2013 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition
November 18 – December 21, 2013
In-person Event
Slusser
Exhibition
Open to the public
Free of charge
The Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design’s 2013 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition features the exceptional works of our undergraduate students in art and design, juried by three professionals:
- Marsha Miro, President and Founding Director of MOCAD and Art Critic for Detroit Free Press
- Allen Samuels, Emeritus Professor and Dean, Stamps School of Art & Design
- Matt Shlian, Artist, Designer, Paper Engineer
2013 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition
Slusser Gallery
Exhibition Dates: November 18 — December 21
Opening Reception & Awards Announcement: Tuesday, Nov. 19, 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Award Winners
Guy Palazzola Memorial Award: Michael Connelly, Jilbadji Location 563 on Deposited Plan 224672. Dulyalbin, WA, Oil and mixed media on campus 60 x 66”
Mining and petroleum extraction has defined Western Australia since its colonization. Over the last century it has developed into a global industry, with multibillion dollar deals between corporations and governments increasing rapidly. The landscape is shaped by commercial activity, cut through by roads and dotted with tens of thousands of abandoned mining sites. Whole towns have been made uninhabitable with disease and death from the asbestos mining. Many of the indigenous peoples, who lived for thousands of years on the once-forested land are now remembered only in the names assigned to land districts subdivided into numbered tracts.
One of the major companies mining in Jilbadji is headquartered miles from Ann Arbor, yet its activities are occurring so far away from us: literally the other side of the world. What is happening hardly feels real. The painting is an attempt to visualize this landscape – in a way that may be felt – through a kind of extractive process layering pigments obtained from the earth.
John H. McCluney Memorial Award: Vassiilissa Semouchkina, Citizen Erased, Graphic design 24 x 17”
Citizen Erased is a disconnected analysis of a man that was executed during Joseph Stalin’s Purges in the 1930s. Shortly after his arrest by the KGB, all information regarding the man was terminated. Starting with just a first name, a portrait of him was built, slowly, from collected nightmares and charred photographs.
Robert D. Richards Memorial Award: Tiffany Leung, Kaleidoscope, video
Kaleidoscope is an experimental film piece examining the deconstruction and reconstruction of images considered ordinary. In this film, the act of putting on makeup is transformed into a kaleidoscopic landscape. This piece is meant to reveal the simple act of cosmetic beautification as an anticipatory gateway into the world of night life and the mitigation of consciousness such a world entails. https://vimeo.com/64461552
Irene Bychinsky Bendler Award: Taylor Ross, In Transit, Porcelain and aluminum, 2 x 8 x 2”
I made these toy trains during a period of transition. I was unhappy with the direction I was headed, and I decided to shift my primary focus from being a designer of functional objects to a maker of sculptural objects. These objects, in some ways, reflect this transition.
My process is that of a designer; the objects developed with a series of sketches, models, and molds, yet the final object is nonfunctional — a toy that cannot be played with. Have I created a functional object with no use or a meaningful object with no function? Regardless of the answer, it also begs another question: is an object useless just because it has no explicit function? Are my toy trains exclusively an art piece or a designed object or are they both?
Ann Reek Amendt Award: Ira Richardson, Quarry, Copper and bone, 24 x 18”
The sun beat down on me as I pulled sheet after sheet of plastic out of the loosely packed earth that was to be my mother’s strawberry patch. As I reached the north end of the patch, I turned over a clump of earth to reveal the first rib and vertebrae. Buried shallow and seemingly not long ago, at least a dozen skulls told me that there were remains of many deer in this small area. Stories heard from the neighbors explained the tooth marks on the ribs that I found. The previous residents of this farm had had maintained their livelihood breeding wolf dogs.
There were remains from many more deer than one could have hunted within the law. Perhaps some of these animals were vehicle fatalities, collected so that they could be fed to their children or the dogs. Perhaps some were even poached out of necessity by a family with no other options. Though they had hidden the bones away, feeling shame in their inability to live through conventional means, I couldn’t help but view the previous residents with admiration for the resourcefulness and determination represented by the collection of bones that I was slowly uncovering.
William A. Lewis Award: Marc Ferraro, Mad Cow, Oil on canvas, 46x 52”
Cows were an interesting subject for me to paint. There is an implication of pattern and repetition that is found in their spots and black and white fur that strongly contrasts with colorful, aggressive and spontaneous applications of paint that I like to use. Cows also are generally docile creatures and I enjoyed portraying them in a crazed, psychotic state.
Arthur C. Tagge Award: Katy Dresner, Subject: (No Subject), Video
How do you find the courage to speak what’s on your mind — to make a bold move — to love who you want? Write your own honesty. https://vimeo.com/78011637
Emile Weddige Award: Stevon Rendon, Faded, Video
My intent of my piece is to showcase the emotions and obstacles I must overcome on a daily basis throughout my life and how my heart, The City of Detroit, has had a striking influence of how I view the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bfoMJ4wiZY
Barbara & Dorothy Heers Memorial Award: Tarah Douglas, Jahyne, Screen print on fabric, 108” x 72”
Large scale prints inspired by a character created during my time studying abroad in India.
Alice Elizabeth Kalom Award: Audrey Stanton, Sosorum, Photography, 13” x 31”
Created and destroyed through photographic and chemical processes, these images represent the effects of chlorine and other pollutants on aquatic environments and organisms.