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2008 All-Senior Exhibition May 7–26, 2008
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2008 ALL-SENIOR EXHIBITION WASHINGTON, D.C.—In May, the Corcoran College of Art + Design will showcase work by the next generation of America’s artists. The Corcoran’s graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts class will present their senior projects within several galleries throughout the Corcoran Gallery of Art. “The All-Senior Exhibition provides a unique opportunity for seniors to show their work in a major museum setting,” said Kirk Pillow, Acting Dean of the Corcoran College of Art + Design. “It is a celebration of the accomplishments of our graduating seniors, as well as an indication of the high quality of the Corcoran’s undergraduate program.” On view from May 7 to 26, the exhibition represents all disciplines and features work by every student graduating from the BFA degree program. It is a fitting complement to the Corcoran’s current special exhibition, The American Evolution: A History through Art. Each department approaches the selection process for the All-Senior Exhibition differently. The seniors in the Photography department work on a long-term project of their choice, beginning in the Fall semester and culminating with the Senior Thesis Exhibition in the early Spring semester. These projects represent a thoroughly developed idea and require the students to have finely tuned their craft and to present their work in a professional manner. Photojournalism faculty work with their students to carefully select a small representation of the work in their thesis shows for inclusion in the All-Senior Exhibition. The students work with the narrative documentary tradition, drawing from specific circumstances to address social, cultural, and political issues. This year’s projects include essays on animal therapy, a young female boxer, and the African American Muslim community in Washington, D.C. Fine Art Photography invites an outside curator to make a small selection from the thesis shows to be displayed in the All-Senior Exhibition. This year, the curator was Andy Grundberg, the administrative chair of the Photography department and an internationally recognized critic. The content and form of the projects created by the Fine Art Photography students is varied and embodies a wide range of imagery relative to contemporary practice. It includes color and black and white photograms, color abstraction, portraits, women’s health issues and directorial work, to name a few. Delving into a variety of media, the Fine Arts seniors’ graduating work featured in the All-Senior show is the outcome of a process of experimentation that began in their third year. The students explore the range of practices that can be found in contemporary art: painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, installation, video, performance, and the digital arts. Through a series of installations and critiques of the students’ work throughout the last two years of the program, they have been led to find the most suitable material expression for their ideas. These concerns include narratives of everyday life investigated in paint, video, or ceramic sculpture; commentaries on how mainstream film and TV culture mediate our perception; critiques of suburban culture, corporate capitalism, and a society of waste; investigations of the construction of identity through found and manipulated objects or text; and explorations of the role of fantasy in our visual culture, from low-budget horror films to children’s story books. The Graphic Design and Digital Media Design senior work includes
interactive media, publications, posters, three-dimensional exhibits, animation,
and digital video. The projects are diverse, including a wayfinding system
for a college campus, a prototype for dispensing medicine to senior citizens,
a design campaign for an environmentally conscious fashion line, a series of
experimental books, and manga. Some students have chosen to examine the past—studying
the use of nostalgia and kitsch, branding and advertising. Others are looking
to the future—addressing issues of sustainability, new directions for
print and digital media, and interface design. :: View images and further details from this exhibition
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