Clo Hidalgo
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne hosted a reception to celebrate the exhibition of “Campus: Selections from the La Verne Art Collection” that is currently displayed in the Harris Gallery on Tuesday.
“Campus” opened on April 16 and will be in the Harris Gallery until May 30.
Pieces from artists such as Martin Durazo, Ruby Osorio, Kelly Sears and Jennifer Vanderpool are on display throughout the gallery.
Vanderpool’s photo, which was untitled, focused on a pink daisy and a paper made butterfly with a plain backdrop. The branches on top of the flower have the appearance of ice forming on it.
Martin Durazo’s “Violator” was an abstract piece with vibrant neon yellow and orange. Most of the paint strokes are vertical, but it also has a couple of splatters throughout the painting.
“It’s really cool to see different type of art come together because they’re all different. It’s not all one thing,” said Estefania Gomez, a junior biology major.
Robin Szidak’s “Chromatic Centigrade” and Macha Suzuki’s “The Rider” were two of sculptures that stood out to the crowd because of their unique appearance.
“Chromatic Centigrade” is a vertical sculpture that is made up of different bright color paint rollers.
“I liked the idea of using rollers that refers to a painting, but it’s a sculpture,” said Robin Szdiak, the sculptor. “I like using everyday objects that maybe you pass by and see them in a new way. It is surprising how many different colors the paint rollers come in and they refer to paint and painting without putting any paint to it.”
For senior speech communications major Daniel Sillas, the sculpture made him remember when he first joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon and attended several of their rock painting events.
“The idea of painting brought back many memories of pledging,” he said.
“The Rider” is a playful sculpture of a child figure that is riding what seems to be some sort of hybrid animal with dog legs and a cotton ball body that may represent a sheep with a three-dimensional, octagonal shaped head that has antlers attached to it.
Jacob Talamantes, a junior psychology major, said he found “The Rider” to be striking because of the disturbing way it looked.
Samantha Burns, a junior theater major liked the piece “Interloper’s Dilemma,” by artist Ruby Osorio. The piece is a collage composed of several mediums. The odd scene shows a woman holding a long pole that extends into a cage where a man is trapped as an owl looks down from a tree.
“I liked the details of the reflection of it,” Osorio said. “I was drawn to the owl because my friend likes owls.”
The art pieces showcased at the gallery are part of the University’s permanent collection.
“I started acquiring them as early as 2008 and until very recently there are five very recent acquisitions as of 2012-2013 in the show,” said Dion Johnson, university galleries director. “It’s sort of a thing where we are highlighting works that we’ve had for some time as well as new ones.”
Johnson made sure that artwork of different styles were displayed at the gallery.
“With any show you try to pick works that will have good dialogue with one another so that there is a variety, but there is also something in common with them,” Johnson said. “While there are works that are abstract, they are balanced by works that are representational and figurative. There is a harmony that happens from different works.”
Clo Hidalgo can be reached at clotilde.hidalgo@laverne.edu.
