“Twenty-two students make up the 2017 graduating class in the Parsons School of Design MFA [Fine Arts] program. Coming from all around the world to participate in the rigorous two year program, since its bright beginnings in the early 20th century, each year has spawned talented artists…Many of the works center around popular themes being discussed through art lately, such as sexuality, self identity, and worldly politics. The works in Second Nature do so with a humanistic view, as seen in Marija Markovic’s three channel video, Dokolica or Katie Chambers painted red tulle on canvas, ILYYLMWAHF. By asking questions such as, “Why are we here?” and “What does this world mean to me as an artist?” feelings of intimacy and closeness bring the show together…

Marija Markovic, Dokolica, 2017, three-channel video, 35 minutes

By using color and personal history as a jumping point, many of the artists in the show used their pieces as meditations on the work that they have created during their time in the program, as seen in Xin Liu’s extraordinary pink and green oil painting, Han Xi Zai. As explained in the press release for the show, together and separately, the artists’ working processes have become another type of second nature—an almost instinctual critical approach to looking at and making images—formed in the intensive learning and working environment of the Parsons MFA Program.”

Han Xi Zai, 2017, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 in. Images courtesy of the artists.

Read the full article here.

Second Nature show poster by Shenyuan Ke