This year’s M.F.A. selections reflect the broad territory available to the artist at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The traditional genres of landscape, figure, and still-life persist, as does the more recent tradition of modernist abstraction. Sometimes they are even interconnected. One of the strongest works in the book is a painting of a shipyard full of containers by Mary Iverson, which also reads as a compelling geometric abstraction. 

Uncanny images make frequent appearances here, and a myriad of distortions and perspectives are brought to bear on various subjects—from the abandoned warehouses by Sean Sauer to the warped architectural spaces by Mario Correa. Another powerful work by Mary Henderson depicts two truncated legs partially submersed in water, and in another work by the same artist, we see the distorted and somewhat abstract perspective of her downward gaze at her own body. 

The hold of surrealism and the unconscious over the artistic imagination remains strong, but many of them have a new twist. The distortions, morphing and remapping of images, made possible by new technologies, is an undeniable force and influence. In fact, the most intriguing works here make strong allusions to cyberspace. There is a whole new genre of abstraction emerging—as in the work of Ellina Kevorkian and Matthew Day Jackson—that uses a high-keyed electronic palette and makes use of the shimmering effects of high technology, pixels, and other digital bits. Others, like Maria Park, Eric Pearce, and Ruth Wedes, display a futuristic figuration that incorporates references to computer animation, computer games, and graphics. 

This work is truly exhilarating and demonstrates that the age old medium of painting can be reinvigorated and reformulated as the limits of perception and knowledge are continually expanded and tested throughout history. Today, we are at a pivotal moment, poised at the dawn of a new age. The drama of the new vistas opening up before us are once again dramatically transforming painting as painting helps to give it form. 

Lisa Phillips 
Director 
New Museum of Contemporary Art