Mason Gross
School of The Arts
Rutgers University
Mason Gross Galleries
33 Livingston Ave
New Brunswick, NJ
848-932-5202
Opening Reception
April 2, 5pm to 8pm
Free Admission
On Display
March 26 to April 11
10am to 4pm, Mon – Fri
10am to 6pm, Wed
12pm to 4pm, Sat
My Thesis project focuses on using content from collecting and documenting as a source of inspiration for future projects. Reasons for collecting can change from time to time and can be different depending on the person. For me, collecting and documenting satisfies my natural desire to preserve the past for future access and to trigger fond memories. In this project, I have created a "new" collection that obtains drawings, doodles, thoughts, text message screenshots, and signatures over the course of two months by mimicking the layout of a similar book I had created at the age of eight called The Sticker Book. Using content from my "new" collection, I produced another book called circle of friends based on text-message conversations. Each book displayed is ultimately inspired by the previous one created.
Illustrations and comics mostly inspire my work. For my Thesis project I was specifically inspired by a journal collection of stickers I used from the ages of eight-years-old to thirteen-years-old and now serves as a nice time-capsule of the past.
MGSA has helped me grow as both a Designer and a fine artist. It has opened my mind on how to think about art in relation to me and to an audience viewing it.
I hope to continue producing work that is humorous and relatable using mediums I like such as digital drawing, illustration, animation, and mixed media.
Shoutout to my friends and family who made their way into these books! You guys are a part of the inspiration! Thank you mom and dad for always believing in me and supporting all my crazy ideas. You da best!
My Thesis Project is about Hoarders and Collectors, which I have been working on for almost two years. The three images on the gallery wall will depict the three separate hoarder/collector personalities I have had the pleasure of getting to know. My book is separated into chapters of these people, showing the rest of the photographs I have continuously been working on over the years. Each person's personality and characteristics are different and shine through in the two pieces.
Mary Ellen Mark, although our work is extremely different, was the first photographer that made me fall in love with documentary photography. If I did not see her work I would not be creating the photographs I do now. She continues to inspire me and will forever be my favorite photographer of all times.
MGSA has helped me transform into the artist I am today in many ways. The school has inspired me to grow in my concentration and has always positively pushed me into the direction I want to pursue. Without the professors and students in MGSA, I do not think I would be the photographer I continue to strive to be.
I would like to continue my interest in documentary photography after graduation further by working as a photojournalist for a well-known newspaper or magazine.
A special thank you to my family and friends for always supporting me in everything I do!
embedded history and space
friends
The Artists who come and talk with us/work with us
painting
the office! helped me out a lot. thanks! teachers
Projection Mapping, Illusion
Peter Kogler, Lisa Park, Michael Langan, Wucius Wong, Robert Gonsalves, Bernard Pras, Mauro Koliva, Hexeosis, and most of all Amon Tobin & V Squared Labs
MGSA has helped me improve my drawing, web coding, and visual thinking skills. They have also encouraged me to challenge myself and dive deeper into areas of visual art that I've always wanted to explore.
Motion Graphics (2D & 3D), Projection Mapping, Processing, Arduino, Web Coding & Design
Thank you to my family, friends, faculty, and anyone who has ever given me advice on design, 3d rendering, and animation. I am very grateful for all of your support, especially during those tough times. Thank you for always believing in me!
Art for me is a way of discovering my identity and appreciating the identities of those around me. My identity like the things I make, is subject to change, reminiscent of the life I was born into, and influenced by the experiences that I’m still having. I have learned to have the idea of eventually achieving perfection or fame would be unsatisfactory anyway. But more specifically I've been working with shapes and colors that I'm attracted to. I have been drawing and collaging a lot and try to translates those things into my most recent paintings.
I really love the attitude of the Hairy who. I also like the tone of Vermeer paintings although I know these two types of artists are entirely different. I like the color palette of Daniel Richter and Nicola Tyson. I also love Joanne Greenbaum, Peter doig, Charline von Heyl, and Max Ernest. Thats all I can thing of right now but there are many more.
