Original artwork in a quiet, museum-like setting describes the atmosphere of the Emerging Artists Exhibition 2007. This gallery is located right here on Cabrini’s campus. It’s free for everyone and open to the public.
This exhibit represents unique artwork created by graduates from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The display can be found in the Grace and Joseph Fine Arts Gallery on the second floor of the Holy Spirit Library.
Nicholas Jacques, assistant professor of studio arts, was responsible for selecting the artists and their artwork for the show. He said that he wanted a “variety of images that weren’t just ‘decoration’ or ‘pretty’ because those attributes by themselves do not constitute good art.”
From nine different artists there are 18 pieces of artwork and their prices range from $200 to $10,000. The art pieces include wood relief print, oil on canvas and ink/collage on paper.
Beside each set of pictures there are deep descriptions of the artwork written by the artists as well as how the artists feel about their work.
“The images I paint are internalized reflections of the profound and divine nature of existence. They act as a thoroughfare for my thoughts and in this way pose the possibility of being both momentary and timeless,” Stephen Halko wrote next to his picture.
Meredith Rowe, a junior graphic design, philosophy major and studio art minor, said that she really enjoyed the blurbs next to each piece because it “really told what was going through the artist’s mind.” Her favorite was the piece in which the artist attempted to portray that humans are like animals because people generally think that animals are like humans.
Jacques said the main reason the gallery is there is to present different kinds of art to students, faculty and others.
Some students don’t realize that there is a gallery in the library so they haven’t seen the exhibit yet.
Jacques also said that he “wanted each piece in the show to provoke some sort of either emotional or conceptual reaction from those who saw it.” He hopes that more students will stop by to see the artwork since they are so close to the exhibit.
Jacques thinks this has been a successful exhibit so far. Although he hasn’t gotten much feedback yet, the feedback he received has been positive. It opened on Sunday, Oct. 21 and will be there until Nov. 11.