ASFA’s Visual Arts department will be hosting its first senior exhibition today in the Vulcan Materials Gallery. The first group of seniors whose work will be showcased are Kania Hinton, Tishunti Poon, Zaida Ross, and Leslie Russom. The exhibit opens tonight with a reception from 5-6:30 p.m., and the work will remain on display through April 21.
The theme for the first exhibition is “When Life Gives You Lemons,” a sarcastic take on the popular phrase when met with negativity or losses. The seniors in this exhibit have created their pieces based around coping with losses, life struggles, and obstacles. The exhibit is meant to bring light to how even when life does give you lemons, you cannot always simply “make lemonade." Hardships can have lasting effects, and that is what this exhibit is planning to showcase.
To prepare for the seniors' final showcase, the first semester of senior year is spent in the studio. They use this studio time to explore ideas and develop bodies of work. Many of the seniors use this as a continuation of ideas they developed during their junior year.
After the pieces have been critiqued, the seniors go through a review in March. Here, they bring all their pieces to be discussed and previewed in front of the teachers. The process of deciding which senior is in which showcase and where in the gallery the pieces will be displayed is done during this review.
Once the showcases and displays have been finalized, all of the seniors are required to install their pieces, write artist statements, and then have the opening.
Visual Arts senior Zaida Ross has centered her exhibit around the disconnect she has felt with her father after his recent death this past year. Her pieces are inspired by the way grief has altered her memories and how this has brought her further away from who he actually was.
Zaida planned to use her pieces as a way to strengthen her memories of him. She first thought of creating sculptures since she is more comfortable with them, but ultimately decided to do portraits instead because she feels that they connect more closely with her personal life. “I drew portraits of him doing mundane labors around the house or just fond memories I have that I thought showed his personality,” she said.
The seniors have been waiting for this moment to pour their heart and soul into an exhibit that serves as their goodbye to ASFA.
“For me, the hard part is done. It is rewarding to have completed it and be able to share it with others,” Ross said.
The second senior exhibition, featuring work by Kodie Campbell, Maisie Davis, Eunique Tarver, Merritt Crumpton and Emily Loubser, will open on April 27.
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