A combination of artistic talents and four years of academic guidance has once again culminated into the Senior Art Exhibition. From March 27 to May 6, 21 young professionals will show their strongest works of art from their time at Concordia.
This is the seniors’ chance to use the critical thinking skills they’ve learned through the years to create a cohesive work of art, according to Heather Hardester, manager of the Cyrus M. Running Gallary where the exhibit is being held. Additionally, it gives students a taste of being a professional artist.
“For studio art, it syncs nicely if they’re going to grad school for art,” said Hardester.
It will also help the many graphic design majors applying for jobs, she said.
The gallery includes graphic design art, paintings, printmaking and many other types of art that portray themes like remembrance, curiosity and introspection. Designing and organizing the gallery was a challenge for Hardester.
“There’s lots of graphic design that must balance with studio art,” Hardester said. Additionally, since students paint larger every year, she must find enough room while maintaining a good rhythm and flow.
This year six different awards were given to seniors that showed exceptional creativity in their work. Studio Art major Emily Swedberg was awarded the Department Purchase Award for her watercolor painting titled “Insightful Gazes,” which will now be added to the department’s collection. The piece is part of Swedberg’s Deliquescent Curiosity Series.
“This series of watercolor paintings is an invitation to explore this world of the mind with anomalous colors, fallacious gravity and impossible anatomies unrestricted by reality’s boundaries,” Swedberg said in her artist statement.
In “Insightful Gazes” each of the six faces represents a different emotion such as anger, determination, hopefulness and meditativeness. Swedberg said she completed the work in 2011 in her Intermediate Watercolors class taught by David Boggs.
Swedberg said her grandpa has been an inspiration throughout her journey as an artist. Seeing all the pictures in his apartment that he had created motivated her to become an artist herself.
While Swedberg’s pieces focused on emotions and fears, other pieces took a look at concrete events.
Studio Art major Sara Boom created three pictures in her Intermediate Printmaking class that depict the nonprofit Bridger Bowl ski area in her hometown of Bozeman, Mont.
“I’ve been going there since elementary school,” Boom said.
One of her pictures portrays the one old red ski lift left in the area. Boom said the rest of the lifts were auctioned to raise money and have been replaced by new ski lifts.
Boom plans to make a book with many different prints that represent the area. For her, the art brings back fond memories of the ski area.
Both Boom and Swedberg were impressed by other seniors’ works of art in the gallery.
“I’m pretty proud of [the exhibit]” Swedberg said. “I hope people keep working hard.”
The Cyrus M. Running Gallery featuring the Senior Art Exhibition is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 1p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
