UC Davis

The seven artists included in this year’s Art Studio Masters of Fine Arts exhibition, jjmwmnl. , create works that demand time, blur boundaries, and spill over into the realm of the everyday. As we become increasingly preoccupied with the instantaneous and technological, their art offers a space of reprieve and ref lection; these emerging artists encourage us to momentarily unglue our eyes from our devices and look anew at the world we inhabit.

All seven artists are committed to experimental processes, improvisational outcomes, and anti-hierarchical forms of making. Matthew Debbaudt, Wesley Miller, Lauren Rayburn, and Jonathan Sprague use two-dimensional media in order to conjure dynamic bodies, fluid texts, and abstracted landscapes. Charged issues of historical and contemporary violence, environmental ruin, and gendered and national identities percolate through their works’ surfaces. James Angello, Nuno Correia, and Matt Gilbert create environments and sculptural works with multisensory effects and strong psychological resonances. Their use of sight, sound, smell, and movement animates space and gives ordinary objects new life. jjmwmnl. provides a chance to absorb these diverse forms of artistic practice and participate in their experimental spirit.

The Master of Fine Arts Degree in Art Studio, established in 1969, is a two-year, critically engaged studio program that provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary study in the visual arts. As part of a small tight- knit community, students explore a wide range of media and approaches to studio practice. The Art Studio

Program faculty share responsibility for the graduate program. Current faculty members engage in a broad range of disciplines including sculpture, photography, time-based media, painting, drawing, print-making, ceramic sculpture, and include Tom Bills, Darrin Martin, Hearne Pardee, Lucy Puls, Annabeth Rosen, Youngsuk Suh, Robin Hill, Tim Hyde, and Gina Werfel.

The exhibtion catalog for jjmwmnl. marks the second year of a fruitful collaboration between the Art Studio Masters of Fine Arts students and the Art History Masters of Arts students, under the direction of Bridget Gilman (Visiting Lecturer in Art History) and Robin Hill (Professor and Graduate Advisor in Art Studio). Each artist partnered with an art historian, engaging in an extended dialogue about the artists’ process and practice. The results, seven interpretive essays written by the Art History students, are featured in this catalog alongside the artists’ own statements.