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| UAA art major, Alex Phillips was thrilled at the opportunity to display her collection or “circus freak, fairy tail” style puppets in the Campus Center Gallery. |
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By Rosey Robards
Northern Light
If you pop by the Campus Center Gallery this month, you might be perplexed by the diverse display of talent showcased.
Most gallery shows have a set theme that limits the type or style of art that is displayed. But after the “Rock, Paper, Scissors” juried art show scheduled to occur this month was cancelled, four University of Alaska Anchorage art majors and a local comic strip artist Lee Post came together to fill the gap with a show titled “Life Abstractions.”
This broad definition allowed all of the artists to come together under a common theme but at the same time encompassed their diverse styles.
“We thought it would kind of embody the way we interpret what we see,” said Enzina Marrari, who played a large part in putting the show together.
Marrari had mentioned that she was interested in having a show in the gallery sometime this year just as Campus Life became aware that the “Rock, Paper, Scissors” show was not going to happen. So Marrari called up friends Post, Amy Devereux, Beatriz Oms and Alex Phillips and the group put the show together in under two weeks.
“I told them, ‘I don’t have enough work on my own to have a show but I could probably get a few people from the art department too,’” Marrari said.
Some of the highlights from the show include pieces by Phillips, who saw this as an opportunity to showcase her “circus freak, fairy tail” style puppets.
“One thing that’s really good about that room is that is designed specifically for artwork,” Phillips said. “I like the idea of being able to put them in the center of the room, so people can walk around the piece.”
Works by Marrari include poetry she wrote as well as excerpts from Marge Piercy’s “What big girls are made of.” One piece that hangs in the far, right corner of the gallery started as a poem and eventually became a multi-media piece of art.
“I thought I could incorporate all of these aspects to make the poem stronger,” Marrari said.
The art seemed to fit well together. Marrari said she thought it would be best if all of the artists in the show were friends because it was a last minute production.
This is the first show for nearly all of the artists, although, individually they have had pieces in shows and even won some awards for their work.
Post has his work showcased in the Anchorage Press, a weekly newspaper in Anchorage, every week. His comic strip, “Your Square Life” has been running in the paper for about two years. Post said he jumped at the opportunity to have his work displayed in the gallery.
“I never had a gallery show before,” Post said. “I am a self-taught artist.”
Post was putting together a portfolio for a magazine in South Africa called “Itch,” so coming up with pieces for the show was not a problem.“Life Abstractions” will be on display in the Campus Center Gallery from Oct. 9 to Oct. 23.
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