ON VIEW
May 9 – 18, 2024
EXHIBITION OPENING
Thurs, May 9, 5 – 7 pm
May 9 – 18, 2024
EXHIBITION OPENING
Thurs, May 9, 5 – 7 pm
@kayla_spaeth
Maine-based artist Kayla Spaeth focuses on themes of care, intimacy, sentimentality, and examining interactions between familiars through both drawing and writing. They specialize in oil pastel figurative works and use a combination of photo-reference and memory to create large-scale drawings depicting connection within their social circle. Deep friendships and platonic love have been Spaeth’s largest source of inspiration, often deriving from mundane moments shared between friends. Their goal is to capture the sense of security felt in these fleeting moments and highlight the beauty of innocent loves by romanticizing the imagery, creating a bridge between felt and real experience. The process of drawing with oil pastel pairs well as the oils from the pastel mix with oil from the artist’s hand through blending the material, creating a physical bond between art and artist. Their writing practice is a meditation on important characters and moments in the artist’s life. Though deriving from personal experiences, Spaeth writes as if they are writing to the reader by their usage of “you” as the main subject, allowing the reader to place themselves on the receiving end of the message, or in the author’s point of view. This in turn opens space for the reader’s experience and sentimentality.
In my current body of work, I am expressing intricacies in relationships outside of romantic partnerships. I create drawings depicting forms of intimacy with others in both oil pastel and charcoal. Both materials demand a close interaction between maker and material. The oils from the pastel and from the maker’s hand combine, quite literally putting my hand into the work, and charcoal is reactive to the surfaces it comes in contact with; it smudges easily and even when sprayed with fixative will still be picked up by one’s hand. I am exploring moments in my life that have stuck with me, whether the event is significant or not and expressing the beauty I see in these moments with reference to lockets. I am choosing to romanticize these moments to show the fullness of these experiences and reflect intimacy in friendships with others. There is an appreciation for and perhaps an attempt to capture fleeting moments, to record them as a moment in history; in this manner the unnoticed act becomes worth noting.
Kayla Spaeth
Maine-based artist Kayla Spaeth focuses on themes of care, intimacy, sentimentality, and examining interactions between familiars through both drawing and writing. They specialize in oil pastel figurative works and use a combination of photo-reference and memory to create large-scale drawings depicting connection within their social circle. Deep friendships and platonic love have been Spaeth’s largest source of inspiration, often deriving from mundane moments shared between friends. Their goal is to capture the sense of security felt in these fleeting moments and highlight the beauty of innocent loves by romanticizing the imagery, creating a bridge between felt and real experience. The process of drawing with oil pastel pairs well as the oils from the pastel mix with oil from the artist’s hand through blending the material, creating a physical bond between art and artist. Their writing practice is a meditation on important characters and moments in the artist’s life. Though deriving from personal experiences, Spaeth writes as if they are writing to the reader by their usage of “you” as the main subject, allowing the reader to place themselves on the receiving end of the message, or in the author’s point of view. This in turn opens space for the reader’s experience and sentimentality.
In my current body of work, I am expressing intricacies in relationships outside of romantic partnerships. I create drawings depicting forms of intimacy with others in both oil pastel and charcoal. Both materials demand a close interaction between maker and material. The oils from the pastel and from the maker’s hand combine, quite literally putting my hand into the work, and charcoal is reactive to the surfaces it comes in contact with; it smudges easily and even when sprayed with fixative will still be picked up by one’s hand. I am exploring moments in my life that have stuck with me, whether the event is significant or not and expressing the beauty I see in these moments with reference to lockets. I am choosing to romanticize these moments to show the fullness of these experiences and reflect intimacy in friendships with others. There is an appreciation for and perhaps an attempt to capture fleeting moments, to record them as a moment in history; in this manner the unnoticed act becomes worth noting.
The MFA Thesis Exhibition for the Class of 2024 is a multidisciplinary exhibition unified by an urgency each of these MFA candidates expresses for what they see as fundamental to our shared experience of an increasingly disconnected world. With an emphasis on the personal, and at times the anecdotal, the artwork featured by these 12 artists varies in media to include ceramics, installation, painting, performance, photography, printmaking, video, sculpture, and zines. Seen together, these thesis projects hybridize a range of conceptual themes and material approaches as they relate to visual culture, the political landscape, and contemporary art practice. The nature of this work and research demonstrates the caliber and cultural relevance achieved by these graduates of Maine College of Art & Design’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art program. Our studio-based curriculum creates a transformative learning experience and is designed to encourage students to follow where their work leads them, supporting them to define a sustainable vision for their own art practice through individualized research, critical analysis, and curatorial experimentation.
Institute of Contemporary Art
at Maine College of Art & Design
522 Congress St. Portland, ME 04101
Gallery Hours:
Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm,
Thursday, 11:00am–7:00pm