By Katie Holton
The “Spectrum” exhibition is being held in the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery April 7th through the 25th. This exhibition is for the senior Art majors at Valdosta State University to showcase their art accomplishments throughout their time at VSU. The name “Spectrum” was chosen to represent the students due to the wide array of talent and vibrant array of colors in the exhibition. I will argue that the different artists in the exhibition were successful, and whether or not the exhibition was successful.
Upon walking into the exhibition, one notices the room is filled with art lining every wall. The students in this exhibition had very different art styles. Canvases line the right wall of the exhibition, as well as a piece by Dalin Bergman, Next Chapter, a mosaic ceramic tile artwork.Then on the back wall, artist Mackenzie Simpson dominates the space with her sculptural pieces that are brightly colored and largely stand out. The left wall is filled with numerous artists, but one that stood out was Gabby Fogarty, who showcased her skills in graphic design.
Dalin Bergman’s piece is a mosaic tile artwork that depicts an image of her hugging a man around the neck. Bergman uses different sized ceramic triangle tiles, with each a different color to create a realistic image. Bergman left the edges of the canvas surrounding the figures blank of any tiles. This negative space helps center the eye on the faces of both figures. Beside the large piece are smaller canvases that are a part of a series Bergman calls, Important Places. This installation consists of three paintings, two depicting restaurants and one depicting a comfortable setting that represents her safe space. These three paintings have a flatness to them and not much detail, but this causes them to feel like memories. When looking at the paintings, they seem like images in a dream, which gives a uniqueness to this series. All four paintings by Bergman represent the title of the exhibition well because they showcase a spectrum of her talents from paintings to mosaic tile work, and the colors in her paintings add to the vibrancy of the show.
Mackenzie Simpson’s work has a large spectrum of vibrant colors in her art. Simpson’s piece, Our Bubble, combines printmaking and sculpture to create bubbles and a bubble wand. This work takes up the left corner of the exhibition and the bubbles hang from the ceiling, filling the space. This piece is interactive giving the viewers the ability to walk around the bubbles, and view the images inside of them. Each bubble holds a print image of different places that are significant to Simpson. It can be interpreted from the work’s title that these images are a part of the bubble Simpson lives in.
Gabby Fogarty’s art showcased her skills in graphic design by creating a vinyl record cover. Fogarty’s, The Imperfect Completion: Ver. 1 & 2, is a design of a vinyl record cover for a band called Wave to Earth. As stated on her website, Fogarty uses flowers and colors to influence her design. The two records contrast against each other because Fogarty uses warm toned colors on one piece, while using cool toned colors on the other. They also contrast due to the different compositions with the blue record focusing on a single band member and the red one having three band members in a triangle composition.
Bergman, Simpson, and Fogarty are all great examples of why this exhibition was successful. The title “Spectrum” was well represented and applied perfectly to the artists in the show because all of the art was diverse and unique with lots of color. Each senior artist in the exhibition showcased their talent in many ways; they each had a significant style that was represented well. The “Spectrum” exhibition was very successful and the seniors captured this theme very well.
Work Cited
Fogarty, Gabby. “Gabbyfogarty.” GabbyFogarty. Accessed April 16, 2024. https://www.gabbyfogarty.com/.
“Spectrum: Spring 2024 Senior Exhibition.” SPECTRUM: Spring 2024 Senior Exhibition – Valdosta State University. Accessed April 16, 2024. https://www.valdosta.edu/colleges/arts/art/gallery/current-exhibition.php.