The tenderness of fatherhood is a subject almost entirely ignored by painters, but Jon Imber creates out of it metaphors about vulnerability and trust, where the somnolent artist’s son is lifted, carried and cocooned by the watchful, wary parent, is slung around his neck, or floats naked and alone, like an innocent alien, over a landscape. The intertwining of father and child suggests two aspects of the same character, conscious and sub-conscious, but masterly painting for its own sake overrides the subject matter. A career survey of Imber’s vibrant paintings at the Godwin Ternbach Museum at Queens College shows an artist able to move naturally between figuration and abstraction according to the needs of the painting, without the angst it caused his teacher, Philip Guston, who bequeathed his hoard of paints to Imber.  A happy combination of playfulness and knowledge, commitment to authenticity.

Palaemon: A Survey of Paintings by Jon Imber, Godwin Ternbach Museum at Queens College, May 1 to June 15, 2013. 65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, New York, Tel. 718-997-4724

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Spring is in the air, and in New York that means MFA exhibitions. Institutions like Columbia University, the New York Studio School, SVA (School of the Visual Arts,) The New York Academy, Queens College, Brooklyn College, Rutgers, The New School, SUNY Purchase, Pratt, and NYU all present shows of eager new talents.  Hunter College is an exception as they held their exhibition in December and January.

Dale Klein, who is receiving her MFA in painting from Rutgers in New Jersey, is not the traditional eager young beaver: she decided to pursue her BFA and MFA after a career in social work.  “Following a life-long passion, one class just led to another, and then I thought I might want to teach,” she said. Klein plans to continue her studio practice in Boston while her husband gets his graduate degree, but then hopes to move back to New York.  In addition to the thesis show for its graduating class at the campus gallery at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutger’s partnered with White Box Gallery on the Lower East Side of New York for a show called “Off the Map.” Klein is thrilled about the opportunity for New York exposure in a well-respected venue.

Here is a list of MFA shows this season.

March 24 – April 4
Queens College Department of Art MFA Exhibition at Dorsky Gallery
11-03 45th Ave, Long Island City, 718 937 6317. www.dorsky.org
April 1 – May 2
Off the Map: Rutgers MFA Graduates
White Box Gallery
329 Broome Street. 212 714 2347. www.whiteboxny.org

April 5 – April 30
MFA Graduation Exhibition Series
SUNY Purchase College School of the Arts
Richard & Dolly Maass Gallery in the Visual Arts Building
735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase NY, 914 251 6753. www.purchase.edu

April 6 – May 17
MFA Thesis Exhibition 2010
New York University Steinhardt School Department of Art and Art Professions
80 Washington Square East, 212 998 5747. www.steinhardt.nyu.edu

April 29 – May 2
MFA Design + Technology
Parsons The New School for Design
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery
66 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street. www.newschool.edu

April 30 – May 15
Selections from Thesis Projects in the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department
School of the Visual Arts
601 West 26 Street, 15th Floor. 212 592 2145. www.schoolofvisualarts.edu

May 2 – May 23
Columbia University School of the Arts MFA Thesis Exhibition at the Fisher Landau Center
38-37 30th Street. 718 937 0727. www.flcart.org

May 11 – May 23
2010 MFA Diploma Exhibition
New York Academy of Art
111 Franklin Street. 212 966 0300. www.nyaa.com

May 12 – May 26
MFA Thesis Exhibition
New York Studio School
8 West 8th Street. 212 673 6466. www.nyss.org

May 14 – 24
MFA Fine Arts at The Kitchen
Parsons The New School for Design
512 West 19th Street. 212 255 5793. www.thekitchen.org

May 14 – June 5
Pratt M.F.A. 2010
Pratt Manhattan Gallery
144 West 14th Street, 2nd floor. 212 647 7778

May 7 – June 7
Brooklyn College MFA Thesis Exhibition at Williamsburg Art and Historical Center
135 Broadway at Bedford. 718 486 7372. www.wahcenter.net

August 21 – September 11
MFA Photography
Parsons The New School for Design
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries
66 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street. www.newschool.edu

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