Art students move their senior exhibit, reception online   

  Tuesday, April 28, 2020 10:00 AM
  News, People and Society, Arts & Entertainment, Academics

Pittsburg, KS

Each year, the Department of Art’s senior exhibit in Porter Hall is a requirement for graduating art majors and an event they look forward to as they wrap up their education at Pittsburg State University. 

This year, seniors are moving that exhibit online amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’re inviting friends, family, and the public to experience it virtually from their homes beginning Friday, May 1. A “reception” will be held from 6:30 to 7 p.m. via Zoom.  

Called Dream Team, the exhibit will take viewers into a virtual art gallery featuring the paintings of Brianna Cooks, McPherson, Kansas, and the visual art and storytelling of Corgan Faller, Independence, Kansas; E. Klubek, Iola Kansas; Jansis Alvarado, Wichita, Kansas; Victoria Martinac, Lawrence Kansas; Simon Alimujiang, Shanghai China; and Sophia Stapleton from Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  

Assisting in the creation of the show was Ean Weidner, Independence, Kansas. 

The seniors have recorded their artist talks in advance to share with viewers; those talks will go live at 7 p.m. Friday on the PSU YouTube channel and will be shown in the Zoom event. 

Recorded opening remarks will be given by Art Department Chair James Oliver and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Howard Smith. "Attendees” can commit and watch the entire event live, or return to the recorded talks at a later date. 

“This remarkable collection of young people is the group of artists that no matter the circumstance, their illustrations, printmaking and paintings get made with our dreams in-tact,” said Art Professor S. Portico Bowman. “What you will see and hear Friday night is proof of that.”  

She's suggested to the students that they gather friends and family with whom they may already be living into a "formal" moment by getting dressed up and enjoying beverages and snacks. Each of their work is unique to them, she added: 

• Faller captures overwhelming atmospheres and condenses them into a single instant. 
• Alvarado’s illustration imagery seeks to shape a world inspired by love and inspiration. 
• Cooks’ paintings depict a safe place that will help the viewer evolve and open themselves to understanding their own complicated feelings.  

• Alimujiang’s artwork will help viewers meet the merging of the East and the West see and the reflection of the society in which we all live.  
• Martinac’s illustrations will take viewers on an escape — a grand adventure in which friendship is true power, and there’s no such thing as impossible.  
• Stapleton’s illustrations and printmaking aim to discuss the ambiguity in human interaction.  
• Klubek expands and tests the limits of technology for the purpose of creating comics and illustrations. 

Stapleton said the students have worked hard on the event and are trying to maintain optimism. 

“This situation is different from what we expected, but moving the exhibit online brings the opportunity to reach a wider audience, which is a very real silver lining to appreciate,” said Stapleton.  

Visit the virtual gallery starting Friday:  
https://publish.exhibbit.com/gallery/85585587/marble-gallery-14769/ 

Hear the student presentations starting Friday: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKQYkejaasm2c1_peR3Qil_huWLSjr2Z5 

Join the Zoom event: 
https://pittstate.zoom.us/j/98529294379