MFA Student Exhibitions

Spring 2024

Kyra Litwin

Kyra Litwin

The Kansas State University Department of Art will present the exhibition, “Disintegrating Permanence,” by MFA Candidate Kyra Litwin from March 18-22 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery in Willard Hall, Kansas State University campus. A reception will be held from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm on Friday, March 22 in the gallery. Events are free and open to the public.

Kyra Litwin is originally from Appleton, Wisconsin and earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, with a major in art and minor in archeology. She has participated in numerous regional exhibitions and has won several awards for her drawings and prints.

In her exhibition, Kyra explores her family history, and the palpable impact of generational exchange through drawing and printmaking processes. Her charcoal drawings, dry pigment screen prints, and three-dimensional works created by printing dry, unbound pigment onto sand emulate the passage of time and the concurrent, fading of memory wherein certain details are retained and immortalized, while others deteriorate, becoming blurred, distorted, and forgotten with time. Printing with dry unbound pigments, images are clear, concise, and intact in their initial state. When subjected to time and handling, they begin to distort and blur, becoming at times, reincorporated into the background of the page all together. Extending the conversation of her prints and drawings further, dry, unbound pigments are printed onto sand, producing sharp but transient impressions that will last only for the duration of the show. As the particles break down and the imagery becomes indiscernible, only its essence, and that of the moment remain.

www.art.ksu.edu

Instagram: @kstatemfaart • @kyralitwin

Support for this show was provided in part by the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Small Grant Program for K-State Graduate Students, and funding by KSUSGA Fine Arts Fee.

The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall opened in 2005. Cheryl Mellenthin and Mark Chapman funded a complete renovation of theformer Willard Hall Gallery, increasing the exhibition space to over 1,400 square feet along with 400 square feet dedicated to exhibition preparation andkitchen facilities. The Department of Art hosts BFA and MFA student exhibitions in the gallery as part of graduation requirements each semester. Thetechnology friendly gallery serves n

Spring 2023

Bryan Raymundo

Barking Cropped

The Kansas State University Department of Art will present the exhibition, These Things Happen At Night, by MFA Candidate Bryan Raymundo from March 20-24 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, in Willard Hall. A reception will be held from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm on Friday, March 24 in the gallery. Events are free and open to the public.

Bryan Raymundo is originally from Wichita, Kansas and earned his BFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in Printmaking from Wichita State University. He has participated in regional solo and group exhibitions nationwide and has won multiple awards for his prints. While an undergraduate student at WSU, he organized three steamroller events which brought art and local communities together.

As a first generation Mexican American, Bryan Raymundo uses his own personal experience to reflect on notions of cultural displacement and stereotype. Portraiture and representations of the human figure combine with a rich range of images combed from Mexico and America in both the prints and ceramic sculptures. Dissecting lines carved into the plates and blocks before printing create a sense of fragmentation and separation, and large sections sharply cut away during the working process take on meaning through their absence. Combined with the linear, metal pedestals that surround and protect the ceramic pieces, the prints and ceramics in the exhibition create a visual parallel for the feeling of otherness, and the cumulative challenge of navigating two cultures.

Instagram: @raymundoprintmaker

Cursed of the Comp

Funding for this show was provided in part by the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Small Grant Program for K-State Graduate Students. These events are also presented and funded in part, by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee.

Makenzie Burmeister

Collisions

The Kansas State University Department of Art will present the exhibition, Collisions, by MFA Candidate Makenzie Burmeister from March 6-10 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery in Willard Hall, Kansas State University campus. A reception will be held from 5:00 pm - :00 pm on Friday, March 10th in the gallery. Events are free and open to the public.

Makenzie Burmeister is originally from Gretna, Nebraska and earned her BFA in Art Education with an emphasis in Ceramics from the University of South Dakota. During her time there she played soccer and won multiple awards for her sculpture and ceramics pieces.

Collisions showcases site-reflective installation, drawing, and assemblage sculptures that combine the use of new digital applications with conventional ceramics and drawing processes. Cast and found materials evocative of construction and labor are recontextualized and combined through meditative, rhythmic, and highly repetitive action, transforming them from the mundane and industrial into explorative, expressive, and introspective works.

