Student Artwork on Display at Consortium Exhibition

Two Holy Cross students received prizes for their artwork at the third annual Colleges of Worcester Consortium Art Show. The show runs through March 10 at ARTSWorcester’s Aurora Gallery, 660 Main St.

Kimberly Powell ’07, a studio art major, received second-place honors for her charcoal drawings covered in gel medium on book board about, what she says, are the imperfections of the judicial system.

“Guilty Until Proven Innocent,” which she created for her Book Projects class spring semester 2006, is a 16-page book of drawings inspired by profiles on the Innocence Project Web site, a non-profit organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals.

“There is a thin line between guilt and innocence, and this line is blurred,” Powell says. “To be falsely accused of a crime by man can only be imperfect, and there will be innocent casualties. I made this piece in honor of these men. I made the book large and somewhat heavy so that viewers would have physical difficulty handling it which underlies the seriousness and weight of the book’s subject.”

One of three honorable mentions went to Thanh Nguyen ’10 for his graphite pencil self-portrait titled “Self Examine.” He thinks the drawing, which he produced in his Life Drawing class last semester, received recognition because he “incorporated almost everything of what we have learned in my class insofar as proportion, composition, planes, structure, foreshortening, shape, space, perspective, weight and volume go. I took every word to account from all of the class lectures, discussions, and critiques.”

Started in 2005, the exhibition features works produced by students in Worcester’s higher education institutions. More than 280 works in mixed media, photography, fiber, work on paper, sculpture, and painting were submitted by students in the 13 area colleges and universities. Jurors Susan Stoops, curator of contemporary art at Worcester Art Museum, and Nick Capasso, curator of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, chose 75 pieces for the exhibition.

Five other Holy Cross students also have their artwork on display: Teresa Buscemi ’07, Christopher Fannon ’07, Melissa Fritsch ’07, Mara Piltin ’08, and Matthew Surabian ’07.