Fault Lines: 2020 Senior Thesis Exhibition

The annual BFA thesis exhibition is an opportunity to celebrate the creativity, ingenuity, dedication, and hard work of Mills’ graduating studio arts majors and minors. Each year the senior thesis exhibition provides a unique opportunity for these artists to present their work in a professional art museum. This year, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the world to press pause. So we are showcasing these promising artists in this catalogue, which serves as an exciting demonstration of their artistic potential and the creative possibilities within their work.

Experimenting with a range of forms and media, from painting to installation and video, the artists in Fault Lines examine identity, diaspora, memory, family, spirituality, and embodied experience. The pandemic has dramatically impacted the way we navigate the world, and the reality of isolation and self-reflection creates a new set of vantage points for understanding these artists’ processes and ideas.

Works in the exhibition that engage the fragile boundaries of self-identity and sexuality, that ask why we hold on to the things that we do, or illustrate stages of grief, become even more poignant in this new context. Connections to specific narratives, including Afrikan mythology, Latinx culture, Jewish ritual, and medieval fantasy, as well as the specific comfort of home and family mementos, become even more meaningful. The larger contemplation of the nature of body and spirit in relation to time and place, our connection to and impact on Earth, and our place in the infinitely complex system of the universe, become even more important. Overall, the need to inspire compassion, practice tenderness, discover ourselves, and create art to connect our differences is powerfully apparent in the work.

Congratulations to all of our artists in the Class of 2020: Sequoia Belk-Hurst, Téa Blatt, L.A. Bonet, De’Ana Brownfield, Carla Cardenas, Lexi Castillo, Sarah Frances, Sloane Gershov, Danielle La Fontaine, Thea Moerman, Raissa Palacios, Yana Sternberger-Moye, Ellis Teare, and Rowan Weir. It has been a pleasure working with each of you and to have this opportunity to help you share your work with the world.

Stephanie Hanor Director, Mills College Art Museum