Will Kurtz’s smoking, drinking, sitting-on-the-front-porch people are not figures, not sculptures, but a nation we know from the check-out line and bus stop. By making his family and friends out of landfill he suggests that what we view as disposable is anything but.

Panni Malekzadeh’s work keeps the dreams of “Once upon a time…” and “… happily ever after,” provisionally alive with beautifully rendered, poetically conceived fantasies sprinkled with unicorns, fairy dust and sexual politics.

Peter Mühlhäußer’s steely, pre-pubescent boys are acting out culturally specific global narratives. Vulnerable and aggressive, toy-like and precisely observed, these polymorphic seedlings are the past, present and the future simultaneously.

The New York Academy of Art (MFA) 2010 Fellows show reveals the extraordinary impact and infinite creative possibilities that emerge when you juxtapose time-honored techniques with a contemporary artist’s vision.

The 3rd year Fellowship at the New York Academy of Art provides an unparalleled opportunity for an artist to pursue an independent body of work while immersed in a creatively challenging and supportive environment.

The only program of its kind, this exceptional residency and the resulting exhibition continues to present a powerful case for deeply informed, rigorously trained conceptual figurative art.