Department of Art

2019-2020 Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Student Exhibitions

Spring 2020

2020 Graphic Design Graduating Senior Show

This show was converted to an online platform due to the 2020 Pandemic.

2020 Studio Art Graduating Senior Gallery

This exhibition was converted to an online platform due to the 2020 Pandemic.

Fall 2019

December 16-20, 2019

Kansas State University Department of Art will present the third of three BFA Thesis Exhibitions of the fall semester featuring MiKayla Bond, Meredith Power, Breanna Rowe, and Allison Walker. The artists will showcase an exhibition of their undergraduate artwork from December 16 through 20, 2019 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, first floor of Willard Hall. Gallery hours are 8am – 5pm, Monday through Friday. Please feel free to attend the reception with the artists on Friday evening, December 20, from 5:30 to 7:30pm in the gallery.

Admission is free and open to the public. Funded by K-State SGA Fine Arts fee.

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MiKayla Bond is a screenprinting artist from Gardner, KS that creates bright portraiture prints using traditional screenprinting practices. Her work focuses on the complex ideas of empathy and connection that occurs, or is sometimes absent, between humans. She says, "I don't want the viewer to try to understand the imagery from my point of view but rather open up and try to have a real connection with the prints and explore what they can get out of them." Her prints aim to tap into the empathy of the viewer and bring out the vulnerability that is required to have these connections.

Meredith Power is a ceramic installation artist from Overland Park, Kansas. Her installations focus on the interaction between humans as well as their interactions with each other, space, everyday objects, and time. They include ceramic objects and a variety of other materials. "I use vessels and lines to investigate our relationship to ourselves and others through our interaction with objects and obstacles." Her material choice and placement within the installation allow the components to work together to create curiosity about the installation as well as how we relate to the objects ourselves.

Breanna Rowe is a painter from Prairie Village, Kansas. Using media including paint and fibers, Breanna depicts toys as her colorful subject matter. Breanna has spent time depicting beanie babies in large masses, lumping the bears into a community with each other. "Within my work I try to make sense of the fun, colorful, and crazy aspects of the mess that is life. I do this with toys that give me a sense of joy and something to focus that energy on." Her pieces aim to create figural color fields that when paired with each other can create a feeling of connection.

Allison Walker is a ceramic artist from Overland Park, Kansas who explores how functional pottery can facilitate community and joy through a shared experience or meal. Her work is brightly colored and uses creative alternative surfaces such as epoxy resin and glitter. When talking about her unique surface designs she states, "Within my work, I wanted to focus on the celebration that life can be. I think that the bright colored, glittery surfaces of my pots pull people in and create a sense of excitement, interest, and joy." Overall, her work aims to be highly functional and strives to be a source of conversation, community building, and an overall good time!

The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall, across from the art office, opened in 2005. Cheryl Mellenthin and Mark Chapman funded a complete renovation of the former Willard Hall Gallery, increasing the exhibition space to over 1,400 square feet along with 400 square feet dedicated to exhibition preparation and kitchen facilities. The Department of Art hosts BFA and MFA student exhibitions in the gallery as part of graduation requirements each semester. The technology friendly gallery serves not only exhibition purposes, but also provides a location for an active Visiting Artist lecture program.

December 9-13, 2019

Kansas State University Department of Art will present the second of three BFA Thesis Exhibitions of the fall semester featuring Teresa Hediger, Kelsey Hoines, Maggie Sheahan, and Eric Sweeney. The artists will showcase an exhibition of their undergraduate artwork from December 9 through 13, 2019 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, first floor of Willard Hall. Gallery hours are 8am – 5pm, Monday through Friday. Please feel free to attend the reception with the artists on Friday evening, December 13, from 5:30 to 7:30pm in the gallery.

Admission is free and open to the public. Funded by K-State SGA Fine Arts fee.

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Teresa Hediger of Lenexa, Kansas, will receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Drawing from Kansas State University. She makes ominous drawings using ink and wash, which she crafts in a speedy fashion using models and her own imagination for inspiration. Her 30-minute drawings are blotchy and drippy, showing how fast and free-flowing her process is.

