From now until Sunday, students Jamel Craig (graduate-art) and Matthew Sobb (graduate-art) will be showcasing their work in the Zoller Gallery for the Masters of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition.

Their exhibit is the first in a series of graduate student exhibitions from now until April 30.

"Our work is different, but our performance pieces are done together," Craig said.

Craig's work consists of a collection of vividly colored paintings using spray paint and oil paint.

"I like to use bright colors, because I want the paintings to be as loud as I am," he said.

Craig's paintings are inspired by everything from interpretations of his surroundings to doodles he has translated into a painting.

"My work speaks about the enjoyment of the process," he said. "It is about just doing something for the sake of doing something."

Matthew Sobb's work shares a similar inspiration, but his specialty is in ceramics.

"I make larger scale works using multiple parts, so the configurations can set up differently," Sobb said.

Craig and Sobb say there is an important formula that goes into their performance piece.

"Making work is a performance-like act, so we want to carry that process over into the installation," Sobb said. "It carries over the performance aspect from the making to the viewing."

Each day, Craig and Sobb will reinstall their pieces and will have scheduled performances each day. The schedule will be posted outside the Zoller Gallery.

"We are bringing the aspect of the studio into the gallery space," Sobb said. "We want to mimic our studio so the audience can view the spectacle of the happening."

For those visiting the exhibition more than once, it will be a play on the memory in seeing how the installation has evolved.

"I am interested in the investigation of space and objects and how the two affect a reaction in the audience," Sobb said. "I want my work to have a bodily effect on the audience."

Jamel and Sobb's works will work hand in hand to create this effect and merge the perspectives of the individual and the community.

"Rarely do you have the opportunity to be involved with the artists themselves," Michelle Tillander, coordinator of the Zoller Gallery, said. "So when a viewer is able to take a role in a performance, it sparks an overall deeper meaning in the surrounding pieces."

The reception will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Zoller Gallery of the School of Visual Arts.

"We really want people to come and participate, because we want to bridge the gap between the artist and the audience," Craig said.