Whether disturbing, gorgeous, thought-provoking, or intense, the Cyrus M. Running Gallery features art from Concordia College students and faculty as well as regional artists in a series of exhibitions throughout the school year.
The final show of the year — the Senior Art Exhibition, which showcases the work of seniors graduating in May 2024 with an art, art education, or art history major — will open on Wednesday, April 17, and draw to an end May 5. Awards will be announced during the Celebration of Student Scholarship event on the opening day, and a public reception is set for 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 4.
While the Senior Art Exhibition primarily highlights the work of seniors majoring or otherwise focusing on art during their studies, the prior show, the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition, was open to all Concordia students. As such, some of the students whose work was chosen by juror Troy Becker hadn’t even taken an art class at Concordia before their work was displayed in the gallery on the second floor of the Frances Frazier Comstock Theatre building.
Zimy Le, for example, is set to graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and psychology, and two of her pieces were chosen for the earlier student art show.
One, “Wooden Fish,” is a meticulously carved fish, shaped with realism but adorned with vivid swirls of paint, as if it had swum through two consecutive Van Gogh paintings and had no intention of stopping. The other is “Wood Plate,” a plain piece of basswood chip-carved into angular patterns with geometric precision, each point and slope drawing out the natural detailing of the wood.
The plate earned Le one of the four Merit Awards in the show, which came with $75.
Audrey Zeleny also received a Merit Award for one of her five pieces selected for that show — “Hyperbolic Space,” which she crocheted from variegated wool yarn, only to leave it on the floor of her bedroom for a few weeks, unnoticed.
“I am a math major, and I initially created this piece as a way to understand hyperbolic geometry, which is a math concept that I am currently learning in one of my math classes,” Zeleny explained. “I didn’t have a plan going into it, and I had no idea what the final product would look like while I was creating it, which was very exciting!”
The results were surprising.
“When I finished the ball of yarn, I realized the final product had a very moving and organic feel and was much more sculptural than I had anticipated,” said Zeleny, noting that she intends to do more experimenting with the mathematical concept in the future.
All five of her pieces in the show were sculptures and all made with different materials, including “Concentric Circles” in bronze and “See-Saw” in wood.
Because the show is juried, not all the submitted pieces are selected, but rather than giving up, artists are encouraged to submit work in future shows.
“I would tell them to go for it! The most important thing is to not be afraid of failing,” said Zeleny, who said she’d submitted a few pieces two years ago only to have them turned down. “Oftentimes, ‘worst case scenarios’ stop people from trying to new things. I believe that failure is a very valuable part of life. You can’t avoid it, so you might as well embrace it!”
Le, too, had submitted pieces before that weren’t chosen in the past, but it didn’t stop her. She’s been chip-carving wood as a hobby for years with the Red River Valley Woodcarvers, which will host its International Wood Arts Festival event April 26-28, complete with a show and carving classes.
“Don’t give up,” she advised fellow artists. “Somebody else is going to say yes. Don’t give up doing art.”
Also receiving Merit Awards were Ives Hilgers for his oil-on-canvas “The Remorse of Orpheus with Primordial Monument” and Wes Wasson for “The Vale,” a bronze sculpture. Mary Noah earned the $125 Charles and Vicki Hartz Award for her bronze and wood sculpture, “Tristan Und Isolde.”
The $150 Best in Show studio art award went to Samuel Zimmerman’s “Proximate,” a quizzical mixed media work featuring a large ceramic teardrop shape, point down, seemingly held in place with a set of clamps one might find in a chemistry laboratory, above a circular metallic-colored plate. The teardrop is smooth, in yellow and green, with a black circle and red stripe at the top leading the eye down to the red pointed tip, aimed directly at the center of the round platter.
It's eye-catching, with its bright colors, defined shapes, and specificity — and perhaps a bit puzzling, too. 
“’Proximate’ started out as a piece that explored the concept of structure. However, it changed and morphed into something different than where it started,” Zimmerman explained. “Throughout the building, sculpting and glazing process, I took time to really analyze the piece and listen to what it needed.”
The in-progress analysis resulted in shifting the teardrop-shape from horizontal to vertical, which “added so much more for the viewer,” he said. “I was incredibly surprised to see how well-received it was! I find it a bit daunting when submitting works of art that may not have an obvious meaning or is a bit abstract.”
He encouraged viewers to observe the relationships, interactions, and tensions within the piece.
Zimmerman also encouraged fellow artists to submit their work for exhibitions.
“Always submit your work, even if you may not believe it will get in. You may be surprised!” he said. “Putting your work out into the world is scary, but incredibly rewarding. Do it.”
The Running Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. In addition, the gallery will be open from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 4, and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, May 5.
For more information, visit ConcordiaCollege.edu/Gallery or call the art department at 218.299.4623.
