AJ Aremu ('23, MFA), You Touch the Immortals, 2023

The Athenaeum, the University of Georgia’s contemporary art space in downtown Athens, presents artworks by the Spring 2023 MFA class of the Lamar Dodd School of Art in the upcoming thesis exhibition re:(de)construction. Entering a graduate fine arts program during the height of the pandemic, these eleven artists have participated in a deep re-examination of the structures that govern society and material itself. re:(de)construction is a call and response on this theme through experiments in video, painting, print, photography, metals, clay, and sound.

re:(de)construction opens Friday April 14 with a free public reception from 6 - 8 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through May 11. In addition, exhibiting artists will deliver brief talks on their works during the program MFA Speaks on Wednesday April 26 at 6 pm.

Director of the Athenaeum Katie Geha, who curated re:(de)construction, shares, "We're thrilled to host the 2023 MFA exhibition, an annual show that celebrates all we do at the Art School.” She adds, “It is an exciting opportunity for the community to see up close bodies of work that our graduates have elaborated on conceptually and technically over their three years of study."

Chad Hayward ('23, MFA), Ode to Joan (detail), 2023

Huey Lee, I Sliced A Lump of Emotion To Reconstruct, 2023, Stoneware, Saggar Firing, Combustible Ingredients. 17 x 17 x 9.5”

Many of the works on display take literally the idea of construction, as several of the artists mine materials in their investigation of the built environment. Others display a commitment to the play involved in taking things apart and putting them back together, just absurdly enough to call it art. While still other artists critique constructed expectations surrounding identity, history, and memory both personal and political.

Tearing down and building back up, tearing down and building back up again, once more. Processes that began in individual studios and through collaborative projects, now operate not only within the broader, shared context of the MFA exhibition, but also upon the societal structures these artists reimagine.

Artists in the exhibition include: AJ Aremu, Mickey Boyd, Zahria Cook, J Taran Diamond, Shaunia Grant, Chad Hayward, Huey Lee, Jason Rafferty, Rachel Seburn, Ethan Snow, and Lee Villalobos.

About the Athenaeum

The Athenaeum is a non-collecting contemporary art gallery affiliated with the University of Georgia and the Lamar Dodd School of Art. We are an experimental educational resource for students at the University of Georgia as well as for the Athens community at large. The gallery comprises some five thousand square feet. We house an art gallery, a space for workshops, lectures, and classes as well as a Reading Room to peruse texts and listen to records that connect with the exhibitions in the gallery. We produce exhibitions and programming that examine the cultural and social contexts around us, challenge contemporary perceptions of art making to provide a framework for intellectual and creative inquiry. Encouraging multi-faceted, cross-disciplinary conversation, the Athenaeum is a site for the exchange of ideas about art and the many issues on which it touches. 

About the Lamar Dodd School of Art

The Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia is one of the largest, most highly ranked university art programs in the nation. With over one thousand art students, the faculty and staff are dedicated to providing the highest level of instruction in studio art, design, art education, and art history. The mission of the Lamar Dodd School of Art is to promote art and design as a significant means of inquiry, integral to problem-solving and the production of knowledge; to educate students to be empathetic and engaged citizens and to prepare them for careers as creative professionals; and to address critical issues facing Georgians and the nation through innovative research in art, art education, and design.