An intimate exhibition: Parsons students Maria Mosier and hmac debut their first collaborative art show

Disclosure: hmac has worked as an illustrator for the Free Press.

One afternoon in early May, I received an invitation via text for an art show debut in the Lower East Side: “hmac Crib Show x Maria Mosier’s Sculpture Garden.” It would be held at hmac’s apartment, a fourth-year Parsons School of Design illustration student. I was intrigued for multiple reasons, the most obvious being that these artists could not be more aesthetically different. This presentation would be either triumphant or discombobulated, and I had to see it either way. On May 11, a warm Saturday evening, I ascended eight flights of stairs, almost regretting my outfit choice of an incredibly hot (in every way) Marc Jacobs fur sweater by the time I reached the top to attend my first ever joint art show. 

The door opened into one of the few pieces that hmac and Mosier collaborated on: large untitled diptych canvases painted orange and red, graphically sprayed with Mosier’s angular yellow figures and a bright blue hmac character that melted onto the canvas. Thick black and white paint pen shapes and more colorful cartoon-like figures decorated the corners and curves. I would describe them as colorful little guys, but hmac calls them her “homies.”

Hmac is a Parsons senior and illustration major (who you may recognize from Wacky Wednesday Comics and the New School Free Press edition of Fashion on Fifth) whose paintings, drawings, and etchings are ingrained with her hard-to-miss artistic style: graphic primary colors with thick lines, stripes, and polka dots all combined to create a “homie.” She grew up in the mountains of Montana, starting cars with screwdrivers and learning to drive while sitting on top of a case of beer. She fully embraced her rocky (pun intended) upbringing when she moved to New York City four years ago to attend Parsons and bring her “homies” to life. She leaves a piece of home in each artwork, whether it’s a detailed animation of a homie playing pool at the saloon and cracking open a beer while driving down a mountain road, or a life-sized homie that she cut out of wood. Her artwork is a recreation of her memory, and meeting her is like meeting one of her homies that has come to life. She was easy to spot in the crowd that night because of her bright red denim jacket, cobalt button-up, vertical black and white striped trousers, and platform kelly green shoes with pumpkin orange socks. Her aesthetic transcends the canvas, bringing color, play, and tasteful maximalism into the apartment.

Maria Mosier entered Parsons in 2022 as a fashion design student, and after completing her first year realized that she had no interest in the commercial side of the industry and that what she found most fascinating was where fashion interacted with art. She took a year-long sabbatical from school and dedicated all of her time to creating her first body of fine artwork. Raised between Moscow and London, Mosier’s upbringing bred creativity. She is restless, always moving from one piece of art to the next, churning out impeccable charcoal drawings of jointed and angular figures interacting in a static dance. She hunts on beaches and sidewalks for inspiration, incorporating driftwood and scraps of metal into her work. Her found object sculptures were a highlight of the show, as they transformed the outdoor balcony space into an interactive sculpture garden. She will return to Parsons in the fall as a fine arts student, but until then she will continue to work in her bedroom turned art studio, storing her sculptures next to her shoes.

Hmac is a graphic and colorful maximalist while Mosier is muted, metallic, and minimalist. Combined, they challenge and push each other to learn. “She had a skill that I didn’t, and I wanted her to teach me. That’s what really drew me in, other than her soul, obviously,” Mosier said. Their artistic processes are also entirely different, as Mosier makes preliminary sketches to conceptualize her pieces while hmac starts painting a canvas before knowing what the final product will be. “Maria is a lot different than the way that I work. Almost the exact opposite. It’s refreshing to work together,” hmac said, reflecting on the process of creating their untitled diptych together. After one dash of yellow spray paint across the orange and red canvas, Mosier felt like it was complete, perfectly abstract and simple. Hmac couldn’t contain her laughter and pushed her to add more, “We’re only getting started.” By the end, Mosier’s minimalism was a necessary perspective when she convinced hmac to complete the piece before she instinctively wanted to, resulting in a beautiful union of the two artistic styles and practices.

Now, the piece is waiting to be hung in Mosier’s apartment where I’m asking them questions, and the two artists stare at it deep in thought, happy but unconvinced that it’s finished. Hmac doesn’t like the shade of green that they chose for one of the homies, while Mosier is intent on adding more detail to its mouth. Hmac questions what color they should use, and without skipping a beat, Mosier, who has clearly given this much thought, answers, “Red. With one tooth.” They launch into artistic babble, quipping back and forth until they agree on the shade, both of them finishing the debate frowning but satisfied. The two artists burst into laughter when they realized I had just witnessed their joint decision-making process, bouncing ideas back and forth like a ping pong ball until they reached a compromise that they’ve pushed each other to.

While the art show surely celebrated their artistic collaboration, it also left plenty of space for their individual expression. Mosier’s outdoor sculpture garden conveyed movement and ephemerality. “Treehugger” was made from an approximately six-foot-long piece of driftwood that she hauled from Coney Island. The sleeves of a gray mohair sweater knit by Mosier were used to string the jumper up so that it almost embraced the former tree trunk, blowing in a chilly breeze that soothed the space. Some other notable sculptures were “Butcher,” whose materials were “driftwood & rage,” a piece of wood suspended above the ground by metal rods and a cloth swaddle. “Shut up” made out of “wood & shit” was two gnarled and twisted pieces of driftwood interacting with metal wire, nuts, and bolts. One showgoer accidentally knocked a loose bolt off of its place atop one of the driftwood pieces. “Leave it,” Mosier said, completely unbothered. “It was meant to be this way.”

The Lower East Side apartment is where the two most frequently work and spray paint together, so the show felt like opening up their art studio to a group of trusted friends and family. “I’m very sensitive about my art. It’s so personal […] I can talk about the materials but other than that I just want them to perceive it,” Mosier said, adding that she wants a future aspect of her work to exclude too much discussion, allowing the viewer to interpret it in their own way, even omitting her own artistic intention if necessary. Hmac nods in agreement, though her work is more lighthearted, plastering vibrant color all over the apartment-gallery walls. 

The two artists make an unlikely but undeniably talented pair, and this collaboration is the first of many. The “Crib Show x Sculpture Garden” was far beyond a student exhibition, only making the guests (and neighbors who were curious about the noise) more excited to see what this duo is working on next. Mosier reaches across the table to hold and shake hmac’s hand, “It was really lovely collaborating with you. Well done.”