rebreynolds – Art Criticism

“nexus”

by Canita Ruan

Valdosta State University Fine Arts Senior Students came together to present their Spring 2025 final seniors show, titled “nexus.” The exhibition was held at the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, from April 13 to May 1. The exhibition was a celebration of the student’s growth, creativity, and collaboration. Each piece in the exhibition reflected their university and personal journey, with themes showing connection, transition and shared experience. The exhibition offered a vibrant and memorable showcase of diverse talents and bright futures of ten emerging artists ready to explore the many possibilities of the art world.

Emma Sink in “Nexus”

by Haley Miller

Emma Sink, a resident of Valdosta, GA, is a participant in the Spring 2025 senior exhibition, “Nexus,” at Valdosta State University. The show features all the graduating art seniors, focusing on themes such as life, family, and the personal interests of the students. The main themes that Sink pursues are life, death, and the process of grieving. Grieving can be due to death, but people can also grieve in life for a multitude of reasons, which is something she likes to explore. She establishes that she has a rather dark personality, and that is why she tends to focus on themes such as death. However, she wants to find the beauty within death and within memories. For her viewers, she hopes that they look past the gruesomeness and face value of her work to really question what it means behind the bones and the intricate details.

Valdosta National

by Hayley Acevedo

The Valdosta National held at the Dedo Maranville Gallery, at Valdosta State University, located in Valdosta, Georgia is host to a wide variety of artists and styles. While the space of the gallery was small, the curator did an effective job arranging the artworks in the limited space. The artworks were placed and paired up according to style and artist, and in between there are single artworks that together help draw the viewer across the gallery.

Elizabeth Wilson

by Shelby Hammack

In preparation for a new painting, Elizabeth Wilson sits cross-legged on her bedroom floor, sketching the composition into a small sketchbook. The strokes of her pencil begin broadly but begin to hone into detail as I settle on the floor across from her. Her room is relatively large for being one of four in the home, but it feels slightly smaller due to the collection of trinkets and ephemera she’s collected in this very room for the past two decades. “I prefer to work on the floor of my bedroom if I’m painting,” Wilson states, “I like to be in the comfort of my home with all of my things around me that I need.” Considering the theme of Wilson’s work in the 2025 “Nexus” exhibition at Valdosta State University’s Dedo Maranville Gallery, it is suitable to see her in the comfort of her home while producing her work.

“The Good Sun”

by Lori Bowen

Chico Sierra’s “The Good Sun” is set up at the Dedo Maranville gallery from February 13^th to April 4^th and features a wide selection of Sierra’s works. The show opened alongside a workshop from Sierra himself in which he painted the exhibition’s largest piece for an audience of students and other onlookers. A visiting artist to Valdosta, Chico Sierra originally hails from El Paso but resides currently in Kansas City.[1] With works focusing on topics such as cultural identity and the current political climate, Sierra’s Mexican and Indigenous roots are extremely present in his artistry.[2] This contributes to several motifs present throughout the gallery’s works, alluding to a larger overarching theme of cultural strength in the face of colonization.

The 37th Annual Valdosta National

by Canita Ruan

“The 37th Annual Valdosta National” exhibition was held January 16^th to February 7^th, 2025, at the Dedo Maranville Gallery, organized by Mark Errol, director of the fine arts gallery at Valdosta State University. There were twenty-five artists from twelve states represented in this exhibition. Everyone from the public was welcome to visit the gallery and see the works selected for this exhibition. In the exhibition write-up, the juror for the exhibit, Michael McFalls, remarked on the outstanding quality of the artwork that was submitted and the difficulty of choosing just 25 pieces from 195 submissions. The juror said the work had, “Individual artistic excellence and cultural conversation.”[1] For the variety of pieces chosen, several of the artist’s pieces were featured in the same media more than once and were placed side by side on the gallery walls.

Valdosta National 2025

by Haley Miller

The Dedo Maranville Gallery at Valdosta State University hosted the 37^th Annual “Valdosta National Exhibition,” which opened on January 14^th. The exhibition includes the artwork of different artists from 12 states across the U.S. Juried by Michael McFalls, a professor at Columbia State University, the show sought to find work that “captures both individual artistic excellence and a larger cultural conversation.”[1] As mentioned in the juror’s statement, artists have used their work as visual language for centuries, creating a sense of shared experiences between humanity. McFall looked for artworks that would add a new point of view or go beyond just formal proficiency. The exhibition certainly offers an array of different themes, from ones that address societal issues like the environment to more expressive works that touch on identity, spirituality, and the questioning of our common reality.[2] There are several different mediums ranging from painting, sculpture, and photography to more unique forms like miniature scenes and small sculptures.

Victoria Wells

by Hayley Acevedo

When Victoria first arrived at VSU, she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to specialize in. She experimented with various media—printmaking, graphic design, and even sculpture. Eventually, she developed a distinctive style centered around lionesses and the female figure. Wells works in a style she refers to as “abstract realism,” in which she combines highly detailed, realistic imagery with expressive, abstract backgrounds. For her, making art is an emotional process. She begins with whatever she’s feeling in the moment and uses that emotion to guide the creation of her backgrounds. Once the abstract elements are laid down, she incorporates realistic figures—often lions or human forms—to bring the composition to life.

The 2025 Valdosta National

by Shelby Hammack

On January 14, 2025, Valdosta State University’s Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery held the opening reception for the 37th annual Valdosta National exhibition. Curated by the gallery director, Mark Errol, and juried by Professor of Art at Columbus State University, Michael McFalls, the 2025 Valdosta National presents a wide variety in subject matter, medium, and style.

Luisa (Lu) Puerto Studio Visit

by Sammye C. Hamilton

Luisa (Lu) Puerto is a force to be reckoned with in the field of interior design. Lu’s determination to create designs that are functional and aesthetically pleasing comes directly from her own preferences and experiences and is joined by her knowledge of functionality that is accommodating for others. Lu’s designs are stylish and modern but simultaneously reflect unique, detailed aspects that evoke a blissful sense of nostalgia for both her as a designer and for her clients. While Luisa Puerto does follow the traditional steps of the design process such as planning a vision board and inspiration pictures, schematic planning, wayfinding and life safety plans, reflected ceiling plans, material selection and placement, and rendering and presentation board preparation, she also adds her own flair that ensures an original design like no other.