This year’s opening reception of The MINI, an annual juried student exhibition, featured four students’ work in an exhibition they curated themselves inside the Neidorff Gallery in the Jim and Janet Dicke Art Building. Each artist’s works tell stories of their own and together they touch on themes of memory, connection and the past.
The MINI, open to the public from Jan. 23 to Feb. 15, gives applicants a chance to display their work as part of a collection in a more informal setting, a chance Lisa Endresen, manager of the Neidorff Gallery, described as a unique opportunity offered by the department of art and art history.
“The good thing about this show is that each of the seniors can show an entire body of work that they will not be showing in the senior show. This is something, a message, that they want to get out by themselves,” Endresen said.
Michaela Bosco, senior art and communication double-major, is a printmaker and explained that each of her three pieces is associated with someone close to her. She said that each of the three layers that came together in her piece, “His Forest,” embodies a specific memory.
“This one, ‘His Forest,’ is my grandparent’s cabin in East Texas. I kind of painted a picture of what it felt like to be there,” Bosco said.
The theme of memory was also present in Sebastian Najera’s work, senior Spanish and art double-major, whose inspiration came from a study abroad semester in Madrid. He explained that the collection included a triptych of small black and white photos taken on film that captured elements of his host mom’s house and life.
“She was showing me her embroidery work that she had to do when she was in school, growing up under the Franco dictatorship,” Najera said. “She said her grandmother had the most amazing, most beautiful embroidery work, and she pulled out those blankets and sheets that had all been her work. Then she was showing her grandmother’s name embroidered.”
Jaida Johnson, senior art and international studies double-major, reimagined history using a printmaking technique called lithography. She explained that working with limestone lithography was new but a welcome experiment.
“I wanted to do a parody of Uncle Sam posters. I have one for ‘Preserve’ and the ‘Victory Garden,’” Johnson said. “Then the ‘I Want You’ poster but as a wolf instead.”
In the corner of the gallery, Madeleine Albert’s piece honored her father, who passed away suddenly in 2017. Albert, junior art and communication double-major, used letters, photos, clothing, paintings, drawings, a bookshelf and other mementos from her father’s office. With her family in attendance, she explained how each piece on the floor-to-ceiling installation brought her family’s history into the space.
“I know nobody else would recognize these people, but it’s meaningful,” Albert said. “My mom was crying earlier, so it might not hold meaning to other people, but I hope that they can recognize that even though they don’t recognize these people and recognize these letters and these handwritings, they recognize the concept of having those strong family ties that they see in their own family, even though it’s not literally about their family.”
Valerie Albert, Madeleine’s mother, said the piece showed her husband’s life and how much he was loved.
“I didn’t really know what to expect. It was sort of a surprise and a little bit overwhelming to process all of it publicly, but I think it’s more about Madeleine than about me,” Valerie Albert said. “Many of the things that you see here — he died in his office — were squirreled away in his office, things that he thought, even the pictures of other people, were important.”
