Exhibition

School of Visual Arts presents “Conflict,” an exhibition of works by SVA students selected by a jury of their peers. Organized by SVA Galleries, “Conflict” is on view Saturday, May 12, through Saturday, June 2, at the SVA Flatiron Gallery, 133/141 West 21st Street, New York City.

These artists address conflicts arising from symptomatic behaviors of capitalism and consumerism, social and environmental crises, colliding identities, and reality clashing with dreams and memories. 

Jose Espaillat’s (BFA Photography and Video) color photographs and videos explore the apocalyptic consequences of global warming that derive from the antagonistic relationship between nature and humans.

Sadia Fakih’s (MFA Fine Arts) works represent internal conflicts and anxieties that result when established cultural identities collide and rearrange. In multilayered paintings, patterns from the Islamic Mughal era in India, Victorian filigree of the British colonial era and contemporary Western pop culture realign and rupture.

Michelle Girardello’s (MFA Fine Arts) large-scale photographs feature bold shadows to depict mutation of memories, and the destabilizing inability to distinguish one experience at variance with another.

Laerke Rose (BFA Photography) explores the conflict between reality and the unfiltered subconscious in dreams through transparency prints and photograph combinations.

Regina Viqueira’s (MFA Fine Arts) sculptures combine objects and light sources to create desolate commercial and domestic spaces, highlighting the devastating impact of American social, political and economic systems’ competition with the environment and communities.

Xueqing Yin’s (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) circular photographic compositions reference the systemic child abuse at Red Yellow Blue Kindergarten in Beijing, China, a tragedy in which public outrage was overcome by government censorship.