Anderson Gallery

Today I got a chance to stop by and check out what was accepted to the Juried Student Fine Art Exhibition at the Anderson Gallery. I had planned to enter this show to fulfill the requirements of this class but as my luck goes, I somehow totally forgot about it the day they collected submissions. After seeing the works that were accepted, I am glad I didn't waste the money on the application fee. The 2-D works that were accepted were presented much better than I had. I guess that I had just overlooked this aspect because I felt as if the prints were good enough on their own that the framing would not matter much. I was wrong though, DUH! 8x10's in cheap ass frames don't look like much compared to larger matted prints in nice frames. Not that I couldn't have still used 8x10's but I really should have considered presentation more.

photocopy portraits titled "Confinements of Ourselves" were As for the content, I thought the show had a decent mix of different mediums. The majority of works seemed worthy of their inclusion. Though some bared no significance to me, I'm sure there is a market for that kind of work. Just not all my cup of tea. From the photography that was selected for the show, there were a few that I particularly enjoyed. ArlieTrowbridge'scompositionally strong. Her technique was unlike the other photography included in the show. It reminded me of the x-ray photography of Nick Veasey a bit but I liked that, unlike Veasey, she didn't make it seamless and I could tell where one scan began and ended.Miles Pennington's South Laurel Street was also a unique approach to photography. He used individual cutouts of photographs of the street setup within an accordion display. I guess I also cared about this peace because I live on that block. He presented it better than I see it most times.



Though I didn't note particulars (because there were about 8 or so), I thought that a lot of the video art was pretty impressive from what I saw. Even more impressive was the fact that all but one of the videos were done by AFO students. There was one that looked like it consisted of about a billion different illustrations of characters rapidly transitioning to different characters with similar form that smoothly transform, all in sync with the music. There was another that was just a closeup on eyes twitching and whatnot. Cliche if you ask me. Another video of people running and dancing around with white sheets at night in a Christmas tree lot was worth the minute or so. It had that feel good vibe going on that made you want to jump into the screen and join in.

Other than photography and other 2d works, there were just a few that I really like. One of my favorites was by Emily Wright, a craft/materials studies junior. Her "Germophobic Jewelry" was I guess what you could call functional and yet fashionable. The way that she displayed them sort of gave them this morbid feel. In a black box under glass, they looked like some sort of specimen. The use of both Sterling silver and latex was an unlikely combination that I wouldn't have imagined working together but it seems that Emily understands what she is working with pretty well.



Perhaps next year I will have thought out my entry a bit more and maybe even remember that I actually need to submit my work to be accepted. Either way, I always value any chance to see what my fellow artists are up to and it's nice to have seen first hand what this gallery particularly favors.