Graduates 2023
Kevin Clancy
I am an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of installation, sculpture, light, and new media. I create immersive installations that explore the eternal tension between Utopia and Oblivion, providing both critical ruminations on contemporary culture and radiant lenses through which to envision brighter futures.
My current work explores the complex effects of rapid technological acceleration on the human body, psyche, and social structures. These forces have the potential to connect us over vast distances, democratize knowledge, and provide tools for collective liberation, while simultaneously functioning as instruments of power that systematically divide, confuse, control, and surveil us. My work is concerned with both the intimate personal experiences and macro social reverberations of these emerging technologies.
www.kevinclancy.studio
@kevinclancy.studio
Maja Skjøth Hegelund
My practice sheds light on human identity in contemporary mainstream culture and deals with universal themes such as alienation, angst, popularity and loneliness as well as introspective impressions of exposure to information abundance. Using various media – such as video, sound and writing – I invent atmospheric warps and realms that explore and create obscure – and sometimes dystopian visions, mixing the manic with the melancholic.
I’m driven by questioning what is reality and what is perception and engage with this question by merging the familiar with the foreign.With a background in design I have a fascination with popular advertisement and an interest in de-and reconstructing the structures of traditional advertising. I question the value of beauty and “sellability” in a culture of abundant commercial stimuli, and consider the consequences of accelerating image culture and the curse of the digital age.
Dani Kwan
Dani Kwan hails from the suburbs of Southern California. Growing up with a mother who studied archaeology and worked in the aerospace industry alongside an aunt who is an avid bird-watcher and conservationist, much of Kwan’s work is viewed through historical, sociological, and scientific lenses.
Having studied fashion design in high school, fine art in college, and working as a graphic designer, Kwan’s artistic practice encompasses a diverse selection of media. Likewise, their interests are varied and many, however their work is tied together with the intent of educating others.
Kwan’s long-standing research has been focused on the intersection of fashion and identity. Their work often includes surveys of our societal values regarding gender and sexuality, as well as expressions of their struggle with societal expectations as a multi-racial and non-binary person.
Instagram: @danikwan
Johnny Onionseed
From used fast-food bags and waiting room magazines to store circulars and withdrawn library books, there’s no shortage of fuel for collage in an age inundated with unreliable media. Through dissecting and reassembling the printed paper pulp of our daily lives, I aim to spin a new narrative, one that uncovers clandestine connections and encapsulates the full chaos of our time. Equal parts speculative humor, cultural time capsule and Molotov cocktail, my work examines the relationship between American pop culture, consumer ethos, Earth and our beliefs. Through collage, I wish to investigate the forces uniting and dividing our world, document the present, and postulate a more palatable future.
Operating under a moniker allows me to boil myself out of the equation and take on sensitive issues in a more direct and humorous manner. The Johnny Onionseed alias enables me to simultaneously jab, prod at and pay homage to the romanticized history many of us have inherited. A fictional relative of the late John “Appleseed” Chapman, Johnny Onionseed re-writes American history as the last living descendent of USA’s most infamous vagabond-pioneer-real estate agent.
His work can be found on Instagram @JohnnyOnionseed
Katherine Parker
Katherine Parker’s studio practice copes with the complexity of theories in cognitive science by utilizing distortion, plasticity of definition, and misinterpretation. Parker’s work investigates how the separate roles of conscious and subconscious influence individual perception and spatial interpretation. Her work is concerned with the fragility of objective experience as it filters excessive visual and subconscious information in the understanding of external space. She is currently exploring how subconscious internal processes, such as digestion and muscle memory, impact an individual’s consciousness.
Katherine Parker primarily works in installation, projection, digital drawing, photographic manipulation, painting, and fiber work.
https://www.katherineparkerart.com
Instagram: @but_whos_katie
Kate Saubestre
My work frequently explores common perceptions of American identity and Western values. Specifically, I examine a variety of facets including: media, consumerism, capitalism and gender roles, while also delving into the impact that these systems have on environmental and social injustices. My work is reflective of the duality of my upbringing as an expat, “third-culture kid” and the experience of living in the United States for the first time when I moved to New York City as a college student. I am currently working on a smaller, more intimate scale; reflective of the confinement and limited social interactions that have come with quarantine. I have been examining common “Americanized” foods to address our relationship to these “comfort” items, specifically the role of artificial preservation and mass production, via machinery, in consumerist culture, especially as the world has ground to a standstill.
www.katesaubestre.com
Instagram: @katesaub