Eight Students Named Winners of Annual Juried Exhibition of PCC Student Art and Design

Eight Pasadena City College students were recognized on Nov. 18 as winners of this year’s Juried Exhibition of PCC Student Art and Design, an annual competition that showcases the college’s most talented student-artists.

Approximately 350 works  – in all media – were submitted for the competition, which is facilitated by the PCC School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts. Of those works, 63 were chosen for exhibition in PCC’s Boone Family Art Gallery.

Bernard Cooper, a well-known author and visual artist who served as the competition’s sole juror, singled out eight of the 63 works as award winners. The group was recognized at an opening reception and awards presentation held at the Art Gallery.

The student winners and their pieces are:

·      Alex “Wu” Kang, untitled. Oil on Canvas.

·      Gina Fernandez, Expired. Digital photo on metal.

·      Andre Ghadesmina, Diamond Field. Graphite.

·      Oscar Rios, Wasted Years. Video.

·      Mhiach Noti, The Shoe. Screen print.

·      Dameon Waggoner, Exene 1. Enamel, vinyl sticker, metal tape, spray paint.

·      Bonnie-Blue Delgado, The Beast. Wood, nails, chenille duster, razor blades.

·      Tsvetelina Valkov, Double Standard. Watercolor monotype on aquatinted etched plate.

Along with the recognition, the students were awarded $200 each.

“This year’s juror was very conscientious: he made his preliminary selections in one long day of looking at art, then came back the following day to make his final selections and lay out the show,” said Brian Tucker, PCC associate professor in the Visual Arts and Media Studies Department and Gallery director.

Sophomore Gina Fernandez, a fine arts major and one of the eight winners, said she was “surprised and excited” about the honor. “It was a sense of validation,” she said.

Fernandez described her award-winning work, Expired, as a “picture of happenstance.” She said she took the photo while walking around with a friend in Los Angeles. The full-color, vertical image consists of a weathered pair of shoes lying next to a graffiti-riddled parking meter.

“The shoes caught my eye first, and as I was passing it I saw the parking meter. So I shot it as is.”

Fernandez then mounted the image on metal and decided to add another element to the medium: she asked a friend to shoot the image with a .44 magnum revolver and a 9 millimeter pistol.

“It’s an image that makes a statement about an urban landscape as desolate and sad. [With the bullet holes I wanted to interact with the viewer a little more to heighten awareness,” she said.

The exhibition will run through Jan. 30. The Art Gallery will be closed for the winter break beginning Dec. 8 and will reopen on Jan. 12, 2015, the first day of Spring Semester.

Gallery admission is free. For more information, call (626) 585-3285.