Art Students Share “Apex” Of Their Studies In Senior Show

November 16, 2018 Kaitlin Gawkins

The Senior Show is a culmination of the senior class’ work during their time here at UD. Along with creating all of the pieces that go into the show, seniors also shoulder the work of organizing the open house, curating the exhibition, coordinating artwork drop offs, and advertising the show. All of the hard work the art community puts into this show can only be seen in the Fitz Hall’s Radial Gallery until Dec. 5.

Claire Bowman, a Senior Fine Arts major with two featured pieces took on the role of curator for this year’s Senior Show entitled Apex. According to Claire to installation’s theme was meant to get across the idea that it is the end of the seniors’ four years at UD but it is really just the beginning of the rest of their lives.

Bowman’s responsibilities included planning where each piece of artwork was hung and organizing the pieces in a logical and interesting way.

Seniors had to come forward and volunteer for their positions, which gave them the opportunity to be as hands-on with the sow as they wanted to be. Dani Lioce, a fine arts and graphic design double major volunteered to be the head of the installation committee, so she worked closely with Bowman to put together the exhibition. “I love that everyone had a hand in putting it together”, Lioce stated.

A third member of Bowman’s team, Jeremy Rosen, a graphic design and English double major thinks of the opportunity to put together a show in a more practical sense. For him it’s a real world experience that will hopefully help to secure a position in his chosen career path in the future.

“The fact that the show was juried adds another level of prestige for us and also looks great on a resume”, Rosen stated. Bowman would prefer to be a professor one day but stated that she wasn’t opposed to working a gallery, so all of the curatorial experience she has gained will be applicable in one way or another depending on where life takes her.

Bowman’s strategy for putting pieces together and making the gallery one cohesive space was to find connections between pieces and place them so that the viewers eye would be drawn around the entire room. “Everyone has their own style, ideas, and purpose so it’s hard to find pieces that work well with each other”, Bowman said.

With a lot of thought and a little bit of math Bowman hopes the exhibition will have a good flow to it. If she did her job correctly, the space will feel natural and many viewers may not think twice about how the space came together into its final form. Bowman hopes that her peers will take an extra moment to appreciate how the space looks as a whole rather than just admiring each individual piece.

While some non-majors may have never visited the Radial Gallery, Lioce and Bowman have a lot of great memories tied to the space. “I just like working here because it’s a really relaxed environment, I feel more and more attached to each show that I put into it.” Bowman said. “For me, the Radial Gallery has been a great hands on experience that let me learn a ton”, Lioce stated.

The Seniors had to accomplish so much in such a short period of time. The reward for them was to see the work they were most proud of and their peers’ best work hung up for everyone to see. Lioce’s featured work, Grip, was a breakthrough piece for her, mostly because of its impactful scale. Bowman has two smaller pieces in the exhibition, which she feels represent how far she’s come and her current artistic abilities.

Although the art is the most important thing for the audience, it became one of the simpler aspects of the show for the Seniors. Bowman has been thinking about how she would organize this show since the beginning of the semester. She came to think of Apex as a “stressful child that always needed her attention.” The Seniors are used to producing artwork, but the other jobs that they took on were new to them.

Mary Guida, an Art Education major headed the reception committee and was able to secure catering from Downtown Dayton’s Mixteca. Emily Bartolome headed the drop off/pick up committee and took on the responsibility of ensuring that her peers’ work was entered into the show on time and in the correct format. Head of the public relations committee, Maura Parker made sure statements were distributed to local news, faculty, and students. She even took the initiative to create buttons in order to raise awareness of the show.

Lioce’s title was head of the installation committee. She thinks students should come see Apex specifically because, “we have a very strong art community but there is a separation between us and the larger community.” If you’re ever in Fitz Hall and have an extra second between classes, it would mean a lot to Lioce and the rest of the Seniors if you stopped into room 242.

To find more information about the show and the Radial Gallery, visit their Facebook page or www.udayton.edu.

Photos courtesy of Christian Cubacub.