected and reorganized. In one part of her installation, she asks the viewer to participate by adding to her collection of found objects.

Balancing between abstraction and realism, the paintings of Kelly Popoff look at the figurative and literal meanings of being inbetween. "Inbetween the tops of the sky and the bottom of the sea. Inbetween the beginning and the end. We are all inbetween," states Popoff in her artist's statement.

Cariana Rambuski's installation of flour, furniture, photographs, cloth, video and text ponders the concept of absence. "I think about the absent cup which made the sand castle," notes Rambuski in her statement. Her diverse range of media breathes life into multiple ways of thinking about this concept.

In his installation Second Nature, Sam Van Aken encloses the viewer in a world full of modern technology. Sight, sound and three-dimensional forms create an artificial space where "our everyday experience has become increasingly separated from the natural world."

An opening reception for New Currents in Contemporary Art: 2001 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition will be held Sunday, April 22 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. A lunchtime artists' talk will take place Wednesday, April 25 at 12:15 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.