U of M MFA Students Will Share Work At Open Studio Night Oct. 30

For release: October 24, 2008
For press information, contact Simone Notter Wilson, 901-678-4164



University of Memphis MFA students will host an Open Studio Night on Thursday, Oct. 30, 5-8 p.m. The open studios and gallery space are on the second floor of the U of M’s Communication and Fine Arts Building.

Artists opening their studios include photographers Lea Alexander, Michael Darough, Erin Jennings, Yijun “Pixy” Liao, Chase Malone, Jason Miller, Raleigh Rodger and Kate Wichlinski; sculptors Brooke Foy, Elisha Gold, Colin Kidder, Denice Rhodes; ceramicist Robert McCarroll; and painters Eric Bork, Sarah Boyce, Ross McLean, Sunny Montgomery, Chandler Pritchett and Ryan Vanderley.

The students’ work is varied, ranging from McCarroll’s “Fiesta Ware,” where car parts meet production pottery, to the large scale figural oil paintings by Vanderley.  Kidder “explores issues of aging and the dependence of man on machine.”  Gold works with metal, Pritchett uses new media techniques to bridge the gap between watercolor painting and electronic art, and Liao showcases “film stills” – images created from films imagined in her own mind.

The U of M’s MFA students are no strangers to the Memphis and national art scene. Foy currently has work on display in the Delta Exhibition in Little Rock, and was included in an exhibition in Brooklyn, N.Y., last year.  Boyce’s paintings were featured last summer during “Brooks Introduces,” the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s series.   

Filmmaker/photographer Jennings’ work was screened at the Indie Memphis Film Festival in 2005 and 2008, as well as the Nashville Film Festival in 2007.  One of her films is in international distribution.

“One of my favorite things about open studio night is that I get to share my work with undergraduate students,” said Pritchett. “This gives me a great opportunity to start a dialogue with people I might not get a chance to talk to otherwise. I’ve especially enjoyed discussing the art program with high school seniors who have come out to previous open studio events to see what the University of Memphis Art Department has to offer.” 

In conjunction with CCFA’s Open Studio Night, MFA students at the Memphis College of Art will host a Graduate Studio Open House from 6 to 9 p.m. The MCA graduate studios are located on Poplar Avenue at Tucker, directly across the street from Overton Park.