Pushing the boundaries of drawing
Michael Nguyen
Issue date: 4/28/09 Section: Entertainment
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This was student Stefan Carrera's first time being a curator of an exhibit. "I don't like being the center of attention," said Carrera. Chosen to be the lead by Vera, he was responsible for choosing the best out of three submissions from each student. On April 12, Carrera planned and organized the layout of the exhibit. "It allows me to take a step back from creating artwork and focus on the establishing of a coherent gallery composition," said Carrera. "I now have more respect for curators and their work."
Vera's goal for this exhibit was to encourage his students to push their limits by using non-traditional materials for drawing. "My goal was to give my students a specific problem to solve," said Vera. "I wanted them to think outside the box."
The Advanced Drawing students have pushed their limits on using different materials, without the use of conventional use of pencil and paper. Cecilia Carboni's "The Mark of Long Used Things" is a layered collaboration of typed acetate, acrylic, tracing paper, and newsprint. The different compositions of type seem like a drawing upon the transparent surfaces. Zbigniew Karareko's "Wake Up Dead" eschews the use of pencil for portraiture drawing by using a Dremel drawing on top of Plexiglas with colored paper below to provide the background. The drawing resembles a print because of its precise lines. Ghada Zhadan's piece of monotype, acetate, wax, and foam board showcases complex imagery that appears like ink drop dispersals without any sort of evidence of the use of traditional ink.
"On Drawing's" statement "Who's to Say We Had to Draw the Line," written by Stephanie Magid, declares that "drawing always was and always will be the cross section where all artists meet and reside." The artists' statement states that the group of artwork offers a new contemporary voice in drawing; the focus of the artwork is to reconsider drawing to be a more complete form with the same structures of observation, line, space, and thought. Magid volunteered to write the statement. "There is not enough literature about contemporary drawing," said Magid. "I felt inspired to add more dialog."
Magid also felt that Vera's assignment of Carrera as the exhibit curator was important. "I think it's important for students to make decisions concerning art exhibiting and curating," said Magid. "Often, some students like me get so involved in the making of artwork, instead of the importance of sharing thought and talent. We should have the same energy on displaying, as well as creating."
Vera said that the exhibit was a success and added, "The students definitely thought outside the box," Carrera agreed that the Advance Drawing students had accomplished their goals. "Because of this unique problem we had to solve, we have many great works in display," Carerra said.
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