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The artistic works of Texas State students were celebrated Monday in University Gallery 2 at the 2013 All-Student Juried Exhibition, an annual competition exhibit for art and design students.
The opening ceremony kicked off in the Joann Cole Mitte Building at 5 p.m. with the opening of the exhibit and went on until 7 p.m. Students, including the featured artists, their parents and friends were able to wander about the gallery and observe a selection of the collection of student pieces.
The gallery featured a series of diverse works, including oil and watercolor paintings, photography, sculptures and printed imagery.
“It’s a super-fun show because it’s all about the students,” said Mary Mikel Stump, art gallery director. “It gives us an opportunity to look inward and celebrate our own (at Texas State).”
Stump said that while she looks forward to this particular exhibition every year, preparing for it is a long and difficult process because of the high number of student pieces to sort through, as well as the time it takes for the pieces to be juried.
This year’s juror was Elizabeth Dunbar, executive director of Diverseworks Art Space in Houston. Of the pieces currently on display, in both the gallery and online, Dunbar made her final selections for the exhibition from more than 300 entries.
The overall event concluded with a brief award ceremony at 5:45 p.m., held to honor a select number of students for excellence achieved in their work.
Among those awarded was Hector Guerra, communication design senior, for his piece, “Untitled,” a 48x48 inch acrylic painting on canvas resembling that of a censored letter.
“It feels great to be awarded because what most people know me for are very technical drawings, and this was a chance for me to do something simply conceptual,” Guerra said. “People actually thought it was a different artist and when they learned it was me, it came as kind of a shock to them.”
Guerra said that his painting served as a mock-up of a real-life letter he once wrote, for the purpose of conveying a message without words. “Untitled” was not so much a piece Guerra had prepared over a long period of time—but rather a spur of the moment occurrence. It took him only four hours to complete the entire painting.
The exhibition’s Best in Show award was given to Elizabeth Honaker, communication design junior, for her piece, “The Walls Around How We See.”
Originally planned to be a projection of scanned Indian ink drawings, technical difficulties resulted in Honaker displaying a print version of her work. While she was happy with piece on display, Honaker felt that a projected image would bring her work to life in a way print could not.
“I’m really interested in work that shows progression,” Honaker said. “For me, finding inspiration is sporadic and I always try to push the limit with what mediums I use.”
“The Walls Around How We See” consists of 49 sketches of a single human figure, each image featuring a different pose on a 69x51 inch display. The piece took Honaker roughly 20 hours to complete.
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