“Untitled (Mikael’s Foot),” 2012, by Sarah Muehlbauer
Graduates of the Yale University School of Art‘s photography program are showing their work at the Ana Tzarev Gallery in New York. “Group Portrait,‘“the 2012 Yale MFA Photography Thesis Show is on view through July 21, according to a Yale University news release, which indicates that “an informal discussion with the artists and art critic Rick Moody will take place at the gallery on July 12.”
Photographer Gregory Crewdson, who graduated from the Yale School of Art 1988 and now directs the photography program, said graduate students’ thesis work has for the past four or five years been shown in New Haven and New York. Sabrina Wirth, of Wirth Art Advisory—“a company focused on connecting emerging artists with new collectors,” according to its website—has organized the shows in New York over the past three years.
Crewdson said Group Portrait “is a condensed version of (the class of 2012’s) thesis show” and that “essentially, Sabrina curates a version of … the original thesis exhibition.”
Students’ thesis portfolios are an “overview of the work they’ve done” over the course of the two-year MFA program, with a “focus on the final year,” Crewdson said.
The students asked Moody — whom Crewdson said he invited “last year to join the faculty part-time” — to write an introductory essay for the book they designed, under the guidance of Yale School of Art faculty member Thomas Palmer, as part of their thesis exhibition. Moody met with the students throughout the year, Crewdson said, offering group critiques and helping students with their artist statements.
Now recent graduates, the nine photographers whose work is part of Group Portrait “are all doing really interesting work and challenging work … (that) reflects the moment we’re in,” Crewdson said, explaining that “photography has an interesting place within the digital world,” where the use of film, video, and the Internet overlap.
According to the above-mentioned news release, Group Portrait “is a New York debut for artists Peter Baker, Richard Choi, Felix R. Cid, Thomas Gardiner, Pao Houa Her, Katie Koti, Kate A. T. Merrill, Sarah Muehlbauer, and Maayan Strauss,” all of whom graduated this year from the Yale University School of Art’s photography program. View a slideshow of the artists’ photographs here.
The Ana Tzarev Gallery is located at 24 W. 57th St. in New York, and is open weekdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Rick Moody will speak on July 12 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.