2022 MASTER OF FINE ARTS DEGREE CANDIDATE EXHIBITIONS FORREST LEONARD, JAKE EVERETT, HELENA NOORDHOFF, SADAF NAEEM, MAKENZIE DAVIS, & NATHAN TALAMANTEZ

2022 Master of Fine Arts Degree Candidate Public Defenses:

Nathan Talamantez: April 22, 4:00 PM HST

Meeting ID: 951 4976 4352 Link here Passcode: 829569

Exhibition Information:

Nathan Talamantez: Reflection, Sunday, April 17 – Thursday, April 28

Nathan Talamantez collects and alters vintage photos. Reflection delves into the interconnectedness of the past and the present moment to ask the viewer if photographs might be actual pieces of memory. This body of work challenges the binaries we continually construct and reconstruct between self and other, and between our own past and present selves. Such reconstruction is performed by contesting the division between the realm of memory and the realm of experience.

Nathan R. Talamantez (b. 1993, Texas) received his BFA in photography from The University of Texas at San Antonio, where he focused on darkroom and alternative process photography. He then joined the United States Navy. Attracted by photography’s power to preserve moments in time, he is drawn to vintage photographs, which he calls “lost memories.” His current work revolves around photographs that have already been taken, which he sees as a portal for thoughts of the past and for the current moment, where the present and past experience each other. Currently, he is active-duty military stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

Makenzie Davis: April 8, 2022, 4:00 PM HST

Meeting ID: 979 6004 0524 Link here Passcode: 696805

Exhibition Information:

Makenzie Davis: Deep Time, Sunday, April 3 – Thursday, April 14

Makenzie Davis’s Deep Time uses paint and handmade paper pulp to envision an environment where geologic deep time is observed in mythology, mo‘olelo, and memory. The installation consists of a monumental twenty-four-foot-long painting on paper that suggests landscapes. Five sculptural paper columns refer to both the notion of axis mundi, and contemporary phenomena like lava trees and urban utility poles. Each component emphasizes a geologic perspective that fosters a sense of deep time within the human experience.

 

Exhibition Information:

Sadaf Naeem: Threads of Empathy, Knotting the Unseen, Sunday, March 20 – Thursday, March 31

Sadaf Naeem’s Threads of Empathy, Knotting the Unseen makes visible the connection between physical labor and women’s unseen emotional work. Utilizing cotton cords made by women in Punjab, Pakistan, she practices an intensive method of knotting and braiding that emerges from everyday acts like making hair braids or tying a knot to get dressed. The installation consists of three components entitled Knotted Bodies, Braided Body, and Unfolded. Together, they are a confrontation of childhood memories and a metaphor for healing.

Sadaf Naeem (b. Sahiwal, Pakistan) received her BFA degree from the National College of Arts (Lahore, Pakistan). She has presented solo exhibitions at GRRIC, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) (2021); O Art Space (Lahore, Pakistan) (2019); and Chawkandi Art Gallery (Karachi, Pakistan) (2017). Naeem produced an art installation at Alliance Française for the Karachi Biennale (2019). Her work was presented in the group exhibitions Euphonic Palettes, Nitanjali Art Gallery, Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Mumbai, India; Lantern of the East, the 16th Pyeongtaek International Art Festival, Korea; and at Colombo Art Gallery, Sri Lanka; as well as an auction organized by the Scarsdale Foundation, New York. She is the recipient of the 2020 Award of Merit in the Memory of Ethel Portner in the group show Fiber Hawai‘i 2020 at Gallery ‘lolani, Hawai‘i; the East-West Center Foundation Scholarship (2020–2021); and the Shore Hodge Lipsher Memorial Award (UHM) (2020, 2021).

 

Helena Noordhoff: March 3, 2022, 3:00 PM HST

Meeting ID: 947 6738 9605 Link here Passcode: 180071

Exhibition Information:

Helena Noordhoff: Realphantasie, Sunday, February 27 – Thursday, March 10

Helena Noordhoff’s Realphantasie features frosted Mylar and acrylic ink monoprint inkblots, zines, and an original audio score. Perceptions of inkblots vary among individuals; in order for the viewer to find a connection or a moment beyond the surface, they engage with the abstract images to recognize images and shapes. The zines, consisting of collections of drawings and writings, summon further consideration from the viewer. An audio composition imagines the sounds of anxiety and its fluctuations. Collectively, these works ask the viewer to engage with, perceive, and contemplate the unconscious mind and mental health, thus inviting the development of empathy.

Jake Everett: February 18, 2022, 1:30 PM HST

Meeting ID: 939 2505 4687 Link here Passcode: 581869

Exhibition Information:

Jake Everett: Liminal Matter, Sunday, February 13 – Thursday, February 24

Jake Everett's Liminal Matter investigates the industrial landscape as a permanent state of liminality. Broken down into three main bodies—The Doors of Separation, The Limen, and The Vehicles of Initiation—the exhibition is physically characterized by discarded matter that facilitates a rite of passage for the material, the artist, and the viewer.

The artist’s studio overlooks a loading dock, an environment in flux where materials come and go. The exhibition interprets discarded material and objects as liminal matter; no longer serving their previous existence as commodities, they possess an ambiguous identity that hovers between form and intended function.

First coined by Arnold van Gennep, the term liminality is used to describe the time in which people are on the threshold of entering a new phase in their life, having left the previous one behind. The limen, said to act as a membrane, holds the tension between one space or condition and another. It is in these transitional moments that transformation can

Jake Everett (b. 1991, Colorado Front Range) received his BFA in painting from Colorado State University where he was a recipient of the Tracie Noah Memorial Scholarship. Inspired by the paradoxical relationship between nature and culture, Everett gathers discarded objects, assembling them into three dimensional paintings. His walks around Honolulu have led him to view discarded objects as cultural relics embodied with the spirits of our natural histories. Recently, his work was presented in Los Angeles, California, in Collecting Community History Initiative: The West During COVID-19 and Collecting Community History Initiative: Black Lives Matter Protests in the West, Autry Museum of the American West, as well as the international exhibition, Art in the Time of Corona, Dab Art Co.

 

Exhibition Information:

Forrest Leonard: Care Packaging, Sunday, January 30 – Thursday, February 10

Forrest Leonard’s Care Packaging presents a ceramic artist’s perspective on waste streams as a resource, rather than a source of pollution. Leonard focuses on Styrofoam, which despite being recyclable occupies 30% of landfills worldwide. In Hawai‘i, Styrofoam packaging waste increased with online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, a sign that the climate crisis continues in spite of lockdowns. Rather than dwell on these negative associations, Leonard reuses the Styrofoam packaging as readymade molds for casting ceramic forms. Utilizing recycled clay and found colorants, he recasts the products the Styrofoam once carried, and adapts them as functional and sculptural ceramics.

Forrest Leonard (b. 1994) is a ceramic artist raised in Kailua, O‘ahu, who utilizes found forms for making functional and sculptural ceramics. He completed his BFA in ceramics and sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2015. Since 2010, Leonard has received numerous awards during various exhibitions in Hawai‘i, Chicago and Portland. He was also awarded John Young scholarships upon enrolling at SAIC (2012) and for his MFA in ceramics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) (2022). Leonard has worked and volunteered extensively within the O‘ahu art community, primarily as an installation technician and as the treasurer for the Clay Club at UHM. Recent exhibitions include Post Package, GRRIC Contemporary (2021) and Hawai‘i Craftsmen Annual Juried Exhibition, Downtown Arts Center (2020).