Best MFA 2020

Curator: Gretchen Andrew’s “Best MFA” from 2020 immediately strikes me as a piece wrestling with value, aspiration, and, dare I say, a bit of playful chaos. Editor: Chaos is an apt description. The composition feels deliberately scattered. Yet, there’s an undeniable logic to the arrangement of elements—the linear arrangements versus clustered vignettes creating a stimulating visual rhythm. The limited palette is carefully calibrated, too. Curator: Considering Andrew’s history of "success hacking," do you see the image itself working as a meta-commentary on the commodification of higher education? Note the title...Best MFA...It certainly seems that Andrew wants to analyze the systems of art with an understanding of capital. Editor: Indeed. If we approach this as an exercise in semiotics, the recurring motifs--the cake, the gifts, cosmetics--they function as symbolic markers of achievement, all arranged with an awareness of market forces. Look, each choice echoes a deep understanding of modern art's complicated placement in a capitalist world. Curator: And, she seems particularly focused on womanhood. So many symbols seem tied to traditional conceptions of femininity. How do these objects work within a modern context and does it alter the original function or symbolic weight? Editor: Perhaps those connotations are intentionally doubled-down upon, making us, as viewers, contend with how gender and consumerism collide in contemporary art. These aren't mere decorative choices. I think the materiality is key, too, how the found objects add layers of texture and challenge our perception. Curator: Layering seems incredibly vital here, not just as texture. The various drawing styles imitate modes of creating in different fields. They challenge expectations with its sheer density of signs. Its rejection of formal, professional aesthetics might very well be the point. Editor: On reflection, this artwork leaves us with no easy answers. The 'Best MFA’ invites discourse around institutions, aspirations, and the subjective measurements of worth in the art world. Curator: It makes us question how to represent dreams when the institutions built to make dreams a reality operate along a line of capitalist competition.