Virtual BFA Exhibition

Placeholder showcases the work of this year’s BFA seniors: Melia Ortiz, Daniel Goldstein, and Sofi Hailu. These artists take an experimental approach to their practice as they challenge their traditional ways of thinking and working. Through this experimentation, they have grown their artistic expressions and found ways to creatively explore concepts such as identity, nature, and belonging. Using the mediums of ceramics, photography, and animation these artists look at how people relate to themselves, others, and the earth.

Even as their work culminates in this exhibition, the artists continue to grapple with this need to build connections in light of necessary social distancing during this pandemic. It is important to acknowledge the effect these circumstances have on creative expression. However, Ortiz, Goldstein, and Hailu believe that art can provide an outlet for emotions they are experiencing during isolation, and it has provided them with new perspectives on their work. The viewers are invited to explore this showcase virtually and use art as a means to connect with themselves, the earth, and others through the art.

Read more about the artists below:

Daniel Goldstein is a multimedia artist from Boulder, Colorado. Inspired by his love of graphic novels and comics, his work explores ideas of play and memories of childhood. He is interested in the use of forgotten or sentimental objects as a means to tell stories in collaboration with the viewer. Daniel’s recent work centers around photography, capturing images of his childhood toys and presenting them as larger than life prints as a means to preserve and celebrate the imaginative stories we participate in as children.

Melia Ortiz is an artist from Olathe, KS. In her work, Ortiz strives to draw attention to the natural world around us and incite curiosity in the viewers. Ortiz often references scientific formats such as herbarium plants to draw on the curiosity and the desire for the acquisition of knowledge that is tied with scientific inquiry. In her current work, she explores collaborations with nature through art, in order to reflect on, and develop, her relationship with the environment.

Sofi Hailu is an emerging artist who has mostly worked with themes of sound, heritage, and migration. Born in Nuremberg, Germany to a Ukrainian mother and an Ethiopian father, she was raised in Denver, Colorado since 2000. Sofi is currently exploring the importance of sound to visuals, and how sound in the visual arts can be used to reflect on one’s purpose and place in the world.