Josh Theis, Samuel Ogunleye and Alex Franks Senior Thesis Exhibitions

April 5, 2019

Xavier University and the Department of Art are pleased to present art exhibitions by three Senior thesis students:

Alexander Franks, Graphic Design; Samuel Ogunleye, Graphic Design & Sculpture; and Joshua Theis, Graphic Design. The exhibitions will be open April 1-19, 2019, with the artists’ reception on Friday, April 5, 6:00-8:00 pm.

Alex Franks presents Death. Life. Rebirth. Exploring death as a theme offers a unique yet dark approach to the cyclical process of life. This exhibit explores death through several concepts such as: mythology, Satanism and the occult, ancient religious texts, and other concepts relating to death. These concepts surrounding death are implemented on album covers, displaying both sides of the albums, showing the story being told. Figurative meaning and symbolism play a key role in expressing the realms of death. This thesis exhibit explores death’s role in society and in life through several displays of dark and grim imagery. Utilizing darkness and light together as a motif for death enables the audience to fully grasp the extent of how death is persistent and never ending.

Samuel Ogunleye presents Paying Homage to Fela -  a body of work that depicts Fela Kuti’s concept of seeing “music as the weapon of the future.” Fela, (1938-97) was a Nigerian musician and the pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre and human rights activist. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most challenging and charismatic music performers. During his lifetime, Fela’s music became a call to arms against tyranny and injustice. Despite all the controversy and numerous attacks against him due to his activism, Fela continued to spread his music and message about his beliefs. This body of work was created to show how Music and art, as universal languages, are powerful weapons that can fight corruption. Art and music can bring about social change by reaching peoples’ hearts and minds, helping them realize what is going that they are not paying attention to.

Josh Theis presents EASE. The artist states “The purpose of my thesis is to understand the psychology of creating a sports brand. The goal is to establish a consistent and relevant motif to attract the attention of consumers and to develop products that create a new trend for people to understand and follow. Trends eventually become popular because the company decides to go against the norm. In order to develop a new style in the sports world, I did numerous case studies on well-known sports companies such as Nike, Adidas, and Puma. Each company had very distinct marketing campaigns and brand themes. Using this research, I established a glitch motif and designed my collateral keeping the theme in mind.”

Please join us for a reception on Friday, April 5, 6:00-8:00 pm. Enjoy the art and free light refreshments.