The University of Alabama’s department of art and art history is proud to present the 2021 Senior BFA Thesis Exhibition, April 14-20, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. In this exhibition, seven seniors present their final thesis work in order to fulfill the requirements of the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The BFA is the professional degree for the artist, designed for students who want to go on as professional visual artists or designers, to enter a specific art field or to continue their education at the graduate level. In order to fulfill the degree requirements, each of these students has undergone extensive training in a variety of studio areas and has specialized in a primary and a secondary area.
The public is invited to visit the SGAG Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Due to our ongoing precautions to keep our gallery visitors and staff safe, visitors must wear masks and are limited to ten at a time in the gallery. View an online gallery of some of their work on Flickr.com.
About the Exhibitors
Digital media major William Bounds is exhibiting a graphic design project in which he designed a brand and identity system for print, clothing and fan gear for the Alabama Strong Soccer Club. A Tuscaloosa county native, Bounds was awarded the Carol B. Merkle Endowed Scholarship for the 2020-21 school year and is on the Dean’s List this semester. Bounds’ art website is here.
Digital media major Carolyn Cowper, from Dothan, Ala., was awarded the Farley Moody Galbraith award for the 2020-21 school year.
Dothan native Alisa Mills’ primary concentration is in painting and secondary is in drawing. Mills was awarded the Bradley Endowed Scholarship in Art for the 2019-20 school year, and the Carolyn Haddon “Julie” Matthews Memorial Endowed Scholarship for the 2020-21 school year. She is on Instagram as alisa.v.mills
Printmaking major Anna Pollard, from Hueytown, Ala., has won recognition for her work. In Speedball’s New Impressions 2019 Printmaking Competition, Pollard’s linoleum cut print placed third in the Wild Card category and was exhibited at the Sawtooth School for Visual Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C., and at the 2020 Southern Graphics Conference in Puerto Rico. Pollard was awarded the Bradley Endowed Scholarship in Art for the 2019-20 school year, and the Julie Peake Holaday Memorial Endowed Scholarship for the 2020-21 school year. Find her on Instagram: @annapollard.art.
Digital media major Ally Thomasson, from Inverness, Florida, double majors in Spanish. Thomasson designed the graphic for this exhibition. In 2020, her graphic design work won a gold ADDY in the student category for Tuscaloosa chapter of the American Advertising Awards and was selected for WORK: National Juried Student Design Exhibition, sponsored by Jacksonville State University’s MFA in Visual Communication Design program. For the summer of 2020, Thomasson was selected for an internship at the “ZxLerator,” Anheuser Busch’s ZX Ventures, for her designs in adaptive fashion. She was awarded the Julie Peake Holaday Memorial Endowed Scholarship for the 2019-20 and 2018-19, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Studio Arts Scholarship for the 2020-21 and 2019-20 school years. Thomasson won the 2019 Apple Award for the Best Magazine Spread by the CMA Spring National College Media Convention. Her art website is here.
A’Neshia Turner, from Montgomery, has a primary concentration in digital media and a secondary in painting. Turner was awarded the Bradley Endowed Scholarship in Art and the Farley Moody Galbraith Scholarship for the 2019-20 school year and the Alvin C Sella and Joseph Sella Endowed Scholarship for the 2020-21 school year. Her design awards include the Associated Collegiate Press 2021 Spring Convention Best of Show Feature Magazine (Alice Magazine) and the Associated Collegiate Press 2020 Fall Convention Best of Show Feature Magazine (Nineteen Fifty-Six Magazine). Turner’s work was named the Associated Collegiate Press’ Best Magazine Cover 2020 (Alice Magazine). She was a finalist for Best Magazine Sports Spread in the CMA Pinnacle Awards 2020 (Alice Magazine) and she won an honorable mention for Best Editorial Cartoon in the CMA Pinnacle Awards 2019 (Crimson White). Her art website is here.
Hailing from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Marissa Tyler’s primary concentration is ceramics and secondary is sculpture. Tyler was awarded a scholarship for a two-week residency at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colo., in 2019 and her work was juried into Sip: A Ceramic Cup Show 2020, in Savannah, Georgia. Tyler was awarded the Carol B. Merkle Endowed Scholarship for the 2020-21 school year. Find her on Instagram here.
Visiting the Sella-Granata Art Gallery during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The SGAG is an essential part of the education and development of UA students and our community. Gallery hours for the 2021 spring semester are Mon.-Thurs. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The SGAG is open to the public and limited to ten (10) visitors at a time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors must wear face coverings inside the gallery and maintain a minimum distance of six feet from others. The SGAG is located at 109 Woods Hall, 7th Avenue, on UA campus in Tuscaloosa.
For more information about the programs in the UA Department of Art and Art History, go to this page or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.