The end of the world as we know it
The best and the brightest at the RISD 2024 Grad show
Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibitions track how our culture is changing. Fundamental concepts about identity, technology, capitalism, and existence on Earth appear in them before they become common currency in the everyday world.
The RISD Graduate 2024 Show is held at the Rhode Island Convention Center through June 1. (here’s the catalog). Most years, I stop by with friends and we spend hours taking in the projects of more than 200 MFA grads. Instead of a Work in Progress feature today, I’m going to share about these up-and-coming artists and designers. As in many thesis shows, there’s some forgettable art that feels hurried and unrealized, And there’s wonderful art, like Boluwatife Oyediran’as painting “Higher Goals (After Hammons),” above, which I’ll get to.
But first, let’s take society’s temperature.
Many of these artists came of age during the pandemic. They’re digital natives. And this year we recognized a heartbreaking focus on feelings of isolation, with design projects crafted to help lonely or anxious users broadcast their mental state in real life social situations so those around them will know how, or whether, to approach them. Such devices may fill a practical need that’s always been there, but they also suggest a slippage, a growing loneliness.
That isolation feels connected to a longtime theme: The many identities a single person can have, which have multiplied exponentially in virtual space. On one hand, avatars are a way to explore aspects of self. On the other, if there’s an anchor self in the real world (or anywhere), maybe that part can grow more diffuse or overwhelmed. Shori V. Sims, whose brash painting “Fighting Girl, Fight On” is below, coins the term “Maximodernism.”
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