Departament of Art

DEPARTMENT OF ART AND DESIGNJURIED STUDENT EXHIBITION

www.qccartgallery.org

DEPARTMENT OF ART AND DESIGN JURIED STUDENT EXHIBITION

DEPARTMENT OF ART AND DESIGN JURIED STUDENT EXHIBITION

DEPARTMENT OF ART AND DESIGN JURIED STUDENT EXHIBITION

Curator Hayes Peter Mauro

Gallery Staff

Executive DirectorFaustino Quintanilla

Assistant DirectorLisa Scandaliato

Office AssistantGrace Duran

LibrarianEdye Weissler

InternsMichael BrewsterDariel EscotoDanielle R. HoffmanVictoria HuangThaddeus JonesIris LeungMaisha Tarannum

DesignerAna Martínez

PrintingEditorial MIC - www.editorialmic.com

QCC Art Gallery Press © 2015

This publication was made possible, in part, by the QCC Department of Art and Design,and the Queensborough Student Association

It is with great pleasure that the Department of Art and Design in conjunction with the QCC Art Gallery and with the support of the Queensborough Student Association presents the 2015 exhibition of student artwork.

Queensborough has had a long tradition of supporting excellence in the arts and congratulates the students whose work was selected to be represented in this exhibition. Some of the best examples of the skill and creativity of advanced students in various disciplines are represented: drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and digital design.

Some of the students in this show have set out on a journey to become artists, others will have creativity and the arts as their traveling companions on whatever journey they choose to take, or wherever that journey takes them. We congratulate them all on their accomplishments at Queensborough and wish them the best for their continued success.

Bob RogersArt & Design Department Chair

PREAMBLE

INTRODUCTION

It is with great pleasure that the Department of Art & Design and the QCC Art Gallery present the 2015 Queensborough Community College student exhibition. As always, this year’s selection of representative student work offers a wide array of medium, method, and content. At QCC, the department seeks to inculcate a mastery of the fundamentals of visual art in every student, in preparation for either more advanced study at a four-year institution or graduate school or for professional practice. As such, we emphasize the foundational techniques and skills for a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, video, and digital design.

Students at QCC, like students everywhere, generally practice one of two techniques in the fabrication of their work. Some adhere to a more classical, academic style of working, which most clearly indicates their increasing mastery of the aforementioned mediums. Others, perhaps driven by what the early 20th century painter Wassily Kandinsky once called the artist’s “Inner Necessity,” move beyond basic technical mastery in favor of a more expressive, personal vision or in some cases a more abstract handling of materials in the fabrication of works. In all cases, we see emerging young artists exploring a plethora of techniques and methods and subsequently rendering a profound diversity of visual expression.

This year, we see a variety of strategies employed by students who are attempting to both master their medium and push farther into the realms of expression and abstraction. With this in mind, one often thinks of photography as a medium of irrefutable truth. In other words, what one sees in a photographic image is commonly assumed to be what was actually there in a given place at a given point in time. Several student photographers grapple with this dichotomy: how does one express oneself or one’s perceptions of the subject via a medium known for its ruthless verisimilitude? The work of CJ Reitman offers us a bold resolution. In her intensely cropped up-close portraits, Reitman gives us what we expect in a photograph: a multitude of visual information defining the contours, shapes, and proportion of the subjects’ faces. But Reitman’s cropping forces us to look deeply into the eyes of her subjects, rendering more than mere surveillance or identification. We see the uniqueness of each individual shine through, something captured by a photographer willing and able to supersede the standard parameters of photographic exchange.

Similarly, Daniel Karlic’s portrait Laura offers us a striking image, albeit somewhat farther back, of an equally compelling subject. The young woman returns our gaze confidently, brandishing not only her face, but the mysterious array of tattoos that perhaps have a deeply rooted meaning in her personal history. Karlic goes farther, setting up a provocative geometric composition by placing the woman behind a staircase banister, a trope that offsets and intensifies the contradictory organic forms of his human subject.

