Credit Image above – Ashley May

Riverside CA – The Riverside Art Museum (RAM) proudly presents Citrus Street: 1st and 2nd year UCR MFA Exhibition, running May 11 – June 12, 2016, with a free, open-to-the-public Opening Reception on Saturday, May 14, from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Opening Reception for Citrus Street, Saturday, May 14

Citrus Street: 1st and 2nd Year UCR MFA Exhibition
Exhibition: May 11 – June 12, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 14, 2016, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
For more information, visit www.riversideartmuseum.org

The Riverside Art Museum is pleased to announce the 2016 University of California at Riverside Masters of Fine Arts Exhibition, spotlighting the work of eight first and second year graduate students, facilitated by UCR Associate Professor of Art, Yunhee Min. These students work in various mediums, including: sculpture, painting, photography, video, and installation. Working towards the culmination of their thesis projects, they each approach their work with a unique voice, conceptual framework, and formal sensibility. All of the students in the exhibition are actively engaged in dialogue with an important lineage of artistic practice and the ever-evolving arena of contemporary art.

1st/2nd Year MFAs:

Rick Bahto 

Rick Bahto lives in Los Angeles. He has exhibited work utilizing still and motion picture photography, sound, and performance at a variety of museums, galleries, microcinemas, film festivals, conferences, alternative spaces, and scenic locations spanning the Northern Hemisphere. He has collaborated with and performed works by various composers, including Casey Anderson, Luciano Chessa, Julia Holter, and Mark So.

Hollie Brown

Hollie Brown is an MFA candidate at University of California, Riverside. Her practice is multidisciplinary, currently in a state of flux.

Collaged lyrics by: Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson.

Richard Corral 

My paintings typically depict everyday spaces or constructed spaces made on the computer or from found images. They exist in a type of liminal space, often of imagined events that range from the banal to the ruinous, indirectly referring to the sensory overload of our over accumulation of images. While my subjects exemplify ideas of deterioration and futility, I try to redeem them by transforming them into rich visual experiences through the medium of painting.

Joe Leavenworth 

Joe Leavenworth (b. 1985) is a first year MFA candidate at UC Riverside working in photography. In 2014, Joe published his first photobook, Native Son, which traces his travels back to Georgia, seeking connection to this region where he was born.  Most recently, Native Son entered the collections of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA, and the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, NY.

Ashley May

Ashley May (b. 1984, South Deerfield, MA) is a multi-media artist living and working in Riverside, CA. She received a BA in Art from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, in 2007. Her work incorporates sculpture, painting, and photography and centers on questions of scale and gesture in relation to the landscape.

Ahram Park

Ahram Park (b.1986, Pusan, Korea) is an artist based in southern California. He received his B.S. in Economics from Kansas State University in 2010 and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of California, Riverside. Ahram works primarily in photographic interventions and its relationship to the FLOW state. Recent exhibitions include the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 1522 Saint Louis, and a solo exhibition at Haw Contemporary.

Julie Sadowski

I arrange images metonymically with an attempt for a collective meaning to be revealed through relationships formed between the images. These relationships are often generated by color, form, and by what is represented in the image. My work may be seen as a collection of short poems – fictional – yet built out of images that manifest physical properties of reality. I treat image making as though I am a writer-poet, yet I choose to work with images over words as I believe that they have an ability to validate something that is linguistically unexplainable.

Anna Wittenberg

Anna Wittenberg (b. 1985, Houston TX) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. She received her BA in Media Studies at Pitzer College in 2008 and is currently working toward her MFA at University of California, Riverside. Coming from a background in moving image and critical theory, Anna primarily works in video, performance, and sculpture to interrogate facets of both contemporary and historical cultural practices.

Additional Programming

Join UCR MFA students as they lead you through their exhibit, giving behind-the-scenes insights into the creation of their artwork. Free with admission or membership.

May 14: Ahram Park
May 21: Joe Leavenworth
May 28: Ashley May
June 4: Julie Sadowski
June 11: Rick Bahto

The Riverside Art Museum integrates art into the lives of people in a way that engages, inspires, and builds community by providing high quality exhibits and art education programs that instill a lifelong love of the arts. RAM relies on the generosity of members and donors to support its exhibitions, education programs, and special events. A 60-plus-year-old, non-profit cultural arts institution housed in a National Historic 1929 building designed by Hearst Castle and AIA Gold Medal-winning architect Julia Morgan, the museum welcomes over 50,000 visitors a year. The museum is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday, 12:00 noon – 4:00 p.m. For information on exhibits, events, classes, memberships, or sponsorship opportunities, visit www.RiversideArtMuseum.org. Find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/riversideartmuseum), Twitter (RAMRiverside), Instagram (@riversideartmuseum), and Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/ramarts).