Arcadia University Commons Art Gallery Presents Student Biennial 2014 Juried Exhibition

By Purnell T. Cropper | January 28, 2014

Photographs, oil paintings, metal jewelry and sculpture, and other student works are on display at the 2014 Student Biennial Juried Exhibition at Arcadia University. The show, which runs through Feb. 23, is on display in the Commons Art Gallery, and is sponsored by the Arcadia University Art Research Collaboration (ARC) Exhibition Program.

This is the fifth in a series of student exhibitions juried by an outside curator. This year’s exhibition was juried by Judith Tannenbaum, adjunct curator at the Rhode Island School of Design RISD Museum. A lecture by Tannenbaum surveying her work as a curator is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 4:30 p.m. in the Commons Great Room. A reception to celebrate the exhibiting artists will follow. Five individual prizes, voted on by the Art Department faculty, will be presented to the winning students. Both events are free.

Tannenbaum selected 26 entries from a pool of 127 works submitted by Arcadia students. Other mediums displayed include ceramics; graphite, ink, and charcoal drawings; video installation; and an assortment of mixed media.

“Judith was incredibly thorough, revisiting her choices again and again to ensure that she had considered every submission carefully while at the same time remaining attentive to the need to create a well-balanced exhibition that would reference every concentration in the program,” said Richard Torchia, director of the Arcadia University Art Gallery. “In general, her attention to detail reveals a sensibility that valued fully resolved works and their ability to engage the viewer in a very immediate way.”

Esteemed for her support of cross-disciplinary projects that underscore performance, craft, and design in tandem with the fine arts, Tannenbaum is perhaps most notable for the leadership she demonstrated as Interim Director of The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia in 1989-90, when she became the spokesperson for the defense of public funding for the arts and artistic freedom in relation to the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition originated by the ICA.

Prior to 2006, art department faculty selected works for this biennial exhibition. The current practice of inviting an outside juror began that year when independent curator Julie Courtney was invited to make the selections for the exhibition. Subsequent jurors included Elyse Gonzalez, assistant curator at the ICA in 2008, and Sue Spaid, independent curator, Philadelphia, in 2010. The 2012 Biennial, juried by Charles Ritchie, artist and associate curator in the Department of Modern Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., was the first exhibition presented in the Arcadia University Commons Art Gallery.

The artists in the current exhibition include Jaxson Arnold, Shuo Chen, Melissa D’Arcangelo, Deana Dinelli, Sherrie Harbove, Arianna Kendra, Cameron King, Kyle Lascelle, Danielle Leon, Samantha McGill, Kimberly McNamara, Sandra Nguyen, Kelsey Pendergast, Kandice Poole, Kathryn Rauth, Madeline Seton, Daniel Schaub, Samantha Simmons, Allison Sims, Ashley Walter, Amanda Whittaker, Kara Wright, Robert Yurasits, and Emma Zirkle.

This exhibit is made possible in part by a donation to the Gateway Society by Theresa and John Rollins.

Gallery Hours

  • Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.
  • Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.