Painting by Bella Glattli, "Untitled," on display at the Juried Foundations gallery. Photo by Olive Bibb. By Olive Bibb
The Juried Foundations art show is an annual art showcase featuring student pieces, on view in the Bloch Gallery until March 7.
The Juried Foundation art show gives up-and-coming art students an opportunity to present and display their artwork in an exhibit. Pieces are given merit-based awards awarded by a panel of off-campus jurors. During the reception, several student artists were given these awards for their works.
At the center of the exhibit stands a large metal sculpture, titled “Ascent.” Creator Alayna Butler said the sculpture is intended to resemble shooting stars. Butler chose to represent their stellar intentions with several metal pieces of varying sizes exploding from the bottom of the sculpture, all reaching up into the sky.
Commenting on the design, Butler said, “I very much embraced the process of working with the shapes. I started off the project knowing ‘I want to do stars.’”
They added, “My mental health kind of reflected the process of it. It started off as a downer piece, I wanted to flip it upside-down.” Butler attributed this change in design to an improvement in their mental health.
Off to one side of the centerpiece rests what at, first glance, looks like a random assortment of pipe cleaners and other craft supplies molded into a rectangular form. From one side, however, viewers can see that the object is a brick, with the materials stuck onto it save for a sliver on one side.
Explaining the process for this piece, creator of “Soft and Lively,” Ryan Spanier, said, “We had to take an object and put a bunch of different things on top of it so I thought it was funny to take a brick, and then making it really soft. Kind of like a stuffed animal.”
In order to create the intended effect of “Soft and Lively,” Spanier said, “I just covered it in many different pompoms and pipe cleaners that I thought were very childlike. I thought it was funny.”
Another work in the gallery is a painting depicting a white paper crown laying on a grey background. The creator of this particular piece is freshman Sarah Lancaster, who submitted the piece, but said they did not expect to find it in the gallery.
“One of my finals for Drawing had to be a set of three pieces and I just submitted the one I spent the most time on and the one I liked the outcome of the most, and that was my favorite crown,” Lancaster said, adding, “It was the first of a set of three that kind of told a story. So, the first one is the paper crown, which is supposed to represent false authority.”
Those interested in viewing the pieces discussed here, as well as all other pieces on view, can visit The Juried Foundations Gallery in the Bloch Hall Gallery until March 7.
