Two weekends ago my classmates and I celebrated the culmination of our art education with our senior exhibition. Our show was titled Vignettes, which represented the different worlds each of our work peered into, but also how unified the work because under one consistent method of presentation.
In order to exhibit in the senior show, each member of our graduating illustration department had to complete eight illustrations over the course of the semester which would make up a new portfolio for the student to apply for his or her dream career. We could work in any side or medium, but everyone had to include a self-portrait in their body of work in order to unify the show.
This year I served as class representative/student liaison/show coordinator, which meant that I had a hand in every aspect of planning the show. Everything from advertising, fundraising, food, music, styling, and managing people, I had to organize and delegate tasks for. Therefore it was especially rewarding for me to see the show go show go off without a hitch. The night was a huge success and our show of twenty-four exhibiting artists looked clean and professional.
We filled a huge gallery with our art and with people who came out to the opening reception. I do not know exactly how many people showed up, but we had light food for 500, and that went in the first hour and a half of the three-hour show.
For the most part we kept the styling of the show very simple so that the work would stand out without distraction from flashy decorations. However one fun element that we did put together was the salon style picture wall of all our self portraits. Each exhibiting artist was required to make a reproduction of their self-portrait and fame it in a decorative way. We then hung the pictures salon style on the first wall of the gallery which can be seen from the entrance, surrounding our show title. This wall introduced visitors to the flavor of our show, and represented each artist in a really stunning fashion.
Overall I had a fantastic evening dressing up, mingling, and talking about my work. I am so thankful to everyone who came to the opening to support me and my peers. I am also thankful for having such awesome classmates, without whom there would have been no show in the first place. Everyone did a great job this semester, and all biases aside, that was the best gallery opening I have ever been to!
You can view all of my new work, which was featured in my senior exhibition, in my color illustration portfolio. I will be posting about each piece in detail for the rest of the month.
Thanks for reading!
