Infuse: Steeped in Tradition

Infuse, a group of graduate student artists, poets and researchers, will hold an exhibition — “Steeped in Tradition” — at the Lionel Rombach Gallery from Feb. 18 to March 6.

This year’s theme asks artists to reflect on their relationship to home, communal nourishment, ancestral lineages, making new traditions, and infusing themselves wherever they migrate. This is the third iteration of Infuse, which began in 2023 to create space and professional opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaborative graduate projects.

“Steeped in Tradition” is co-curated by first-year MFA student Aubrey Behrens (Illustration, Design & Animation) and third-year Creative Writing grad students Astrid Liu and Bea Troxel. Rombach, 1031 N. Olive Road, is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Behrens is an interdisciplinary artist based in Tucson. Their art practice research examines the tenuous relationship between urbanism and nature, gentrification and marginalization within communities, and the loss of Sonoran biodiversity. Their work is often characterized by value contrast and the use of silhouette in a variety of media, from wire sculpture to digital illustration, and textiles, and the use of animal imagery as metaphor to discuss societal issues.

Liu writes multimedia poetry and nonfiction. She was born and raised in San Francisco & received her BA in Psychology at UC Berkeley. They’re excited in particular by the dimensions that open up at the intersections of digital media, video and text. Her dream is to add her work to a growing canon which sparks honest conversations about the history and stories of Chinese immigrants in the U.S., and the broader experience of growing up as a queer child of immigrants.

Troxel is a musician and essayist born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She released her latest record, “Getting’ Where,” via Ruination Records in 2021. She’s currently at work on a collection of essays about a family of beavers in Nashville.

Last year’s Infuse exhibition, “Beneath the Surface,” was co-curated by grad students Hanan Khatoun, Behrens and Liu. It showcased six collaborative, multidisciplinary works from 14 graduate students that reflected a theme of unseen connections, resistance and survival.

The show, juried by a collection of Fine Arts and Creative Writing alumni, awarded first place to the piece, “Triptych III: Apoplectic Banditos” (shown below), created by Yvette Saenz, Andrés Caballero and Vanessa Saavedra.