Some lucky artists received cash prizes at VASA’s annual student art show, which invaded the fine arts buildings March 14
Rebecca Morton
Contributor
The fine arts buildings were packed floor to ceiling with innumerable pieces of art for the third annual visual arts open house on March 14. Open to all visual arts majors in their third year or higher, the show consisted of every media area offered in the program, from twisted steel and scrap metal sculptures, complex ink drawings, colourful oil and acrylic paintings, expressive photographs, screen prints, and everything in between.
This year, the student art show, titled Psychopomp, was diverse and exciting, but the best thing about it is that some artists get to walk away with cash awards.
Jen Backman
Her two drawings are featured in the show. One is a mobile with small illustrations hanging from fishing wire. The other is a large post-apocalyptic piece sporting comicbook-style aliens and robots. Each piece is recognizable in style and imagery, yet often requires a bit of deciphering on the part of the viewer in order to unlock the story. Backman won one of the coveted people’s choice awards with these thought-provoking pieces. “I feel like I had to tell a lot of my friends who are non-majors about the show because they didn’t know about it, so I wish that it was a bit more advertised to the rest of the campus,” says Backman.
Ana Paula Gonzalez Urdaneta
Her two paintings and three drawings, part of a series, are featured in the show. The drawings, “Travis,” “Angela,” and “Matt” are beautifully rendered ink and pencil portraits of three of Urdaneta’s close friends. “They are part of a bigger project,” she explains. “It’s really an exploration of expressions and different nuances in the faces.” The faces of “Travis,” “Angela,” and “Matt” are certainly life-like and captivating for passers-by. Urdaneta received several well-deserved awards for drawing and printmaking.
Amanda Boulos
VASA’s vice-president also contributed. Her piece “My Dad’s Sardines” is a large painting installation made on insulation paper. A large sheet of the grey paper is hung high on the wall, draping down to the floor, where several pillow-like sculptures of the same material have been placed. On the sheet is a complex ink drawing with small sardines tumbling over one another. Boulos says the sardine “is a symbol—preserving, using, and reusing what you’ve got in life.” Boulos was a key force in setting up the student art show. “It’s stressful, but it’s fun,” she says.
Aimie Canavan
Canavan’s metal sculpture made out of recycled steel, found objects, and the ends of glass bottles also works as a costume. Sitting with her head held high in the CFA, she boldly displays her strange gas mask sculpture. She reveals that her work is about working with metal. “It’s a kind of self-reflexive process.” An award for scrap metal sculptures was given to Canavan for this gritty, yet attractive piece, and Canavan accepted it humbly. “I was almost positive they were going to pick something that was really monumental and sculptural.”
Photos by Mark Grant
