A major crowd gathered around the Fine Arts patio outside the Art Gallery on Thursday, April 28 to commemorate award winners and celebrate the opening of the Student Art Exhibition.
Mediums submitted by students were of the following categories: drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, computer graphics, photography, video editing and animation.
All winners received a check along with their award and a catalogue of the gallery featuring every student artists’ work.
First place ceramics winner, Kimberly Batson, fine arts major, explains the meaning behind her vase titled ‘Trypophobia’.
“Trypophobia is the fear of holes. I am not necessarily afraid of holes. They just really disgust me when they are different shapes next to each other sort of like a cluster.”
She adds that “it took about 3-4 weeks to carve the holes” and the process the piece had to undergo which was first a “a bisque firing with a slip, spray-painted the glaze, then went back into the kiln for another firing which was the glaze, overall 11 and a half weeks total.”
Director and Curator for the Art Gallery James MacDevitt, said that there was $5,000 in awards given out that night.
125 pieces are featured in the art gallery located in Fine Arts.
The jurist for the gallery was Karla Diaz, who is an artist, writer and activist.
Along with her husband, Mario Ybarra Jr., Diaz is co-director and founding member of Slanguage Studio, an artist-community space/collective, formerly located in Wilmington and now headquartered within the Hollywood-based alternative gallery LAXART.
MacDevitt said, “To be featured in the art gallery, the student must be nominated by faculty, have had taken art classes in the past year and the pieces are categorized by medium too.
“Karla Diaz judged each and every piece that is featured in the gallery. In each category there are special faculty awards which are by faculty who acknowledge their students who’ve done exceptionally well.”
A visitor to the gallery that evening shared some of his thoughts on Michelle Steele’s “Re-conquering the Throne” charcoal piece.
Francisco Tapia, graphic design major, said “I don’t think there’s any room for improvement but the shoulder looks cut off – it overall looks great.”
Tapia was there with his friends to check out the student artists’ work.
The Student Art Exhibition will be open and available to all students and visitors until Friday, May 13.