Show runs May 10-June 14, Music & Arts Room and Sanctuary
Welcome artist Amelia Rafle and her new show, “Martyrs” to UUCF’s art spaces. Amelia, who grew up at UUCF, is a printmaker living in Richmond. She received her BFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2021 and her MFA in art and ecology from the Burren College of Art in 2023. She has exhibited work in the US and Ireland, received grants to study human impact on birds, and her work was commended in the 2023 World Wildlife Fund Climate Creatives Challenge. Strongly rooted in scientific research, Amelia uses an expanded printmaking process to communicate information about the climate crisis through visual imagery that is accessible and engaging to the viewer. A love of birds is also prevalent throughout her work, making use of bird imagery to symbolize how human activity affects both the human and more than human worlds. She views birds as an indicator of the looming effects of the climate crisis, and explores their relationship to humans through migration patterns and cultural symbolism.