Hamilton Gallery re-opens to public with Best of Salve Students 2021 art show

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery is pleased to announce its return to public programming with the opening of “BOSS: Best of Salve Students 2021” show, which will run now through Wednesday, October 13. The Salve Regina community is invited, as well as the general public.

“We’re excited, because this year we have the opportunity to engage with the public,” said Ernest Jolicoeur, director of the Hamilton Gallery. “Last year that wasn’t the case. We were restricted in terms of who we were able to have in the gallery, so we’re excited that the conversations and the dialogues can begin to expand again.”

Each fall during the Best of Salve Students Show (BOSS), the Department of Art and Art History presents its annual survey of outstanding student artwork drawn from the full spectrum of visual art courses taught on campus. This juried exhibition showcases creative achievement at all studio levels from introductory to advanced in a wide variety of media.

This year’s BOSS show features a range of artwork from both art majors and non-art majors in the areas of photography, painting, drawing, illustration, ceramics, graphic design, sculpture and interactive media.

“If I were to try to describe this show in three words, I would say ‘community,’ ‘inclusiveness’ and ‘potential,'” said Jolicoeur. “The show is very much about building a ‘community’ here at Salve — not just within the art department but art within a larger discourse. I would say ‘inclusiveness’ in the sense that we really are trying to include all voices, majors and non-majors alike, and ‘potential’ in the sense that this is recent work from students that are aspiring to do bigger and better things.”

Along with the BOSS show, the public should expect more gallery shows throughout the rest of the academic year.

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery is handicap accessible, and its exhibits are open to the public 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays; and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The gallery is closed on Mondays. Masks must in worn inside the gallery.

The Boss Show Award Winners

All BOSS award recipients are listed below with commentary by Coral Woodbury, a visual artist from Massachusetts that served as this year’s juror of student awards.

Best In Show

Winner: Grace Parenti ’22
Title: “Anatomy Study,” Stoneware
Juror’s comments: The listening bowl. This soft-spoken vessel combines classical elegance and human anatomy to create a disturbing, yet meditative work about listening and holding on.

Painting

Winner: Patricia Jurkowski ’23
Title: “Still Life with Hand,” Oil on paper
Juror’s comments: Bold contemporary color, astute observation, and subtle transitions of light anchor this wonderfully painted composition that explores the subject of hands and our sense of touch.

Photography

Winner: Maya Bonarrigo ’24
Title: “Untitled,” Digital photography
Juror’s comments: This photograph captures the poetics of natural light indoors. In this window within a window, inside and outside worlds meet along a shared horizon.

Graphic Design 

Winner: Amara D’Antuono ’23
Title: “Anxiety,” Digital print
Juror’s comments: Madonna of the Clorox. A striking graphic work that is commanding, yet contemplative. Her delicate hands and a concerned sideways gaze point to our collective anxiety.

Illustration 

Winner: Sydney Austin ’23,
Title: “Static,” Mixed media drawing
Juror’s comments: A timely drawing about our pixelated, ambiguous, and imbedded relationship to screens.

Drawing

Winner: Miranda Forman ’24
Title: “Walking the Dog,” Black and white chalk
Juror’s comments: This portrait tenderly describes the play of light falling across an array of reflective and tactile surfaces. There is a slight convex distortion that reminds us of the camera’s eye.

Animation

Winner: Courtney Collibee ’23
Title: “Maya Angelou,” Digital Animation
Juror’s comments: The thoughtful play of light and dark in this moving image makes it a poetic and mysterious contemplation on Maya Angelou’s writing.

Interactive Media Art

Winner: James Arcoleo ’23
Title: “Baby Yoda,” Interactive media art
Juror’s comments: A clever re-imaging that fuses Pointillism and pop culture to a mesmerizing effect.

Honorable Mention

Winner: Karenna Waring ’22
Title: “Untitled,” Digital photograph
Juror’s comments: Subtle light and soft tones create a quiet solitary space ponder absence and presence. This photograph speaks to comfort and isolation in a trying time.

Honorable Mention

Winner: Courtney Collibee ’23
Title: “Storage,” Oil on cardboard
Juror’s comments: This drawing of cardboard on cardboard has a disorienting quality. It’s a postmodern play on the real and the fake.