OSU students’ eclectic gifts shine in exhibit
This year’s Ohio State University’s annual Fergus Scholarship Award Exhibition has moved online for the first time in its 29 years, and the result is a study in diversity.
The exhibit — awarding 20 full-time OSU undergraduate and graduate visual-arts students $1,000 — showcases the chosen artworks, along with artist statements, through Feb. 7. It is available at the website of OSU’S Urban Art Space, uas.osu.edu.
Selected by OSU professors Carmel Buckley, Shoshanah Goldberg-miller, Jeffrey Haase, Jody Patterson and Amy Youngs, no two works in the exhibition are alike, and the accompanying statements emphasize the varying visions of each artist.
Yet a few themes emerge when considering the chosen pieces. Several pieces succeed in conveying a sense of good vibes during troubled times.
Especially vibrant is Aishwarya Patel’s acrylic-on-stretched canvas “Purply Purple,” in which a body of water reflects the brilliant purple hue of the sky above; on either side are trees and shrubs in fantastic colors: bold blues, bright yellows, gentle pinks.
“My art provides an escape from the daily stressors and allows a wave of positivity and peace to wash over those who view it,” Patel said in a statement.
Whimsical, too, is Ningjing Chen’s “Zero Gravity,” a pair of related works created using the 3D modeling software Blender. The pieces show the elements of a cheeseburger — meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and bread — floating in midair amid an abstract environment. Call it fast food deconstructed.
“This artwork’s central concept is to show how an everyday object can challenge physical rules in the virtual world,” Chen said in a statement.
In Robert Bills’ “Gold,” the artist pairs a digitally created drawing of two students congregating at a vending machine at twilight with a short MP3 file; the bouncy beat of the music, taken in tandem with the neon colors in the drawing, combine to create an evocative mood.
Other works make full use of digital tools, including Jordan Chase’s video “Night Fall,” in which the audio from vintage radio dramas is played over the animated outlines of faces that quiver against a dark background. The work is as moody and inexplicable as a David Lynch movie.
Surrealism is in evidence in Jenna Josell’s “Portal,” a wooden door filled with acrylic paint, modeling paste and graphite powder: According to Josell’s statement, the work — busy with detail in its evocation of a retail space of some sort, with vividly colored tables, chairs, walls and racks — was prompted by the artist’s feeling of being “overwhelmed yet in awe” when entering a large building.
On the other hand, Sarah Burger’s oil-on-panel “Break the Pack” offers more conventional satisfactions. The accomplished figurative piece — showing several roller derby participants taking a spill — was painted to represent the artist’s exploration of multi-light environments and classical composition of subject matter that is intentionally ordinary, Burger said in a statement.
One thing is clear from the virtual exhibition: This year’s installment is in no way diminished by the online presentation. The artists’ eclectic gifts shine through.
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