The University of North Georgia’s Gainesville campus held its annual Bachelors of Fine Arts Juried Art Show available for viewing from Oct. 2 – 25. The exhibition held a reception for the event on Oct. 16, drawing artists, faculty and other community members to celebrate the creativity and hard work of student artists.
This year’s show featured a selection of works from students across various styles of art, such as painting, sculpture, photography and digital media. Beth Sale, former curator of the Lyndon House Art Center in Athens, was the juror for the event. Sale reviewed submissions and selected pieces that exemplify the university’s Bachelor of Fine Arts students.
Sale also encouraged all students to show their best work and find their own voices as artists.
Artist and BFA senior, Ella Whitfield, had her own art titled “Peaches” served in the show. The painting is acrylic on unprimed canvas. This created a similar effect to watercolor paints as the acrylic bled into the canvas.
Whitfield said, “I was heavily inspired by my childhood and my relationship with my parents. I was trying to create something relatable, as I believe everyone has familial problems at some point in time.”
Whitfield shared that the title of the piece came from its original theme of the painting, which was painting peaches.
“As I was painting, I saw a family in the blotches and drips that I was creating. Suddenly that’s what it was,” said Whitfield.
Aspen Davis, former UNG student, said, “This was the first art exhibit I have ever attended. I went in with no expectations and was very happily blown away by the art.”
“I liked the piece ‘Peaches.’ With it being an abstract painting, anyone can have a different perception and see what they wish to see,” Davis continued. “I especially like how the art doesn’t have to be one specific thing, you can perceive it however you feel.”
Blake Carter, UNG senior and BFA artist, showed off his artistic ability with a sculpture titled “Bonnie’s Tree.” The sculpture itself was made out of steel piping wrapped in wire with stained glass hanging as the leaves.
Davis shared her opinion on “Bonnie’s Tree.”
“Looking at it from a distance you can see that it’s a gorgeous piece. Then the artist shook the tree, causing it to sound like wind chimes, which brought the whole piece together.”
UNG senior and English major, Betsy Chambers, said, “One piece that resonated with me was a photograph of knick-knacks on shelves. I personally love collecting small items, and I really loved how many were included.”
Chambers also shared that she enjoyed the vastly different art styles. “Some of the art works seemed pretty straightforward in their meaning and others I kept coming back to, intrigued by their ambiguity. I thought all of the art on display was very unique and stylistically different, which I really enjoyed.”
Katie Gooch, UGA alumna, said she thought all of the artwork on display was incredible. She also said, “I wish the exhibit was bigger! There are a lot of students at UNG that specialize in different styles of art, and it would be cool to see more of them.”
The next art exhibit will be available for viewing from Oct. 30 – Nov. 21, which is titled “Yeohyun Ahn – Computational Graphic Exploration of the Sacred Texts.”
