Exhibition

MEGA: 2011 Senior Art Exhibit

Duration

April 29, 2011 - May 14, 2011

Artists

Zahra Ahmed, Amanda Bowers, Keilah Boyles, Casey Brander, Boris Brenman, M. Callen, Elyse Carr, Jee Choi, Sibel Ergener, Rebecca Feeney, Sarah Habib, Jennifer Hwang, Jessica Jackson, Susan Lin, Dana Lok, Lara Mann, Haydee Naula, Laura Paoletti, Heejin Park, Su Min Park, Emily Raffensperger, Rebecca Reed, Isabelle Richardson, Alexis Rideau, Katherine Roettges, Anya Rosen, Michael Royce, Zena Ruiz, Gaby Schmulevich,

"Carnegie Mellon has no house style, and the work produced by this year’s graduating class reflects the variety of interests and particular talents of each individual in the program. The 2011 Senior Exhibition includes work that is weird, glamorous, poetic, delicate, provocative, cryptic, outrageous, beautiful, ingenious, contemplative and more. Always searching and exploratory, their final exhibition is the culminating expression of their time at Carnegie Mellon, as they strive for greater achievement. As well as developing their own work, they have built a set of artistic relationships, which will sustain them well into the future. They have sought to identify their similarities and broader concerns through a playful acronym – M.E.G.A.

I remember their faces on the first day of student orientation: hopeful, expectant, slightly nervous, but excited and keen. I look at them now and they are confident, savvy and ambitious. These students have excelled as individuals and as a class, meeting the challenges of a rigorous fine art education, and exponentially developing their talents. They have built a strong esprit de corps, not just artistically around ideas and aesthetic concerns, but personally around hard work, mutual respect and support for each other.

Sadly, one of the group, and a promising young artist, Jee Hoon Choi died in a tragic car accident, just a few weeks before he was due to graduate. Jee was a popular presence in the school, with his positive, lively, good natured and good humored spirit. He epitomized his peer group: using his time at college to the full, searching, striving, working hard, seeking new knowledge, developing his skills and thinking about how his art might make a worthwhile difference in the world. We will all miss him terribly, but we will remember him fondly and take strength and inspiration from his example.

I would like to thank this senior class for their magnificent, exceptional, gobsmacking art - and I wish them all a mighty, glorious, extraordinarily awesome future."

- John Carson,
Head of the School of Art + Regina and Marlin Miller Professor,
Carnegie Mellon University