Esthetic Surplus, the graduate thesis exhibition for 5 Rhode Island School of Design sculptors: Anna Mikhailovskaia, Victor Pacheco, Jesse Thompson, Stephanie Williams and Audra Wolowiec. Curated by artist and RPI architecture professor Michael Oatman (himself a RISD alum, BFA Painting ‘86), Esthetic Surplus invites viewers to wander through an extended family room, where games, daydreams and strange inventions co-mingle. The humble rubs elbows with the cosmic. A board game stands on the edge of the vastness that is the sea.

The atmosphere is one of an unfolding work, by people that know one another, as if roommates in a co-op apartment. Yet each work is distinct; what they share is a consciousness of a moment in a) the cultural life of this country, b) the morphing idea of family, c) the performative nature of the studio and, d) the realities of life during wartime. Escapism is a nationality.

Working with Duchampian notions of time and space, Oatman proposes an “infrathin” cushion between graduate school and the art world that produces a surplus (or abundance) of time, material, work and optimism. Featured works include a Nauman-esque motel for studio mice, a chorus of friends imitating the ocean, a metal smoke cloud “do-it-yourself” kit, video lessons in Neolithic handicrafts and plush toys that inspire more nightmares than they soothe.