53 ASE HS WORKS | Swope Art Museum

Congratulations to our 53rd Annual selected High School artists!

Juror’s Statement

Congratulations to all the artists who submitted entries into the Swope Art Museum’s Annual Student Art Exhibition. This show is a special opportunity for students to share their creative potential among peers, parents, and surrounding community.

I was impressed with the breadth of creative expression and wide range of media including: graphite pencil, charcoal, ink, acrylic, oil, mixed media, cut paper relief, linocut print, digital photography, twine, lace, fabric, LED lights, pipe cleaners, wire, papier-mâché, carved styrofoam, wood assemblage, felt, found objects, and glazed ceramics using hand-building and wheel throwing techniques.

In the jurying process I selected artwork which interpreted an idea creatively using the expressive qualities of a given medium while demonstrating design, technical skill and craftsmanship. I admired how some students could take the same theme and express their own interpretation in an original way. I challenge the viewers of this exhibition to find artworks that move them in some way, then try to identify what they respond to in the work.

Is it how the artist organized the composition?

Is it how the artist rendered form, details, or features in a sensitive manner?

How they handled the medium to express an emotion, an idea, or specific content?

Other possibilities might include: effective use of color, creating contrast using light and dark values, using the medium’s properties to help animate a form or bring it to life, creating depth of space or rich surface, interpreting hard forms using soft materials, combining more than one medium together to create a certain effect, or using non-traditional art materials such as styrofoam, LED lights, electrical wire, twine, or altered cardboard to create form.

It is my hope that people leave this exhibition with a feeling of joy, pride, and inspiration. Perhaps even a little changed as with any rich, aesthetic experience.

Special thanks goes out to the teachers and schools who help facilitate student work, parents for their endless loving support, to the Swope Art Museum for providing a quality art venue, and the Swope’s great staff for providing the organization to allow this show to happen.

— Chris Berti, Professor of Ceramics at Parkland College, Champaign, IL

PRESS RELEASE FOR HIGH SCHOOL AWARD WINNERS