John’s studio is at the end of the hallway. We feel his presence through traces of cigar smoke and the yelping of his little dogs, also known as Knichi and Wimbledon.

John is John Walker, a veteran English painter who has exhibited at Knoedler’s in New York. His studio is a menagerie of African and Oceanic sculpture, a library of books, and gigantic paintings.

The building used to be a Cadillac dealership and has a large ramp at the back. We’re not allowed to smoke on the ramp but we do. Sometimes there’s no heat. It doesn’t really matter.

The big showroom space prompts students to make big works. BU means big & ugly, people say. The MFA show opens Apr. 16, 2010. There are 19 of us.

On spring break last year we went to Mexico and saw the museums and the murals. 

We get together for drinks and lectures on Tuesday night, which the students organize. The rule is that lectures can’t be about art. A psychic, paranormal investigators, the Borromeo String Quartet, robotics guy Harmano Krebs from MIT, they all came.

We collaborate with BU’s poets on a handmade book at the end of the year and have a party. A mouse died on somebody’s book project after it was poisoned.

First year students throw us parties, Christmas and farewell. And make fun of us for being dirty and tired.

China. Being John’s unworthy and ungrateful entourage for his exhibition opening at the Tsingua University in Beijing.

Visiting artists: Jenny Saville, Yvonne Rainer, Thomas Struth, Fred Wilson.

We do an annual juried show through Boston Young Contemporaries.

No hipsters allowed. We’re in Boston.

“MFA Student Exhibitions 2010,” Apr. 16-May 2, 2010, at the Boston University College of Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts, 808 Gallery, 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Mass.

Participating artists are Kerri Ammirata, Tirtzah Bassel, Tess Bilhartz, Rachid Bouhamidi, Jee Young Choi, Hollis Erickson, Chelsea Gibson Finch, Erik Grau, Eun Jin Jang, Timothy Kadish, Saba Khan, Jacqueline Killorin, Esteban Longoria, Shari Mendlowitz, Crislin Meshberg, Julia von Metzsch, Stacy Mohammed, Ryan Pressman, and Nate Risteen.

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