AJ Hanrahan, with award-winning painting series “If Not Now, Then When?"
AJ Hanrahan has received the Marion Art Gallery Award for their work in the current senior art show “Entirely Human.”
“If Not Now, Then When?” is the theme of Hanrahan’s painting series that includes four mixed media paintings: Judgement, America is Bleeding, The Other Body and Watch Your Money Fly. The fall semester senior art show is on display through Thursday, Dec. 11.
"This series uses harmonious visual language to examine the intersections of nationalism, white supremacy, hate towards transgender people and economic strife to communicate feelings of emergency and desperation,” explained Hanrahan, a senior majoring in Visual Art and New Media, with a concentration in Painting and a minor in Art History, from Buffalo, NY.
“I integrate symbols drawn from U.S. political iconography and imagery like the Statue of Liberty, law enforcement emblems, dog whistles and flags. I also include icons that destabilize or enforce the themes shown, like flames, barbed wire, skulls and fragmented cityscapes.
“These contrasts evoke the tension between the celebrated civic ideals and the violence that is embedded in them,” Hanrahan continued.
The award is sponsored by the Fredonia College Foundation's Cathy and Jesse Marion Endowment Fund.
