BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: MAFAD Graduation Expo 2018

Nathan Klein

MAFAD (Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design) presented their newest graduates; the class of 2018. With an exhibition staged at the academy MAFAD presents the Design and Fine Arts graduates. This year, the design department in particular showcased an energetic exhibition with multiple future promises. The class of 2018 shows creativity with engaging themes withiout losing sense for commercial potential.
Twelve of them already caught attention at FASHIONCLASH Festival under the name Collective 12. Nathan Klein took away the Chapeau Magazine Award and selection for Lichting 2018 with his personal coming-of-age collection 'The First Time He Kissed a Boy'.
"I was inspired by a teenage experience that left me questioning myself. A loss of innocence during adolescence, the moment just before a teenage crush burst its dam and becomes a fully fledged first love, the is a story about coming-of-age." Kalkidan Hoex created a series of jewelry inspired by her Ethiopian heritage, mixing youth cultures and illustration, she presented a strong and cohesive proposal.
Pia Walter merged contemporary and digital lives together with raw nature by working with recycled tents, army equipement and prints. She is the second finalist for the national best of graduate show the Lichting. Nienke Creemers showed an engaging protest collection inspired by the history of cotton. 'UNPICKING COTTON' is a protest against the fashion industry and it's rich history of abuse. "While making my collection I tried to make everything as fair and ecological as possible. Soon i discovered this wasn't possible. Even though my intentions were good, I couldn't achieve a 100% fair collection. The knowledge about the industry's history and how we view fashion now, made me think: Did our colonial history influence the way the fashion industry is now?"
Laura van der Spoel presented a collection of textiles inspired by the attemt to inspire people to stand out from the crowd. Her material experiments were translated into garments and presented on models showing the potential to design for both fashion as interiur market. Sam Schobbe showed ready to wear commercial potential with her print collection inspired by the positive characteristics from ADHD. With this personal inspiration her attempt was to make her ADHD tangible.
Michelle Zwinkels and Bojanna Aleksić, both experimented with boundaries between jewelry, accessories and fashion design around the body. While Anke Bos merged illustration and textile with her project 'Teleurgang van de millennials'.

Bert Snaterse

At the Fine Arts department Morena Bamberger stood out with an installation inspired by dream images. Her work ‘Reinconnection’ earned her the Gilbert de Bontridderprijs 2018 award. A large space was completely transformed into a cave expressing her own dream world and imagination. The work of Bert Snaterse was presented in various rooms.
Inspired by 'the body and the physical', 'the light on a discarded mattress' and the fact' that the color pink has only been a girls' color since the 1950s', the work of Bert seems quirky and banal, but while taking a closer look we discovere sincere layers of

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all images are by brankopopovicblog