The Carroll House Gallery’s final event of the semester, an exhibition of color-focused student art opened on Thursday, April 24. The exhibit, which is also scheduled to be the final showcase at the Carroll House before the building is repurposed, featured projects from Art and Design Professor Miles Warner’s Topics in Contemporary Art History class, a “student survival kit” showcase from Associate Professor of Art and Design Emily Lambert’s class and a collaborative painting by the KSC Art Collective.
Warner’s class created a majority of the artwork displayed at the exhibition. According to Warner, the showcase echoed a class theme focused on color.
“This was based around the idea of how color can resonate differently from individual to individual and how that can be a really unique and beautiful thing,” said Warner.
“Each group of students created different concepts and explored their own different interpretations of what color can be for making art,” added Warner.
Warner said he is proud of the hard work and dedication his students put into the artwork.
“I feel great because they’re all so awesome. They’ve worked so hard, and this kind of thing can’t happen without them. I just come and unlock the door, and they just go nuts,” said Warner.
“They try things and test things and just push their ideas and their limits. It’s really great to see,” added Warner.
Junior Mallory Miron worked with four classmates on a project for Warner’s class, which used colors and black and white photography to represent each group member’s “aura.” Each group member chose a specific color to represent themself, painted it on a wall in the Carroll House and filled their color space with black and white photos that represent who they are as individuals.
Miron chose yellow for her color.
“The colors are all of our auras, colors that represent us, and then we decided to print black and white photos that represent memories that we are fond of and express who we are on top of the aura colors that match our personalities,” said Miron.
Miron said the final vision was the product of group discussions and expanding upon previous ideas.
“We had a couple different discussions about what we wanted to do. It started as little cards of color and pictures from our childhoods, but then we were worried that it may look too cheesy. I wasn’t there for the final conversation, but the final decision was to go with auras to make it more personal and also make sure other people can understand it,” said Miron.
Senior and former Equinox Art Director Aidan Urnezis worked on a “red and blue” themed group project, which was displayed in a separate room and highlighted American culture and politics for Warner’s class.
“We wanted to be in your face. It’s a political piece, but also not really political because it’s got the same things, just on different sides. The message is that we’re the same, we all have the same values, and asking why we’re so divided,” said Urnezis.
“I think we all want the same things, an economy where we all can thrive and just be safe. This piece is sort of the ironic Americana of where we are now,” added Urnezis.
Senior and Exhibition Coordinator for the Carroll House Gallery Kris Wilczak said a lot of the art was made on sight.
“[Warner] and his class had been working on this project for a while and it just came to fruition now. A lot of the artwork was made here at the Carroll House on our front lawn, and it’s really exciting to see it all come to life and see that energy because it’s so fun and feels really immersive that way,” said Wilczak.
Wilczak explained the student survival kit paintings made by Lambert’s class, which expressed the items and trinkets that students felt were important parts of who they are as people.
“Those artist survival kits are still-lives of items that artists thought are vital to their artistic processes, or just their overall experience of being human. It’s really their survival kit, what keeps them living and going on,” said Wilczak.
“You see in these paintings how deeply personal it is,” added Wilczak.
Wilczak said the Carroll House is a special place for artists to share their work and have a home on campus.
“The Carroll House has always been a special place for artists, and run by artists. I’ve been working here for a couple of years and it’s indescribable how special it is to protect and hold this space for students to be so expressive and free with their artwork,” said Wilczak.
Ryan Pacheco can be contacted at
rpacheco@kscequinox.com
