Visual Arts Celebrated Spring 2021 Graduating Class in Undergraduate Thesis Exhibition
The undergraduate Visual Arts Program at Columbia University recently honored their Spring 2021 graduates at their annual Senior Thesis Show. Over 75 people tuned in for the reception hosted by Adjunct Assistant Professor Emily Henretta ’11 and Professor Gregory Amenoff.
Henretta received her MFA from Columbia University in 2011. She has exhibited her work at The International Print Center New York, The Westside Gallery at The School of Visual Arts, The BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Room East Gallery, Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio, Elizabeth Dee Gallery and The Inside Out Museum in Beijing. She is the recipient of a Bronx Council of the Arts Grant and the Bronx Museum AIM fellowship. She lives and works in the Bronx, New York.
Amenoff, who is also the Painting Concentration Head in the Visual Arts program at the School of the Arts, is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations including the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Tiffany Foundation, and is the recipient of the 2011 John Solomon Guggenheim Fellowship. He has had over fifty one-person exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. His work is in the permanent collections of more than thirty museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He served as President of the National Academy of Design from 2001-2005. He is a founding member of the CUE Art Foundation where he serves on the Board and as the Foundation's Curator Governor. His recent solo exhibitions include Solid State: Woodblock Prints (Editions & Variations) in New York.
The Spring 2021 Thesis Exhibition is the second undergraduate senior showcase to take place virtually due to the ongoing pandemic. The show, which was curated by the graduating Senior Thesis Class in consultation with Henretta and Amenoff, takes the form of an interactive webpage. Not only does each student have their own individual artist page, but the pages themselves are thoughtfully designed by the student whose work appears there.
When you visit the online thesis show, you are greeted by a collective message from the graduating students: “We are so thankful for all of your support for our artwork, and we are extremely proud to put forward these capstone projects. This has been a year unlike any other, and our class has the distinction of completing both thesis semesters virtually, but faced with these unique challenges in our senior year we have adapted greatly and pushed through it all to reach this moment. We would like to thank our wonderful professors Emily Henretta and Gregory Amenoff for all their help and guidance throughout this year, as well as everyone in the Visual Arts department for supporting us throughout our Columbia journey.”
The evening featured presentations from all thirteen graduating visual arts students: Julie Bishop, Elizabeth Byun, Kali Duffy, Luke Ebora, Zena Eidin, Oscar Hou, Joseph Lynch, Jefferson McCarthy, Michael Morgan, Audrey Oh, Vivian Snyder, Aaron Stanislav, and Caro Varela. The presentations ranged from live-streamed performance pieces to light installations to photography to community-based projects to poetry to bold, original paintings.
In her closing remarks, Henretta said, “It was amazing to see all of the students’ work. I know this year has been challenging for all of us, for so many reasons, and I really want to say thank you to all of my wonderful students, all artists who are making amazing work. It’s a magical experience to share together.”
Be sure to explore the entire senior showcase here where it will be showcased for the forthcoming year.