Mason gross really helps all it's students discover their own voice in art. I learned soo much in the last four years. I would recommend Mason gross to any high schooler interested in art.
Everything.
My thesis project consists of a compilation of pages from novels I found, bought & were given to me. With these pages I am creating my own story by drawing over the text and only leaving some visible. Roon refers to this as "reverse highlighting".
Words that are spoken from the heart.
Mason Gross has introduced me to some truly amazing professional artists whose habits, criticism & advice are tools that I will carry with me through all my artistic endeavors.
Editorial & fashion design.
BIG thanks to everything mom, dad and colin. Love you more than you know!
Mass incarceration of black and brown people.
Ferguson, Police brutality, the prison industrial complex, America.
MGSA has helped me to conceptualize the historical and political motivations behind my work.
Filmmaking/ political Fine Art.
Shout out to those that never stood a chance. I only have the opportunity to make this work because of the opportunities you no longer have.
My thesis is a homage to my grandmother whom I love dearly, but can't quite remember. The work is a large assumption of art that I think (and hope) she would of wanted me to make.
This one is for you Nou Nou. Cheers.
MGSA has taught me to control my tear ducts. At the same time, I belong to an amazing community that understands the process. MGSA helped me grasp a way of thinking that is crucial to make art and that, above all, is a invaluable experience.
Post graduation, I want to continue to explore different mediums and continue to make a mess of out materials.
Shout out to my MGSA buds who are doin the damn thang.
My thesis project is about handmade destruction to photographic materials.... so a lot of pictures of my hands.
My inspirations range from Lucas Samaras to Miranda Lichtenstein and LaToya Ruby Frazier.
They let me stay here and make art for 4 years with some really cool professors and never made me cry.
Art, the world, etc.
Biggest thanks to you mom and dad! Shout out to my real inspirations, Gub, Kat Schneids, Tea4Tori, Jerkmar, EmKno, Nicoleyes, K8 M and Sllowhands. You all rock. Squid Up.
My Thesis project is a series of books that are meant to represent people's current mental, emotional, and physical states. After asking a number of people about recent dreams they've had, I drew they're portraits and then included aspects of the dreams they described to me.
I'm greatly inspired by artists who create intricate, dreamlike, and sometimes disturbing pieces such as Yoshitaka Amano, Salvador Dali, Dorothea Tanning, Gustav Klimt, Clive Barker, Caravaggio, Jhonen Vasquez, Paul Romano, and Käthe Kollwitz.
At MSGA I've learned techniques that I don't think I would possess without my professors' advice and about technologies I otherwise would not have access to.
Specifically, I hope to design more books, create more illustrations, and learn more about animation. At the same time, I don't wish to limit myself to these areas.
I'd like to thank everyone who shared their dreams with me---your mind's are fascinating and my project would not have been possible without you!
I'd also like to thank my parents and grandmother, Alice, for all of your encouragement and support! I love you all so much, and I can never thank you enough!
My Thesis Project explores the traditions of scale and instaltion while conseptually I deal with ideas of social, economic and astrological themes.
I look at artists like Hans Haacks, Chris Burden, Joel otterson
The sculpture and media department has had great impact on my develupment through both the facilities and facilty.
I will make artwork untill I die
The Blusnavage Family!
Intimacy and comfort between people
My own need to make others feel comfortable
yes, it has given me access to other influences and drawn my eye to details I would've formerly let go.
Photo-journalism/Photo-documentary.
Thanks to all who have sat in front of my lens, and to all who have helped me behind it.
My thesis project deals with the aspect of craftsmanship over narrative. Narrative can never be erased but my objective is to give equal importance and spotlight to the handling of my project through wood engraving.
I have a very eclectic taste for my inspirations. It ranges from the classic Baroque paintings, Andy Warhol's pop art, urban graffitti and tattoos, to music (which is also a mish-mosh of genres). I am inspired by whatever crosses my path.
MGSA helped me in my artistic endeavors but forcing me to think invasively. They taught me to never accept anything for face value and to question the purpose of art. But most importantly, they gave me the skills to perfect my craft with desiginging and drawing.
