Art department’s undergraduate show is hidden UCLA gem

By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Reporter

Is that art? Wait, maybe that is. Who knows? Those may be the
questions of some who have only been past the sculpture garden once
or twice in their time at UCLA.

For those who can find it, the trek deep into North Campus has
just been made even more inviting, and perhaps necessary. Once
again, it’s that time of year for the art department’s
Undergraduate Exhibition.

The show is held in the New Wight Gallery ““ which is in
Dickson Art Center 1100, right under the large GE lecture hall
““ and features work in all types of media completed by
undergraduate students.

The walls are filled with paintings, which include such
intriguing subjects as a plane confronting the viewer, a female
nude in neutral colors eating the head off of a bird as blood drips
down her chin while she stares off aimlessly and emotionlessly, and
an abstract work with gobs and swirls of vibrant breathtaking
colors.

Each year the pieces in the exhibit are selected by an outside
juror, who is part of the local art community. This year the juror
is David Pagel, a Los Angeles-based art critic, curator, and an
instructor at Claremont Graduate University.

“In this show it seems that the curator chose a variety of
styles, a variety of viewpoints,” said Barbara Drucker, the
chair of the art department. “It ranges from paintings to
photography. I think that’s cake decorating. That’s
beautiful.”

“Did you smell it?” Pagel asked.

Pagel came up from behind with a smile on his face, pleased that
people were enjoying the art he picked. Each piece seemed to have a
particular vitality as he examined them. In a time when people have
a desire to give everything a greater meaning, Pagel claims that
there was no particular plan behind the pieces he chose.

“No, no theme at all,” he said. “I was looking
for work that stood on it’s own. I was looking for something
fresh and that surprised me.”

All undergraduate art students were eligible to submit work for
the show, and that yielded diverse results. Along with the piece of
art, the students were required to include a personal
statement.

“One of the most amazing things was reading the
statements, and that was they were incredibly consistent in
feelings of isolation and freedom,” Pagel said.

The work itself was very difficult for Pagel to choose. The
students submitted everything that could be characterized from
slacker drawings, to more traditional styles, to heavily figurative
work, and included a great deal of paintings, while not many
photographs, according to Pagel.

“I was looking for work that stuck out like a sore
thumb,” he said.

In the end, work by 33 different students was selected, and will
be up on display through the end of the quarter.

“It varies markedly from year to year with the
juror,” said Don Suggs, a professor of drawing and painting
at UCLA. “So, that is what’s distinctive about this
show “¦ the actual number of paintings.”

In addition to paintings, there are also sculptures,
photographs, and even a room filled with a three dimensional tubing
painted black.

“It’s just PVC tubing,” Pagel said.
“With a painting, does it have any presence? He’s doing
that by kind of drawing in space “¦ In a sense the
room’s empty, but in a sense it’s full.”

For the students, this show provides a unique chance to get
their work shown together.

“I think for the students when they do it, at first it
kind of validates what they’re doing,” said Ben Evans,
an art lab technician and the gallery’s installation
supervisor. “But that’s really not what it’s
about. It’s part of what they have to learn.”

The department itself has made many changes over the past ten
years, which have been reflected in this show. There is now a great
deal more space available to the undergraduate students, and a
staff composed of many professors who have high visibility
professional exhibition careers. These resources have increased
students’ ambition, according to Suggs.

“The result has been clear,” Suggs said.
“We’re proud of this department. Our students do very
well in their post-school practices “¦ The connections that a
person makes here in a school like this one are not
inconsequential.”

The department thrives on the creativity of its students, many
of whom are not afraid to push artistic limits.

“The great thing is the undergrads sometimes take a lot
more chances than the grads,” Pagel said. “A lot of
them aren’t worried about their careers yet, and are really
in it for very exciting reasons.”

As much publicity as the art department’s next-door
neighbor ““ the School of Theater, Film and Television
““ gets, their projects remain largely unnoticed by the
campus community.

“It’s a resource that I think is not very well
understood by the larger community. The shows are pretty high
quality. It’s a chance to see fairly forward art,”
Pagel said. “It’s another one of those hidden UCLA
gems.”