Instagram: @burmeisterceramics

www.etsy.com/shop/BurmeisterCeramics/items

Funding for this show was provided in part by the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Small Grant Program for K-State Graduate Students. These events are also presented and funded in part, by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee.

Spring 2022

Michael Burke

print

Its Painful Absences Covers All, Intaglio, 34”x23”, 2021

The exhibition, Disquiet, by MFA Candidate Michael Burke, was presented in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, February 21 - 25. This event is free and open to the public.

During one of the most traumatic and solitary times in history, the artist uses experimental and counter-intuitive printmaking methods in order to process and transform the haunting and arresting memories of personal trauma. His abstracted spaces and environments expose the remnants that reside between memories of pain and contemporary vision. Michael Burke’s etchings offer hope within the darkness, inviting the viewer to reflect on their own life experience and survival.

These events are also presented and funded in part, by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

Sepideh Badakhshanian

photographic art

Deprivation, Photography, dimensions (11”x17”), 2022

The exhibition, Deprivation , by MFA Candidate Sepideh Badakhshanian, was presented in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, from February 28 – March 4. The reception was held from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm on Friday, March 4 in the gallery. Events are free and open to the public.

The body of works included in this show focus on women’s feelings in Iran’s traditional and conservative society, portraying the pain that accompanies Iranian women as they are subjected to sexual violence, harassment, legal discrimination, and cultural notions of taboo, along with a questioning of patriarchal ideologies in Iran and Middle Eastern cultures.

Funding for this show was provided in part by the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Small Grant Program for K-State Graduate Students. These events are also presented and funded in part, by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee.

 

Shea Kister

ceramic art

Beware of the Bathroom Floor I, stoneware and low fire glaze, 5.5" x 11" x 8.5", 2021

The exhibition, Please, Sit Down. by MFA Candidate Shea Kister was presented in the gallery from March 7- 11 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery. The reception was held from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm on Friday, March 11 in the gallery. Events are free and open to the public.

Inspired by her study of trauma’s effects on memory as well as personal and social relationships, Shea Kister’s work enlists notions of fragmentation, discontinuity, memory distortion, and dissociation through the use of scale, surface application, and materials. Creating manifestations of how feeling indescribable emotions can be outwardly represented, she presents her work within an immersive context that allows the viewer to experience familiar, though possibly uneasy feelings – the kind that might emerge from memory and the limitations of verbal or written language.

Funding for this show was provided in part by the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Small Grant Program for K-State Graduate Students. These events are also presented and funded in part, by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

Elena Masrour

painting

Biking on a Sunny Day, watercolor and oil on canvas, 60’’x 50” 2022

 

The Exhibition, We’re not in Tehran anymore,” by MFA Candidate Elena Masrour, will be presented in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery from March 21 - 25. A reception will be held from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm on Friday, March 25 in the gallery. Events are free and open to the public.

The paintings in this exhibition reflect some of the many difficulties women living in Iran have had to endure following the Islamic Revolution. The segregation of women in terms of familial obligations, religious rituals, legal privileges, and personal and political power is addressed through the use of Persian iconography, and images and narratives combed from Elena Masrour’s personal experience and Iranian pop culture. We’re not in Tehran anymore draws inspiration from the superheroines of the Golden Age of American comics as a vehicle for engaging viewers in the challenging content, and as a nod to the freedom of speech that has been afforded the artist while studying art in Kansas.

Funding for this show is provided in part by the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Small Grant Program for K-State Graduate Students. These events are also presented and funded in part, by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

 

Spring 2021

Our MFA Exhibition for Spring 2021 will present work from Katrin Bossmann, Lathan Mastellar, and Hailey Quick.

March 22-26, 2021

The Tipping Point

Presented by Master of Fine Arts Graduate Hailey Quick in the Mark A. Chapman in Willard Hall

quick_tippingpoint

MANHATTAN —The Kansas State University Department of Art will present the exhibition, “The Tipping Point” by MFA Candidate Hailey Quick from March 22nd to March 26th in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery in Willard Hall, Kansas State University campus. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. A formal reception will not be held. Events are free and open to the public.

