GALLERY
Exibition Dates: March 30, 2015 - April 23, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 2, 6 pm - 8 pm
ARTIST STATEMENT
The Student Purchase Award Show is an annual art exhibit, which is an integral part of the University Union Art Gallery. It is a tradition that dates back to the late 70s, shortly after the original University Union opened in 1975. The show is completely open to all students currently enrolled at Sacramento State.
Students submit their artwork during a three-day period and then off-campus visual arts professionals are chosen to judge the submitted work. Three “Best of Show” awards (in addition to Purchase Awards) are selected solely on the basis of artistic quality, and are awarded a cash prize. The works selected for Purchase Awards are chosen using the following criteria: artistic quality, adaptability into the University Union permanent collection, and the relative price of the piece. Those pieces then become part of the Union's permanent collection and will be displayed in the facility for years to come.
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There's a lot of competition this year for the award show, over fifty pieces of art have entered including two from myself. So a huge congrats to those who made it into the gallery, there was a good amount of work I haven't seen before as well as a nice mix in variety in mediums. The only issue which I have mentioned before in a previous blog regarding the Union gallery space is the lighting and placement of certain artwork. Again the lack of lighting available doesn't do justice to many of the pieces, it wasn't until all the lights (main and spotlights) were turned on that you can appreciate the pieces a little more and see the intricate details and colors of the artworks.
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| Lindsey McGrath "admiring" the gallery lighting on her painting. |
With that note aside, I felt the show was a success. Many of the pieces chosen were very strong and well executed. Some of my personal favorites were Mustafa Shaheen's portraits, which displays an incredible skill of capturing photorealism of everyday activities enhanced with unique and vibrant color palette. Another favorite of mine is Catherine Suan's Cupcakes in watercolor because it is very reminiscent of Wayne Thiebaud's cake series. I am more familiar with Catherine's more recent work in oil paint, so to see an earlier work with a totally different subject in a different medium was a nice surprise.
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| Watercolor on paper by Catherine Suan. |
Of course the most important part of the Purchase Show is to present the winners of the show. Congratulations to Art major Mustafa Shaheen for winning this year's Student Purchase Award for his painting, "Omar F"! Photography major Steven Berroteran won 2nd prize ("The Body"). 3rd prize went to Evan Purdy in Graphic Design ("Apache Man").
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| 1st Place: "Omar F" by Mustafa Shaheen. |
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| 3rd Place "Apache Man" by Evan Purdy. |
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| Oil on Canvas by Catherine Suan. |
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| A piece from Mechanics series by Sokthea Chan. |
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| House paint on canvas by Caiti Chan. |
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| "Frank N" by Mustafa Shaheen. |
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| Me in front of Mustafa's(L) and Catherine's(R) oil paintings. |
John, these are great, but I'd like you to stray out of your comfort zone and expand your understanding of contemporary art.Go look at some serious art that you don't already understand.
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