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May 2–16, 2011 (Wednesday–Friday, 11AM–6PM; Saturday–Sunday ,12PM–6PM)
Reception: Saturday, May 7, 7–9 PM
White Box
329 Broome Street
New York, NY 10002
It’s not me, it’s YOU.
I see it as a statement directed to you, on the receiving end of this invitation. The show cannot go on without you, the tree doesn’t fall in the forest without you—your consciousness, your engagement, your physical presence, your take on the work, your read. But I also hear an echo of that famously insincere break-up line—”It’s not you, it’s me.” It’s not your inadequacy, but mine. It’s not your loss, but mine. It’s not your fault, but mine. So let’s then switch it back around: No, this time it’s not me. I have worked through it carefully for two years in art school, and now I have this degree, and with all due respect, it is not me, it’s YOU! But what if read this way: it, the fault, is neither the artist’s nor the viewer’s (neither me nor you, neither us nor them) but somehow belonging to the work of art. And maybe the problem is not making art, but breaking up with it: kicking it out—getting it shown, acknowledged, owned, guarded, canonized. “It is not me, it’s you,” says the artist to her own creation as she places it in this white box. It is here that that piece will do what it’s gonna do, and be what it’s gonna be.
— Jeremy Sigler
The School of Art+Design at Purchase College, SUNY presents “It’s not me, it’s you.” the 2011 MFA Thesis Group Exhibition at White Box in New York City. The exhibition is curated by Jeremy Sigler and features work by Seyhey Chung, Amanda Gale, Miles Hall, Mary Ivy Martin, Jess Whittam, and Etty Yaniv. The reception will take place Saturday, May 7th, from 7-9 PM, and is free and open to the public.
The MFA Thesis Exhibition is the capstone of the two-year interdisciplinary, pluralistic graduate program at the School. Under the direction of Co-Coordinators Kate Gilmore and Jeremy Sigler, the small and highly selective program fosters the artistic, intellectual, and professional growth of each student through exposure to a variety of viewpoints represented by faculty, visiting artists and critics, and through independent studio work and academic studies.
The School of Art+Design, part of the School of the Arts at Purchase College, SUNY, offers premiere programs that prepare students for careers in the visual arts and design, as well as lives informed by aesthetic experience. The school honors tradition, encourages experimentation & collaboration, develops critical thinking, and embraces new concepts, materials and technologies. A faculty of working artists is committed to creating a supportive climate in which students are passionate about learning to see, to think, to make, and to reflect. Our graduates are leaders in cultural production throughout the world.