"Rejected - the other student art show," on display in the Hillel Gallery this week, demonstrates that a non-juried art show does not sacrifice quality for quantity. The student-run exhibition accepted all submissions that were rejected from the official Student Art Show, held in the David Winton Bell Gallery last month.
Organized by three senior visual art concentrators - Valeria Khislavsky '07, Janelle Sing '07 and Bevan Weissman '07 - whose submissions were all refused last month by the Student Art Show, the "Rejected" show lives up to its subversive name, inspired by the 19th-century French "Salons des Refuses."
"Rejected" isn't intended as an overt criticism of the quality of the artwork in the Student Art Show but simply provides another opportunity for students to publicly display their work. "This show just gives the students who didn't get a chance (to be) in the student show a chance to put their stuff on the wall," Sing said.
Most importantly, "Rejected" indicates that the Student Art Show represented a subjective selection of student work that left out high-quality art with strong critical substance.
"The nature of a juried show is that it is subjective. Some people (who) don't have a lot of exposure to art don't think about (it). Instead, the public sees an accepted work as good and a rejected one as bad," Khislavsky said.
One of the most striking works in the show is a painting by Caroline Gray '07 titled "Into the Deep," which depicts a winged man floating in an ocean - perhaps representing Icarus's mythical fall from flight. The painting's abstract background depicts a free-flowing ocean scene that contrasts sharply with the crisply rendered, naturalistic human figure in the foreground.
Also striking is "Surge" by Weissman, a sculpture of a black hand in the process of being dissected on a metal tray, questioning the relationship between technology and the human body. Instead of the internal anatomy one expects to find, the hand is composed of various mechanical and electrical elements, including an electric plug on the end of the index finger.
Kate Hammond's '08 "Annie," a pencil drawing of an old woman's face, uses a textured paper to represent the rough, worn surface of an old woman's wrinkled skin in a touching way. The portrait expresses a personal relationship between artist and model.
The student organizers derived inspiration from Visiting Lecturer in Visual Arts Jay Stuckey '90, who teaches his students that art does not communicate until it is on a wall. Next year, the Department of Visual Arts plans to sponsor the show of rejected art on the second floor of List Art Center during the Student Art Show in the Bell Gallery to foster a direct comparison between the two, according to the student organizers.
"Rejected" will hold a reception on Thursday, April 12 in the Hillel Gallery at 8 p.m. It will be on display until Saturday, April 14.
