Senior art showcase ‘Intervals’ on display

THE ART IN-BETWEEN — The Hope seniors art exhibition will be on display in the DePree Art Gallery until Tuesday, May 8 and features art that graduates have worked on all year.

On April 8, the DePree Art Gallery opened one of its key exhibits of the year: the graduating senior exhibition. This event occurs annually and is intended to showcase the talent of those graduating from Hope College’s art department. It is sponsored by the Arts and Humanities, Art and Art History Programs.

Starting in the fall, each graduating senior undertakes an independent study guided by Hope’s art professors. They work to produce the best art they can, and throughout the year, other seniors and faculty members guide the artists as they work on the project that culminates everything they have learned throughout their time at Hope. From there, the seniors present their best works to a jury of professors. Finally, the professors select the works they feel will make the senior art showcase the best it can possibly be.

This year, the works of nine graduating seniors are on display: Lena Biedrzycki, Samantha Cole, Rachael Corey, Monica Czechowicz, Samantha Grody, Mariah Hunt, Katy Jaderholm, Evan Rodgers and Rian Sayre. The exhibit contains a multitude of different artistic mediums, including paintings, mixed medias and photography.

The title for this year’s showcase is “Intervals: Something InBetween.” Every year, the seniors and professors work together to select a title. The title is often a reflection of the exhibit as a whole. While the textbook definition of interval generally implies a break in time, seniors have been working harder than ever on these projects and have almost been doing the opposite of what the word implies.

“We decided on the name ‘Intervals’ because it speaks to the sections of time that we all experience,” Czechowicz (’16) said. “An interval is a period of time that can be as long or as short as the experience it defines. We all felt that the end of our senior year marked the end of our college ‘interval’ or the start of our ‘interval’ in our art careers.”

However, Czechowicz did mention that the title ‘Intervals’ means something different to each senior artist featured.

This yearly exhibit in the DePree Art Gallery opened with a reception for the artists and professors on the evening of Friday, April 8. The work of these talented seniors will be on display through Tuesday, May 8, after this batch of seniors graduate from their interval of time at Hope.

DePree Art Gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Hope students and Holland community members are welcomed and encouraged to see the effort that these seniors put into their work. It is free for anyone to come and see.