2023 USF Student Exhibition & Competition
On through April 13, 2023
Please email gallery director, Jennifer Moore, at jmoore@stfrancis.edu for more information.
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Fall Gallery Hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Address:
25 E. Van Buren St.
Joliet, IL 60432
Please email gallery director, Jennifer Moore, at jmoore@stfrancis.edu for more information.
The University of St. Francis Art Department is proud to host our annual USF Student Exhibition & Competition. USF students, regardless of major, compete for cash prizes and purchase awards. The Coleman Scholarship is awarded to one eligible Art major.
COLEMAN SCHOLARSHIP
Jaclyn Duske
PRESIDENTIAL PURCHASE AWARD*
Jaclyn Duske, Under the Sea, digital photography
DEAN’S CHOICE AWARD*
Harlie Mast, Spot Light, photography
FIRST PLACE
Vada Arndt, Willow Springs, IL, oil paint
SECOND PLACE
Lilliana Guitierrez, Frank, wire, paint, paper mâché
THIRD PLACE
Tatiana Ruiz, Drained, paint on canvas board
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Darcy Ancel, Grey Hound, silver print, Award in Excellence, Traditional Photography
Spencer Baird, Untitled, oil paint, Award in Excellence, Painting
Karly Ceci, Old Bones, New Snake, crochet, Award in Excellence, Non Traditional Media
Samantha Gonzalez, View of Joliet, acrylic paint, Award in Excellence, Color Theory
E. Porter, Infinity Wave, ceramic, Award in Excellence, Ceramics
Issac Rodriguez, Gone, wire & paper, Award in Excellence, Experimental Media
Nathaniel Smith, Old Route 66, photography, Award in Excellence, Digital Photography
HONORABLE MENTION
Gianna Barbaro, Frog Prince, pewter, Honorable Mention, Metal
Emily Eagan, Chinook, stoneware ceramic Honorable Mention, Ceramics
Ayla Gilmer, Mushed Rooms, screenprint on cardstock, Honorable Mention, Screenprint
Jareset Lagunas, Do Not Enter, black and white film, Honorable Mention, Don & Surrealism
Mary Grace McGrath, Self Portrait, acrylic paint, Honorable Mention, Self Portrait
Kadixamayrin Mireles, Vulnerable Heart, wire, paint, paper mâché Honorable Mention, Sculpture
Nicholas Munafo, Will We Ever be Free, linoleum print, Honorable Mention, Screenprint
Mazi Niezgoda, Old Love, photography, Honorable Mention, Studio Photography
Sarah Piane, Focus, acrylic paint, Honorable Mention, Realism
Fatima “Flynn” Villagomez, Ramblings of Students, wire & paper mâché, Honorable Mention, Sculpture
Alana Wendel, Emile, watercolor, Honorable Mention, Watercolor
*Presidential Purchase and Dean’s Choice awards are purchase awards. The purchased artwork will be part of the University’s permanent collection.
Unleashed Play – Heather Cox
Heather Cox considers herself part of the lineage of nontraditional printmakers using visual language of print and an emphasis on surface as a starting point for exploration and play. Cox combines printed paper, fabric, and string, sometimes fusing the materials together with encaustic wax. Installation is also a way to get the viewer involved. She wants guests to feel comfortable walking under and around the piece, noticing where shadows emerge, or gaze through a ripped surface to see what is hidden behind it. Her intention is for the viewer to be present with the work and comfortable getting close and questioning what they see with a kind of naïve curiosity that parallels her own carefree approach to making with automatic drawings and vibrant hues.
University of St. Francis Illinois High School Art Exhibition & Competition
View complete list of participants here! (PDF)
GRAND PRIZE – $10,000 USF Art & Design Scholarship
Lesley Catalan, Joliet Central High School
BEST OF SHOW – PAINTING
Hanna Rasmussen, Lockport Township High School
BEST OF SHOW – PHOTO
Julian Ruiz, Joliet Central High School
BEST OF SHOW – SCULPTURE
Jasmin Salcido, Joliet Central High School
BEST OF SHOW – WORKS ON PAPER
Ghena Moteb, Harold L. Richards High School
BEST OF SHOW – DIGITAL/OTHER
Yarissa Vila, Lockport Township High School
Contemplations and Ruminations: What Will People Think? by artist-photographer, Carol Thorner.
“Contemplations and Ruminations: What Will People Think?” is a culmination of years of self-introspection and the desire to question societal norms. Thorner uses her own painful experiences of not fitting in to address difficult topics such as identity, self-acceptance and relationships.
