Ending at home
By John Guigayoma
June 3, 2008 10:45 p.m.
The art program’s crop of seniors will finally have something to show the public when they graduate. The campus’s main gallery will house something new: their own artwork.
“Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye … ,” opening Thursday, is the first senior show in the New Wight Gallery to coincide with graduation.
Previous senior shows, which annually give graduating seniors a final chance to exhibit their work, were held during winter quarter in smaller gallery spaces because of remodeling and administrative decisions.
After students voiced their opinions, the school decided to move the show to the end of the year. Since the remodeling that finished two years ago, the senior show transitioned from the program’s smaller temporary gallery spaces on Kinross Avenue back to campus.
With a show at the end of their college careers, students can pull from a larger body of work.
Alma Playle, a fourth-year art student, is choosing between two paintings for her contribution.
“I want to do something more recent because I don’t want to show something that has been shown a lot and critiqued a lot in my classes,” Playle said. “In the past year ““ the past half-year, really ““ I feel like my own style has evolved, so a later piece would show more of my journey.”
The exhibit runs until the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture graduation June 14, which gives family and friends a chance to see student work ““ especially those who live too far to attend gallery shows in Los Angeles during the year.
“I think it’s pretty perfect that it’s during graduation because that way parents get to come and it really helps with the celebration,” Playle said.
One thing that has not changed is the show’s free-form three-day installation process, which, instead of requiring weeks of planning and conceptualizing like other shows, allows students to claim nearly any space in the gallery with almost whatever work they want.
A complete list of works cannot be made until every piece is installed, and with around 45 students with their own photos, paintings, sculptures, installations and video pieces in mind, the scramble for space can get playfully competitive.
Installation began on Monday, and every year some seniors are poised at the door with either their work or painter’s tape in hand, ready to claim certain gallery walls or spaces as their own.
“It gets kind of dirty because everyone has already in their minds, “˜Oh, I want my work to go here,'” said Lindsay Salazar, a fourth-year art student. “It should be interesting because people then will fight for their space because they know what space they want.”
The installation philosophy came from art professor Don Suggs, who coordinates the show every year and decided to give much of the control to the seniors.
The result is a space brimming with student work but with little unity between pieces.
“If you were looking at the show and you were trying to develop conversations between works, it’s not planned out or curated by any stretch of the imagination,” said Ben Evans, the gallery director. “Our goal is basically to make each work (individually) look good.”
Besides scoring the perfect spot, another pressing issue is space conservation. Even at a sizeable 6,000 square feet, the New Wight Gallery cannot handle too many giant pieces that would swallow large sectors of the gallery.
“If you are trying to show like a 7-foot-wide painting, you will probably not have the wall space because it will be a commodity,” Playle said.
To prevent too many complications, the organizers set light parameters and try to negotiate with students about the size and location of pieces.
“It’s not the Oklahoma land grab by any stretch of the imagination,” Evans said. “We’ve had a meeting or two about (the show) already, kind of going over what can and can’t be done.”
But despite the competition, many students are thankful to have one last show in the New Wight Gallery.
“This is a very serious school,” Salazar said. “And I think that showing your work in a nice gallery space, in a very professional space, is a very important part of being an artist.”
