MFA Thesis Exhibitions continue with Sara Alfieri’s “Blueprints” and Dominique Ellis’ “When the Dust Settles.” Thesis talks will take place Friday, April 11 from 4-5 p.m. in Richards Hall Rm. 15 followed by a closing reception from 5-7 p.m. in Richards Hall's Eisentrager-Howard Gallery.
Sara Alfieri, “Blueprints”
In her recent work, Alfieri is captivated by the relationship between ceramic vessels and architecturally inspired structures. Drawing inspiration from modern architecture, design theory, and shape psychology, she aims to create various abstract compositions that comprise both a stimulating and functional engagement for herself and the user. The idea of pottery as an entry point into an experience intrigues her. Like architecture, a pot solicits interaction, not just viewing. The meaning of the vessel changes through experience, gaining content through use. By exploring the intersections between craft and design, she hopes to enhance the art and act of dining with an emphasis on interaction, intention, and play in each piece’s form and surface.
Alfieri received her BFA from Illinois State University (ISU) in 2020. She later completed a Graduate Student-At-Large program at ISU before moving to Fort Collins, Colorado, to pursue a Post-Baccalaureate program at Colorado State University (CSU). Alfieri designs and develops digital prototypes using C.A.D. (Computer-Aided Design) software, which is then translated into physical forms through the mold-making and slip-casting process. By using old and new mechanisms of working, she is interested in how utilizing the digital fabrication process, in tandem with hand-built vessels, can highlight these processes’ differences while finding ways to connect their potentials. Alfieri has exhibited her work nationally in several recognized galleries.
Dominique Ellis, “When the Dust Settles”
Ellis’ photographic process interrogates the language of how to capture what is left behind when ice melts, water evaporates, and floods subside. She uses X-ray film, frosted mylar and photo-sensitive paper and film to index, translate and record melting ice. She presents a local archive of ice harvested from the Antelope Creek in Lincoln from January-March 2025. In an effort to confront and comprehend global events that are too large in scale for us to fully understand, she creates small-scale experiments, miniaturizing and recording the melting of ice and subsequent sedimentation of added impurities such as colored inks and powdered minerals. Through this process, she is able to record and document a simulacrum of the large-scale devastating consequences of global climate change.
Ellis is a visual artist and researcher. She is a current MFA graduate student in photography and uses photography as a vehicle for storytelling, collaboration and advocacy to document environmental, cultural and historical change. She was awarded a U.S. Fulbright student scholarship for Egypt, as well as an Arabic language grant for 2009-2010 and was based in Cairo, Egypt. She served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 2006-2008, working for the Moroccan Ministry of Handicrafts. She is an active member of the Society of Photographic Education, UNL Fine Art Photo Club and is the graduate student assembly representative for the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.
More details at: https://arts.unl.edu/art