A handful of artists and intern curators made an impact on the community of people that came to observe the City College Student Sculpture Pop-Up on April 6 at the Atkinson Gallery.
The exhibition featured various themes with a multitude of expertise, ranging from City College students to artists outside of the college wanting to showcase their work. The Atkinson Gallery became a home for the night to an array of projects representing ordinary objects in a metaphorical way.
“Art for me is always like exploration and experimentation. I’m always doing new things,” said Manuel Reyes-Otalora, a City College student and artist in the show.
In the pursuit of representing the epitome of art, so many of the pieces displayed had stories to tell and purposes to fulfill by the artists.
“I wanted to do something that people would look at and have a reaction to,” Reyes-Otalora said about his piece.
Reyes-Otalora, who also goes by the artist’s name of MR-Otalora, showcased a piece called the “Homeless Man,” challenging the worldwide epidemic of unhoused people. The artwork was made of entirely repurposed materials such as steel and wood veneer to display the perspective of a homeless person.
“There is homeless everywhere, I wanted to memorialize homelessness,” Reyes-Otalora said. “It’s something that is not only here, it is worldwide.”
According to observer Geri Riehl, many people were impacted by the inspiration they felt in the messages of the pieces displayed. They found the art to be powerful for the brain and cause healing.
A lot of work went into the art at the Atkinson Gallery, curated by the Atkinson Gallery Director John Connelly, and Delaney Crawford a City College student and an intern curator. From picking the themes, people, art to showcase and setting all the moving pieces up in the gallery the two finally found relief and pride in what they had done.
“My way I’m creative is curating, bringing artists together in a dialogue, in an exhibition to engage or present a theme,” Connelly said.
The theme “rule of three,” handpicked by Crawford, showcased a seen pattern in the number three and all it signifies.
“As I was looking at people’s work, I noticed I wanted three of each person, and I realized that there’s a rule of three writing principles; which is the idea that information is processed best in groups of three,” Crawford said.
According to Crawford, an easy to digest number, such as three, brings the “brevity and rhythm” together in art as well as proving characters and events more “humorous, satisfying or effective.”
Looking upon her work and the stress of the project being postponed twice due to weather and working with all the moving pieces that go into an art show, Crawford found many lessons throughout the process to translate into her goal career as an art director.
“Realizing that every hurdle is something that I’ll be able to take into my next challenge or obstacle,” Crawford said.