After graduation I would like to further continue my interest in hand lettering, and drawing, with a concentrated focus on portraiture. But mainly, as mentioned in my theme for my thesis project, I would like to continue sharping my hand in the craftsmanship of any project I undertake.
This might be incredibly clichè but I would like to thank the people that rolled their eyes and had little faith in my decision to become an art student and choose the creative career route. Your presence gave me the drive and power to be a successful artist! Thanks :)
My thesis is about how color and pattern interact with one another. My project utilizes color and geometric pattern in a complicated format of multi-layered, paper cut-out, serial imagery. My approach is to create real depth in my work, to allow for the revelation of my process during creation of a complete color pattern piece. In my gallery installation, the viewer will be able to see how the constructed pattern evolves from a very simple geometric design, and then proceeds in stages unveiling how every design choice is subsequently altered as the piece comes together and adds to the whole, and in the end creates a very detailed and unique paper sculpture. The viewer will also be able to deconstruct the piece by being able to see the individual layers as stand-alone pieces.
My inspirations are vast and varied. From lyrics to architecture, dance to mosaic patterns, I've always found bits of inspiration in the things around me. Musicians such as Bruce Springsteen and The Band, choreographers such as Jerome Robbins and Alvin Ailey, and artists such as Matisse and Kelsey Brooks, just to name a few.
Throughout my 4 years at Mason Gross, I've had the opportunity to get to know and learn from amazing instructors. The feedback that I've received, on both personal and class projects, has helped me find my personal style and the confidence that I will need as I begin my design career.
I would love to continue evolving my thesis project after graduation. Using new sources to inspire my use of color and pattern, I will continue to create an ongoing series of paper cut-out installations. I see my thesis as the first stage of many variations to come.
Thank you so much to my family, and especially my mama, for your endless support, encouragement and assistance. These 4 years would have been a lot harder without you guys. I love you!
My Thesis Project is about darkness and masks.
My only inspiration for this project is Ralph Eugene Meatyard.
They helped me push my limits and expanded my visual eyes.
Photography is all areas and guitar building.
D. Rebs you the man!
My thesis project surrounds the overall idea of appropriation with a deeper focus on how the rise of the internet and social media have aided in this particular area of art. Using Twitter, I have collected thoughts, or "wishes," in this case, from a wide range of people. Twitter is somewhat of an online journal or diary where people post what is on their mind throughout the day. Some tweets are more private and intimate than others, but this is usually not taken into task being that, a user usually assumes no one will see it if there account is private, or they dont mind sharing with followers, whom they usually are familiar with in life. But what they don't take into consideration, is that, although a twitter account maybe personal to you or meant to be shared only with friends and family, it is easily accessible by anyone with a computer and allows anyone immediate access into their mind, so to speak. At first glance, there is no obvious indication as to what these phrases are or who they belong to. The viewer is forced to ask or infer, are they the artist's? Is it more than one person? Or could these once have been the viewer's? There is truly no telling where anything you have posted may end up once released into the world wide web, in this case, the deep or sometimes eccentric desires of society are being projected across a wall in an art gallery.
My inspirations come from appropriation artists and those who challenge copyright infringement. I enjoy collecting things, largely from the internet, whether its videos, photos, text, and giving a new meaning or context to the information, therefor making it my own.
MGSA has opened my mind and thought process entirely on what it is to be an artist. It has also helped me understand the balance between being the fine artist as well as commercial artist.
I want to continue exploring the depths of the endless internet as its role is becoming increasingly apparent in both art and society.
Shoutout to all the friends I've had the pleasure of making cool stuff with over these past 4 years.
My thesis project is the branding process of a branch of my work. I work a lot with my collections and constructive materials so I decided I needed to build a name for this branch of my design. I first wrote down the phrases that have to link to my work. I picked three and took these phrases and created physical letters through plaster, tile and my shoes. Through this I decided to call this branch of work: constructive-collective design approach. This project was about me exploring and establishing a part of my design skills.
My first inspirations are my family, friends and environment. You can pick up on a lot that is around you and translate that in design. Other inspirations that help me develop are artists like Sunny Lu, Georges Seurat and designer Wolfgang Weingart.
