The Advanced Painting Workshop hosted a reception for their fall show “Houston, We Have a Painting” Dec 5. Friends, professors and fellow students filled the intimate gallery space on the seventh floor of the George L. Mosse Humanities Building, generating a welcoming environment for the attendees and artists alike.

The dazzling show was curated by and features the work of Alyssa Ackerman, Mia Boulukos, Lena Carlson, Alice Hennessy, Shelby Kahr, Heide Knoppke-Wetzel, Rachel Miller, Nicole Rosenbaum, Emma Santoianni, Raja Timihiri, Zixuan (Shirley) Yang and Tiannan (Sylvia) Zhang.

When entering the gallery, the first thing visible is a collaborative piece made by Carlson, Kahr and Santoianni. Displayed on top of a white painted dartboard cabinet are six miniature replicas of the paintings the artists exhibited in the show. Underneath this scaled down curation are small plastic animal figurines.

“Our collaborative piece at the beginning of the show was purely spontaneous but also reflective of our pieces in a voyeuristic form that explores how the miniaturization of a work changes its perception through scale and irony,” Kahr said.

By simulating a smaller scale version of what the audience will see at the show, the three artists activated an interesting viewership experience that forces the awareness of their role as a spectator.

Further, the addition of plastic figurines to the work revealed a desire to simulate and make small that comes along with the process of creating.

“We wanted to combine humor with intentionality in a subversive way that comments on the structures that make up the expectation of the exhibit,” Kahr said.