School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents “know sense,” an exhibition of work by SVA students and recent graduates contrasting the conceptual and contemplative with the ironic and absurd. The artists are Baishian Bai, Dustin Grella, Habby Osk, Nils Ivar Theorin and Sang-Hyun Yoo.  The exhibition is curated by Richard Brooks, assistant director of student galleries.

Baishan Bai’s sculptures and video explore what the artist calls “in-between space.” Working in the absurdist tradition, she examines a state of mind between fantasy and reality through her video of a toy dog endlessly barking and her stuffed animal head sculptures mounted as hunting trophies. Bai is a 2008 graduate of the MFA Fine Arts Department.

Dustin Grella’s installation Notes to Self is an ongoing inquiry into the dying art of letter writing. Beginning in April 2002, the artist has sent himself a daily letter containing a stream-of-consciousness essay containing his thoughts and feelings of that moment. Displayed in chronological order, the envelopes and letters comment on discipline and the passage of time. Grella is a student in the MFA Computer Art Department.

In her video performance Great, Habby Osk attempts to smile continuously smile for 73 minutes. As time passes, her body begins to resist and her face grows deformed. “My work is like the contradiction of the shy person who can’t stop talking,” the artist states. Osk is a student in the MFA Fine Arts Department.

Nils Ivar Theorin used crumpled brown paper held together with bold stitches to fabricate an expressionistic, life-sized goat nibbling the bottom corner of a blank painting. Based on a personal memory of a trip to India, where the artist witnessed a goat eating a movie poster, Theorin’s sculpture comments on art as a product for consumption. Theorin is a student in the BFA Fine Arts Department.

Sang-Hyun Yoo’s monumental inkjet print Best Beginnings derives from his advertising campaign for breast feeding. Working in the tradition of Barbara Kruger, Yoo combines a tightly cropped image of a nursing child with the text “Priceless.” Yoo is a student in the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department.