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Student art shown in exhibition

The Elizabeth Shaw Gallery currently features an exhibit dedicated to student work. The students had to submit their artwork to be judged by a jury of three faculty members. The show contained everything from painting to photography to sculpture.

[media-credit name=”Amanda Lewark” align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]

Student art on display in the Elizabeth Shaw Gallery.

About 120 works were submitted for judging. Matthew Choberka, a member of the jury, said many factors went into the judging.

“We paired it down to 50, 60 works,” Choberka said, “by way of trying to think of not only qualities from the different areas of our department, but also looking to see how we could explain to an outside viewer the breadth and depth of what we do in the department.”

One of the artists submitted into the show was WSU student Aisha Hamra-Pinto, a 2-D art major.

“I’ve gone to school here for three years, and I haven’t really gone out and entered anything or put my art up to be judged, except for the normal class critiques,” Hamra-Pinto said. “I figured that I would give it a shot and see what happens.”

Hamra-Pinto had two pieces accepted, one into the main gallery and the other into the Salon Des Refuses gallery.

Her main gallery piece consists of four canvases that each look like different kinds of clothing closures, such as a zipper.

“It turned into a comment on society in general,” Hamro-Pinto said. “Mainly with those because they are clothing closures. It speaks more directly to feminism and what boxes we are supposed to fit in.”

Hamro-Pinto said that the white canvas was to represent the fact that we are told to fit into a same mold, and the beads that are coming through the closures were representing who we really are underneath.

“I’m an armature artist, and I’ve gotten sucked into school, and this helps me find peace of mind,” said WSU student Matt Parker while viewing the gallery.

Parker said he liked a charcoal painting called Final Decision that was created by Craig Westbroek. He also said he enjoyed a sculpture called Seedling by Yoerv Kitamura.

“It gives you what looks like a metal flower,” Parker said. “It’s pretty to look at, but you don’t want to get too close.”

Other artwork was put into another gallery called the Salon des Refuses. This gallery is for artwork that has been refused from being in the main gallery. The idea came from Paris in the 19th century where they would also show artwork that was not accepted into their main gallery.

“It’s a chance for us to get even more work that the students in the department have been working on up onto the walls,” said Choberka.

Choberka said that this kind of show is good practice for art students.

“It gives the students a chance to begin that process of submitting their work for exhibition and for jurying and getting it out into the world,” Choberka said, “which can be a very difficult part of what we do and can be kind of nerve-wracking for them.”

The show will be open until March 9, and the gallery will have two more exhibitions this semester, the National Conference of Undergraduate Research and the Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis Show.

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