MFA Students Share Vision in Thesis Exhibit

Three graduating MFA students in Visual and Media Arts (VMA) will explore themes of love, happiness, and healing through their video and photography being exhibited at the College later this month.

Gabby Follett’s installation, Rituals, and Marc Pitler’s photo essay, To Raze the Walls I’ve Constructed, will be on display Friday, April 22, through Sunday, May 8, at the Huret & Spector Gallery, on the sixth floor of the Tufte Performance and Production Center, 10 Boylston Place. Sofia Caetano’s piece, BLISS, will be shown beginning Thursday, April 21, at 80 Mason Street by appointment only.

An opening reception for all three artists will be held Friday, April 22, 5:00-7:00 pm, in the Huret & Spector Gallery.

“The graduating thesis show is the consummation of an MFA’s work in preparation for their professional careers. The exhibition gives us a view into the future of the art world. It is always exciting to see,” said Joseph Ketner, the Lois and Henry Foster Chair in Contemporary Art Theory and Practice, and distinguished curator-in-residence, in a statement.

Rituals features projections of images expressing love of work and romantic love, which overlap onto a workspace covered in the intimate (love notes) and the mundane (ink, tape, receipts). The piece explores how the artist’s work and romantic life interconnect and enrich each other.

Follett graduated from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, in 2011 with a BA in film studies. Before starting the MFA program at Emerson, she worked with the Ann Arbor Film Festival as a tour assistant and volunteer coordinator. While at Emerson, she worked as a VMA teaching/research assistant.

Pitler’s piece, To Raze the Walls I’ve Constructed, uses two image sequences to explore how the artist has coped with, and seeks to move on from, childhood trauma. One set of images uses macrophotography to show control methods he used as a child to deal with the trauma. Another set features photos from a road trip from Seattle to San Diego.

Since 2010, Pitler has worked as a freelance photographer and videographer for corporate and nonprofit clients in the Boston area. He has also covered the Boston music scene, including Grammy Award-winning band One Republic.

Caetano’s BLISS is described as “a cinematic journey, a solo experience for YOU. The Scientist created a world of idyllic happiness – bliss. Hooray for the Maker.”

Caetano earned a BFA in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon, and studied directing at RESTART and photography at the Portuguese Institute of Photography. She has been included in multiple group exhibitions around Portugal and Boston since 2009, and since 2010, she has been directing narrative, documentary and short films, which have screened in festivals in three continents. She is now in pre-production for her first feature film, The Happiest Man.

The Huret & Spector Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 12:00-5:00 pm.