The Myers School of Art presents the 85th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, on display in the Emily Davis Gallery from Mar. 1-26, 2021. The exhibition features 79 works of art from 45 students of all academic levels and disciplines. These selections were made from 140 submissions. Any student taking at least one art class at the Myers School of Art was eligible. Each student was allowed up to three submissions. The pandemic has brought many challenges for both students and faculty—classes have been taking place in-person, hybrid and remote. Despite all this change, students have been creating art.
This year’s juror, Tizziana Baldenebro, is currently Executive Director at SPACES in Cleveland and was previously the Ford Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) and completed curatorial research internship at the Art Institute of Chicago within the Architecture & Design department.
In describing her experience as juror of the exhibition, Baldenebro said, “This is an unhinged time to be alive. It is impossible to name every event that has brought us to where we are, and yet, we are here. As we crawl back into cultural spaces, we will all be looking for works that speak to us in ways that art has never spoken to us before—we are irrevocably different. We may have trouble interpreting and recognizing our own sensorial experiences. The gallery around you shows art that is thick, rich, saturated, dizzying, overwhelming, and over-stimulating. What are our unconscious minds trying to resolve?"
In judging the student work, Baldenebro remarked, "Selected for their synthetic hues, psychedelic shapes, grotesque tactility, the works on view provide no respite from the world. Instead, they meet the pace and energy of our global news cycle. From prismatic viscera to haunted bedrooms, artists across so many media are freely and wildly exploring their own hyperactive minds. There is no rest for the weary in our relentless, technicolor dream state.”
Student participants were awarded first, second, and third place prizes along with honorable mentions determined by the guest juror.
Award winners:
First place: Kayla Weinman '21, How Many Licks?, 2020. Ceramic, underglaze, glaze, wood, paint.
Second place: Tim Bekelesky '21, Transfiguration, 2020. Archival Inkjet Print.
Third place: Abigail Cipar '21, How we feel when we are amongst ourselves #2, 2021. Fabric, poly-fil, newspaper, foam board insulation, plywood.
Honorable mention awarded to: Emma Spadaro '21, Kameron Savory '21, and Fortune Uzo-Negerem '21.
The exhibition is organized by Emily Davis Gallery, which is located at Folk Hall on The University of Akron. Gallery hours are Monday - Friday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. With current COVID-19 protocols in place, attendance is limited.
Media contact: Lisa Craig, 330-972-7429 or lmc91@uakron.edu.