Kelsey Hoines will receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Painting and a minor in Dance from Kansas State University. Having a father in the military, Kelsey has lived in many different states and countries; Okinawa, Japan inspired the forms in her largescale oil paintings in this exhibit. The undulating forms of the banyan tree limbs, roots, and vines are viewed from tantalizing perspectives that allow the viewer to feel overwhelmed, surrounded, and exhilarated. "I'm exploring the darker, psychological concepts of coming of age through imagery from my childhood, but I'm also highly interested in gravity, density, and tension." The immense size and high contrast of the paintings creates an immersive, complicated space for the viewer to be swallowed into.

Maggie Sheahan is from Kansas City and will receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kansas State University concentrating in Photography and Printmaking with a minor in Journalism and Communications this December. Her photography work mainly focuses around individuality among females in society, emphasizing mental health, body image, and suicide. Maggie's printmaking work covers personal struggles revolving around coping with death and intimidation, using haunting imagery complimented with vibrant coloring. She says, "Although imagery is extremely important in a piece, process enhances all aspects of it." All of Sheahan's work is heavily affected by selected processes to go along with her concepts across all media in which she works.

Eric Sweeney, born in Mobile, Alabama and now residing in Manhattan, Kansas, will receive his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kansas State University with a concentration in Painting. His work has a strong focus on abstraction and the emotion of color. Using influences from Asian ink drawing and painting as well as European and American painting styles, he depicts his ideas into what he calls "dreamscapes." He says "What matters is the fleeting impression of being lost in thought. To be unsure of certainty, to be in a dream, it is there that one can perceive the honesty in reality."

The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall, across from the art office, opened in 2005. Cheryl Mellenthin and Mark Chapman funded a complete renovation of the former Willard Hall Gallery, increasing the exhibition space to over 1,400 square feet along with 400 square feet dedicated to exhibition preparation and kitchen facilities. The Department of Art hosts BFA and MFA student exhibitions in the gallery as part of graduation requirements each semester. The technology friendly gallery serves not only exhibition purposes, but also provides a location for an active Visiting Artist lecture program.

December 2-6, 2019

Kansas State University Department of Art will present the first of three BFA Thesis Exhibitions of the fall semester featuring Michael Burger, Rachel Hermes, and Alexandria Walters. The artists will showcase an exhibition of their undergraduate artwork from December 2 through 6, 2019 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, first floor of Willard Hall. Gallery hours are 8am – 5pm, Monday through Friday. Please feel free to attend the reception with the artists on Friday evening, December 6, from 5:30 to 7:30pm in the gallery.

Admission is free and open to the public. Funded by K-State SGA Fine Arts fee.

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Michael Burger, from Shawnee, KS, will exhibit his latest body of large scale charcoal drawings. He says, "I have used various materials in the past in order to make images; each image has been an experiment to see what works." His BFA show will include an image of children experimenting using Ball jars and picked flowers to create their own perfume, which is an old memory of his first experiment with a childhood friend.

Rachel Hermes is a painter and printmaker originally from Wichita, KS who explores the transient, fragile nature of the human experience by focusing on the cycle of life and death. Her large-scale oil paintings and detailed line etchings illustrate a timeless imaginary world where human figures are overcome by foliage and references to erosion and decay. She says, "I retreat to that world to make otherwise unreachable thoughts and moods tangible." Her work employs fantastical themes to draw a parallel to the slow, but steady toll taken from living in a morally challenging and psychologically draining technological world.

Alexandria Walters of Abilene, KS creates dramatic black and white charcoal drawings. The emotional environment and aggressive mark making in her work help characterize her constant battle with obsessive compulsive disorder thoughts. She says, "The mind is a powerful place, and my art always allows the opportunity to express what is happening inside mine." Her drawings indicate the obsessive behavior through hash marks, charcoal marks, and an overall messy environment around the figure.

The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall, across from the art office, opened in 2005. Cheryl Mellenthin and Mark Chapman funded a complete renovation of the former Willard Hall Gallery, increasing the exhibition space to over 1,400 square feet along with 400 square feet dedicated to exhibition preparation and kitchen facilities. The Department of Art hosts BFA and MFA student exhibitions in the gallery as part of graduation requirements each semester. The technology friendly gallery serves not only exhibition purposes, but also provides a location for an active Visiting Artist lecture program.

Archived Bachelor of Arts (BFA) Exhibitions:

Upcoming BFA Exhibitions