The Juried Student Art Exhibition has been a yearly tradition at UW-Whitewater’s Crossman Gallery for the last few decades. At the beginning of each school year, the gallery asks students no matter their year in school or their major to submit their art work where it will be judged and put on display inside the gallery located in the Greenhill Center of the Arts.
On Oct. 17 the gallery held the reception and awards ceremony. Awards were given to the top three artworks, as well as several awards that highlighted excellence in their artwork’s medium.
A single juror is selected who is in charge of narrowing down the submitted artworks and choosing the award winners. Ashley Dimmig, the Crossman Gallery’s director, is in charge of helping choose this juror.
“Each year I research local and regional artists who are active in the field and seem interested in nurturing young artists,” Dimmig explains, “I run the short list by the chair of the Department of Art and Design and the Crossman Gallery committee and then reach out to the potential jurors one by one until one is available and willing.”
This year’s exhibit consists of 57 pieces that were chosen by this year’s juror, Nina Ghanbarzadeh. She is a Wisconsin based visual artist who specializes in drawing and mixed media artwork. Ghanbarzadeh was tasked with judging all of the 139 different artworks that were submitted for consideration before narrowing it down to the 57 featured in the show.
“This is my third annual Juried Student Art Exhibition and the numbers have increased steadily year to year,” Dimmig said of how the student interest has been increasing in recent years. “For comparison, last academic year we had 91 submissions and 46 pieces were selected. I think this growth is wonderful to see and indicative of greater interest and engagement with the arts as we emerge from the pandemic years.”
Choosing the award-winning pieces from the bunch was not an easy task.
“The juror was genuinely torn about which works to confer awards to, since there were so many great pieces. She also noted that there were some truly compelling stories told through art and the accompanying artist statements, which I certainly feel too,” Dimmig said.
One of the artworks that received an award for ‘Best in Show for 2D Mixed Media’ was a piece entitled LongSlowGoodbye, by senior art education major Sidney Chaney. The piece is a mixed media portrait of Chaney’s best friend and fellow artist, who is also featured in the exhibit, Kayleigh Kohl. This is Chaney’s first year submitting art for the exhibit.
“I was originally apprehensive to submit my art,” Chaney said about her nervousness around submitting a piece for the first time. “But I realized that it might be one of my last chances in my college career to be in a gallery like this, so I decided to get over my fears and submit anyway. I’m glad I submitted in the end. I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity and the recognition.”
Chaney’s work is one example of a beautiful piece with a compelling story attached.
“In my artwork, I like to use nostalgic imagery and compositions to reflect the fact that I’m constantly ruminating on the past and trying to come to terms with the reality of growing up. That’s what this specific piece represents to me; the juxtaposition of her face and the skeletal elements speak on how the old version of yourself is dead, while you’re constantly changing and evolving into a new and more experienced person as time goes on,” Chaney explained.
The Juried Student Art Exhibit is an important annual tradition that allows students the opportunity to display their art work, whatever the medium, and whatever their degree path may be.
“This exhibition is so important because it’s the one opportunity for all UWW students to submit and exhibit their work in the Crossman Gallery,” Dimming said. “Typically we have exhibitions of art by external professional practicing artists or work by art majors, but this opportunity is for any student — regardless of major, minor, credits, or year — to showcase their artwork and share it with the campus community.”
“Art is so important, and so is letting your artistic voice be heard,” Chaney urged fellow students to also share their work. “I encourage anyone who’s passionate about what they do to submit their work in future exhibitions!”
All of the student artwork, including LongSlowGoodbye, will be on display until Oct. 24.
