Stepping into the Senior Majors Exhibition at the Hopkins Center's Jaffe-Friede and Strauss Galleries, it is hard to know where to look first. The exhibit features an incredible variety of artwork, ranging from sculpture to photography and printmaking to mixed media. Detailed acrylic paintings and textural wooden pieces line the walls while a sea anemone made from yarn hangs from the ceiling.
Matthew Wang '10 is one of the 20 students artists featured in the exhibition of studio art majors' culminating works, which opened on May 11.
Wang's honors thesis project on display includes a proposed floor plan sketch, building model and digital animation for a renovated art gallery. According to Wang, who specializes in architecture, his designs for the project were inspired by an actual gallery and living space in Philadelphia that is in need of renovation. Daniel Dalseth '97, a visiting professor with whom Wang took Sculpture 1 two years ago, may even implement the design.
"I contacted [Dalseth] and asked if I could treat it as more of a design exercise for myself, and of course he was more than willing," Wang said. "He sent me his drawings, and I got to go down and visit him and tour the current property. I've just been trying to design something that would be fitting for his gallery and his own residential life as best as I can."
Wang created an attractive and modern building design, with floor-to-ceiling windows on three of the gallery's four floors, as well as a spiral staircase connecting the third floor's covered balcony to a rooftop deck. A giant "607" and "Pageant Soloveev" for the gallery's address and name, respectively, draws the eye to the front wall of the building.
The model itself is refined, detailed and, combined with the floor plans, makes it easy for an observer to picture the interior of the building. The digital animation, for which Wang used Google's Sketchup modeling program, gives an impressive floor-by-floor composition of how the building would actually look in addition to where all the rooms would be. The video takes the viewer through the floor plans as well as the building exterior from every angle, providing an in-depth look at the completed building.
"Honestly, you could use the building it could really be used," Gerald Auten, director of the Studio Art Exhibition Program and studio art professor, told The Dartmouth. "That is what makes it unusual that it's completed, and it actually could be built and work."
Wang's floor plan sketch won the Office of Residential Life Purchase Award, sponsored by the Class of 1960. According to Wang, this project was an opportunity for him to brainstorm, dream and toss aside certain limitations, such as a tight budget. His creativity is reflected in his riskier design choices, including a staircase that partially spirals outside onto a balcony. Wang managed to produce a unique yet realistic structure using simplistic design elements and open space in the upstairs living area.
The Senior Majors Exhibition is the first time Wang's work has been publicly displayed, as it is for many of his fellow artists and peers. Wang said that the exhibition, while stressful and exciting, allows each student to show off the group of artists' diversity through his or her own final work.
"It's a really talented class," Wang said. "If you just looked in there, it's crazy. Some of this stuff is just ridiculous."
According to Wang, the group's diversity fueled his innovations throughout his time as a studio art major. The range of art created by his classmates helped him apply new ideas to his own work in architecture, making his culminating project collaborative. Classmates would check on each other's work for inspiration, or ask for help if needed, he said.
"That collaborative atmosphere, the fact that it is a really diverse class, is really exciting," Wang said.
Wang became a studio art major at the end of his senior Fall, switching from a psychology major. Wang said he has always been interested in the visual arts but knew that he specifically enjoys architecture and applied to architecture schools midway through his junior year.
"I just like the fact that architecture is one of the arts that everybody is forced to experience," Wang said. "To me that's a really appealing part of this particular art form."
Wang plans to attend Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation for the next three years, where he will pursue his Masters degree, he said.