USF Alumni Art Exhibition
On Exhibit August 25 – September 29, 2022
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 25, 2022, 6-8pm
EXHIBITING ARTIST ALUMNI
Megan Altmyer (2013), Jessica Baron (2013), Roger Carlson (2006), Jessica Cuevas (2014), Katia Hunt (2019), Sydney Jarrard (2019), Christopher Jones (2015), Dora Moore (2008), Meghann O’Hara (2001), Autumn Panzera (2011), Boris Peshev (2016), Joe Santillo (2017), Egzon Shaqiri (2014), Marguerite Stoiber (1973), Lauren Tuider (2020), Odessa Villarreal (2021), and Ryan Wolfe (2004).
FROM A WHIRLWIND, an immersive installation by artist, Sherri Denault. Denault creates patterns and textures that often resemble something found in nature – the flow of a stream or the wind rustling through leaves. Gallery visitors will be greeted with embellishments of thread, stitching and knots that becomes an immersive sensory experience for the viewer allowing them to question what lies just below the surface of perception.
Reverse Scheimpflug & Private Musings
USF Art Gallery is pleased to welcome John P. Spomar III: Reverse Scheimpflug & Private Musings. Spomar was formally trained in the photographic fine arts, but real life experiences shaped this body of work. Spomar’s work, a collection of alternative process photographs, is a collection of images created as an outlet for his creative mind and used to explore the many facets and nuances of the photographic processes available. Spomar holds both his B.A. and M.A. degrees in photography from Governors State University.
The Chicago Portrait Project at the University Of St Francis Art Gallery
The exhibition is on display August 23 – October 5, 2021 at the University of St. Francis Art Gallery located at 25 E. Van Buren St., Joliet.
The Chicago Portrait Project is a collection of artist, Chester Alamo-Costello’s work. The exhibition stems from Alamo-Costello’s 2018 book, “Somewhere In-Between Chicago”. The exhibition is a collection of portraits of artists, musicians, and casual passerby contrasted with imagery made in city streets and fringe environments since the mid-1990s. These works offer insight into the city as a creative environment and the various of socio-political issues encountered over the past 30+ years.
There will be over 200+ artworks: photography, paintings, 3-dimensional works, journals, literature, and videos, in a range of media, documentary to experimental.
The Chicago Portrait Project is supported by an Illinois Arts Council grant. These funds were used to produce the exhibition and employ USF students, Austin Hines and Odessa Villarreal.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chester Alamo-Costello is an American artist, educator, publisher and writer based in Chicago, Illinois. He is most known for his long-running, international “Art Drop” series (1998–), which place art into non-traditional settings, such as public parks, and for his photographic books, whose work has been noted for its rawness and everyday immediacy. He has primarily shown his work in the public domain in countries throughout Europe, the United States and Canada; he has also had exhibits at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the Hyde Park Art Center. His photography and projects have been reviewed or published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune Magazine, De Telegraaf (Amsterdam),The Globe and Mail (Canada), New Art Examiner, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Magazine, Nerve, and on Chicago Public Radio. Alamo-Costello’s books of photography, art and writing include: Somewhere In-Between Chicago (2018), The Globe (2010), and Grandpa Danny (2008). Alamo-Costello is also the publisher of, and a contributor to, The COMP Magazine, a digital art and design journal. He is a professor and former chair of the Department of Art and Design at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois.
Senior Thesis Exhibition 2021
2021 Senior Thesis Exhibition features the work of 6 graduating seniors from the Department of Fine Arts at the University of St. Francis. Working across a variety of media, these artists explore themes unique to each of them. As the culmination of their journey at the University of St. Francis, this exhibit not only reflects the skills gained from their time as a student but also their personal growth as artists.
The exhibition is on display April 30 – July 30, 2021 at the University of St. Francis Art Gallery located at 25 E. Van Buren St., Joliet. Public reception is on Friday, April 30, 2021, 6-8pm.
Exhibiting students: Amber Daraska, Austin Hines, Jamie Stolfo, Lauren Tuider, Maria Cruz Uceda, Odessa Villarreal
KINDRED SPIRITS: Kathie Shaw & Corey Postiglione
October 8-November 30, 2020
USF Art Gallery welcomes KINDRED SPIRITS, work by artists, Kathie Shaw and Corey Postiglione. Shaw and Postiglione, a husband and wife team who share a studio space, closely collaborate on art-making processes as well as philosophical meaning, visual exploration and messaging.
