Student Art Honored at NDSU

By Brianna Brickweg
Contributing Writer
The NDSU Student Juried Art Show is at the NDSU Memorial Union Gallery until Feb. 24.

The student art show is a tradition at NDSU. This year is the third annual show since the gallery’s reopening in the fall of 2007 and is open for submissions from all NDSU students. Each artist submits photos and descriptions of each piece he or she is submitting as well as an artist’s statement.

“I like [asking for] descriptions of the work so that non-artist types can look at [the piece] and get an understanding, or at least a little exposure, to [the inspiration or idea of the piece],” said Esther Hockett, the visual arts and gallery coordinator at the NDSU Memorial Union Gallery.

The photographs of the submitted pieces are listed numerically on a CD and sent to the student show juror. The juror identifies the pieces he or she thinks is the best from the collection. This year the juror was David Lewellyn from Bismarck State College.

36 pieces by 20 different artists were chosen, coming from majors such as art and architecture. Mediums of art include ceramics, paintings, print photography, digital pieces and mixed media.

Kenny Bowling, an art freshman at NDSU, is in the show for the first time. He has two pieces in the show, a master copy and “Unnatural Still Life,” which is listed as “Cow Skull” in the show.

Bowling’s “Cow Skull” won third place in show.

The juried art show is Bowling’s first exposure to the art world and he is typically influenced by comic book and video game art, he said.

“I’m trying to get more of the comic book style out into museums and prove that can be art just as much as anything else,” Bowling said. “I’m still working out exactly where I want to go with my art, so who knows?”

Hockett encourages students to enter the art show in order to help their career as artists and to begin looking at art through a non-artist’s eye.

“In addition to making art,” Hockett said, “it really is helpful to your career as an artist to do the process. To get acquainted with the jurying process and think about your work as people who may not know about art look at it when it’s on a gallery wall.”

The NDSU Memorial Union Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, except on Thursdays when it is open until 8 p.m.. Entrance to the gallery is free and includes a gallery shop. Pieces in the juried art show are for sale unless otherwise noted.

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IF YOU GO:

When: Tuesday through Saturday until Feb. 24, 11 a.m to 5 p.m., open until 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: NDSU Memorial Union Gallery, NDSU Memorial Union (Upper Level)
Contact: 701-231-7900