Exhibition

School of Visual Arts presents BFA Visual & Critical Studies’ 2019 senior thesis exhibition, “Make It Look Like an Accident,” curated by Storm Ascher (BFA 2018 Visual & Critical Studies). The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, January 12, through Saturday, February 2, at the SVA Flatiron Gallery and Project Space, 133/141 West 21st Street.

As critical thinkers, artists often approach their processes with meticulous organization. Every aspect of the studio visit or critique is to be read as a purpose fulfilled. If a mistake occurs, we make it look intentional. “Make It Look Like an Accident” is a celebration of the end result not being a deliberate outcome; it is a dismissal of the intentional, a release of expectation and—as described by Orson Welles as the greatest thing in art—the divine accidents. A fluke in life might create a fluke in artistic production. A fluke in production might create an artistic movement. “Make It Look Like an Accident” is about understanding the art of surrendering to what is, which gives agency ironically to the creator.

The exhibition features installation, fiber art, sculpture, painting, video and publications created by undoing a comfort zone of skill-sets, delving into a data spiral or harkening down to the essence of an idea. The artists find freedom by riding a precarious line between intentionality and whimsicality. They dig up society’s unsolved controversies, untold stories and their innermost selves, then leave these to chance. Losing control to gain control.

The exhibiting artists are: Jenna Caro, Maggie Dunlap, Yuan Fang, Haesoo Jeong, Laura Li, Kylie Mitchell, Joy Nuanez, Annie Oh, Dylan Prince, Benjamin Ryan Yankowy, Rachael Schleis, Dustin Senovic, Vivienne Tewes, SJ Wiegand, Yiman Ye and Lior Zayat.