MFA Candidates Awarded Jurors Choice Awards in Raw Exhibition

Lamar Dodd School of Art is pleased to have two MFA Candidates, Caitlin Daglis and Forrest Lawson were selected to exhibit in ‘Raw’ University of Montana’s annual exhibition of MFA artwork. Daglis as well as Lawson both received Juror’s choice awards for the exhibition. Their works were among the fifty selected works out of 575 submissions.

‘Raw’ is an online exhibition epitomizing the brave work of graduate students. It represents work from a vast array of content, material and approaches. Graduate school strips us bare, allowing for clarification and analyzation that rebuilds and refines our artistic practice. ‘Raw’ is the broken skin of 2020, while simultaneously being the vibrant nourishment. Congratulations to these students for their accomplishment!

The following explanations were given for the juror awards awarded to Forrest Lawson and Caitlyn Daglis.

“For my Juror’s choice I picked Forrest Lawsons piece titled, “What Are We to You.” Narrowing down my choice for was hard, however, this work really spoke to me and I felt that it epitomized the theme of raw. The works use of blood (and specifically Queer blood) as medium, especially during a pandemic, make it that much more impactful for me. The use of a grid layout helps to organize and unify the artwork while highlighting the petri dishes as vessel or almost a reliquary. This piece was well constructed and displayed in an intriguing manner, using backlighting to emphasize and highlight the material.”

“My juror’s choice is “Have an Average Day” by Caitlin Daglis. The instant attraction I felt with this piece was to the text; I adore the snark directed at hollow social banalities. That this piece isn’t aggressive or nasty, not “Have a terrible day!” or “Have a shit-tastic day!” but so utterly banal and innocuous, which struck me as even more hilarious. Upon second and third look, I began to ponder the deeper layers captured in the materiality of the work. Embroidered upon a dyed tea towel, this piece becomes a commentary on femininity, women’s work, emotional labor, and the repetitive nature of social constructs- such as rote expressions of politeness. Too often overlooked as merely ‘craft’ (aka the feminine), subtly profound work like this truly is the kind of expression I imagined when we put together the prompt for RAW. Brava.”

Lawson