Art @ Richmond

The University of Richmond's Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art is showcasing the Annual Student Exhibition in the Pickles Gallery located in the Modlin Center. The show closes Sunday, Sept. 25.

The exhibition displays student work completed during fall 2010 and spring 2011 studio art classes. Professors are given the opportunity to select students' work to show in the exhibition.

The Harnett Museum is also showing works from art collectors Sally and Wynn Kramarsky. The exhibition, ART=TEXT=ART: Works by Contemporary Artists, showcases 72 pieces and 45 artists. The exhibition opened Aug. 17 and will remain open until Oct. 16.

N. Elizabeth Schlatter, the exhibition's curator, said Wynn Kramarsky loved wworking with university museums. "At a university museum, he knows the exhibition will be used and relates to what the students are learning about," Schlatter said. "I ended up working with him and his assistant, Rachel, to create the exhibition itself."

Schlatter said she had given tours of the exhibition to various art classes from both Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University. To supplement the tours, she created an exercise to help students understand the pieces.

"We made these cards with adjectives on them and then we'll give each student an adjective like 'provocative' or 'scary.'..and we tell the students to go pick a work that [they] think resembles that adjective," she said. "It's a nice way for the students to really look without having to have this extensive art historical background."

In addition to the exhibition, Richmond students and alumni created an online catalog of the show. The catalog can be found at www.artequalstext.com, and contains background and commentary on each artist's work.

The Harnett Museum is open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m Sunday through Friday. Admission is free.

Contact staff writer Marina Askari at marina.askari@richmond.edu.