VCUarts ANDERSON GALLERY ANNOUNCES 2006 STUDENT EXHIBITIONS RICHMOND, Va.

Students from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts will be displaying their finest work in a series of exhibitions at VCUarts Anderson Gallery, 907 1/2 W. Franklin St. The Gallery will exhibit the annual Student Design Exhibition concurrently with the Juried Student Fine Arts Exhibition from March 31st – April 15. These exhibitions will open with a reception on March 31st from 5 – 7 pm. The two-part Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition will run April 21- May 30 (Round I) and May 5 - 14 (Round II), with opening receptions scheduled for the first day of each round.

The Student Design Exhibition features student work selected by the faculty members from the Communication Arts (Illustration, Drawing and Visual Studies), Graphic Design, Fashion Design and Interior Design departments. The annual Juried Student Fine Arts Exhibition, now in its 35th year, will feature paintings, prints, sculptures, site-specific installations, drawings, crafts, photography and video. Undergraduate students currently enrolled in studio classes in the School of the Arts are eligible to enter up to three pieces of work. Each year the Anderson Gallery brings to Virginia Commonwealth University a noted expert to judge the student entries. The result is a stimulating exhibition, chosen from the most interesting and challenging student work to be found anywhere in the country.

Marius Valdes Muse Painting	Katherine Cirasuolo Copertina	Garyt Shiflett Model from Class

This year the juror for the Student Fine Arts Exhibition will be Heide Trepanier. Ms. Trepanier, who is currently represented by the Stux Gallery in New York, has shown extensively in New York and throughout Virginia and the Washington DC- area. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Amnesia at the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Alterd Interiors at the 2nd Street Gallery in Charlottesville, and Gula at the 1708 Gallery in Richmond. Her work is also frequently exhibited at the Stux Gallery in New York. Her resume includes an impressive list of group exhibitions, including the 2004 Armory Show in New York, an exhibition at The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and ARCO at the Pilar Parra Galeria in Madrid, Spain. Ms. Trepanier has received numerous prestigious awards and grants, including a 2002 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship, a 2001 Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship Award and a 2000 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant Award. She also received the Pollack Prize for Excellence in the Arts, Emerging Artist, from Richmond Magazine in 2004. She received her MFA from VCUarts Department of Painting and Printmaking in 2000.

Due to the unique nature of the work from VCUarts Department of Kinetic Imaging and the time demands required to view this work, the department has opted to have a separate juror. This year, VCUarts Department of Kinetic Imaging has selected Kathleen Forde, curator at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (empac) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York to juror their department’s portion of the Student Fine Arts Exhibition. Ms. Forde curates and writes on a freelance basis, most recently for the Rotterdam Film Festival, VideoZone Tel Aviv, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Düsseldorf and Cologne Kunstverein, and the Transmediale Festival, Berlin.

The Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition is the final requirement for students earning a master’s degree in the fine arts and design departments from VCU. The exhibitions provide a forum for emerging artists to display their work and give viewers a “preview” of new directions in the visual arts. Each of the participating artists will exhibit work that represents the culmination of their 2 year masters program in one of the following areas: painting, printmaking, sculpture, communication arts and design, crafts, photography, and interior design. “These exhibitions provide an excellent opportunity for viewers to invest in up-and-coming artists, as many of the pieces on view will be for sale,” said Amy Moorefield, assistant director and curator of collections for the Anderson Gallery. Round 1 of the Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition will be on display from April 21– 30, with an opening reception Friday, April 21st at 5 p.m. Round 2 of the Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition will be on display from May 5 – May 14 with an opening reception on May 5th at 5 pm

The public is invited to attend all of these events and exhibitions. VCUarts Anderson Gallery hours are Monday – Friday 10 am– 5 pm and Saturday and Sunday 1– 5 pm. For more details, call the gallery at (804) 828 1522 or visit our website at http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/gallery/.