Walking into the student art galleries, one would expect to see art on the walls. Instead, the patrons were illuminated in blue light and asked to participate in conversation and share food in the “Atrium,” one of the three exhibits on display this week in the student galleries in the Fine Arts buildings.
Graduate students displayed their artwork in the Fine Arts galleries as part of a weekly exposition featuring different exhibits in multiple galleries. This week, “Atrium,” “Forces” and an unnamed exhibit were presented, all of which had a natural ambiance.
“It’s a nice opportunity for other students to be able to see what art students are producing,” said graduate student and featured artist Michael Nannery.
Nannery and graduate student Joshua Gagliardi teamed up to present “Atrium” in the Max L. Gatov Gallery.
“The whole installation is the artwork, so it’s more about the relation between the people who come into the gallery,” Gagliardi said. “It’s more about this exchange of ideas and sitting down and creating an atmosphere where that can happen.”
The “Atrium” features rugs and tree branches, two secret rooms — one with a fish tank and stuffed animal, the other with a TV showing images of nature —plants and small mirrors along a wall.
The gallery put an emphasis on the experience of being in the room with others and making connections, rather than the physical aesthetics of the art.
Nannery and Gagliardi also hosted a potluck-picnic in the gallery to enhance the free space experience they created.
Mary Beierle, a graduate student, chose to compare “the figure” with landscape and humans with environment, in her piece, “Forces”, another exhibit to be displayed this week in the Dennis W. Dutzi Gallery.
“Forces” mixes classical sculpting techniques with natural elements to create a blend between the human body and the earth it inhabits and destroys, according to Beierle.
“My work combines both images of the human body and the environment, and I’ve smashed them together,” said Beierle, who went to Alaska with the help of two art and travel grants. She said her art was inspired by the Alaskan glaciers she saw on her journey.
Beierle said she made her own clay and used various materials such as dirt, glaze and other “earthy” materials for her sculptures, which combine turquoise, brown and green elements.
The Dr. Maxine Merlino Gallery showcased graduate student Tava Tedesco, who created plywood cutouts of different color gradients to replicate the aesthetics of the sky. While her exhibit had no title, some of the pieces were named Moonlight, Wild Lily and Fig Ivy.
Tava said she was inspired to aim at “…exploring nature and their surrounding locations like … landscapes, urban and natural, and kind of pulling color schemes from them and utilizing them in print format.”
Tava said she wanted to juxtapose urban and natural locations.