The Spire

Sophie Sundaram ‘26

Guest Writer

Last Wednesday evening of the Academic Conference marked the opening of A P A R T, the 2026 Senior Studio Art Concentration Seminar Exhibition in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery. The show showcases the work of nine senior studio art concentrators—Sydney McDonald, Jerry Keefe, Maeve Foley, Val Sutherland, Sophie Sundaram, Emilia Bertram, Evelyn Fey, Fabjola Telhaj, and Madeline Zafon-Whalen—each of whom spent the year developing a cohesive body of work across a wide range of media, from installation and painting to textiles, collage, and interdisciplinary practices.

Walking into A P A R T feels less like entering a single exhibition and more like stepping into a series of distinct yet overlapping worlds. Each artist constructs their own visual language—rooted in memory, identity, faith, or the body—yet what emerges collectively is a shared investment in experience: how it is made, how it is felt, and how it is offered to others.

The concentration seminar, taught by Professor Leslie Schomp in the fall and Professor Cristi Rinklin in the spring, offers students a unique opportunity to move beyond traditional assignments and instead pursue sustained, self-directed artistic inquiry. This shift often requires students to take risks, embrace failure, and reimagine their creative processes. Maeve Foley, this year’s recipient of the John Paul Reardon Award and Medal, reflected on this challenge: “Not all of the pieces I made were great, but it was so helpful to experiment and have the time to make mistakes… I took some risks, and they paid off.” Having entered the seminar focused on realism and landscape, Foley ultimately transitioned into abstraction and collage, discovering a new direction through constraint and experimentation.

This process of pushing beyond comfort zones was a defining aspect of the seminar experience. “Throughout the process, my work changed a lot, and instead of resisting that I began to lean into it,” said Evelyn Fey, noting that this shift helped her better understand both her materials and her artistic voice. For many students, the seminar demanded long hours and sustained commitment. “Working eight or more hours a week across two semesters is not easy,” said Jerry Keefe, whose installation reconstructs a bedroom as a site of “Emerging Liminal” identity. “There were definitely moments where I had to make sacrifices.”

The transition from making work for classes to creating work for a public exhibition also introduced new challenges. Students were tasked not only with producing their work, but with curating it considering how each piece would exist in dialogue with others in the gallery space. “Even small choices, like orientation or placement, were difficult,” Keefe noted. For Madeline Zafon-Whalen, this process revealed unexpected dimensions of her work. “One thing that was really unexpected was the shadows that each of the wire sculptures was making based on the lighting,” she said, noting how the gallery itself expanded the work beyond its physical form.

The gallery becomes an active participant in the exhibition, transforming how pieces are experienced. “It feels surreal to think about how far my concept has come, let alone now having the final product on display,” Keefe reflected when discussing his installation, which takes the form of a fully realized bedroom. “It was really exciting to see how visitors interacted with the space,” he added, “whether by immersing themselves in it or reflecting on its connections to their own experiences.”

Audience engagement also played a meaningful role in McDonald’s installation Cornerstone of Zion. “Some people respond in two polar opposite ways,” she noted. “One is to feel compelled to interact with the work, and the other is to stand at a distance and treat it as sacred.” These varied responses reflect the work’s intention to create space for both personal reflection and broader conversation.

For many, the moment of installation also carried an unexpected and deeply meaningful challenge. Just days before the exhibition opened, a central sculptural element of McDonald’s installation broke. “It felt as if the object jumped out of my arms onto the floor,” she recalled. The process of repairing the piece became inseparable from its meaning. In reconstructing the work—centered on themes of faith, suffering, and the body—McDonald found a new understanding of her subject matter. The breaking, and subsequent mending, mirrored the very ideas of bodily sacrifice and resilience that her work engages. As she reflected, putting the piece back together allowed her to consider more deeply “what the breaking of the body does to the soul and mind,” transforming a moment of crisis into one of conceptual clarity.

The title of the exhibition reflects the balance between individuality and collectivity that makes it special. A P A R T was a name the group arrived at quickly, initially as a way to acknowledge the wide breadth of work on view—from small, labor-intensive textile pieces to large-scale, immersive installations. But the title also holds a productive ambiguity: to be “apart” suggests distance and difference, while “a part” suggests belonging. However varied the practices in the exhibition may be, each artist contributes to a larger whole. The show becomes not just a collection of distinct works, but a shared space in which those differences coexist and resonate with one another.

Despite the diversity of media and subject matter, strong thematic connections emerge across the exhibition. Questions of memory, time, and the construction of the self appear in varied yet intersecting forms. Emilia Bertram’s embroidered works explore the fragmented nature of childhood memory, while Sophie Sundaram’s layered photo-collages similarly examine time as an emotional and nonlinear experience. Jerry Keefe’s installation approaches these ideas through the lens of adolescence and young adulthood, constructing a liminal space between identities.

The body also serves as a central point of exploration. Fabjola Telhaj’s large-scale mixed media paintings incorporate medical materials such as gauze, merging clinical knowledge with emotional expression, while Madeline Zafon-Whalen’s sculptural works draw on literature and feminist thought to explore the female body as mutable and sacred. Across these works, the body becomes both subject and site—of memory, transformation, and meaning.

Humor, too, emerges as a powerful tool within the exhibition. Jerry Keefe’s playful sculptural elements and Val Sutherland’s use of LEGO minifigures within compositions inspired by traditional American paintings introduce moments of levity that simultaneously challenge established narratives. In both cases, humor becomes a means of critique, prompting viewers to reconsider familiar images and ideas.

The interdisciplinary nature of the exhibition further reflects the breadth of the students’ academic experiences. Many artists draw directly from their second majors and areas of study: Talan incorporates her pre-med background, Zafon-Whalen engages with English literature, and both Fey and Foley explore psychological themes through their work. This blending of disciplines underscores the ways in which artistic practice at the College extends beyond the studio, engaging with broader intellectual and cultural conversations.

For many of the artists, the seminar was not only about individual growth but also about community. “Working among a talented group of artists has been a really formative experience,” one student reflected. “We all seem to understand what the other is trying to process and go through.” Foley echoed this sentiment, noting how much she valued the shared studio environment: “I loved seeing my classmates and chatting with them in the studios… even just hearing about their work and processes helped me with my own.”

This sense of support extended beyond the student cohort to the broader Visual Arts community. Reflecting on the experience, Fey emphasized how crucial this network was in bringing the exhibition to life—from the guidance of Professors Schomp and Rinklin to the hands-on support of studio supervisor John Carney, preparator Tim Johnson, and gallery staff including Lauren Szumita. As Keefe noted, this support was often deeply practical as well as conceptual: “John was a huge help in teaching me how to build a bed from scratch, which was a completely alien experience for me, but one of the most rewarding parts of the process.” Their collaboration and technical expertise helped transform ambitious ideas into fully realized works.

Having the work finally installed and open to the public “makes all the work worth it,” a sentiment shared across the group, as well as by the gallery’s director, Lauren Szumita, who noted: the nine artists of A P A R T apply different modes of thinking to creative practice and collectively present a visual experience for the viewer that will encourage reflection, dialogue, laughter, and connection.

Months of experimentation, uncertainty, and long hours in the studio culminate in a moment of visibility and exchange—one that feels both celebratory and reflective. As these artists prepare to leave Holy Cross, A P A R T captures a moment of transition, emphasizing both the individuality of each practice and the experience that binds them together.

A P A R T will be on view through May 22 in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, located on the third floor of the Prior Performing Arts Center.

Featured image courtesy of the Prior Performing Arts Center