Museum lends platform to emerging artists

Eric Murphy finds monsters at the edge of sleep and chaos embedded in the mundane. He embraces random processes for which the surrealists coined the term “automatism.” Using automatic processes in recent drawings, he created impossible organic forms, tangles of sinew or “tumors” pulled from his subconscious and given a surreal reality.

Donna Burawa creates images that speak of human vulnerability and its necessity for growth. She paints in an expressionist style, employing emotionally charged markings and textures. Human forms, which at first glance are barely discernable within the play of brushwork, gradually emerge.

Isabella Fernanda is a multimedia artist working in two and three dimensions, video and performance, who questions individual boundaries and levels of comfort in a world that is increasingly intrusive into personal privacy. Through performance, she exposes herself to vulnerability and the ambivalent nature of self-disclosure. Her videos, sculptures, and paintings exist as both documentation of her performances and as stand-alone works of art.

Gabriela Mandfredi documents the public and personal in the medium of photography. In her series “29 Surviving,” she documents her relations in a unique family of three—two fathers and herself—over the past two years as they deal with illness. Her images are deeply sensitive and moving as she depicts loving relationships in tragic times.