Undergraduates' art Roundup starts tonight

By Robert Winters

Roundup, the annual Concordia Undergraduate Student Exhibition, is a showcase for the best art produced by Faculty of Fine Arts undergraduates. It opens at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery with a vernissage tonight.

The final selection of work by 18 artists involved a somewhat daunting elimination process, as 140 artists applied to have their work shown.

“It's a very tough show to put on,” said Carla Benzan, co-director of the VAV Gallery and an organizer of this year’s show. “People are so disappointed not to get in. And whatever choices are made, there will always be criticism.”

The process is democratic, however. A jury of eight undergraduate students evaluates the submissions, which are presented anonymously to reduce favoritism. The scores from the silent jury are tallied up and the work is selected.

“We try to encourage representation from the less represented departments, although where there are more students studying [e.g., in photography, sculpture and painting], there is more work to choose from, and consequently these departments are more present in the show.”

Benzan would like to have seen more work from Fibres and Ceramics, but “our aesthetic frame is pre-determined along lines of more traditional [and commercial] media.”

Next year, she thinks the VAV co-directors will provide more parameters for selection of pieces for the show. They could require at least one piece from each department and accept the highest ranking from each one. This year, more than three artists have shown at the Undergrad show in previous years.

“Perhaps this should change to allow for more people to benefit from the exposure.”

Benzan, a Painting and Drawing student with a BA in art history from the University of British Columbia, co-ordinated the show along with Kyd Campbell, the VAV’s other co-director, and the Ellen Gallery.

The opening for the show is today from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, on the ground floor of the J.W. McConnell Library building. Artists’ talks begin at 4:30 for those who want to find out more about the ideas behind the work, often key to getting more out of contemporary art, with its strong undercurrent of conceptual thinking.. The show continues until May 14.