Alumni exhibit invites viewers into “The Space of the Encounter.”

Works by alumni from both graduate and undergraduate programs are on display through November 4 at DOVA Temporary, the exhibition space of the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago.

DOVA Temporary scheduled the opening of its annual Alumni Exhibition to coincide with the first week of classes as a way to welcome back both current students and alumni.

“The opening is a really nice way for our students to unwind a bit after the hectic pace of the first week and connect with each other and former students,” said Zach Cahill MFA’07, a DOVA Temporary committee member and lecturer for the Department of Visual Arts. Cahill co-curated this year’s exhibition with current graduate student Cassandra Troyan MFA’12.

The exhibition’s is also scheduled the same month as DOVA’s annual Distinguished Alumni lecture, delivered this year by Dan Peterman MFA’86 on Monday, October 17, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. at the Cochrane Woods Art Center. The acclaimed artist and founder of the Experimental Station will provide for current students a shining example a successful alumni artist.

In the gallery above, Cahill and Troyan describe the curatorial process and their impressions of featured works by alumni artists Matthew Connors AB’98, Rachel Herman MFA’06, Meredith Miller AB’98, and Maria Perkovic MFA’06.

Troyan has already found the process rewarding. “This role of curation during my time as an MFA has been very exciting, and helpful in terms of my own practice as well,” she said. “This sort of involvement has helped me come to realize that as an artist I do not need to designate between some type of more ‘pure’ or ‘personal’ practice. Rather, this is all a part of the collaborative nature of my work, and only allows more options as to how I can feasibly exist and survive in the world as an artist.”