Show highlights abstract art

In one corner hangs a collection of traditionally styled paintings with a strange twist -- the figures lack limbs or boast extra features. Further down the hall, a spare white canvas seems to blend into the wall until closer examination reveals the pattern of bumps and lines which the artist has woven into the paint's texture. Welcome to the Thesis Art Show -- an eclectic and abstract collection of the Graduate School of Fine Arts class of 1997's final works. A culmination of two years of schooling, the exhibit allows graduating students a last chance to share their art with the University community. "I think the greatest strength of the art show is its diversity," said Kathryn McFadden, the exhibit coordinator and a graduating Fine Arts student. Indeed, each of the nine sections of the Meyerson Hall exhibit could constitute its own gallery. The front space is claimed by Fritz Kappler, whose work explores the paradoxical relationship between youth and maturity. Brightly colored images of young children are juxtaposed against barren backgrounds or transposed on phallic symbols, twisting the traditional to reflect the bizarre -- a child's head, for example, is attached to a dog's body or a baby with three eyes. Nearby, the simplicity and sparcity of Yikwon Kim and John Poblador lends an air of peacefulness to the open space. On the floor, boxes and wires are entwined into a rectangular collage. A similarly wired frame hangs above, while a bleached box on a spread of white fabric lies beyond. Upstairs, white canvases textured with bumps or brush strokes hang beside spare paintings patterned with dotted repetition -- perhaps expressing the complexity that is often masked by simplicity. In stark contrast are the bright colors and sweeping brush strokes of Rebecca Rutstein, combined in dramatic expression of emotion -- red anger, white contentment and blue sadness. Downstairs, intricate swirls of black and white dance across a hanging that falls down from a wood branch, beckoning the viewer into McFadden's world. Instructions on the wall invite the viewer to touch the wood and wax sculptures leaning easily against the wall, or the giant mattress of newspaper balls, wax and hair standing in awkward authority. Next to McFadden's space is the work of Mark Murray, whose art suggests a sado-masochist influence. Ropes and chains hang down from a four posted, fabric covered structure, surrounded by a series of photographs showing an obese man tangled and then struggling in the chains. Next door, an enclosed room is covered with the charcoal and oil murals of Ted Pauly, catching both brightly colored and black and white figures in a collage of lines and shapes -- expressing moments of movement and abandon. Finally, the viewer returns to serenity in the subdued paintings of Grant Johnson whose ghost-like figures move quietly through pastel backgrounds. The variety of styles manifested in the exhibit is a result of the artists' freedom, according to McFadden. "There were really no guidelines," she said. "That was the beauty of it." But the students still had to demonstrate to their professors that they had progressed enough to graduate. "There have been students in the past whose theses have 'not passed'," McFadden said. She did not feel, however, that this would be a problem for her class. "The wealth of talent and growth amazes me," she said. College freshman Adam Wayda agreed that the exhibit was "so forceful and moving it almost became obscene." And Wharton freshman David Petrozzi noted that "the complexity was so simple and the artist's prominence so covert that I was moved to tears."