The 2025 BFA Exhibit artists’ statements, including both works from Paganelli and Mondro – Photo by Ashlyn Armock
2025 BFA Exhibit: Danielle Paganelli and Regina Mondro
By Ashlyn Armock, Aquinas Reporter
This year two students, Danielle Paganelli and Regina Mondro, are graduating with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree. For their exhibit, the two showcased all of their work from the past year. The opening of the exhibit took place from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, April 12.
Since the two are graduating at the same time, the two agreed that it would be a good idea to combine their senior showcases. They even found a way to fuse their themes, which resulted in “The Ephemerality of Memory and Health.” Their work reflects on the ideas that “decay is an inevitable phenomenon but there are glimpses of vibrancy,” as said in the artists’ statement. Paganelli’s work specifically is about the fragility of memory and Mondro’s is about the fragility of having a physical body.
Paganelli standing in front of three of her pieces, all pieces are oil paintings on a stretched canvas – Photo by Ashlyn Armock
Inspired by a family album and a desire to not forget important moments within her family’s life, Paganelli shaped the exhibition around her past. Paganelli’s pieces all explore childhood memories through the lens of her grandparents having dementia. “They also kind of showcase the emotions of growing up, transitioning from childhood to adulthood,” said Paganelli. “I’ve never painted something this size before so it’s taken a lot of time and it’s just really stretched my skills and what I think an oil painting is and also it’s just been really cathartic to just make something.” Her pieces all range in color, both as in vibrancy as well as in black and white, and size.
One of Mondro’s pieces, “A Thousand Paper Cranes” – Photo by Ashlyn Armock
When trying to find something that portrayed both impermanence and fragility, Mondro found that cranes gave an anthropomorphic representation, and so she ran with the crane theme. From creating these origami cranes out of metal, paper, and clay, Mondro has even been able to express different feelings surrounding the different mediums and dimensions of the cranes. “My Catholic-Christian faith helps me find hope in the fragility of a physical body,” said Mondro in her artist statement. “After being diagnosed with health issues, I find that art allows me to process difficult emotions instead of avoiding them, which gets me one step closer to acceptance each time. I make art as an achingly beautiful reminder that, sometimes, something beautiful can exist after brokenness, and even flourish into bravery.”
Mondro standing in front of a multitude of her pieces, each of paper cranes made from or on different mediums – Photo by Ashlyn Armock
Both artists conveyed the importance of memory and mental health, expressing the “human experience through their art” as communicated in the artists’ combined statement. To see the rest of Paganelli’s and Mondro’s work, visit the Art & Music Center on Aquinas’ Campus. Open times of the exhibit can be found in the link below:
https://www.aquinas.edu/academics/art/exhibitions-events.html
The Saint 