It is once again time for members of the Loyola community to show us what they can do in the Annual Student Exhibition held in the Julio Fine Arts Gallery. The quality of this year’s exhibition may be one of the highest yet, with impressive work spanning from many different media.
Perhaps the best aspect of this year’s show is the sheer dimension of many of the pieces; their size reflecting both the talent and dedication of their artists. The first piece visible from the entrance is Rory Nachbar’s enormous Amongst the Trees, an acrylic on canvas painting. Nachbar makes deft use of drips and splatters to enhance the wildness of nature.
Anastasia Donovan’s 60” by 20” charcoal drawing Braided Hair is also remarkable in its size. Donovan, working only with the black of the charcoal, gives shine and dimension to a long, dark plait. Matteo Leggi’s three panel painting Objectivity to Subjectivity demonstrates a strong grasp of both realistic portrait painting and the more dreamlike, abstract elements of surrealism.
The smaller works also reflected the high level of ability from Loyola’s student artists. Charles McDonald’s untitled charcoal drawing depicts a strongly geometric view down on a spiraling staircase. The intense lines and unusual composition cause the subject matter to deteriorate into abstraction before resolving itself into the correct shape. Kimberly Babin displays a wonderful mastery of watercolor with her architectural painting Courtyard at the Cloisters, layering shadows of paint while always maintaining strong straight lines.
The art is not merely limited to that which can be hung on a wall, however. Three video art installations—Drew Grahn’s Stay, Gabriel Carter’s Ritual: Submerge and Mona Poblete’s Shining Dynasty—marry compelling, unusual visuals with compelling soundtracks. Poblete’s piece began merely as a video of a broken television; she then modified focus and frame rate, creating the almost hypnotic bands that jump along the screen.
Impressive offerings from ceramics students are also on display in several places around the gallery. Teapots and cups take the shapes of tree stumps, as in Kristen Keyes’s Compilation, and stacked cups with winding snakes, as in Brian Schultz’s Tumbling Pots. The mouth of April-Ann Marshall’s large untitled vase opens up like a calla lily, with shiny glazed vines snaking up the rough earthen body.
Continuing a practice that began in 2012, students, faculty and staff voted for their favorite pieces for the Best in Show award. Fine Arts faculty additionally voted to choose a Faculty’s Choice piece, awarded to Maeve Burke for her digital photograph Untitled #3. Burke’s photograph, a black and white digital print of a veiled figure standing among ruined columns in the woods, displays a wonderful eye for contrast and focus, each tiny detail remaining sharp and prominent.
The three honorable mention winners in the Best in Show vote were Katie Bulanowski for her untitled painting of flowers, bursting with color; Christy Castellano, for her black and white watercolor Boy with Striped Shadows, which revels in stark contrasts; and Megan Lothian for her acrylic on canvas painting Morning Drills, which marries a strong sense of form with more irreverent paint spattering and dripping.
The Best in Show prize was awarded to Camelia Rojas for her untitled drawing. Rojas’s drawing depicts three hands, one skeletal, one with skin, and one gloved, successively pulling at the outer layer of the hand next to it against a watercolor background. Not only does Rojas clearly possess an incredible talent, she always has a willingness, all the more delightful in a student artist, to go in new and original directions with her work.
The Annual Student Exhibition will be up in the gallery from April 7 to April 27, 2014.