Mason Gross help me become a better designer. The teachers pushed me to really be attentive, precise and put my passion into my designs. They reassured me that I made the right decisions on going to art school.
I want to explore into the working world. I am not sure where I exactly want to go but I know I want to be designing for someone/company/thing.
Shoutout to my family and friends for the support and dealing with my crazy break downs through many projects and long nights.
My thesis is about exploring unknown imagery through different gestures of how paint is applied. There is a dialogue between me and the viewer of humor and uncertainness; since I am just as much trying to figure out how the painting is working from the viewer's perspective.
I get inspired by small mundane gestures in life that stick to your brain when you take a notice to them. I've always have been in love with Charline von Heyl's work. I am also currently looking at Ross Bleckner's work.
The professors I've had were all wonderful endearing artists that pushed me and my peers to create wonderfully.
I want to figure out a way and space to allow for me to continue my art making after graduation in the "real life"
hi to my lovely mom and dad and friends and dog <3
My recent work plays with and exploits things about the internet that we often do not think about or take for granted. It also deals with automatically generating content.
I am inspired by a lot of weird, experimental technology, like interesting websites or applications or video games. One of my projects in partly inspired by a boss from Metal Gear Solid. I'm also inspired by a lot of random crap in hip hop and popular culture.
Mason Gross, and just Rutgers in general, has helped by exposing me to a lot of people who think similarly than myself, but also helped by introducing me to people with wildly different world-views and interests who helped open my mind about the world.
I want to continue exploring the evolving medium of web based art. I am also interested in exploring brand new concepts, like "content generation" and "having a job for once".
Shoutouts to my mama and my sister and my brothers for being the greatest people alive! And shoutouts to Team YoloSwag!
trivial moments found in my daily activities
continuity, endeavor
great teachers, peers, friends
Anything that keeps me motivated
Doop! Doo! Dooroop Doo rororororo DOOO
My Thesis project is an animation on an ipad about the worries that I have documented every hour that I was awake in February. The animation is a small excerpt of my diaristic documentation.
My primary inspirations come from my parents who are both immigrants. They came to America to escape being captured by the Khmer Rouge and their killing fields in Cambodia. I also find inspiration in animations that really take the time to absorb the space of an environment, like Hayao Miyazaki's Totoro and Yuki Urushibara's Mushi-shi. Furthermore, some fine artists that have inspired me throughout my college career are Marina Abramovic, William Kentridge, and Eddie Opara.
MGSA's program gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of skilled artists who I look forward to collaborating and being friends with for a very long time.
Post graduation, I'll become an in-house designer, entrepreneur, and freelance animator. I co-founded INAMation Studio and The Buttonquail Boutique the summer of 2014, and am aiming for these studios to become really successful.
I'd like to thank my dad for leaving a dish of food out for me every night and for supporting my choice to study art in college! Love you <3!! I'd also like to thank my little sister for taking part in various art projects willingly. Lastly, I want to give a shoutout to my senpais - Irene and Bang who have given me a lot of valuable feedback on the art that I've made. You guys are fantabulous!
Painting.
My mom, artists, my dad, my friends.
The beautiful ladies in the office are the life blood of this institution.
I'm going to continue to make things.
Thank you Richard Baker and Marc Handelman for your art and your help.
My thesis project is basically a further exploration of my collage, process oriented paintings. I've challenged myself by extending the canvas to be double sided, rather than hanging on the wall.
I am usually inspired by the materials that I've gathered. Most of my paintings begin with an idea based on a piece of material or fabric that I wish to use and the rest of the painting develops from a process that I've created.
MGSA helped me to understand my process of painting. By providing examples of other artists' work and pushing me to think critically about the decisions I make in my paintings, I am more aware and focused on the goals I wish to achieve in my work.
After I graduate I plan to further explore my interest in material and process oriented paintings. I also would like to extend my materials to become more sculptural and to fully develop the ideas I have been experiencing.
