Artists seldom share a gallery, so when seven do, and they do it well, something special is going on.
The show, titled “I Always Know What to Say,” features the work of seven students in an advanced interdisciplinary studio class. The exhibit will be in the John Sommers Gallery, on the second floor of the Art Building, until Friday.
The students’ pieces vary in composition, themes and presentation, but they share an eerie and melancholy mood, said student-artist George Richardson.
“It just kind of came together well, as far as the works communicating with one another,” Richardson said. “It was random, but there was something dark or strange about each piece, so I think it worked together that way. It was a good opportunity to kind of show stuff that we all had been individually working on, but it didn’t necessarily fit into a larger body of work that could operate on its own yet. By working with other artists, I think it kind of formed a cohesive statement.”
Some of the photos in the show are graphic, such as one with a man’s face smeared with blood. Other pieces include a multimedia work showing the construction of a gun and a sculpture that mixes wood and photography. All the pieces, however, are original, interesting and have a macabre undertone.
Adrienne Salinger, the photography professor who developed the show, said one of the main goals was to see if artists who have different styles could come together to produce a harmonious exhibit.
“The idea that we had was that when you make art, and often when you are working in photography, you tend to work in series of works,” she said. “Anybody who works in a series also makes a lot of work that kind of doesn’t fit with their other work. We wanted to see what happened if we showed works that were risky for them because it didn’t fit into a larger body of work. We wanted to find out if there would be any cohesion to their ideas — that if they worked independently, yet met weekly, would we find that there were threads of connection in their ideas. The show was a really great chance to find out.”
The exhibit opened to mixed reactions. Some viewers remarked on the cleverness of the pieces, but others snickered while walking through the gallery. Student-artist Lauren Carvalho wasn’t flustered by this reception.
“I hope people enjoyed seeing it,” Carvalho said. “The hope of most people who make art is that people see something in it and can relate in some way, even if it’s not the way you meant for it to be seen. What you see isn’t what they see. The main thing is to create a connection to the viewer in some way.”
Salinger said her hard-working, talented students deserve the recognition that comes with such an exhibit.
“They are all serious artists, and it was an absolute equal group effort,” she said. “Everybody worked really hard on it. They are just an amazing group of students.”
The John Sommers Gallery is usually reserved for master of fine arts students’ presentations or for the theses of Honors students. Reservations usually have to be made a year in advance, but Salinger said the gallery opened unexpectedly.
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“There was an available spot in the gallery because there had been a cancellation, and we seized the opportunity,” she said. “(The students) worked together so well. I can’t believe we made it happen. We had two weeks to do it. I’m really amazed at what they did.”
Because the students got such short notice about the gallery opening, they had to work nonstop through two weekends to get the exhibit set up. Richardson said the project took at least two full days of work.
“Any presentation — it always looks a lot easier than it is,” Richardson said. “You walk into a gallery and you just see the work on the wall. It takes a whole lot of background preparation to get it up.”
The students’ collaboration in putting the show together also made it a memorable experience, Richardson said. Everyone helped one another in creating and mounting the pieces.
“We put a whole lot of time into installing the work and hanging the show,” he said. “That’s kind of where taking it to the next level happened. We thought really hard about editing stuff out.”
Most of the students had never presented their artwork in a formal gallery setting, and Carvalho said she wasn’t sure how it would go over.
“It’s a shock,” Carvalho said. “For me, it was unnerving. For someone who studies in the arts, it’s always sort of a gamble as to what sort of profession we’ll end up in. To see the work on a wall where most artists anticipate their work to someday be is kind of a special, sort of nervous and nauseating thing.”
Salinger said seeing her students’ work on display for the first time was worth the short notice and intense effort sunk into the project.
“My interest is always in helping students realize their ideas, and that’s a hard thing to do,” she said. “You try to help them understand what they are trying to say. It was amazing.”
*Through Friday
John Sommers Gallery
8 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.
*
