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Undergraduate Scholarship Award Exhibition honors art students by featuring their works

First-year art student Rodal Ajami’s painting of her sister, “Les Petite Papillion,” will be featured in the Undergraduate Scholarship Award Exhibition.

Undergraduate Scholarship Award Exhibition
Today, 5-8 p.m.
Broad New Wight Gallery, FREE

By Michelle Soave

Nov. 18, 2010 12:52 a.m.

Lexy Atmore

Third-year art student Armando Cortes poses with his sculpture “Untitled” in the New Wight Gallery.

From an oil painting on canvas to a wall-sized wooden installation, the Undergraduate Scholarship Award Exhibition at the New Wight Gallery in the Broad Art Center will feature a broad variety of media and artistic styles. Yet the pieces all have one thing in common: They were created by undergraduates who received scholarships from the School of the Arts and Architecture for the 2010-2011 school year.

Beginning today and on display until Dec. 9, the exhibition will showcase works by students who were awarded scholarships based on faculty nominations.

“This exhibition is to honor the students who are doing well, to show other schools and departments what our top undergraduates are doing,” said Ben Evans, coordinator for the New Wight Gallery.

One of three undergraduate art shows this year, the Undergraduate Scholarship Award Exhibition provides an opportunity for students to show their work and gain recognition in the art world.

However, not all of the art students get such a chance.

“It adds a competitive flair, encouraging all the students to really try so they can get their art seen,” Evans said.

Rodal Ajami, a first-year art student and one of the exhibition’s featured artists, first became interested in art during her freshman year in high school. After taking an art class, she realized she had a passion for art and decided to study the subject at UCLA. Ajami received the Moss Scholarship, and the exhibition will feature one of her paintings; her other pieces are still at her home in Saudi Arabia. The painting on display, “Les Petite Papillion,” is a portrait of her little sister in black ink and colored acrylic paint.

“I missed my family, so I decided to paint (my sister). I was really inspired by the gaze in her eyes,” Ajami said.

The piece consists of a black and white portrait of the little girl and splatters of turquoise, pink and gold in the corners.
“I usually paint things realistically, but I wanted to try something new for a change,” Ajami said of the style.

Third-year art student Armando Cortes also received a scholarship from the School of the Arts and Architecture, and plans to show three pieces in the exhibition: one painting and two sculptures. Cortes started his UCLA career as a mathematics student but ultimately decided to pursue art instead.

“I really like (art), and I figured I was good at it. I have a passion for art that I didn’t have for math,” Cortes said.

His sculpture “Untitled” is a figure of a standing female creature. It is painted two shades of blue, which Cortes described as the colors of a poison dart frog, and has antlers and a cloth covering the statue’s head.

“The materials say something about your work. I wanted people to wonder why it’s being covered up,” Cortes said.

Many of these pieces have been works-in-progress for months.
Cortes, for example, came up with the idea for “Untitled” over the summer while doing field research in Ecuador with an anthropology professor.

“I was surprised by all the women breast-feeding in public there. … This piece is about how people view women and breast-feeding, and how women are oppressed. It’s a bit of a feminist piece,” Cortes said.

There is only one requirement for the wide variety of pieces exhibited: They must be created by art students who have been recognized by their professors to receive a 2010-2011 scholarship from the School of the Arts and Architecture.

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Michelle Soave
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