Fall Crits Light Up Campus

RISD’s campus came alive in early December as students in every department shared inspired work completed during the fall 2021 semester. At a Painting crit led by Associate Professor Angela Dufresne, the class focused on work by junior Tara Sabini 23 PT, whose dramatically lit large-scale self-portraits seem to reckon with past trauma. “I respect the way that light hits the objects I paint, but I’m not interested in rendering them realistically,” the artist explained. Fellow painter Blue Brooks-O’Leary 23 PT prepared to show her work exploring masculinity and sexuality in an adjoining space.

The Furniture Design department welcomed insights from a range of guest critics including curator Glenn Adamson, co-host of the online interview series Design in Dialogue. He described drawings by senior Catharina Fernandes Dobal 22 FD as “fierce and present” and suggested that she explore the abstract in addition to the functional.

A moving performance by sophomore Cassius Pickens 24 FD highlighted the double-topped drum table he built of sapele, African mahogany and Sitka spruce. He rapped in French as his friend accompanied him on percussion. Fellow sophomore Angelina Pei 24 IL also wowed the room with a beautifully constructed wooden table incorporating an unexpected crocheted element.

Down the street in the College Building, graduate Textiles students including Fisayo Quadri MFA 22 TX and Zahra Tyebjee MFA 22 TX showed an array of colorful prints, while Ceramics student Miguel Enrique Lastra MFA 22 CR presented a massive, figurative piece in the Metcalf Building to the sound of experimental electronic music he’d created using weather data recordings.

After a mostly virtual Academic Year 20–21, the joy and energy generated by live crits was palpable and welcome.

—Simone Solondz / photos by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH

January 5, 2022