By Jenna Hutchins
March 11, 2017
The Azarian McCullough Art Gallery hosted its annual Juried Student Show on campus last Wednesday. The evening featured original artwork from almost twenty students, who proudly displayed their pieces for the STAC community.
According to the Gallery Director, Nina Bellisio, the student shows are always the most well attended out of the seven exhibits hosted throughout each school year. Bellisio said this could be attributed to the amount and variety of students who submit work for the show. “Not all students who sent in work were art majors this year. About 75% were, but the rest were not.”
In fact, the student who took home the title for “Best in Show” is a Therapeutic Recreation major. Gabriel Yum, a senior with a great passion for photography, showed off several snapshots from a project he began a year ago, Humans of St. Thomas Aquinas College (HOSTAC). Yum was inspired by Brandon Stanton, founder of Humans of New York (HONY). He chose to emulate Stanton’s ability to capture moving and reflective stories from everyday people and translate that to the STAC campus. Visitors to the gallery were so impressed by the display that it gained the most votes for “Best in Show” by the end of the reception.
Other artworks included charcoal fragmentations by students Angelique Trujillo and Kelly Monzon and photography and digital design by students John Bhatti and William Decker, respectively. Trujillo and Monzon both used the human body as their subject, with the former focusing on womanhood and curvaceous nudity and the latter with bone structures. Bhatti used photography to artistically document the tragedy and awakening he has experienced in his life and Decker used his knowledge as a visual communications student to create an ad for Chase bank using the superhero, The Flash, to creatively market their quick business transactions.
Other student work and previously mentioned pieces are still on display for the public through March 19. Any questions can be directed to Nina Bellisio at amag@stac.edu and more information on gallery exhibits can be found on the official webpage: stac.edu/amag.
The Thoma 