FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 10, 2006
FOR MORE INFORMATION: please call (512) 322-2099
Hana Hillerova, Director, Creative Research Laboratory
EXHIBITION DATES: February 25 - March 18, 2006
RECEPTION: Saturday, February 25, 6 - 9 pm
Gallery Hours: Tuesdays - Saturdays, 12-5 pm

SENIOR STUDIO SHOW

Work by graduating seniors in the Department of Art and Art History, selected by Paola Morsiani, curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas

February 25 - March 18, 2006

Beginning Saturday, February 25, Creative Research Laboratory will present the work of some of the best and brightest young visual artists in Senior Studio Show 2006. Each year roughly 150 students graduate with a B.F.A. or B.A. from the Studio Art Division in the Department of Art and Art History. The faculty in Studio Art has nominated the work of 60 graduating students. Paola Morsiani, curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, will select work for the show from these nominations. The exhibit will include a full range of media, from drawing, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture to installation, metals, video and performance.

The studio program in the Department of Art and Art History is one of the most diverse in the country, with 390 students pursuing B.F.A. or B.A. degrees in studio art. The curriculum stresses both hands-on technical development and fluency in contemporary visual art discourse. The B.F.A. degree requires 20 studio courses (60 credit hours), each consisting of half-day work sessions in fully- equipped studios led by faculty artists. Time in the studio is supplemented by another 20 required academic courses in arts and sciences for a total of 120 degree hours. Students eligible for this exhibition have finished their degree programs in the Fall 2005 or will finish in the Spring or Summer of 2006.

Paola Morsiani is Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, where she has worked since April 1999. Morsiani has studied art history and criticism, graduating from New York University and the University of Padua, Italy. Prior to joining the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, she has worked in curatorial departments in American museums since 1994 - at the Drawing Center and at the Queens Museum in New York, and at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA. Exhibits independently curated by Morsiani include shows in Italy, in New York for PS122 Gallery and in Mexico City for Art & Idea, among others. She has contributed essays to numerous exhibition catalogues, as well as to journals both in the United States and abroad. At the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, she has curated numerous exhibitions, including Andrea Zittel: Critical Space, the first mid-career exhibition of this American artist, scheduled to travel in North America through 2007 and currently on view at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York.

The Creative Research Laboratory is a component of the University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts in the Department of Art and Art History. It serves as a flexible interdisciplinary educational environment, advancing professional practices in Studio Art, Art History, Design, Visual Art Studies and Art Education. As a creative incubator, it is designed to facilitate collaboration between artists and scholars and to connect with diverse communities at large. Creative Research Laboratory presents a year-round schedule of exhibitions of work by students and faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, and facilitates workshops, performances, demonstrations, seminars and collaborations. Creative Research Lab is located in East Austin at 2832 East Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, inside Flatbed World Headquarters. There is ample free parking and bus service available on Capitol Metro's route 18. The activities of the Department of Art and Art History and the Creative Research Laboratory are free and open to the public.

For more information about the Creative Research Lab contact Gallery Director Hana Hillerova, crlab@uts.cc.utexas.edu, or 512.322.2099.

For more information about the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, contact Carolyn Porter, carolynp@mail.utexas.edu, 512.471.3379.

Hana Hillerova
Director: Creative Research Laboratory
at the Department of Art and Art History,
University of Texas at Austin
2832 East Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Austin, Texas 78702
directions: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~crlab/map.html
phone: (512) 322-2099
email: crlab@uts.cc.utexas.edu
url: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~crlab/
gallery hours: Tu-Sat, 12-5 p.m