The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum and Flagler College look forward to our bi-annual exhibition of work by B.F.A. and B.A. candidates in the Department of Visual Art. The exhibition will open with a reception for the artists on Thursday, December 12 from 5 until 8pm, and will also be on view on Friday, December 13 from 10am until 4pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Both the Bachelor of Fine Art and Bachelor of Art Portfolio courses were led this semester by Sara Pedigo, Professor of Art, and Department of Visual and Performing Arts Chairperson.

In each of the twelve videos that make up her multi-channel installation, Megan Lennon performs different personas, replete with elaborate costume and make up changes. The artist states, “I exist to make and break eye contact with the camera, to dance like I know what I am doing, and to own Hollywood tropes as if I invented them. These actions are influenced by my need to hyperbolize myself, and to give my negotiations with hyper femininity a private and absurd theater.”

Lennon adeptly draws the viewer in through this carefully constructed atmosphere of nostalgia, evoked through her references to old Hollywood and pop culture. As viewers, we are also voyeurs, which creates an environment of disquiet and lends an unsettling quality to the work. Invariably, we occupy the space of the “male gaze,” implicit in the collapse of the characters on the screen.

The BA Portfolio exhibition will include work by Sam Bolanos, whose installation recreates a childhood room that was once a site of trauma. Elizabeth Green’s multi-media paintings and sculptures use candy as a point of entry to consider issues of body image and self-assurance. Alexa Lisanti uses photographic means to address impending environmental catastrophe. The biomorphic shapes in Caroline McClellan’s paintings and sculptural objects reference cells and amoebas, while also bring to mind the abstract and deeply philosophical works of Hilma af Klimt. Celia Nofsinger’s diaristic works merge pen and ink drawing with collaged elements to investigate the ways in which people present themselves to the outside world.

The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum is located in an accessible building. If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodations, please contact Phil Pownall at 904-819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice.

For further information on the museum’s exhibitions and related programs, please visit the website at www.flagler.edu/crispellert, or contact Julie Dickover at 904-826-8530 or crispellert@flagler.edu. The museum will be closed during Flagler College’s winter break, from December 14, 2019 until January 13, 2020.