CEPA is pleased to announce the opening of two MFA Thesis Exhibitions by Kevin Charles Kline and Joel Brenden, both MFA candidates at the University at Buffalo. Their multi-media exhibits, Scripted Image: (Re)Visions of Authority and ENTHUSIAST: Calls Orders, will open Saturday, April 19, 2008 with a reception for the artists and the public from 7 - 10 p.m.

Kevin Charles Kline's photographic and found media installation, Scripted Image: (Re)Visions of Authority, in CEPA's Underground Gallery calls to mind the Wunderkammer or "Cabinet of Curiosity," rooms that since the 16th century housed encyclopedic collections of objects of wonder spanning the natural and scientific worlds. The exhibition consists of a number of series including altered books and maps, reconfigured film footage and medical illustrations, fictionalized early 20th century studio portraits and photographic apparatus constructions. Drawing from the predominance of authority bearing visual culture produced since the advent of mediated technologies (such as the widely viewed educational films produced by Coronet in the 1940 s and Red Cross first aid manuals) Kline's intent is to recontexualize and subvert these visual systems as a means of disturbing the narrative. The image and object interventions contained in the installation question the conventions and authority of their source material and detour their nostalgic simulacra.

Since 2006, Joel Brenden has been creating and presenting a multi-faceted project called ENTHUSIAST, known to many through the handmade periodicals and other print ephemera bearing the same name. While the content varies significantly from one project to the next, there has been a persistent emphasis on historical design sensibility and regional identity.

In the exhibit Calls Orders (on the first floor of the Market Arcade) Brenden presents an environment representational of the practice behind Enthusiast. This 3 dimensional manifestation began with the realization that since Enthusiast's inception Brenden had been developing an equally design-conscious image of his working process, using the organization and aesthetics of the studio space to represent an ideal artist/producer to visitors rather than using it as a strictly functional workspace. Calls & Orders constructs a space that is a picture-perfect image of labor and creativity, yet presents itself as a thoroughly practical locus of creative enterprise and administration. Viewed through the frame of the front window, the office appears as an idyllic portrait; once inside the distinction between reality and image dissolves. More information on Enthusiast can be found at http://www.enthusiastprint.com.

Both Joel Brenden and Kevin Charles Kline will be present at the opening reception for their respective exhibitions Saturday, April 19, from 7 - 10 p.m. Please join us for what is sure to be festive opening. The exhibitions will run through May 24.

www.enthusiastprint.com