KPU fine arts students showcase their art at annual BFA grad show
The exhibit features a diverse range of mediums and materials
The annual grad show exhibit will run until May 8 at the Surrey campus. (Submitted)
Fourth-year bachelor of fine arts (BFA) students are showcasing their artwork at an annual grad show.
This year’s theme is “Present Tense,” and the exhibit will run until May 8 at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus.
Students in senior fine arts thesis courses — FINA 4300 and FINA 4400 — planned the exhibition with guidance from fine arts instructors Maria Anna Parolin and Sean Alward.
Parolin says the exhibit begins in the students’ thesis year, where they can explore different ideas before creating work that will eventually be part of the show.
“It is their experimental year, so they get to try new things and experience the highs and the lows of these great ideas,” Parolin says.
Parolin says the exhibition features diverse art forms, including animation, ceramic installation, printmaking, drawing, and painting, and showcases each student’s perspectives on the world they live in.
“They are all so in tune to their observations on not only the environment or the cities they live in,” Parolin says. “[It is also] the big pictures and the small, minute things that excite them.”
She adds that it is “very magical” to see how students took materials and manipulated them to create something that communicates exactly what they want to say.
Fine arts student Zoe Graham has sketches on display at the exhibit. She said in a KPU press release that she went through a loss at the beginning of the semester and channeled the grief she felt into her pieces.
“I really embraced all the feelings and created work that I hope people can feel. I have a lot of images of forest, because there’s a lot of death in forest and a lot of life and as the seasons change so does the landscape and so do emotions,” she said.
The graduating students also chose the title and theme of their body of work, made a catalogue, and curated their own exhibition.
“It’s a huge life experience … and these skills that they have developed, even within the last month, are going to give them a huge leg up in life after school,” Parolin says.
Parolin hopes students will continue to explore their creative practice beyond the classroom.
“Life is difficult at this point — and I think that both the joys and the difficulties are represented in this exhibition.”
The exhibition is on display at KPU Surrey’s Spruce Atrium, Spruce Gallery, and Arbutus Gallery.
