Students can have up to two pieces featured in the Goldfarb gallery. Two of the students with the best art work will be rewarded $1,000 each. Nicole Callender | The Informer
The University of Hartford’s 24th annual presentation of the Alexander A. Goldfarb Student Exhibition returns for a short visit at the Joseloff Gallery. The gallery will be open now through April 14. A public reception and awards presentation of the exhibit will take place on Thursday, March 14, from 4 to 6:30 p.m.
All students of the University are considered for the exhibition after submission of up to two works. Two undergraduate students are chosen to receive purchase prizes in the amount of $1,000 each. The artwork of the winning student will not only become a visual member of the Goldfarb Memorial Collection but will also be owned by the Hartford Art School and displayed throughout public spaces on campus.
The late Alexander A. Goldfarb is praised for his generosity in funding the Hartford Art School to support the exhibition and provide money for students. It was his intention for older students to travel, and for younger students to balance their school expenses with the prize money.
“He, more than most people I know, understood the financial needs of the artist and the art school student and was willing to do something about it. One day he walked through the school pressing $10 and $20 bills on the startled students. ‘Take it! Take it!’ he said, ‘You need it. All artists need money. Take it!,’ said the late Bernhard Hanson, former dean of the Hartford Art School in a press release statement issued in April of 1989.
The jury process is now controlled by a single guest juror, a representative of the arts community. Past jurors have included artists Cleve Gray (1992), Judy Moonelis (1998), Zoe Beloff (2002), and Clint Jukkala (2010), as well as curators Andrea Miller-Keller (1991), and Richard Klein (2009). This year’s invited guest juror is painter and educational curator of ArtSpace New Haven, Martha Lewis.
Student works of digital photography, digital print, inkjet print on canvas, oil on canvas and 3D video are among the eclectic pieces shown at the gallery. There are also several themes of existential angst, self-exploration, sexuality and nature. Andrew Reardon’s work “Near Death Experience” (2012), virtually projects a shirtless man on a wooden bed next to an open bible whose pages are fluttering by manipulation of a white fan. The virtual man is audibly breathing. Sara Adams’ oil on canvas piece “Women in Red” (2013) is noticeably inaudible but equally smart in presentation.
The Joseloff Gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m. For more information, please call the gallery at 860.768.4090 or visit www.joseloffgallery.org