Exhibit displays talent, complexity

  ANDREA KIM Jeremy Colp looks at an
exhibit at the Wight Gallery in Dickson Art Center. The exhibit is
running from Oct. 20 to Nov. 10 and features 16 M.F.A. art students
from around Southern California.

By Leila Mobayen
Daily Bruin Contributor

If you’ve never checked out the wealth of talent on
display in UCLA’s art galleries, now is a good time to
begin.

Through Nov. 10, the Wight Gallery will host “˜Fit,’
an exhibit showcasing the work of 16 budding artists from six
different M.F.A. programs all across Southern California. The
gallery is located on the first floor of Dickson Hall and is open
to everyone who wants to take a look .

There are several different types and styles of art represented
in the exhibit, including paintings, photographs and videos.

One of the more interesting exhibits is Molly Corey’s
“Over Eighty Photographs.” True to its name, the piece
consists of numerous photographs that seem to have no relation to
each other. At first glance, it looks as if it is the chronicle of
a family’s history over the past five to six decades. The
pictures consist of people, young and old, male and female, in many
different eras. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear
that the photographs have something else in common: each of the
pictures contains the shadow of the photographer, eclipsing part of
each scene.

  ANDREA KIM

“Our Hospitality,” created by Sarah
Lewison and Audrey Chung, is one of the
featured exhibits at the Wight Gallery in Dickson Art Center.
Though there is no common thread between the projects, viewers are
bound to find an exhibit of interest.

This discovery leads to all sorts of possible explanations.
Perhaps Corey is attempting to remind the viewer that what is
behind the camera, Corey herself, is just as important as the scene
itself. Or, perhaps, the shadows are a testament to the fact that
all stages of life, no matter how carefree, have a dark side. Or
maybe the photographer just thought it looked cool at the time.

Whatever the significance, the photos are charming, and the
exhibit is thought-provoking.

Another interesting exhibit is “Orange Candies” by
Tomo Isoyama. It consists of four enormous panels with lots of
pictures of different kinds of orange candies. Initially,
Isoyama’s collection looks rather irrelevant. But the four
panels pose an interesting distinction. The first shows bags of
candy, the second shows the posterior views of these bags
(nutrition facts, etc.), the third depicts the individually wrapped
candies, and the fourth and final panel features the unwrapped
candies themselves. The progression from panel to panel reveals
that, the less packaging involved, the more identical the candies
become. In the end, all of these different candies are almost
identical.

Some of the works, although interesting in theory, are not very
appealing. For example, Natalie Zimmerman’s “Throwing
Weight” is a 10-minute video of random people leaning on
different immovable objects around Los Angeles. It is a well
thought out and clever theme, but it isn’t very
entertaining.

Some of the other exhibits seem to be a little on the
pretentious side, a fact that makes the exhibit a bit of a mind
strain, but even more intriguing.

The title “˜Fit’ is an appropriate description of
this collection of works. It was chosen because the word, like the
art, can be interpreted in many different ways.

The only thing that these 16 artists have in common is that they
have nothing in common. The exhibit is a wonderfully eclectic mix
of talent and it is worth the 20 minutes out of your day to stop by
and check it out.

ART: “Fit” runs through Nov. 10. It is in the Wight
Gallery, 1100 Dickson Art Center. The Wight Gallery is open Monday
through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.