The creative minds and personalities of students are on full display in the Center Gallery and Atrium Gallery of the Titan Student Union, as part of Cal State Fullerton’s annual Student Art Show.
Associated Students hosted an opening reception for the Student Art Show last Thursday in the Center Gallery to showcase student-made works imbued with meaning.
Students were free to express themselves through their art pieces, showing off the most colorful sides of themselves. Their gallery offers different mediums of all kinds, like drawings, three-dimensional art work and painted works on full display in the entrancing exhibit.
Cristina Truong, Information & Service Manager at the TSU, mentioned that the art show is not limited to art students. CSUF students of any major were able to apply and submit their own personal pieces. This allows everyone the opportunity to show off their artistic sides.
Submitted student work was entered in a competition that would reward winners with cash prizes. Best in show received $250, second place received $150 and third place received $100.
A total of 120 pieces were submitted this year. The large sum called for their display in spacious venues to be judged by their fellow students.
“We do have five categories that we judge them on,” Truong said. “One of them is we ask them if their piece is unified, does it look like it’s completed, does it have good craftsmanship, it looks cohesive.”
Alice Hwang, a first-year studio art major, proved her watercolor piece, “Envy”, was the best in show. Her work depicts a woman with feelings slithering out from inside of her in the form of a snake behind the skull, hiding her face.
This masterpiece references envy as one of the seven deadly sins in Christianity. She chose this subject because she feels drawn to religion-inspired illustrations.
Hwang said she was happy to display her work in the gallery for everyone to interpret and dissect after spending a couple weeks perfecting the piece and channeling her creativity while balancing her studies.
“It’s nice to not only have my art up there, but just to see what other people work on,” Hwang said.
Dmitri Serrato, a fourth-year studio art major, has been fine-tuning his illustrating abilities since he was 10 years old. It took him two weeks to complete his piece.
He said he was delighted that this was the first time sharing his acrylic piece “When I Was Done Dying.” Serrato turned one large surface into a vivid display inspired heavily by abstract art.
“I was inspired a lot by Hilda Klimt, who is an abstract artist and this idea of abstraction and kind of translating existence into abstract ideas,” Serrato said.
Serrato said because this opportunity was memorable in his student life, he regrets not doing the art show in previous years. However, he said the plan is to participate in as many exhibitions as he can before graduating.
Serrato said he wants to use this experience as motivation to put himself out there and get into spaces to have conversations about not his passion, but himself as an artist.
“It means translating my experience for it to be understood by other people where sometimes you don’t need words to be able to understand what somebody has gone through,” Serrato said. “So for me, it’s a lot about telling people my story and telling people who I am.”
The art show will conclude on Dec. 4. A showcase of the show will also be displayed online on the ASI website in a couple of weeks.