I want it to be a conversation about the woman and the domestic
My inspiration for this piece specifically has been a lot of women on the TV show "Say Yes to the Dress." These women claim that the most exciting day of their lives is their wedding day, that they have dreamt of this day since they were little girls. I was never one of those girls. Recently in my life I have realized that women in my position-being in a long term relationship and about to graduate college, get married. With this reality staring me in the face I feel as though I need to change something. My biggest goal in life is not to get married, and that has been a huge inspiration point through this piece
By always pushing me to my limits and giving me a challenge
I want to explore the identity of women through their titles in the real world. Mother, teacher, sister, doctor etc How do these titles and jobs affect a women's definition of herself?
Shout out to my great grandmothers for my fabulous name! And to my family history to give me experience and a story to explore and tell
My work focuses on photographing different men who identify as gay, straight, bisexual, queer etc. in my life in very intimate settings. This is supplemented by the punk scene we inhabit within the New Jersey tri-state area
I am inspired by subculture, Queer art, social documentary, and performance art. I am most inspired by Collier Schorr, Jack Pierson, Wolfgang Tilmans, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Kelsey Bennett, and Todd Seelie
MGSA has given me a great support system in which I was able to develop my photography and artistic style.
I want to continue exploring ideas about gender, sexuality, identity and ritual within my community. I would also like to explore performance art dealing with the body.
I would like to thank my loving family, the friends I have made at MGSA, and the people who have supported me throughout the year's and have helped me find myself and my voice in my work
I am a Painter. My Paintings are about Repetition of design, shapes and Patterns with using stencils and stamps. My paintings are more of decorative forms. for the Thesis project, I am focusing on one specific subject of Patterns and designs. I am doing Indian Textile. I am very Fond and attached to my culture as being an Indian and I believe every culture has something which is significant interpretation of the self. It presents so many things about who we are. It carries meanings and beliefs with it. There are wide range of textiles of various designs and patterns, specially the Indian clothing called Saree.
I am always into patterns. Usually I create my own patterns and also making my own stencils. But I love Philip Taaffe’s and Carl cashmann’s work.
not sure yet. may be apply for MFA
Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.
Limits are an imaginary construct. Push all boundaries.
My project is about the body.
I look at work by Louise Bourgeois, Rachael Harrison, Jessica Stockholder to name a few
My sculpture professor Patrick Strezelc has been my biggest inspiration and influencer at MGSA. He has introduced me to many artists that I had never even heard of and has taught me everything I know. He pushes me to be my very best even when I am having a crying fit.
I want to continue making art and and looking at art.
my long time lover and bffl Paolo Martinez
I'm focusing on how folding and scratching the surface of a photograph affects its perception and reading in relation to my personal family structure and particular childhood events.
The curvature of Dustin Hoffman's nose and Kyle MacLachlan's chin have given me the inspiration and strength I never knew I needed.
I've had so many teachers who have been fantastic. The studio spaces were great for crying/eating burritos in private but also good for making art in.
I'd like to continue to explore my thesis project topic in addition to one day exploring the vaults of money given to me in order to fund my art practice by a kind, rich and handsome person who will beg me to marry him so that I never actually have to work another day in my life.
S/O to the respective owners of Bagel Nosh and the balloon store behind CSB, and to that cute delivery boy from Panico's (call me).
My Thesis Project is about insecurities. The theme plays off of the notion of the seven deadly sins, or in this case seven deadly insecurities that pertain to me. It incorporates origami flower balls/chandeliers that each act as an insecurity and my struggles to face them.
I'm very inspired by illustrations and photographs that can create a certain mood. Illustrations that are solemn and have figures isolated that don't look at the viewer (or other figures in the image) truly inspire me. Photographs that capture a similar mood (like the illustrations) also serve as great inspirations. I just love images that can create a mood and encapsulates its viewer and takes them out of reality, even for a moment.
When I first came to MGSA, I had no idea what I wanted to do with design. I always thought it was just about designing logos for corporations and there's no room for artistic freedom (just about what the client wants). I realized that it's more than that, and I love how MGSA gave me the freedom to experiment with different materials/styles/art projects, and never limiting me just because I was a designer. MGSA allowed me to take risks I don't think I would normally take.
