Artwork by graduating Wright State students featured in Senior Thesis Exhibition

The Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries will host a closing reception for the Senior Thesis Exhibition, featuring works by graduating fine art students, on Friday, April 29, from 5 to 7 p.m. (Photos by Erin Pence)

Graduating fine art students are celebrating the culmination of their education at Wright State University with the annual Senior Thesis Exhibition in the Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries.

The Senior Thesis Exhibition is the culminating event of Wright State’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program and a graduation requirement for all fine arts majors. The exhibition is traditionally the final show of the academic year in the Stein Galleries.

The Senior Thesis Exhibition is on display now through April 29. The galleries will host a closing reception on Friday, April 29, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Visitors can view the students’ work in the Stein Galleries on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Wednesdays and Fridays from noon to 4 p.m.; and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All Stein Galleries events are free and open to the public.

The Senior Thesis Exhibition features 99 works created by 25 students during their time at Wright State. Works from all areas taught in the Department of Art and Art History — painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture— are showcased.

Each student submitted 10 works that were reviewed and selected for exhibition by faculty members in each of the department’s disciplines. The exhibition is curated by the studio faculty in the Department of Art and Art History.

Solañe Bass, a painting concentration major, said she is proud to have her artwork featured in the Senior Thesis Exhibition.

“The exhibition shows how far I, and my fellow classmates, have come since our first year and the progress we have made regarding our skills and our art,” Bass said. “There are so many wonderful works being displayed.”

Bass has four oil paintings in the exhibition: three still life paintings and a landscape painting, which she first attempted during Spring Semester.

“I learned a lot about how landscape, or plein-air, artists must adapt to the natural changes that occur daily when studying a changing environment,” Bass said. “It was a new and exciting experience that I have continued to explore in my paintings.”

The Senior Thesis Exhibition is the culminating event of Wright State’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program and a graduation requirement for all fine arts majors.

Mohammed Abdulrazaq Alsunayyin, who is a sculpture concentration major, said having his work on display in the Stein Galleries provides an opportunity to publicly express himself.

“I see it as a channel to expose my work to a wider audience and as an alleviation after all the hard work through these years,” said Alsunayyin, who is from Saudi Arabia. “The adversity of the pandemic and being far from home made me more focused and steadfast than ever to accomplish more.”

Alsunayyin has six works in the exhibition, including prints that are connected to feelings of passion and nostalgia. His sculptures are inspired by political, economic and social-based subjects and focus on the state of being in continuous movement.

“It shed light on my experience of being a wanderer and expresses the situation of migrants in the diaspora and the distress of displaced people,” Alsunayyin said.

As a photography concentration major, Avery Brookbank had to learn to think more creatively during the pandemic.

“I had to create new things with resources from my home for a lot of my work,” she said. “However, I feel that my best work was done during this time. I was taught whenever you have a block the best way to work through it is to keep producing art. It was a struggle at first but quite rewarding in the end.”

Brookbank has six works in the exhibition, including two pieces that deal with loss and how we see death and several others that she created during the pandemic that explore the world within her home.

She also has on display what she describes as a “very chaotic multimedia piece” about Bigfoot.

“I’m looking forward to the reactions from it because it’s a project I hope to continue working on post-graduation,” Brookbank said.

Alyssa Woosley, a printmaking and painting concentration major, said seeing her artwork framed and displayed in the Stein Galleries ” makes it feel more real.”

“I love seeing all the work of my peers in the gallery in such a professional manner,” she said.

The Senior Thesis Exhibition features 99 works created by 25 students during their time at Wright State.

Woosley has four prints in the Senior Thesis Exhibition.

Her piece “Collection” features 20 individual screenprints put together to show how they are a continuous repeating pattern. The piece is personal for Woosley because it shows the collection in her printer’s drawer, which houses the miniatures she has found or been gifted.

“This kind of collection is something the women in my family have been doing for generations over their lifetimes,” Woosley said. “Creating this print was a way to commemorate these objects since they are so special to me.”

She also created two relief prints that remind her of the areas she has lived in Ohio.

“As someone who has moved a lot and plans on moving around for most of their life these prints are like snippets of places I used to see every day and don’t anymore,” she said.

More information on the Stein Galleries is available at wright.edu/artgalleries.