Graduate Student Award Finalists
Alejandra Abad
Laura Conway
William Frizzell
Samara Johnson
Mikey Yates
Alejandra Abad
Poli Mito
Animation, 2019
Laura Conway
Dolphy
Video, 2019
Artist statement: Alejandra Abad was born in Venezuela and partially raised in Florida. She is a visual artist with a penchant for dense, fantastical landscapes and abstract shapes. Her style is informed by her studies of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University and as well as The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she got her BFA in Film, Video, and New Media. She has participated in various shows across The United States and abroad, and was a fellow at the Miami non-profit Borscht Corporation. In 2018 she received a fellowship from CU «Ƶ, where she is currently pursuing an MFA in Integrated Media Arts Practices. Alejandra’s approach to art involves conceptual and collaborative projects that work to break down the barriers between artist and audience.
Artist statement: Laura Conway is a filmmaker and DJ based in Denver, Colorado. Laura’s filmmaking practice uses absurdity and surrealism to grapple with the complexities of life in late capitalism. As a DJ and musician, Laura’s films operate as visual remixes and often start by recording original music, or collaborating with musicians. Employing whimsy to confront power structures, Laura’s films navigate a terrain between the grotesque and the sensual, the sonic and the visual, and the cliched and the still-possible. Laura believes that cultivating creative communities is as crucial as the creative act itself and aims to facilitate and create in equal measure. Laura, therefore, curates art events, hosts DIY music shows, and books alternative film events.
Project statement:Bifurcation of Christ Jesus Christ represents a human origin story embedded in the Christian view of the world. Our growing understanding in the fields of anthropology and evolutionary biology indicate a different story of our origins. Christ, as depicted here, embodies the collision of these separate views.
Power of Prayer For some believers, prayer is a private conversation or connection with their creator for self-reflection. It may have benefits by bringing one’s needs to the forefront of their mind. However, petitionary prayer — prayer asking God for something for yourself, and intercessory prayer — prayer asking God for something on the behalf of others, are pleads for God to grant specific events. If God is as claimed: an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and unchanging being, what faith would there be in the idea that prayer to Him would open the lock? Would even the most pious doubt God’s ability to unlock the wearer of these cuffs?