I want to able to experiment more with taking design outside of the digital realm. It's has been a lot of fun to not actually create things on a computer, and be more crafty/hands-on with my projects.
Thank you so much to all my family and friends that got me to this point! You all helped me believe in myself even when I didn't and I wanted to give up. Also thanks so much to all my classmates and instructors at MGSA. All of you helped me realize what I wanted to do with my life and pushed me to take more risks than I ever have before. You're all amazing and will go far in life. :)
It's a study in print using the techniques that I have learned and love. Letterpress, silkscreen, woodblock, bookmaking and hand lettering.
As my favorite filmmaker/youtuber, Casey Neistat put it, "I don't like the word inspiration. I like the word motivation." As for motivation, I am motivated by my family and friends, and making. The process is equally important as the initial idea.
The faculty has always been willing to help in anyway that they can, and give me feed back on whatever I happen to be working on.
Printmaking. Photography. Maybe dabble a little in video.
*pretends to hold trophy*
I'd like to thank the academy...
It is a film about the use of images. About the abuse of images. About artistic roles, and morals. The inanimate becoming animate, the animate becoming inanimate. There is a tension I feel when deciding whether I can use an image, especially one of suffering. This film started as a means of breaking that tension apart, to question and learn from it. The narrative was developed through a visual process, appropriating or developing images (drawings, objects, animations, and performances) in the studio or other spaces and allowing them to suggest narrative avenues to pursue. Just as important to this process were the suggestions made by the music, the sound, and the dancers I worked in collaboration with.
The narrative has a loose relation to the French folk tale titled "Bluebeard". The visuals and filmic structure are indebted to French surrealist films, especially the film "Le Sang d'un Poète (The blood of a Poet)" by Cocteau. Just as important are the German expressionist films, especially "Nosferatu" by Murnau. For pacing and animation I was looking closely at Jan Svankmajer. I also took notes on his use of animation and puppets with live actors, and at his humor. I tried to combine the dark alchemy of Svankmajer's animation with the magic of Melies trick editing. My creative process as a whole is influenced very much by William Kentridge. There are many more, try to spot them.
It supported me in my rule breaking.
I would like to explore the cultures I have been influenced by first hand.
Thank you so much Lauren Graham and Mariana Orozco Arango for all your patience and dedication, using the few spare hours you had each week in your busy dance schedules to freeze for this film!
Thank you Kazim Zaidi for helping with the music!
Special thanks also to Julie Langsam, Hanneline Røgeberg, Patricia Brace, Basia Goszczynska and Brian Edgerton for being my go to support group.
Thank you Jim and Katherine for dealing with a whole thesis class and still taking the time to email suggestions or stay late and give extra feedback.
Thanks to my family for loving me without seeing me for months, since I've been so holed up working on this.
The paintings themselves are contained within the boundaries of the stretcher bars, but my goal is to encourage the viewer to move beyond the canvas. An experience outside of the canvas may be achieved through the layering of recognizable materials, familiar color palettes, and specific motifs. It is my intention that these images on the canvas will stay with the viewer once no longer in that setting. The pieces themselves become collaboration between sculpture and painting. This is achieved through the way that paint is applied or removed from the canvas, and the addition of new materials into the composition.
Much of my work is inspired by fabric, the pattern, color, and texture of materials that I collect. Fabric is something that is present in every aspect of our lives. I see the different weights, textures, and appearances of these materials and find a way to relate it to my painting.
Mason Gross is an environment that allowed me to explore and push the boundaries of my art-making past what I could have imagined. Close knit classes and excellent instructors inspired me to reach outside my comfort zone.
Many more paintings to come.
The whole day is shot.
Recreating memory, weight, landscape etc.
when it comes to making work I am inspired by moments I've experienced in life and in nature. More specifically in nature, I would call them awe-inspiring moments.
MGSA gave me an open, communal and critical environment to make work and to have conversations about the work I make.
Keep having conversations about art! And to travel and have more conversation!
Shoutout to them queens, ya know, the drama queens out there. Bow down biotches.
