The 2022 Studio Art Senior Exhibition is Now Open

Dowd closes out the year with stunning work from 10 senior studio art majors

The Art and Art History Gallery has just unveiled their final exhibit of the year in Dowd, the Studio Art Senior Exhibition. The show runs from May 13 to June 10, and features art from 10 different senior studio art majors. Interested viewers can visit on Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. The exhibit highlights, for one last time, the important and inspiring contributions that each senior artist has offered throughout their time at Santa Clara.

Most of the artists included short statements to further explain the context, inspiration and meaning behind their work on display. All subsequent quotes are from the artists’ statements.

Alex Clayton:

Alex Clayton’s “Come Disrupt The Balance” displays a beautifully textured and composed paper and cardboard tree, made specifically with a sitting chair cut into the trunk, where the tree turns into flattened and polished wood. The sculpture offers both reflection and a critical choice – whether or not to sit. Clayton explains further in the artists’ statement: “This interaction seeks to spotlight that in a world occupied by humans, nature will only be able to return to a balanced state through either the absence of human interaction, or through the conscious decision to retain the balance between humans and nature.”

Megan Conrad:

Megan Conrad’s paintings detail four tight close-ups of human eyes, each with a different name, texture, and eye color. She uses different painting techniques for each canvas and plays on different visual components of the eye for each piece. She notes this decision in her artists’ statement: “Through multiple techniques I hope to also show the personality and characteristics of each person, that regardless of what each person goes through, we’re all connected through our eyes.”

Maeve Corbett:

Artist Maeve Corbett’s work features both photography and physical creation. One prominent piece, titled, “Don’t Look” resembles a cupped hand, with pale pink nail polish, stemming off into lace and a beige headband where the wrist would be. This piece is featured in the photograph “The Violence You Don’t See” over the subject’s eyes, who is sitting calmly, smiling. All of Corbett’s work seeks to incorporate her intricate creations with well-composed, thought provoking photography.

Chloe Kurzenknabe:

Chloe Kurzenknabe has three pieces on display, created on both oil on canvas and acrylic on glass. Kurzenknabe paints with an elegant, definitive style, which is transferred to both canvas and mirror in her display. She writes in her artists’ statement: “I chose to paint women in order to uplift and protect them.” Each piece features a depiction of a different woman, and all are accompanied by powerful titles “to restore the shame and fault back onto male voyeurs and violators.” Overall, Kurzenknabe’s work is focused on “[bringing] to light the brokenness of our society and [encouraging] viewers to rethink the way they approach my paintings and the women they represent.”

Franky Liu:

Frankly Liu has on rotation a series of different digital cartoon-style pieces. His art contains surreal, emotional reflections on self-image, mental health, and digital life. Each passing design is set to the same dark backdrop, and all feature a principal subject, often with just one or two other elements. This simplicity in composition allows Liu’s stunning visual style and sharp commentaries to come through in a truly bold fashion.

Maggie Menendez:

Maggie Menendez features four photographs moving in a sequence: “Ideal Form, Middle Form, Conform, and Reform.” Each photograph features two human bodies and utilizes abstract composition and translucent overlays. Menendez is very intentional with these compositional choices, saying: “by fragmenting and superimposing the body, I disrupt the camera’s ability to weaponize.” Her work at large is focused on the use of cameras and photography to objectify women. She notes: “I explore how the camera can be a tool for reclamation instead of exploitation.”

Ashley Patoni:

Ashley Patoni’s “Reallocation” depicts a large handgun made from steel rods in the act of firing. However, instead of a bullet, Patoni has created metal leaves and flowers stemming and growing out of the weapon’s barrel. Patoni also displays another metalwork piece, “What Were You Wearing?” which resembles a red lace bra, intricately patterned with converging flowers. Patoni says: “My work is a display of enlarged inanimate objects that are representative of social injustices and inequalities.”

Aditya Relan:

Aditya Relan’s work consists of four digital prints – all in stark color contrast – concerning climate change and biodiversity loss. These prints on the surface offer clean, detailed designs of wildly different landscapes and environments (reminiscent of Iceland’s folk name: the land of fire and ice). Though as the viewer gets closer, the alarming effects of climate change on display in each design come into focus. Relan notes in his artist statement that “[his] values as a designer are to inspire people and have an impact on their lives.”

Adan Salazar:

Adan Salazar’s work consists of three bold, digital prints. Salazar’s prints are cleanly designed, and make great use of a simple color palette – primarily white, black, and gold. Each features a prominent animal skull towering in front of top to bottom text from “medieval manuscripts.” Salazar conveys a strong ancestral theme with his work, achieving a feeling of both depth and history in this trio of designs. Salazar noted in his artists’ statement that his inspiration came from “an exploration of death and cultural imagery.”

Samantha Whitfield:

Lastly, three pairs of pearly-white hands protruding from the wall make up “Am I Beautiful Yet?” by Samantha Whitfield. Each piece focuses on a different body part or organ, as each pair of hands holds both a portion of the body, and a portion of change that society pushes onto women. Whitfield says in her artists’ statement to be offering “a commentary on how women feel, and what they are pressured to do to their bodies in order to be perceived as beautiful.” A striking example of this is a mask of a human face, etched all over with a fine purple pen, signifying the forthcoming cosmetic alterations. Whitfield notes in her artist statement that “these pieces call for more consideration surrounding beauty standards and their unhealthy effects on the minds and bodies of all women.”