April 10 was the opening reception for this year’s Senior Studio Art Exhibition, a showcase of the works made by soon-to-be-graduates to fulfill their major requirements. I attended and had a look at the pieces — of which there were plenty of very interesting, unique, or just aesthetically-pleasing works. Here are my thoughts.
Firstly, at no point did I ever see a piece I actively disliked, which is very good. Everyone who made something for this did a good job, and it’s clear that a lot of love and effort went into every single thing in the exhibition’s three galleries. Medium-wise, there were canvas paintings, digital art, sculpture, and textile work. In a broad sense, I appreciated the variety. Maybe this is just something uniquely wrong with me, but I really don’t like walking through a museum that has nothing except paintings on the walls. I need that 3D experience.
They also had snacks out at the reception, which made me happy.
The North Gallery had the largest set of works. Of particular note to me were the textile works created by Amelie Lichte’26, including quilts named after and dedicated to friends and relations and a patchwork trans flag made for her sister.
Even though there was more physically in the North Gallery, my favorite works were in the South Gallery. I really loved Molly Overmier’26’s “The Roost” collection, digital art pieces styled after magazine covers with a bit of worldbuilding thrown in. I don’t really have the art knowledge to describe it precisely, but something about the aesthetic cleanliness of it was really appealing to me. Just in terms of pure design, they were probably my favorite.
The little piece-labels which described those works were also written in the style of in-character reviews of the fictional magazine, as though they were being analyzed as historical pieces at an actual museum, which was a cute touch.
Jessica Galvez’26’s pieces, which showcase how her identity and heritage as a Latina in the U.S. has affected her life, were some of the most thought-provoking and visceral there. The South Gallery also hosted work by Sophia Berger’26, who won the Ellen Malsch Memorial Prize in Art for “Discipline and Control,” drawings in the style of photographic print exploring simultaneous themes of female empowerment and objectification.
During the reception, there were fewer people upstairs in the Neese Gallery, which is a shame, because the work up there was really nice as well. Keegan Peterson’26’s charcoal portraits of his friends all contain birds which are mostly integrated just subtly enough that you could miss them with a glance. Emily Lopez’26 had some very beautiful oil paintings as well — I especially like “LOOK AT ME” for its delicate gold patterning.
One thing I will say is that I have mixed feelings about the way the pieces were contextualized. By that I mean the literal, on-paper description next to the collected works of each artist — somewhere between one and three short paragraphs, either about the artist themself, their work, or both.
Some of these descriptions were fine and contextualized the art in ways that were probably necessary, or just gave some nice details about the person who made it. But I do feel like certain descriptions gave away too much about the intended meaning or idea behind a particular piece as opposed to letting the viewer figure out the underlying symbolism for themself. To be fair, that probably has more to do with the actual requirements of the exhibit itself, so I’m not sure I can put any blame on the artists for that.
Overall though, I liked the exhibit, and getting to see people recognized for their work was really cool. If you want to see any of these works for yourself, there’s still plenty of time! They’ll remain on display until May 10, one month out from its opening.
Featured image: Quinn Annis’29
Leave a Reply