Integrated Art Thesis Exhibitions

‘Perfekt’ by Ashley Mercurio and ‘Attraverso il Tempo’ by Maria Falanga will exhibit their work at Buffalo Arts Studio from May 5 through May 18. An opening reception will be held on May 5.

Ashley Mercurio’s work forefronts haphazard process, where image contours are loosely structured and then fleshed out with a variety of collage, paint, and assemblage approaches. For Perfekt, Mercurio began with an origin work, a large-scale mixed media work structured largely by a pattern of irregular fabric patches. From this work, she subdivided it into eight sections, traced the contours of each, and then made a series of eight companion works based on the contours of the original work. Additionally, she extended the collage and paint process to a set of irregularly shaped sculptures. Perfekt is a tongue-in-cheek reflection of an unwieldy and improvisatory process.

Maria Falanga has developed a signature portraiture stylization involving hard-edged and intense color shapes with an irregular geometry and unpredictable color substitutions. The work in Attraverso il tempo involves a series of portrayals of three generations of Falanga’s family. The images shift from achromatic to full-color in line with their chronology. Additionally, Falanga makes allusions to her relatives’ survival of WWII through sculptural enlargements of candy, like that which was tossed to civilians