Exhibit displays juried students’ artwork

By Jessica Pickens

Art students aren’t just occupying Rutledge for classes, but their art is prominent in the gallery.

The 22nd Annual Undergraduate Juried Exhibition is displaying works that students entered into the yearly competition.

Each student was allowed to submit up to six pieces of any medium. The exhibit was open to all students of design and fine arts, said assistant gallery director Karen Derksen.

The pieces were judged by Brent Skidmore, sculptor and fine arts professor at the University of North Carolina in Asheville.  The awards were announced at the gallery’s opening on Monday, Feb. 1.

Skidmore has been connected with the Winthrop community since 1991 and met many of the faculty from 1991 to 2004.

“I became a fan of the quality programming,” Skidmore said.

Skidmore was the only judge for the exhibition.

“I stay out of the judging process,” Derksen said. “Jurors look at the quality of the pieces, color and composition and how the piece works with the rest of the exhibition. I helped to move the works around to see which pieces worked best together in the exhibit.”

When Skidmore judged the student work, he looked at it from the point of view of an art professor.

“I rank all student work to that of student work across the nation,” he said. “I look for the work that holds me, stops my process and provokes me to listen and see what the artist was trying to convey.”

Justin Wilson, an art major that graduated from Winthrop in December, won best-in-show for his piece. George Howard, senior art major, won second place and Jennifer Williams, senior art major, won third place.

This year, the exhibit contained one piece with an explicit subject matter: sexting.

Howard’s piece, “Politics of Sexting,” is three double-sided panels that spin. They contain nude figures painted onto the panels doing sexual activities such as oral sex and posing nude while taking photos with a phone.

Because of the artwork’s controversial nature, the piece was put in the third floor McLaurin Student Gallery.  Some students might think this is unfair, but Derksen said the subject matter was not the only reason that piece was relocated.

“We have to consider how to install the piece since it is three rotating panels,” she said.

However, viewers of the exhibit have to be taken into consideration when an explicit piece is in the show.

Howard was disappointed that his exhibit was displayed upstairs in McLaurin, but was thankful that it wasn’t cut completely.

“I thought they might put it in that upstairs Patrick Gallery, but there was already an exhibit up there,” Howard said. “I wanted it in the main gallery for shock appeal, but it worked out in third floor McLaurin, because I could set up the panels the way I wanted them.”

The Rutledge Gallery is open and glass. When dealing with a piece that has sexual subject matter in a group show, it is hard to make people aware prior to entering the gallery, Derksen said.

“There are gray areas. Artwork is about expressing your feelings, but we have to be aware of where we live,” Derksen said. “We want to be open and free with our art, especially our students so they can explore freely, because this is a time of experimentation.”

The Rutledge Galleries have received no complaints about the artwork. Howard said he has received nothing but praise.

“I didn’t expect that since we live in the south,” he said.

The 22nd Annual Undergraduate Juried Exhibition will be on display in the Rutledge Gallery until Thursday, March 4.