The Art Academy of Cincinnati is pleased to present the second of six senior thesis exhibitions. “Graceless” will feature the work of Brooke Blankemeyer, Rian Hunter, Charles Kleiman, Hannah Penny, Amanda Phirman and Kelly Tadge. The exhibition will include illustration, photography, performance and participation and painting. Each senior will receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in May 2011.

Rian Hunter is a Fine Arts Photography major from Columbus, OH who is currently making videos. Her videos document a range of actions that take place solely in front of a camera. This one-on-one relationship has allowed Hunter to examine the concept of self-awareness through activities as simple as licking a jawbreaker, cutting fabric and destroying a sweater. By carefully titling each video, she hopes to allude to her own awareness of perceived imperfections of character and suggest that these so-called flaws could easily be neutral rather than disruptive to normal existence. After graduation, she hopes to travel and participate in artist residency programs.

 Kelly Tadge is a fine art photographer from Cleveland, OH. Her photographs address the push and pull aspect of disgust and beauty. Subsequently, her images become a demurely violent self-sexual fantasy, wherein the viewer is a voyeur. Currently, she is working on her Ohio exit strategy, in which graduate school becomes an integral part. Tadge’s work has always had aspects of peculiar sexuality/fetishism, intimate individual experience and ambiguity of narrative and provocation. These characteristics come out through the artist’s use of color, texture, composition, cropping, materials, scale and use of value. She has been creating large-scale, color photographs utilizing her body as a way to materialize emotional pangs. Tadge will complete her BFA in Fine Arts Photography.

Amanda Phirman creates art to find purpose in her life and has used art to alleviate an internal feeling of loss. Early in her art-making, she used drawing, painting and sculpture to satisfy her need to create. However, a gap remained. The artist pressed on and began to create objects with a function and a true purpose. Later, she created actions with purpose, and Phirman realized that her life was becoming art. She began working as an artist and facilitator, using support group meetings, guided tours and group initiatives as vehicles for self-metamorphosis. Now, Phirman’s art extends into her life to the point that there is no distinction between the two. Working to collapse the line between art and life, she presents works that manifest themselves as meetings, conversations, advertisements, instructions and group actions. Participation is fundamental to this work in order to provide potential moments of transformation for the artist and participants. Phirman will graduate with a BFA in Sculpture.

Brooke Blankemeyer is an illustrator from Columbus, OH. She uses many materials to create her illustrations, including watercolor, textiles and sculpture. Her work recalls the Victorian era, and she is influenced by Art Nouveau style. She is currently working on a children’s book about a young girl named Isidora and a top hat-wearing crow named Mr. Corvus. After graduating, Blankemeyer hopes to illustrate more children’s books. She will receive a BFA in Illustration.

Charles Kleiman migrated from upstate New York to Cincinnati, which he now calls home. Kleiman’s eclectic sensibilities allow him to create art across all disciplines. Never tethered by any single concept, he lets material, process and concept merge to develop works of blatancy, ambiguity and tailored recklessness. Working with a mild obsession, he draws the beard to show its significance to his perceptions of its historical context and his dedication to growing his own beard. He uses the ellipse shape as a symbol to allude to post-colonial framing design as ideas of elegance and class. The craft and line work of the paintings metaphorically tells of the beard’s growth, craft and transformation. Kleiman will graduate with a BFA in Painting.

Hannah Penny is a painter from Rhinebeck, NY who currently lives in Cincinnati, OH. She works abstractly to recollect her past by creating emotive and energetic images. Painting is an outlet that provides Penny an escape, and looking back into her childhood provides her a sense calm. The work reflects a push and pull of emotions that deal with images from the past while taking her current perceptions and anxieties into account. She will graduate with a BFA in Painting and a minor in Art History.

Exhibition Dates: March 28 – April 1, 2011
Closing Reception: Friday, April 1, 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Gallery Talks: March 28 & March 30 @ 12:30 pm
 

**GENERAL INFORMATION**
The Pearlman Gallery is on the first level of the North Building at 1212 Jackson Street across from the Kroger Parking Garage. The Convergys Gallery is on the first level of the South Building, and the Chidlaw Gallery is on the lower level of the North Building. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. Senior Thesis Show Hours are 9-9 Monday through Friday. 513.562.6262.