The O’Kane Gallery’s annual Student Art Exhibition at UHD is open to showcase the visual artwork of students from the past academic year.
The exhibition features a diverse and curated collection of works in various media, including acrylic and oil on canvas, gouache, digital art and prints, ink, charcoal and pencil on paper, graphite, watercolor, colored pencil, photography, and mixed media.
Pieces originate from UHD art studio coursework, such as Painting, Computer Graphic Design, Figure Drawing, Photography, and other courses.
“I talk with all the professors who have taught art studio classes in either fall or spring, and I let them know that we’re doing a show,” said O’Kane Gallery Director Mark Cervenka regarding the exhibition’s submission and curation process. “We’ll give them some guidelines… then students and the professor will bring the artwork down to the gallery, and we do our absolute best to put up everything that is brought in.”
Works in the exhibition are not definitively categorized; however, visitors will find the gallery meticulously organized by medium, theme, and a combination of the two.
Digital prints of exceptional women in history, like Harper Lee, Greta Thunberg, and Lee Miller, are situated on the left wall of the entryway. Next to them are digital prints encouraging voter engagement.
To the right of the prints is where the majority of the exhibition’s acrylic and oil canvas paintings are placed. The paintings range from portraits and moody landscapes to pieces of surrealism and other unique depictions, one of which appears to portray the video game Metroid Prime.
Displayed near the back of the exhibition are black-and-white drawings of everyday objects, the human body, architecture, ducks, and childhood toys.
Adjacent to the drawings are two groups of digital prints: the “CoGrid Collaborative Project” and posters bringing awareness to the effects of climate change and pollution on the ocean.
On the right side of the gallery is photography—consisting of emergency vehicles, dripping water, and buildings—and a mixed media piece.
The partition wall furthest away from the gallery entrance displays watercolor pieces on one side and colored pencil drawings of the human body on the other.
Visual works not physically displayed are projected on the walls of the gallery. One of the slide shows features digital art with a “nature as medicine” theme, while the other slideshow presents pieces expressing various social struggles and movements.
The yearly Student Art Exhibition is a momentous experience. Once the exhibition is over, students’ original works are returned, and there is no alternative to view the 2025 collection.
“We will take general documentary photos of the exhibition. We don’t usually do each individual ones [student works] as kind of an archive,” said Cervenka when asked if the current works on display will be archived. “We don’t really have plans to have an archive that’s public or anything, but [we] try to keep track of our students and keep in touch with them.”
Cervenka revealed that the O’Kane Gallery hopes to have an alumni show sometime next year, though these plans are still young and tentative.
The Student Art Exhibition will be on display until May 1. The O’Kane Gallery is free and open to the public Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.
The gallery is on the third floor of the Girard Street Building, GSB 322; links to parking, directions, and more information can be found on the O’Kane Gallery’s website.
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The UHD Student Art Exhibition is divided into sections based on a medium, including photography.
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A digital art on health as medicine by art student Kammeran McGhee
