More than 50 pieces of student-created artwork will be showcased at The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art 101st annual School of Art and Art History Student Exhibition this week.
The exhibition, which begins today, features artwork by OU undergraduate and graduate students from a diverse range of majors, said Jessica Farling, director of public engagement at the museum.
Farling said that more than $6,000 worth of cash prizes will be offered to the featured artist, along with the exhibition's highest honor, the T. G. Mays Purchase Award.
"The T. G. Mays Purchase Award is awarded to one work ... that will become a part of the museum's permanent collection," Farling said. "You can see a lot of the past winners in Bizzell [Memorial Library]."
The winning work will be selected by guest juror Chad Alligood, who also reviewed submissions and selected the ones to be displayed in the exhibition, Farling said.
"This year, there were almost 200 works by 85 students submitted to the exhibition," Farling said.
While the number of submissions this year was not substantially different from last year, the types of submissions were.
"Last year, there was only one painting at the exhibition," Farling said. "This year, it's a more or less balanced mix of sculpture and painting and other works."
Any student can submit up to three pieces of artwork to the exhibition, so long as those pieces were created in their entirety within 2014, Farling said. That said, the vast majority of submissions come from art and art history students.
Bryan Rapp, a second-year graduate student in OU's fine arts program, said he submitted three pieces, two of which were accepted.
Rapp said his two pieces — sculptures entitled "Morbus" and "The Patient; a Self-Portrait" — are parts of a body of 15 pieces examining how the body and mind are affected by disease. Rapp said he drew from his childhood, when he struggled with osteonecrosis, a degenerative bone disease.
"As a young man, it was very difficult to go from healthy, athletic, etc., to a 70-year-old body," Rapp said in an email. "When you are diagnosed with a disease, it consumes you physically and mentally, and when that happens — the disease is in control, not you. And so "Morbus" is ultimately about loss of control."
However, not all projects are part of a grander project. Jane Hsi, a sophomore with a double major in biochemistry and letters, said that her piece, a painting titled "Birds and Flowers", is simply a preparation for larger works in the future.
"I wasn't thinking of winning when I submitted it," Hsi said.
Of course, the artworks that do not go into the museum's collection do not necessarily "lose": cash prizes are available, as well as the opportunity to sell one's artwork to interested buyers, Farling said.
"The students name the price," Farling said. "We've had some sell for prices in the thousands...others for something like $50."
Studio arts junior Eric Maille said that while he hopes somebody will buy his works — two paintings titled "Pandora" and "Peace Lily" — he would be content to simply hang his works in his apartment.
Regardless of the exhibition's outcome, the student artists welcome an opportunity to showcase their work and celebrate their love of art.
"I would be an art major if I didn't love chemistry," Hsi said. "I hope to continue with it all my life, and hopefully balance it with my career in science."
The winner of the T. G. Mays award will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22 at a public reception following a lecture by Alligood at 6 p.m.
