By Amanda Lehnerd
The Youngstown State University Student Art Association presents the 81st Annual Juried Student Art & Design Exhibition at the McDonough Museum of Art opening March 24. The exhibition will run from March 24 to April 7.
The exhibition will feature an awards ceremony and reception Friday where artists will be honored. Current graphic design student, Lorenzo Devine, created the identity design for the exhibition.
“The identity of the show is about all these different paths meeting at the 81st Student Art & Design Exhibition,” said Devine. “There are a lot of different student artists and designers here at YSU who have very different styles but ultimately are all on the same linear path of getting to the end; I had a fun time trying to conceptualize this idea.”
The idea behind the exhibition’s identity all began with researching the meaning behind the No. 81.
“I wanted the 81 to be rather pronounced because in my research I learned that it is a number that represents philanthropy, efficiency, humanitarianism, balance, idealism and tolerance,” said Devine. “I connected with those adjectives the most because I found them all to be important, the linear waves of gray that make up the shadow are representative of those linear paths I mentioned students take.”
Stephanie Nussle, a student in the art department, stated that the exhibition is put on by the SAA.
“The SAA is the student art group,” Nussle said. “The SAA has students submit their work, and the students don’t know if their work gets in or is chosen until the exhibition opening when the juror announces it.”
The juror for the exhibition is Adam Welch. He is an artist, musician and curator who has exhibited regionally and internationally. He is the recipient of the 2009 Individual Artists Fellowship in Installation/ Sculpture.
President of the SAA Desmond Duque said that there have been a lot of students who submitted works compared to previous years.
“This year we had a large amount of submissions,” Duque said. “This year we have a total of 67 works, with around 134 submissions from students.”
The idea behind the exhibition is to showcase the work of the students and to allow students and locals to see what kind of work is being produced in the art department at YSU.
“We all work really hard, and this exhibition is a means to show off that hard work and be rewarded for it,” said Devine.
The exhibition is meant to display all the different types of work from each different discipline within the art department, ranging from entry level to advanced.
“No one knows what exactly is in the show until opening night,” said Devine. “I don’t even know if my work made it in and I designed the identity for the show, so it’ll be a fun surprise to see what made it and who wins awards.”
According to Duque, the SAA would like a variety of people to attend the event.
“It is really nice to have not just students attend, but the faculty and alumni to come,” he said. “It is a privilege to us for the community to want to be a part of the Student Art & Design Exhibition.”
