Each spring, Auburn University art students are presented with the opportunity to be recognized and awarded for their artwork through the Student Juried Art Show, an annual event presented by Biggin Gallery and the College of Liberal Arts.
Cassidy Kulhanek, participant in this year's show and junior in art and German, said any art student can submit work that was made within the last year.
"The entire art faculty comes and acts as a jury to the items," Kulhanek said. "They go through and select the items, and whatever items get chosen ultimately end up in the show."
Kulhanek said she was honored to be part of this year's show with her piece "Henrik Ibsen and Family Matters," an image showing the traditional roles of a family represented in a dollhouse. She said being one of the artists chosen made her feel hopeful for her future work.
"It's a good opportunity for us to get our work out there and get acknowledged," Kulhanek said. "If you're a fine arts student and you get in the show, it becomes part of your resume. Whenever you're submitting work to galleries in the future, that's already one show that you've had work into. It's almost like having an extra job on your resume."
Selected artists also received awards for their work, which included cash prizes and scholarships for art supplies. Some of the awards presented were the Dean's Choice Purchase Award, the James E. Furr Award for Creative Excellence and the Department of Art Merit Award.
"The dean of Liberal Arts chooses a couple of pieces of artwork to be put into his office, and it's a cash prize of $1,000," said Jake Patrick, senior in art and winner of the Department of Art Merit Award. "Smaller merit awards are given from the department, and the [guest] juror picks three works, and those are cash prizes as well."
Guest juror Susannah Darrow, executive director and co-founder of burnaway.org, chose the winners of the Joyce and Roger Lethander Merit Award. Justin Cordova, senior in art, was one of the students to receive this award with his piece, "The Looking Well."
For his piece, Cordova used a screen print rope attached to a mirror to give the illusion of looking down into a well.
"I was just studying looking into perception and how we perceive reality versus how we virtualize reality in a way," Cordova said. "With (my) piece, it was an invitation for the viewer to perceive the world in a different manner."
All of the artwork and awards were displayed in an exhibit for the public to view in the Biggin Hall gallery from March 24 to April 4.
"I thought overall all the work was really great and deserving," Kulhanek said. "I know almost everyone that was in it personally, so I know how much work goes into these things. To see them all displayed together was neat because it's not a lot of [artwork] that you would normally see together."
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