USU hosts sixth annual Paper & Clay show
On the second floor of the Daryl Chase Fine Arts Center, in the Tippetts and Eccles Galleries, 54 contemporary printmaking and ceramic works are on display from art students across the nation. The exhibition, which opened in January and closes Feb. 24, is free and open to the public.
Kathy Puzey, department head of art and design for the Caine College of the Arts and an associate professor, created the idea of Paper & Clay with colleague Todd Hayes, a ceramics professor.
Along with giving students opportunities to build their portfolios, Puzey said the exhibition gave students a chance to learn from each other.
“This was a great way for us to bring in student work from across the nation for our own students to see and use as resources, and kind of show them the level they’re working at and how they compare — and that they do compare to other students working elsewhere,” Puzey said in a phone interview.
This year’s juror, Jenny Schmidt, agreed. As a printmaking professor at the University of Minnesota, Schmidt has been a trusted resource for USU’s printmaking program.
She was invited as a guest to spend a week in the department. Schmidt said she was impressed by her time at USU and hopes to come back the next chance she gets.
Schmidt has been to many similar events across the country but said she had never seen so many high-caliber artists in a college exhibition.
“The level of work was really high. The students technically were at a really high level,” Schmidt said in a phone interview. “I didn’t see anything that was cliché. I felt like people were being very honest and pretty sophisticated in the expression of their personal voice.”
Schmidt said she had a difficult time judging the artwork and noted that this exhibition is already a very difficult one to be accepted into in the first place. She added an honorable mention award due to the high amount of works that caught her attention.
The winner of the award was a screenprint by USU student Megan Wilson, titled “Become Normal Again.” The piece featured primary colors, human figures and faded text.
The first place winner created a piece about handwriting, which was experimental in a way that was interesting to Schmidt.
“It just had a really intimate, personal voice that felt small but really important, which I loved — which kind of contrasts something really intimate and small but being important personal expression and a strong metaphor,” Schmidt said. “For me, that’s really important.”
Student artists had to apply for the exhibition, but the entry fee was designed to be affordable. Puzey said the entry fee was $10, plus the shipping fee. USU paid for shipping work back to artists at the conclusion of the exhibit.
Schmidt said she appreciated how USU is a state school, making its art programs accessible to more people. Not only are more people able to enroll in the programs, but people from the community and other majors can visit the galleries on campus to both see and celebrate the work of their peers.
“I think it’s a great resource for the college,” Puzey said. “I think students across campus benefit from seeing this type and this caliber of exhibition as well, because other than the NEHMA, there’s really nowhere else in town to go see such a high level of work and diverse grouping of work — especially created by students.”