Art 500 Showcase
On the opening night of “Big Time: Art 500+,” the Lamont Gallery was bustling with Exonians celebrating and admiring the work of their friends, children and students. The gallery, which is usually taken up by guest artists, is now full of artwork created by Exonians. Students enrolled in Exeter’s most advanced art courses have the opportunity to showcase their work in the gallery.
“'Big Time: Art 500+' aims to share and celebrate these creative efforts from over 20 student artists with the rest of the Exeter community."
The exhibition runs from May 11 until June 3. In these advanced art courses, either Art 500 or Art 999, students are given the freedom to experiment with and build upon skills that they’ve already mastered to develop their own original pieces of art. Tasked to create an individual portfolio based around a specific thematic question, students independently developed their own projects and curriculums in the studio, while also receiving occasional guidance and weekly feedback from art instructors.
“Big Time: Art 500+” aims to share and celebrate these creative efforts from over 20 student artists with the rest of the Exeter community. Beyond the artworks themselves, visitors of the exhibit are able to see the entire artistic process, from a work’s initial sketches to its implementation within the studio.
The Art 500 course allows for exploration across artistic mediums, so the exhibition features a variety of art forms. Senior Chris Luke worked with animation, something he considers relatively foreign to Exeter’s typical art curriculum. “I was inspired by a lot of the animation I saw on television and the internet. I taught myself by imitating and studying those works,” he said.
Senior Lauren Maguire created a photography project for the course. “At the time I was feeling like I didn’t have much choice, that I wasn’t allowed to control my future and have control over my feelings. I felt like I was being told to fit into a certain mold,” she said. Inspired by these emotions, Maguire created a series of photographs exploring the way that certain values are imposed onto people.
For Maguire, art has always been a way of expressing deeper concepts. “I can’t really do art without having some sort of deeper meaning behind it. I can’t just create something that’s aesthetically pleasing for me,” she said.
Luke felt similar, saying, “I think that it offers an avenue of self-expression that is entirely unique.”
Senior Ivy Tran created a collection of clothing as her independent project for the Art 999 course. Her primary aim was to instill and communicate a specific message through her work.
“My collection ‘Prenom’ has a simple aim: to empower and celebrate women. The design of each individual piece embraces the different aspects and struggles of being a woman. My collection shows that even in fashion, we can work to support women, to be loud for those who do not have a voice,” said Tran.
For Art Department Chair Tara Lewis, art is like food and air—sustaining and necessary for growth. In addition to student work, faculty work is also displayed in the showcase. “I chose portrait painting because that’s definitely my thing,” Lewis said. “Some kids were soccer stars or varsity athletes, and I considered art my ‘sport’ I practiced,” said Lewis.
Senior Theodore Jaffrey, whose artwork entitled “The Human Emoji” presented a collection of raw photographs of human emotions, had similar hopes for his project and for the gallery. “I think it would be cool for people to generally recognize that we all have different ways of expressing ourselves and our emotions, and as a community we need to recognize that,” he said.