Rumsey Scholarship Competition Heats Up

The Visual Studies Gallery buzzed with admiration last Thursday as the opening of the Rumsey Scholarship Competition Gallery welcomed the competing works of seven talented UB art students.

The annual competition occurs during the early months of the spring semester, giving ambitious art students in their junior year a chance to apply for the opportunity to earn funding for a travel of their choice the summer preceding their senior year.

Students are required to submit their work with a proposal describing the overarching concepts behind their entries, along with a brief explanation of their desired destination. The visual studies faculty will consider the submissions and select the winners of the $2,000 award, which will fund the trip to expand and develop their artistic endeavors.

The works of this year's participants represent a wide range of skills, varying from printmaking to sculpture, charcoal sketches to collages, and acrylic painting to photography.

The entrance of the exhibit displays the works of fine art major Anthony Pismarov, whose submissions expose his mastering of India ink and graphite. If Pismarov wins, he plans to use the Rumsey scholarship to finance a trip to Florence, Italy to investigate Renaissance art.

"[My work] can be described as Tim Burton-esque and steampunk," Pismarov said.

Adjacent to Pismarov are the works of art history and fine art major Andrea Zlotowitz. Her works combine printmaking with the ideas of an alternative universe. An image titled "Squid Fingers" demonstrates the cross between a familiar human world and that of a strange space, as she represents this with an image of a hand with tentacles instead of fingers. A collection of earthy prints sandwiched between her science-fiction imagery reflects her ambitions of traveling to Greece this summer to participate in an excavation of a buried world.

Caitlin McLeod, a fine art and theater design major, integrates paintings and installations for her collection. Her interest in the human relationship to the environment is threaded throughout her various pieces. She plans to use the scholarship to travel to New York City this summer to study public art and research the value of graffiti.

"I want to see where people draw the line [between] fine arts and vandalism," McLeod said.

The works of Nicholas Butlak, a studio art major, attracted many eyes, as his 8-feet-by-4-feet canvas titled "I Almost Died But it Felt Great" stretched from ceiling to floor, possessing rich and flavorful colors.

"Through the colors and imagery, I want people to feel an emotional sensation," Butlak said. "There is a gray area, and with my artwork I expose the truth; the ego is stripped from the person."

His work heavily investigates and exposes the effects of mainstream media and its embedded influence on individuals in American culture.

Bonnie Wan, a fine art major, uses her experiences growing up in the large commercialized cities of Hong Kong and New York City to sculpt her multimedia artistic creations.

"I am interested in how people perceive information through media evolution," Wan said. "I [examine] how they are affected by the media through their characteristics and personalities."

Genevieve Van Dussen, a studio art major, uses her work to represent her struggles of self-identity as an adopted Korean girl growing up in a predominantly Caucasian community. A delicate red thread is curiously placed around her mounted images.

"The string represents my solidarity, the journey of being on my own" Van Dussen said.

Dara Gildner, a fine art major, displays her progression as an artist. Her desire to progress her art toward a collaborative study with engineers and scientists is reflected in her piece titled "Vector Butterfly," in which half of the butterfly is complete and the other half represents a formula for its creation.

The winners of this year's competition will display their summer projects in the fall of 2011. Three students received an award in last year's competition, but it is more common for two to be selected. With the exceptional beauty, talent, and diligent labor exposed in this year's competition, all seven of the participants are good candidates to be winners.

E-mail: arts@ubspectrum.com