Becky Alprin’s High Altitude City, courtesy Irvine Contemporary

Over 250 artists from across the country were evaluated for Irvine Contemporary’s “MFA annual” group show, Introductions4. Each of the artists were chosen by a selection panel of collectors of early-career artists through studio and exhibit visits along with open submissions. The chosen nine, Becky Alprin, Reid Bingham, Christina Empedocles, Adam Frezza, Andrea Land, David Linneweh, Sebastian Martorana, Jimmy Joe Roche and Matthew Woodward, represent an interesting cross section of the graduate art world, displaying work inspired by material, the intersection of people and nature, and memorial.

The show has a little bit of something for everyone, showcasing a diversity of mediums including sculpture, photography, video and painting. The artists also represent a diverse geographic mix with degrees from San Francisco Art Institute, Rutgers University, Southern Illinois University and three from Maryland Institute College of Art.

Becky Alprin and Christina Empedocles show their different interpretation of man’s interaction with the natural world. Alprin creates undulating raw wooden landscapes dotted with white plexiglass cityscapes (High Altitude City, pictured). The small cities, showing human construction, and sometimes encroachment, are dwarfed by the wooden landscape. The wood is smooth and natural, engulfing the pointy edges of the cities.

In contrast, Empedocles explores this theme with paint and paper. Inspired by Audubon bird renderings, Empedocles shows a deteriorated memory of nature, emphasizing our separation from the environment in her paintings and drawings. In one interpretation of this theme, highly rendered and accurate birds are drawn on paper and cut out to reveal their silhouettes. They are then clustered together on the wall, where the paper naturally curls and bends, revealing the blank underside of the paper. It is a visual cacophony with each individual bird struggling for survival and your attention.