KINDRED SPIRITS explores painting as a tool of expression and how the process of painting can clarify meaning and satisfy the needs of the artist. In a period of intense commercialism and sign value, Shaw and Postiglione’s work challenges the viewer to experience the joy and passion painting enables. KINDRED SPIRITS investigates the pure satisfaction of creating tangible works of art that reflects the individuals’ thought process.
Join us for an artist talk on Wednesday, October 14, 1:15pm. Space is limited, registration required. To register, email your request to jmoore@stfrancis.edu.
Exhibition: MUSE – Niki Grangruth & James Kinser
August 25 – September 25, 2020
Muse, a collaborative body of work by artists Niki Grangruth and James Kinser, explores issues of non-conforming gender identity by reimagining and reinterpreting well-known paintings from art history. The photographs, sets, and costumes are all carefully constructed to reflect a painterly aesthetic. With art history as a foundation that grounds the work in the familiar and comfortable, each piece nods to the notion that history tends to be repeated in an organic and cyclical manner.
The use of a male subject, gaze, and costumes questions common gender-specific beauty ideals, disrupts the social construct of binary gender identity, and explores gender as a non-linear and ever-changing construct. The photographs also document a process of gender play – a conscious hybridization of hyper-feminine and masculine as a way of exploring the fluid, performative, and sometimes dichotomous, elements of identity.
NIKI GRANGRUTH | Bio
Niki Grangruth (b. St. Paul, MN) is a photo-based artist working in Chicago, IL. Her imagery explores issues of performative gender identity, beauty ideals and the reinterpretation of art history. Her work is influenced by pervasive archetypes found in cultural texts, art history, mythologies and folklore.
Her work has been exhibited nationally at museums and galleries such as the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Indianapolis Art Center, the Kinsey Institute Gallery and the Zhou B. Art Center. Grangruth received her B.A. in Studio Art and English from Saint Olaf College in Northfield, MN and her M.F.A. in Photography from Columbia College Chicago.
JAMES KINSER | Bio
James Kinser is a Chicago-based multimedia artist. Combining performance and costume design, his work currently explores idiosyncratic expressions of identity that challenge the traditional male/female construct of gender. Previously, his work has addressed the relationship between the body, spirituality, and sexuality–all topics which continue to be incorporated into his work.
James earned an MA (2005) in Interdisciplinary Art at Columbia College Chicago and a BA (1997) in Art Education and Fine Art from Bethany College in Lindsborg, KS.
Images:
Girl with a Pearl Earring (after Vermeer) 2009, laminated inkjet print
Ophelia (after Millais) 2013, laminated inkjet print
Odalisque (after Ingres) 2009, laminated inkjet print
2020 USF Art & Design Senior Thesis
May 1–August 20, 2020
Reception: Friday, May 1, 2019 from 6-8 p.m.
2020 USF Student Art Exhibition
April 1–April 13, 2020
Reception & Breakfast with the USF President and Dean: Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 10:30 a.m.
USF Gallery is proud to host the annual St. Francis Student Artist Exhibition. The exhibition is open to all USF students, any major. All are welcome to join us for a light breakfast with USF President Arvid Johnson and College of Arts & Sciences Dean Elizabeth Davies on Thursday, April 2, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. Winners and scholarship awards will be announced at the breakfast
Guest Curator: Professor Paul Erschen
February 3–March 20, 2020
USF Art & Design Department’s 2019-2020
Illinois High School Art Competition & Exhibition
October 1 – November 20, 2019
Reception: Saturday, October 5, 2019, noon-2pm
Exhibiting Artists: Celine Alonzo, Ashley August, Priscilla Candelas, Simon Cantor, Alondra Cruz, Alyssa Devine, Nathan Estrada, Torie Knibbs, Megan Kolcz, Stacy Lord, Joseph Lord, Vilma Maciulyte, Katie Maloney, Mely Meraz, Delaney O’Rourke, Kallyn Perich, Sydney Rastrullo, Angelina Tomeczko, and Daniella Vinchery
USF Art Gallery welcomes community college students from across the nation in this juried exhibition. Scholarship and cash prizes will be awarded.
2019 Senior Thesis Exhibition
April 26–August 12, 2019
Reception: Friday, April 26, 2019 from 6-8 p.m.
Exhibiting Seniors: Katia Hunt, Sydney Jarrard, Autumn Lee, Elias Martinez, Kelly McElroy, Leah Morrow, Nick Phillish, Rachel Rivette, Jordan Tiritilli