MFA Thesis Show "Total Absorption"
Tufts University Art Gallery @ the Aidekman Arts Center, 40 Talbot Ave, Medford, MA
May 2–19, 2013
Opening Reception: May 2, 5:30–8:30 pm; Artists' talk, 5–6 pm

Vaness Michalak explores ideas about escapism and adventure through "The Great Escape," a series of landscape paintings created by the synthesis of memories, imagination and found photos. Unexpected color and inventive brushwork blends representation with abstraction constructing a place of escape.

Many of the paintings depict not only naturalistic forms, but human interaction within the landscape. Figures move through forests, viewers are forced to make their way through an overgrown path. Structures within the landscape suggest the transient nature of being a traveler or an adventurer. Viewers confront campsites, tents and small shacks hidden in the forest and also the traveling characters themselves. All evoke the feelings of transience as well as the desire to reconnect with nature and live outside of societal norms.

Michalak was born in Portland, Maine. She received her BSN in Nursing from the University of Maine, Orono in 2004. She traveled widely in Latin America and Europe before completing her Post-Baccalaureate certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2010. She is currently in her final year of the MFA program at SMFA.

Image: Vanessa Michalak, On the Way Home, 2013. Oil on canvas. 30x24 inches.