Room before

For this exhibition, the Studio Art MFA candidates at UT Austin invited six MFA students from Yale University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of California, Los Angeles to participate in a collaborative exhibition in the spirit of artistic exchange. The participants traveled from across the country to stay with the UT MFA candidates. In preparation for the experience, they wondered: “How do you prepare your guest room to host a person you’ve never met?” 

Room before serves as a common space in which the artists are encouraged to explore, test, sound, allow, fail, learn, succeed, and grow. It is simultaneously an exhibition and an experiment centered around the idea that commonalities will surface when you gather artists at a similar point in their careers. Through this process, the artists made space for chance, risk, and vulnerability. We invite the public to explore these commonalities, as well as the divergences bound to occur.

The installation is organized by Veronica Roberts, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Blanton Museum of Art.

Artists

Cameron Coffman (UCLA)
Jenny Gagalka (UCLA)
Sasha Baskin (VCU)
Kathryn Lien (VCU)
Natalie Ball (Yale)
Penn Chan (Yale)
Hiba Ali (UT Austin)
Evelyn Contreas (UT Austin)
Siera Hyte (UT Austin)
Marisa LaGuardia (UT Austin)
Rosa Nussbaum (UT Austin)
Emily O’Leary (UT Austin)
Anika Steppe (UT Austin)
Riel Sturchio (UT Austin)
Ingrid Tremblay (UT Austin)