The UNT CoLab hosted an opening reception for the Spring Master of Fine Arts Exhibition on Friday, March 1. The College of Visual Arts & Design exhibited artwork from current first and second-year university graduate students, which will be on view until March 16.

Kristen Bigley, Director of the CoLab, wanted to help create a space for artists to display the work these students make during their graduate programs.

“We created a call for our entries for exhibitions in spring,” Bigley said, “and were able to collect art from 15 different first and second-year MFA students to be able to showcase their work here to the community since not everybody is able to make it to campus to see the shows available there.”

Over 30 artworks in various two-dimensional and three-dimensional mediums, primarily large-scale, are on display. The work includes sculptures, paintings and photographs, with a few purchasable artworks. 

The CoLab holds a unique space for the art, considered a historic building rather than a traditional gallery space. It is the second year the CoLab has collaborated with the MFA students to showcase the Spring MFA exhibition, and they believe it will have a successful turnout again.

“New people will get a chance to learn about what the university’s CVAD is doing for the Denton community,” said Sunil Lama, MFA candidate and CoLab intern. “I hope this art connects with the local people. If they come here and see the art, they will find there are vast mediums and some contemporary art and can enjoy the dynamics of them.”

The reception ran from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Refreshments and snacks were provided as people walked in to look at the art and had the opportunity to meet some artists displaying their work. Over the next two weeks, anyone can see the art Tuesday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The pieces shown at the CoLab were filled with depth. Two separate sculptures, created by first-year MFA student Nadin Nassar, were representations of rehabilitating the image of the Muslim community. One of her sculptures had a set of legs kneeling with two hands in front of it on a prayer rug titled “refuge.” The other sculpture was of a woman in a hijab sitting with a hand over her mouth, forcing it into a smile, the piece is titled “freedom forn’t all.”  

“A lot of my work has the same base concept, but with the carpet piece I was addressing the imagery instilled within American society to be afraid of seeing someone in prayer, so people are more shocked than understanding that this is a moment of refuge,” Nassar said. “My other piece was addressing the concept of the hijab and liberation, where some people may see it as oppression, but that’s not the case. When you make a piece about the hijab, it’s so easy for people to misconstrue that.”

Another artist and MFA student, Noah Garcia, has a unique art piece made of a fragmented mirror, candle wax, embroidery floss and plastic line titled “Memory of a Mirror.” 

“My practice is inspired by memory and things that we leave behind, things that we use get fragmented in the mind,” Garcia said. “We misremember things, we rearrange details. In my sculptural work, I am literally fragmenting and rearranging pieces. My artwork is inspired by nostalgia, eclectic and reclamation by nature.”

Garcia’s work has also been shown at the State Fair of Texas and Ann Street Studio in Denton. 

Family and friends of artists filled the first floor of the CoLab, along with venue regulars who enjoy seeing these exhibitions. Bringing art students make during their school years into a space outside the university campus helps stitch the university and Denton communities closer together.  

“They [MFA students] are bringing diversity to the art community, which is what I think makes Denton so special,” Bigley said. “Every year, we get more people coming for music, art and other cultural influences. They’re leaving a little bit of themselves here by creating these works here. We want to showcase all these great things that are happening on campus to the community.”