Hailey Quick is originally from Lafayette, LA and received her BFA in Printmaking the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 2019, she was awarded the “Making the Leap Graduate Scholarship” from the Chapman Center for Rural Studies, where she worked as a NEH consultant assisting small historical societies better their professionalism through the AASLH’s StEPs program. Making the Leap is part of the “Chapman Center Engagement Scholarship”, and a National Endowment of the Humanities Grant . Her work has been featured in the publications: The Hand: Issue 19, Issue 27, and Issue 28; California Printmakers Society: Variation on a Theme; Exclamation! Magazine Issue No. 5; Pulse Magazine "Inner Nature” Issue; and Kansas State University’s Seek Magazine Issue Fall 2020. Her work has placed 1st and 3rd in the “2019 New Impressions” and 3rd in the“2020 New Impressions” graduate competition, hosted by Speedball, 1st in “Printmaking in the Rockies and the Great Plains”, and has exhibited in multiple locations across the United States.

Hailey’s work is influenced from her upbringing in rural South Louisiana. Personal struggles with trauma, along with her background in science, guide her image making. Utilizing both the figure and native Louisiana animals in her compositions, Hailey’s lithographs and etchings depict a complex personal narrative through a surreal lens. The chaos in her imagery is represented by visual metaphors and action words such as grabbing, smothering, and breaking to symbolize the chaotic mindset she has experienced. As the work progresses, the boundaries of these action words are pushed into different states of evolvement in the figures and the environment. The emotions of anger, betrayal, pain, and rebirth are the inspirations behind each piece. Each animal serves an allegorical purpose within the images to represent the people of Quick’s family and herself. At times they can be nurturing and protective, while also being violent and foreboding. The beauty and terror that nature provides is the perfect mirror to the complex personal narrative on display. Although one may not know the characters or events behind each piece, the depictions of chaos, and struggle to reclaim empowerment from a traumatic event - is the overarching theme and sets the tone.

Website: https://haileyquick.com/

These events are presented and funded in part by Kansas State University SGA Fine Arts Fee.
The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall 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.
March 8-12, 2021

TRANSCENDigital

Presented by Master of Fine Arts Graduate Lathan Mastellar in the Mark A. Chapman in Willard Hall

MANHATTAN -- The Kansas State University Department of Art will present the exhibition, "TRANSCENDigital" by MFA Candidate Lathan Mastellar from March 7th-12th in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery in Willard Hall, Kansas State University Manhattan, KS. Events are free and open to the public.

Lathan Mastellar is originally from Liberal, Kansas, and received his BFA in DX Media from Kansas State University. Lathan was an artist in residence at Gettysburg national Military Park and has shown work across the country. Lathans work is centered around the phenomeological experience of attention, and digital media. His digital works point at the subtle nature of attention through interactivity and content. The works invite the viewer to engage with them in some way, through this engagement a relationship is established between viewer and object that is completely reliant on attention. This relationship is twofold; the work's attention is dependent on the viewer and the viewer's attention is dependent on the work. When we engage with digital media in such a way we begin to recontextualize our relationship with media, allowing us more agency over where we place our attention.

Website: www.lathanmastellar.com

These events are presented and funded in part by Kansas State University SGA Fine Arts Fee.
The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall 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.

 

February 19-March 20, 2021

Invisible Lines

Presented by Master of Fine Arts Graduate Katharina Bossmann in the Kirmser Gallery at the Manhattan Arts Center

Invisible Lines is an exploration of those boundaries we establish around us, be they natural borders, national borders, cultural limitations or even the restrictions during the pandemic and the longing to be free of them. Many forms of migration exist; some celebrated and others are censured. Inspired by the "murmurations" formed by bird migrations, Katharina Bossmann, in her MFA Thesis exhibition, layers etchings to create prints that show the freedom and movement of these peregrinations. Bossmann uses her Prints, Drawings and Artist's Books to illuminate and question the boundaries we place on ourselves and the desire to connect with others.

 

Archived MFA Student Exhibitions