In graphite drawing, our students likewise display a variety of approaches to their medium. We see the classically inspired still life drawings exemplified by the rich, chiaroscuro-drenched work of Min Wen. Wen shows a startling control of the medium, as the image ranges from the nearly white reflective surface of the classical bust to the dark grey tones of the drapery behind it. In contrast, the subject matter and stylistic approach seen in the drawings of Kun Suk Hare and Mariel Torres seem derived from the annals of Cubist fracturing and reconstruction. And yet, the same value scale is at play in the work of all three students.

In painting, Xiaoli Chang warrants mention for stellar brush control and composition, as well as chromatic range. Chang gives us a stately, serene still life ala Georgio Morandi, as each object congeals with the whole composition yet asserts its own individual weight within the representational space. While Chang manages to balance the composition almost perfectly via the placing of geometric form and plane, the chromatic balance is equally as impressive. Notice the boldness of the large bluish white pitcher in the middle ground, surrounded by reds, yellows, ochers, and browns. Again, we see a student practitioner gracefully balancing organic and geometric line in a near metaphysical coexist.

Frank Boccio takes the medium of acrylic paint to compositional and formal extremes in his humorous yet claustrophobic Second Avenue Subway. Boccio reminds one of the passionate, childlike renderings of Jean Debuffet and other mid-20th century representatives of the Art Brut movement in Europe. This movement attempted to recapture the childlike innocence of perception and expression via exaggerated line, bold coloration, and anti-academic cluttered compositions in both painting and sculpture. Thus, Boccio’s work indicates an intellectual bridging of the gap between art historical awareness and the everyday experience of the New York commuter.

This year’s show includes two outstanding examples of student work venturing into three dimensions as well. With Jerry Schiff’s Soaring and Junhao Zhang’s Wave, we have two students who prove the well-known dictum that abstraction of form may also create beautifully expressive objects, albeit without the aid of aesthetic literalism. Schiff, working in the very difficult and ancient medium of alabaster, something favored by artists dating back to the earliest days of human civilization in Mesopotamia, gives us a powerful study of texture, line, and an alternating emphasis on positive and negative spaces. What is astounding is that Schiff manages this in a relatively compact twenty-inch high piece. Scale is no barrier!

What I have discussed here, due to the constraints of format, is only a fraction of the student work on display this year at our college art gallery. There are many more examples of student work that successfully address the issues mentioned above. Please enjoy and by all means pursue your own insights and revelations while viewing.

Hayes Peter Mauro, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Design

Student’s work on the exhibit

Miranda BarnesFrank BoccioRobert BockXiaoli ChangMengyuan ChenYan ChenWinnie ChenRosa María CruzDiana DavidyanSoha FarooquiChantel Grim-NicholsonKun Suk HareAneesa HarrichandraJasmine HernándezBenjamin HerreraTheodora HiotisJie HuKevin JuliaDaniel KarlicBret KervenRashid KhanHa Young KimSusanna LakenauthJohn LeeTianwei LinCynthia LuiziaOscar MaCésar MartínezDaniel MedinaSibulelo MnisiJoel MundoMildred NolascoKevin PiedraPaola RamírezCJ ReitmanJohn RomanoChristina RyanJerry SchiffMariel Torres Ramsey VasquezMin WenJunhao Zhang

