Shifting Ground: Master of Fine Arts Candidates Exhibition I

Shifting Ground: Master of Fine Arts Candidates Exhibition I

Gary R. Libby University Gallery + Gary R. Libby Focus Gallery, University Galleries, The University of Florida

Artists:
Alex Abair
Ebenezer Mensah
Rosemary Springer
Lindsay Carlton

The ground is stable until it isn’t. It shifts beneath our feet, either slow and imperceptible or sudden and catastrophic. It carries histories—of labor, migration, resistance, love, and loss— yet it is not fixed. The artists in Shifting Ground engage with the material and metaphorical instability of place, memory, and identity. Their works chart the tensions between permanence and change, presence and absence, the future and the past. This exhibition explores how the act of making becomes an excavation, a navigation, and a negotiation between what shifts and what remains.

As the ground moves, so too does the labor that shapes and reshapes it, leaving traces in its wake. Labor is embedded in every portion of this exhibition—as subject matter, as material, as gesture, and as process. It is present in the weight of what is built and what is demolished, in what is repurposed, stitched, formed, and reimagined. Labor here is both visible and invisible, a force that sustains and a burden that marks. This exhibition does not romanticize labor, nor does it obscure its realities. It deals with the rhythms of making and unmaking, about survival and persistence, as well as the ways work inscribes itself onto bodies, materials, and landscapes. In this space, labor is not only the physical effort of creation but the ongoing negotiation of place, memory, and meaning.

Alex Abair engages with human-machine entanglement through AI-generated visuals and sound. Blurring the line between body and system, this work immerses viewers in shifting perception, breath, and cognition, creating a feedback loop that dissolves boundaries between the false binary of human and technology. Technology has long been used to support and even replace human labor. Are the worries of a radical displacement of labor and creativity founded in fears such as those of the industrial era or will systems shift and adjust like they always have?

Ebenezer Mensah repurposes discarded construction materials to reveal unseen labor worldwide. Using pallets, tools, and assemblage, this work creates a structural archive of labor, exploring how built environments carry the histories of workers who remain largely invisible. His work is a visual memory and reminder of the infrastructure and humans that we often take for granted.

Rosemary Springer reframes agricultural labor through sculptural bales and stitched text. Exploring cycles of production, land, and inheritance, this work highlights the physical and symbolic weight of labor, connecting bodies to the land they cultivate. It shows the ground from high above and brings the agricultural products produced from the ground up close.

Lindsay Carlton distorts cinematic language through fragmented media, horror aesthetics, and voyeurism. This work immerses viewers in a maze-like structure, where spectacle and performance expose the fluid construction of identity. Lindsay’s work deals with media and toys that can forge a sense of what gender roles and labor roles are. These are designed by consumer culture for consumption, not often representative of the actualities of the world, they are slow to shift and are sometimes an arrow pointing at consumerism, not idealism.

Together, the artists featured in "Shifting Ground" unearth, reconstruct, and reimagine. Their work reminds us that the ground is never truly static and that what we stand on is always in motion. Through labor, material, memory, and form, they offer ways of navigating shifting terrain—finding footholds, marking paths, and creating spaces for what comes next. These artists are moving from their graduate studies into the world and an art world that is continually shifting but setting the groundwork for futures where they can thrive.

- Flounder Lee

The exhibition is co-curated by Jesús Fuenmayor and Flounder Lee.

Exhibition-related Programming
Reception: April 4, 2025, 5-7 PM
Exhibition Open for Viewing: March 28, 2025-April 11, 2025

Additional information
The graduate program in Art History at the University of Florida offers a global art history program covering a breadth of content from across time and space. The program also offers a

graduate certificate in curatorial studies. For more information, please visit: https://arts.ufl.edu/academics/art-and-art-history/programs/art-history/degrees-ways-to-study/


About University Galleries
The University of Florida University Galleries’ mission is to be a platform for relevant and experimental art research and a place where pressing contemporary conversations are amplified and shared with the university and expanded communities. The UG advances the School of Art + Art History’s commitment to the visual arts by offering an experimental space to bring people together around art and ideas, improving accessibility and inclusivity through direct student and community engagement; increasing the school’s visibility as a center for critical discourse around artistic research, production, and scholarship, leading with preeminent programming.

University Galleries are comprised of three art galleries. Gary R. Libby University Gallery (GRLUG) provides the greater Gainesville community with a contemporary venue that explores new directions in visual art, incorporating historical perspectives. Exhibitions feature nationally and internationally known artists, studio art faculty, and MFA graduating thesis projects. The Gary R. Libby Focus Gallery and the Constance and Linton Grinter Gallery of International Art present art exhibitions that are organized by graduate student curators, in conjunction with the director of the galleries, allowing students to learn experientially about curation, organization, and exhibition making.


Parking Information
Daytime Parking There are 3 reserved gallery parking spots located in the lot just east of Reid Hall. From SW 13th Street, enter campus via Museum Road, then take the first right into the Orange decal parking lot and follow the lot until it dead-ends. The gallery spots can be found on the right, facing SW 13th Street. A temporary (one-day) parking pass can be retrieved from the Gary R. Libby University Gallery. Parking restrictions for this lot are lifted at 4:30pm.

Reception Parking The closest parking to the Gary R. Libby University Gallery is the lot behind (to the west of) Tigert Hall. From University Avenue, enter campus via Buckman Drive and turn left onto Union Road. Follow Union Road through the 4-way stop. The parking lot entrance is on the right just past Walker Hall. Parking restrictions for this lot are lifted at 5:30pm.

Parking permits are issued to gallery visitors in the University Gallery.

For more information, please contact the University Gallery at (352) 273-3000 or visit our website at www.arts.ufl.edu/galleries.

Address

400 SW 13th St
Gainesville
FL 32601 + 1370 Inner Road
Gainesville
FL 32601