Penn MFA Thesis show in Vienna! Opening Tuesday, May 27th at the Franz Josef Kai gallery space

Penn MFA Thesis Show in Vienna, Austria - May 26th-June25th

Philadelphia Connection
»an ocean in between the waves«
young art positions of the Penn MFA program

Laura Bernstein, Carousel, 2014, Newsprint, papier-mâché, cardboard, Dimensions variable 

Press Conference: Monday, May 26, 2014 10.30 am 
Opening: Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 6 - 10 pm 
Venue: FRANZ JOSEFSKAI 3, 1010 Vienna 
Duration: May 28 - June 25, 2014 
Monday - Saturday, 2 – 8 pm (closed on Whit Monday) 

FREE ADMISSION 

(Vienna/Philadelphia, May 8, 2014) The idea that travel forms an integrative feature of artistic 

praxis and creates an essential component of both experience and knowledge production, 

comprises the conceptual origin of the exhibition. In particular, a change of place in the 

paradigm of a globalized cultural geography contributes to the broadening understanding as 

well as the relativization and even the transformation of one’s own work. 

With the move from places of origin to new social and cultural contexts, different conditions 

automatically cause shifts in meaning-making, a process in which local conventions of reception 

also play a role. 

From this paradigm, the young artists from the interdisciplinary Fine Arts Department at the 

University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia developed an independent model for presenting 

their latest work. For six months, they collaborated with curator Roland Schöny, and created an 

exhibition that fundamentally differs from any conventional student showcase. 

 We acknowledge that the artists have produced a large volume of work that embody 

discursive densities and represent a variety of visual strategies. Nevertheless, rather than 

merely displaying already finished works, the artists both selected individual pieces through a 

dialogic process and created new works according to the physical layout of the gallery space. 

As such, the project is situated in a transitional zone that lies between an institutional 

dependency and a continuation of the experimentation with articulations of form. Therefore, 

the exhibition space at FRANZ JOSEFSKAI 3 is the stage. 

Although the group of young artists from the Penn MFA program consider themselves 

personally connected through the production of internal alliances and collaborations that allow 

for critical confrontations and mutual exchange, the difference in their approaches through 

photography, video, painting, or performance, is significant for their work. In parts the art 

scenes of New York influences many of the artists. At the same time works manifest the 

narratives of actual pop culture such that the viewer can discover the sediments of filmsettings 

or specific class and gender codes as embedded in fashion. Some works raise personal 

questions regarding the reconstructions of political history while others visually interpret 

transculturally shaped forms of personal memory and biographical narratives through the 

media of photography and video. The experiences of migration and origins, from Santiago de 

Chile or Tehran, for example, influence such processes. Other artists explore the sense of 

emancipation through the theme of urban space as a field of action. While transmedial 

strategies are conspicuous throughout the exhibition, only few works focus on one visual 

format. Moreover, the potential of the gallery space has been questioned in many ways. As 

such, the artists open the architectonic features of the gallery’s interior space to the outside 

through visual links, which oftentimes reflects their political and critical consciousness. 

After MFA students participated in similarly structured exhibition projects that took place in 

Los Angeles and Berlin in 2013, this group of 13 students decided for themselves the location 

of this year’s show after receiving a mandate. Among their many options, they finally decided 

on Vienna as an approach to a significant European center of contemporary art. 

Artists: Marie Alarcon (*1978 Rhinebeck, NY), Laura Bernstein (*1987 New York City, NY), 

Claire Bidwell (*1988 Los Angeles, CA), Anthony Bowers (*1984 South Bend, IN), Sam Mapp 

(*1985 Chicago, Ill), Scotty Menesini (*1975 Pittsburgh, PA), Mohammadreza Mirzaei (*1986 

Tehran, Iran), Theo Mullen (*1979 Denver, CO), Evan Nabrit (*1982 Columbus, OH), Daniel 

O'Neill (*1979 Providence, R. I.), Maria Paz Ortuzar (*1985 Santiago, Chile), Gordon Stillman (*1984 

Poughkeepsie, NY), Joshua Zerangue (*1988 Lafayette, Louisiana)

Curator: Roland Schöny teaching position at Digital Arts Department of University of Applied 

Art Vienna, structured a public art programme as a permanent cultural initiative of the city of 

Vienna 2004 - 07, realized exhibitions in cooperation with ICA in SOKOL Moscow (2014), at OK 

Center for Contemporary Art Linz (2002-04) or Künstlerhaus Vienna (2000). As author 

cooperations with Centre Pompidou, Vancouver Art Gallery, Kunstmuseum Luzern or TBA21. 

On Saturday, 24 May 2014 from 2 until 7 pm the artist Laura Bernstein roams with her 

performance "Finding The Fall" streets in the inner districts of Vienna (a parachutist in search 

of the causes of landing here). 

The opening will take place in cooperation with Projektraum Viktor Bucher, Prater Street 13/1/2, 1020 

Vienna (Finissage of the exhibition "Dance with us", www.projektraum.at). 

  

Exhibition Participants 

Roland Schöny, Contemporary Art Curator and Author, Vienna 

Joshua Mosley, Professor and Chair of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania 

Ken Lum, Professor and Director of Undergraduate program, University of Pennsylvania 

The artists will be present. 

Press Conference: Monday, May 26, 2014 10.30 am 

Opening: Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 6 - 10 pm 

Venue: FRANZ JOSEFSKAI 3, 1010 Vienna 

Duration: May 28 - June 25, 2014 

Monday - Saturday, 2 – 8 pm (closed on Whit Monday) 

FREE ADMISSION 

Information http://www.pennmfathesis.com 

Contact for inquiries Roland Schöny 

roland.schoeny@artfile.at 

+43 664 815 61 14 

Penn MFA Program 

The Master of Fine Arts program at Penn is focused on the professional development of visual 

artists. Through workshops, seminar courses, international residency opportunities and 

interactions with curators, writers and artists, the program provides an open intellectual 

framework to foster independent methods of artistic research. In addition to seminars within 

the Fine Arts department, graduate students are encouraged to pursue topics of science and 

the humanities through an impressive selection of courses offered across the university. 

Download the PennMFA Program Catalog 

http://www.design.upenn.edu/files/PennDesign_MFA_Catalog.pdf 

For program inquires, contact: mfa@design.upenn.edu or (215) 898-8374 

http://www.design.upenn.edu/fine-arts/graduate