PLATES

12

Aneesa HarrichandraUntitledInk & Collage on Paper, 201424 x 18 inches

13

Benjamin HerreraUntitled

Gelatin Silver Print, 201411 x 14 inches

14

Bret Kerven UntitledColor Print, 201411 x 17 inches

15

Bret KervenUntitled

Color Print, 201411 x 17 inches

16

César MartínezSelf-Montage Digital Print, 20148 x 11 inches

17

César MartínezUntitled

Digital Print, 20148.5 x 11 inches

18

Chantel Grim-Nicholson Untitled Gelatin Silver Print, 20147.75 x 9 inches

19

Christina Ryan Breath

Ink on Paper, 201424 x 18 inches

20

Christina RyanLook At MeGraphite and Ink on Paper, 201418 x 24 inches

21

CJ Reitman Untitled

Gelatin Silver Print, 201411 x 14 inches

22

CJ Reitman UntitledGelatin Silver Print, 201414 x 11 inches

23

Cynthia LuiziaUntitled

Digital Print, 201417 x 11 inches

24

Daniel KarlicLauraGelatin Silver Print, 20148 x 10 inches

25

Daniel MedinaUntitled

Gelatin Silver Print, 201419.5 x 15 inches

26

Diana DavidyanMask of Horses’s HeadFoam, 2014H 15 inches

27

Frank Boccio Second Avenue SubwayAcrylic on Canvas, 2014

20 x 16 inches

28

Ha Young KimUntitled Digital Print, 201417 x 11 inches

29

Jasmine HernándezFade Into Me

Gelatin Silver Print, 201411 x 8 inches

30

Jasmine HernándezUntitledGelatin Silver Print, 201411 x 14 inches

31

Jerry SchiffSoaring

Alabaster, 2009H 20 inches

32

Jie HuTranquilityOil on Canvas, 201418 x 24 inches

33

Joel MundoStill Life

Oil on Canvas, 201418 x 24 inches

34

John LeeShadowsGelatin Silver Print, 201410 x 8 inches

35

John RomanoBeyond Reality

Gelatin Silver Print, 20148 x 10 inches

36

Junhao ZangWavePlaster and Paint, 2014H 14 inches

37

Kevin Julia Untitled (1)

Color Print, 201410.75 X 8.25 inches

38

Kevin JuliaUntitled (2)Color Print, 20148.25 x 10 inches

39

Kevin Piedra Mesha

Plaster, 2014 H 16 inches

40

Kun Suk Hare ValueGraphite on Paper, 201417 x 14 inches

41

Mariel TorresAbstract Drawing

Graphite on Paper, 201417 x 14 inches

42

Mengyuan Chen PumpkinsGraphite on Paper, 201418 x 24 inches

43

Mildred NolascoSelf-Portrait

Oil on Canvas, 201424 x 20 inches

44

Min WenUntitled Charcoal on Paper, 201424 x 18 inches

45

Miranda BarnesL.A. Witch

Digital Print, 201417 x 11 inches

46

Oscar Ma Blur Oil on Canvas, 201420 x 16 inches

47

Paola RamírezUntitled

Gelatin Silver Print, 20148 x 10 inches

48

Ramsey Vásquez Nature vs. Industrial Gelatin Silver Print, 201411 x 14 inches

49

Rashad KhanWashing Sin

Gelatin Silver Print, 201420 x 16 inches

50

Robert Bock Complementary Color, Front RoomColor Aid Paper, 201411 x 14 inches

51

Rosa María CruzVisual Texture

Ink on paper, 201416.75 x 13.75 inches

52

Sibuelo Mnisi Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk!Graphite on Paper, 201417 x 14 inches

53

Sibuelo MnisiMe, Myself, and I

Graphite on Paper, 2014 24 x 18 inches

54

Soha Farooqui TruthOil on Canvas, 201430 x 24 inches

55

Susanna Lakenauth Buildings

Gelatin Silver Print, 20148 x 10 inches

56

Theodora Hiotis Past and FutureGelatin Silver Print, 20148.5 x 11 inches

57

Tianwei Lin Hair Clip X 10

Foam, 201416 inches (Wide)

58

Winnie ChenHappy and SadGelatin Silver Print, 20148 x 10 inches

59

Xiaoli Chang Untitled

Oil on Canvas, 201424 x 18 inches

60

Yan ChenPumpkinsOil on Canvas, 201418 x 24 inches

www.qccartgallery.org

DEPARTMENT OF ART AND DESIGNJURIED STUDENT EXHIBITION

www.qccartgallery.org