As the academic year comes to a close and seniors prepare to graduate, the Hillstrom Museum of Art has one last exhibition featuring senior students at Gustavus Adolphus College. Opening May 7, Closing Time: Senior Studio Art Majors Exhibition 2022 features work by the graduating senior studio art majors. There will be an opening reception with the artists on the College’s Honors Day, May 7 at 4 p.m.
The exhibition features works by Megan Aber, Gigi deGrood, Preston Hanstad, Heather Holten, Anna-Olivia Machado, Hannah Rickinger, Sophie Seivert, Livija Shaeffer, Sanjeeda Shutrishna, Serena Small, Jennifer Stageberg, Gretchen Van Ess, and Geneva VanWyk. Showing work in the senior exhibition is a requirement for graduation in the studio art major.
Professor Kristen Lowe teaches the course associated with the exhibition for each year’s seniors. “Every year I ask them what they believe art is for. Does it have a purpose, and what is the role of art?”
Studio Art and Biology double major Anna-Olivia Machado ’22 has works ranging from graphic design to a mixed media sculpture in the exhibition. “My intentions with the artworks in this exhibition are to create a tension between the installation and the viewer,” she said.
“Walking along the path with them as their work starts to take unity and their artist voice becomes clearer is a very exciting place for me to be with students,” Lowe said. “These students navigated from taking assignments provided for them by their professors to creating and advancing their own ideas and questions.”
Machado said personal branding as an artist was the most important thing she learned in the art major at Gustavus. “Through our junior and senior seminars a large aspect of the curriculum is personal branding and developing our personal style. We develop our personal websites and we work on writing about and presenting about ourselves. We learn about the professional and technical aspects of how to be an artist,” she said.
Megan Aber ’22 is a studio art major with an arts administration minor who hopes to one day own a gallery. “Being around people who truly get your passions and share those passions with you encourages you to do and be better,” she said.
“I was most excited to see everyone else’s work together. Our group of seniors has very different styles that surprisingly complement each other, so seeing them in a museum makes me proud of us,” Aber said.
Closing Time: Senior Studio Art Majors Exhibition 2022 will be open at the Hillstrom Museum of art from May 7 through Commencement on May 21. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and weekends 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. All exhibitions and related programming are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Museum’s website.