Thesis exhibitions draw appreciative crowd

April showers may bring Mayflowers, but it also brings eye-catching masterpieces in metal and ceramic. Emerge Gallery and Art Center is currently hosting the ECU MFA Thesis Exhibition featuring the art of Adam Egenolf and Susan McMurray, ceramic and metal works respectively.

Adam Egenolf is an ECU graduate student working toward an MFA in Ceramics, and plans to becme a professor and artist after graduating. Susan McMurray is an ECU graduate student completing her MFA in Metal Design.

Although The Don Edwards Gallery at Emerge just opened the show on April 11, the pieces have already touched a broad array of art viewers.

"The works are brilliant, they show so much movement and yet they are crafted tediously and in some cases delicately. [They] stop time," said Candeed Kensington, a Greenville resident who brought her children to the exhibit when it first opened and returned a second time to glimpse the display.

McMurray's work was inspired by the concept of fences and how they protect, preserve and control the areas they surround. The divergent elements of color, texture and unique form, create a truly brilliant balance. The constant juxtaposition of intentional and unintentional boundaries sets the tone for McMurray's work.

"Priceless works of art with a breathless touch that reaches ones soul mind body and spirit," said exhibit viewer Beth Porter of McMurray's work.

Egenolf's works are all done in semi-porcelain or ceramic. Some of them are crystalline glazed, a special glazing method that is attained through a specific chemical reaction. Crystalline glazing gives the piece it covers a pattern within the glaze in the shape of hundreds of tiny starbursts. Many potter pieces or ceramic pieces are glazed to look smooth. This special technique gives the piece dimension and depth.

"I am a huge fan of Egenolf's crystalline glazes. I'm so excited to see ceramic wall pieces done so well," said Ashley Wrenn, a student intern at the gallery.

One of Egenolf's pieces, "Over-Seeding," is done in a gorgeous green with the crystalline glaze. This piece is especially moving because it plays on different levels of the viewer's perception.

The exhibit will run until May 24.

Emerge Gallery is located at 404 S. Evans St. in Greenville.

This writer can be contacted at features@theeastcarolinian.com.