Art Students to Show at Regional Exhibit

Two East Central Art students have been invited to show their works alongside regional artists at a multi-media exhibition in St. Louis.

Anna Wright, Gerald, and Olivia Tucker, Washington, will be part of the Varsity Art XXIV show that is slated to run Feb. 28 through March 26. There will be a free public reception Friday, March 6, from 6-8 p.m.

Varsity Art XXIV is a multi-media invitational visual art exhibition featuring works by 40 undergrad and grad level art students. The artists represent 20 St. Louis area regional colleges and universities.

This year’s exhibit presents artworks in a variety of media, including ceramics, drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and video.

The Art Saint Louis’ artistic director works closely with art professors and faculty at the area’s colleges and universities, inviting the professors to select two outstanding art students to represent their art department and institution in the annual show.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our student artists to exhibit their work alongside peers from other institutions at both the two-year and four-year levels,” said Adam Watkins, associate professor and fine and performing arts department chair.

“Anna and Olivia have both shown great skill and fluency in their artistic skills and conceptual problem solving,” he added. “They are wonderful representatives for the rest of the art and design students, our department and ECC as a whole. The art department could not be more proud of these young artists.”

Wright’s piece is a portrait of a classmate using charcoal. The work took her three hours to complete.

“I was able to capture what she looks like, and I did it all in a class period,” she said. “That is something I am really proud of.”

Tucker used mixed media to portray winter, spring, summer and fall in four panels that will be exhibited together. She used India ink with watercolors and a wash.

“It is the four seasons personified,” she said. “They have a change of clothing to represent the seasons, so I thought, ‘Why not make them fashion icons?’ “

Art Saint Louis is a non-profit art organization working for over 35 years to enrich lives through the creative activity of the region’s contemporary visual artists.

Art Saint Louis is free and open to the public. The gallery is open Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is closed Sundays and major holidays.