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The Dartmouth
March 28, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

‘This Is Not a Gallery' displays abstract student artwork

Housed inside the newest architectural addition on campus, the expansive gallery space gives students the liberty to take on the creative task of organizing and curating their own exhibits. In addition to the other display areas in the VAC, the space in the southwest corner will become the new headquarters for student art displays at Dartmouth.

"This is really the beginning of a new era," studio art professor Brenda Garand said. "The students have a real gallery space that can show any kind of work, whether it's digital. It's a shared space between film and media. We no longer have the space in Top of the Hop, but with the opening of the new space the students can have their work here."

The debuting exhibition is spearheaded by the organizing effort of Molnar, who is also an artist in the exhibit. Her display, "Home," is a series of four garish abstract pieces spanning two walls of the gallery. Each installation consists of four rectangular panels populated by intricate layers of large, pixelated brushstrokes laced with screen-printed architectural fragments.

"The Home' series deals with all the places I've lived at and considered home," Molnar said. "It explores the relationship of how you conceptualize space once you have left it but are now returning to it. I'm combining realistic imagery but constructing abstract areas of depth and space that can encapsulate the kind of memory I have of the space."

On walls bordering the corner of the exhibit, Barnwell's pieces, which consist of two semi-figurative canvases of natural sceneries, are displayed. In addition, a digital animation alongside her paintings reveals the creative process of her work with a series of photographs taken during successive stages of the paintings' completion.

"These are paintings I made in the spring," she said. "I started with these sketches with ideas about place. For this animation, I took several photos in sequence and manipulated them. I started with quick sketches from memory or observation and then just started layering pieces. I wanted it to not exactly represent a physical space, but the emotion and memory inside it."

The exhibition also features two abstract paintings by Morris, which experiment with wide gestural strokes and fluid colors. The contrast between the two vertically aligned pieces, one with muted earthy tones and the other with a slightly brighter palette, creates a harmonious display that is highly evocative on the sidewall that opens up to the entrance of the gallery.

"When I started working on these pieces, it's all about motion," she said. "I feel like motion is the language of artists and which is why I named the first painting Gesticulation.' It's also neat to think about the physical meaning, so the second painting Rumination' is a response to the first one."

The student artists expressed overwhelmingly positive opinions about the exhibit's location in the VAC.

"It made me take myself more seriously, having a real space to display real art," Morris said. "It's actually quite an uncomfortable thing to admit to yourself you are an artist."

The Thursday opening attracted a large crowd of students, faculty and Upper Valley community members. Students said they were excited to attend the event to view and support the works of art created by their classmates.

"I thought this is a wonderful event," attendee Georgia Travers '13 said. "With the natural lighting coming in, it is perfect for the space and for the artwork. It really helps them to jump off the wall."

The exhibition in "This Is Not a Gallery" space will be available for viewing in the VAC until Nov. 6.