Student Artists Recognized at Carey Ellis Show
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 21, 2009) − University of Kentucky art students were recognized as part of the Carey Ellis Juried Student Art Exhibition. The art show, featuring work by graduate and undergraduate art students at UK, was presented in the Barnhart Gallery as part of the UK Department of Art and Art Graduate Student Association's Open Studio event held Dec. 4, at the Reynolds Building Number 1.
Winners of the Carey Ellis show were selected by juror Jon Swindler, an assistant professor of printmaking at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at University of Georgia. Swindler selected three prize winners and two honorable mentions for the exhibit. Anna Cooper, an art studio junior from Louisville, Ky., took first place; Ariel Chollet, an art studio senior from West Toluca Lake, Calif., took second place; and Melissa Van Sandt, a graduate student from Southport, N.C., took third place. The winners were presented with gift certificates from Kennedy Book Store and South Hill Gallery. Swindler also recognized student artists Dylan Dean, a graduate student from Greensboro, N.C., and Waylon Bigsby, a graduate student from Lexington, with honorable mention awards.
Other awards presented to students exhibiting in the Carey Ellis show include the Dean’s Awards, the Theophilia Joan Oexmann Award, the Ross Zirkle Memorial Art Studio Award, the Arturo Alonzo Sandoval Fiber Award and the Art Graduate Student Association Award.
The Dean's Awards were selected by Dean Robert Shay of the UK College of Fine Arts. The Dean's Award Undergraduate Award was presented to Ming Hong, an art studio sophomore from Baltimore, Md. Graduate student winners of the Dean's Award were Natasha Giles, of Prospect, Ky.; Van Sandt; and Nathan Hatch, of Lexington. Giles took first place honors in the Dean's Awards and received a $500 purchase prize. Hong, Van Sandt and Hatch all received $250 purchase prizes.
The Theophilia Joan Oexmann Award is given by the faculty of the UK Department of Art to a student who demonstrates great promise through the originality and creativity of their work in studio art. Student winners each receive a $330 scholarship. This year's Oexmann Award winners are: Donald Keefe and Emma McClellan, art studio seniors from Lexington; and John "Jake" Oxnard, an art studio senior from New Haven, Ky.
The Ross Zirkle Memorial Art Studio Award was created in honor of late faculty member Ross Zirkle. This is the first time UK Department of Art has awarded the scholarship; funds for the award were raised from donation of the friends, family and former students of Zirkle, one of the college's most beloved professors. The Zirkle Award is presented to a student studying printmaking or drawing, who exhibits the qualities of artistic excellence, dedication to hard work and interest in helping the community that Zirkle exhibited and worked in his own life. Benjamin Hudson, an art studio senior from Lexington, was the recipient of this inaugural scholarship award of $300.
Another new award presented at the Carey Ellis show, was the Arturo Alonzo Sandoval Fiber Award. Initiated this year by Sandoval, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Art, the award is presented to an artist juried into the Carey Ellis show whose worked demonstrated the use of fiber. This $100 cash prize, donated by Sandoval, was presented to Virginia Conn, an art studio and English senior from LaGrange, Ky.
Additionally, UK's Art Graduate Student Association (AGSA) selects an outstanding work created by an undergraduate student. Maxine Blakovich, an art studio junior from Lexington, was the recipient of this cash prize.
The Carey Ellis show is an important event for UK's art students, giving them an opportunity to display their work in a juried art exhibit, but also teaching them how to mount exhibits.
"Each year, the graduate students in the Department of Art organize and run Open Studio. For many of the graduate students it is their first exposure to the complexity of organizing a large public event. Their hard work results in one of Lexington’s most important visual arts displays, allowing the public an opportunity to see what we do in the Reynolds Building. Visitors can buy finished works and see firsthand the quality of our best students, witnessed by the Carey Ellis," said Benjamin C. Withers, chair of the Department of Art.
"As good as this juried show is, I am most pleased to show the community our classroom assignments and work in progress because this reminds them that art is the result of hard work and intense study as well as talent. We will have a better visual arts community here in Kentucky when this aspect of art is more widely recognized and supported. Open Studio is an important venue to get this point across," added Withers.