Strength Through Diversity

Arizona Daily Wildcat An untitled work from Kelly Ryan's "Subtle Matter" installation

With 12 artists in the main Museum building and more on the way at other galleries, there is a wide range of styles to see. Most artists were given an entire wall of the museum to work with, allowing the large-scale installations and collections plenty of room to breathe and giving a more complete vision of each artist's range.

Every part of the show is worth seeing, just to appreciate the high level of both craft and emotional/intellectual depth on display, but there are always several that stand out from the others.

One such piece is Kelly Ryan's "Subtle Matter," an impressive installation which recreates an attic in one corner of the museum. Crowded with potent symbols of childhood, fantasy and the world of the imagination, this tightly integrated set of paintings and constructions creates its own spellbinding atmosphere. The attic has always been a complex and ripe metaphor in American culture, a place of memory and self-discovery as well as a gloomy, often haunted closet for hidden terrors. Crossing this rich cultural site with her own childhood experience and the arcane logic of alchemy, Ryan presents a series of dense and ambiguous paintings.

With elements of the surreal, dream images and fantasy illustration, her paintings feature a palette seemingly borrowed from antique wallpaper and are full of half-hidden detail. Rather than present a single dogma or agenda, the work seems more a process of discovery with enough ambiguity to let every viewer draw their own conclusions. In a town where attics are rare luxury, Ryan's pieces still carry a definite psychological weight.

Kelly Leslie contributed "Still Voices," a warm and touching series of digital compositions combined with sculptural details and everyday objects. Taking advantage of the seamless look of digital images and technology that allows an artist to print on almost any flexible material, Leslie softened the edges of her computerized medium and got beyond simple artifice. The series of four tableaux deal with the personal histories of four elderly women, a sampling of different aspects of their lives with a wistful, melancholy tone. While several "Photoshopisms" such as drop shadows draw attention to the artist's tools, Leslie's attention to detail and inclusion of well-chosen sculptural elements makes this a touching piece.

Matt Cotten contributed a small sample of his work in the form of "Calendar (Summer Months)," a series of playful yet subdued paintings on unframed canvas. Full of curious details and colors, Cotten's often aggressive technique appears calm and controlled, featuring elements that seem like casual childhood doodles yet hint at a deeper complexity. The main body of his work is at the International Center of Art (516 5th Ave) after April 19.

Combining the diverse mix of techniques that fall under the rubric of "conceptual art," Efthemia Paikos presented a touching series of epics dealing the experiences of her immigrant family. By using hallmarks of American disposable culture (plastic-wrapped candy, paper bags, tinfoil) to recreate Greek cultural objects such as wedding garments, she creates a complex critique of the American tendency to erase cultural origins and simultaneously enshrine them under plastic in museums. Paikos' piece reminds us that our idealized "melting pot" culture can sometimes victimize those it homogenizes.

The remaining MFA candidates will be showcasing their work at the International Center of Art and at the Jospeh Gross gallery beginning May 5. Once again our class of MFA candidates present a diverse, aggressive, and affecting show - a testament to the expanding range of the UA art program and the students within it.

The MFA Thesis show runs through May 4 at the UA Museum of Art on the northwest corner of campus. Open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.weekdays, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.Sunday. An online version of the exhibition will be available at http://www.u.arizona.edu/ic/arts after April 21.