Rylee Anderson | Staff Writer | randerson5@mail.smcvt.edu
St. Michael’s is home to the McCarthy Art Gallery, where senior art and design majors showcase their solo art exhibits every year. However, not all of them utilize the space; some students choose to stray from the norm.
This year, the director and curator of the McCarthy Art Gallery, Professor Brian Collier, was tasked with the challenge of fitting 18 students, a record number, into the 15 week-long slots throughout the semester. Three students are now preparing for their shows in other venues around campus due to the limited time slots available in the gallery. These exhibits include a fashion show, light-based installations, and a cookbook, all of which benefit from being displayed elsewhere.
“Brian was telling us that there’s a lot of seniors and not enough weeks… then he gave us the option of ‘if you go and do whatever you want [outside of the gallery], you can pick whatever day you want’ and it just felt way better,” said Laila Travers, a senior working on a fashion show and pop-up shop as her exhibit.
Inspired by fashion designer Virgil Abloh, hip-hop culture and music, her time as an athlete, and the art of everyday life, Travers offers a distinctive exhibit involving clothing. She will hold a runway show on April 3 in the breezeway between Aubin and Dion, and her pop-up shop, Juiced, can be found in the McCarthy Arts Center lobby on April 4 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Juiced, and Travers’ work in general, takes inspiration from graffiti. “It’s like blue-collar art and it doesn’t have to meet any standard… and that’s something I try to do with my artistic practice like I’m not trying to meet anybody anywhere, I’m just here to do my thing.”
Travers worked for months in her small studio in Sloane, one wall decorated with pink graffiti including a Mac Miller quote, and unique, upcycled clothing in every corner. She explained that stepping away from the traditional gallery format can bring self-doubt.
“When you’re doing something different, it doesn’t look like the guy next to you always so you don’t know how well you’re doing,” Travers said.“But it’s just staying committed and trusting that it’s gonna be something if you put enough time to it.”
Fellow artist, Jack Hurley, says, “Something that motivates me is the challenge of feeling new. That’s why without having a plan in place originally, I kind of committed to not having it in the gallery.”
Hurley, inspired by artists Olafur Eliasson, James Turrell, and Helen Pashgian, will be showing his exhibit, Cline, which includes light-based sculpture installations, in the Trap Door Theater, the lower level of the McCarthy Arts Center. The reception will be held March 13 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. His exhibit requires controlled lighting, making the Trap Door Theater a stronger option than the gallery.
“My base is woodworking. I love to make art out of wood,” Hurley said. His exhibit, however, is much more than woodworking. He will be using his woodworking and sculpting knowledge to make projector mounts out of found materials, but the focus will be light, with the inclusion of some elements of text, motion, and sound. “I’m proud of my work but parts of it are vulnerable in ways that my work hasn’t been in the past,” Hurley said. “There’s text and imagery that alludes to experiences or emotions that a wooden chair doesn’t, for example.”
A third senior, Scott Gausland, is also showing outside of the McCarthy Art Gallery. He will be sharing his cookbook, Mixed, at a book launch reception on March 26 at 6 p.m. in the Archway lounge in Dion.
Each art and design major works to create an exhibit every year. Many young artists don’t have the opportunity to create a solo exhibit or work with a curator so early in their career. “It’s a hard thing to ask them to do, but it’s a good, hard thing,” Collier, director and curator of McCarthy Art Gallery, explains.