The State Street Gallery held its first annual Art Student Invitational Saturday, featuring work by art students studying at UW-Madison, Edgewood College, MATC and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The State Street Gallery, 109 State St., commonly hosts exhibitions for Midwestern artists but this is the first exhibit the gallery has held solely comprised of student works. More than 180 works of sculpture, photography, painting, and ceramics were submitted by approximately 60 students.
A jury selected 60 pieces of art from 29 students to be exhibited as well as judged for awards on the opening night of the exhibition All the students' works are available for sale for the duration of the exhibit, which will run through Feb. 26. The event is sponsored by State Street Gallery, UW-Madison's undergraduate journal of the humanities Illumination, and the National At-Risk Education Network.
Anthony Dallmann-Jones, co-owner of the State Street Gallery and a professional artist, stressed the importance of providing college art students with an open, public opportunity to experience the atmosphere of a professional gallery.
'It's a lot like student teaching. The artists get a chance to see if they have what it takes, and if this is really what they want to do,' he said.
He added that the exhibit was a chance to pull a more youthful crowd toward the Capitol end of State Street.
'The upper end of State Street is known for the government aspect of Madison and it's less popular with the students, who mostly occupy the 4,5 and 600 blocks of State Street,' he said. 'I'm glad we could tie the two ends of the street together.'
Student artists present at the event were eager and pleased to show their work to a larger audience outside of a classroom environment.
'It's good for students to get outside of the space in the seventh floor of Humanities and into some real exhibit space,' said Tim Kaney, a UW-Madison junior.
'When you work for commission, you often have to make adjustments for the customer, but for this show, I specifically made my own personal work and there's still the possibility of it being sold,' UW-Madison senior Chris Kemp said.
'It's so different to get into a gallery,' UW-Madison graduate student Letitia Garcia added. I'm not really thinking about the judging. It's more important to get exposure as a real artist. It's a test.'
The professional nature and caliber of the student work reflected the high expectations of the invitational and all the work blended well with the work of established artists also featured at the gallery. 'It's such a competitive field,' Kemp said, 'and you need the support from your community.'
The gallery was very satisfied with the number of students who entered the competition and the large public turn out of more than 150 people.
The gallery plans to expand on the success of the event and host it again in the future as an annual competition.
