Exhibition

School of Visual Arts presents “Quality Time,” an exhibition of work by MFA Art Practice students. “Quality Time” is on view Friday, July 14, through Tuesday, August 8, at the SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor, New York City.

How do we define quality time?

As participants in a low-residency graduate program, the artists in this exhibition, members of the MFA Art Practice class of 2018, spend seven weeks together each summer. Seven feverishly scheduled weeks–12+ hour days packed with lectures, workshops, critiques, exhibitions, and of course, studio time. Is this quality time?

During the remaining 45 weeks of the year, the artists in this show make their livings—as educators, designers, commercial photographers, business professionals. They have families; they are partners and caregivers. They remain connected with one another in a digital space. They make art in the in-between times. Is this quality time?

The concept of “quality time” is one in which we seek to capitalize on the worth of our time. But “quality” is neither objective nor universal. Is quality time that in which we maximize efficiency and yield? Or is it that in which we connect? The artists in this exhibition explore the significance of productivity, the value of interruption, iteration and accumulation, along with the social and cultural facets of time. Drawing relationships between creativity, labor, value and community, they consider the differences between the physical, the psychic and the virtual, between sharing space and sharing time.