With the 2023 renovation of the Office of the Dean and the Center for Academic Navigation and Success in the College of Arts and Sciences came an exciting opportunity for the Department of Art and Art History to bring art to the center of the Coral Gables campus. The Student Undergraduate Art Exhibit, curated by a committee of faculty and art historian jurors in the Department of Art and Art History, now showcases impressive student art each academic year.
Located on the first floor of the Ashe Administration Building, this year’s exhibition features an array of thought-provoking paintings, photographs, and graphic designs that brighten the space. Two featured seniors pursuing Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in graphic design and secondary tracks in painting discussed their creative process and inspiration.
Sophie Toledano’s artistic talent is versatile, proven by her three pieces using different mediums in the exhibition.
“Our Rights, Our future, Our vote”, a 24-by-30-inch digital poster, was one of her class assignments in Graphic Design III. The digital print depicts a hand placing a ballot into a box, inside of which is a pathway leading to the words ‘Our Rights, Our future, Our vote’.
Reflecting on the sophistication of the piece’s typography, Toledano explained that “When I do my work, especially in graphic design, I gravitate to typography. I love letters, I love different types of fonts and the sizes and everything.”
Inspiration for her “Life (series)” came to Toledano during a creative block. Both 11-by-14-inch oil on canvas paintings focus on a subject, one playing guitar and one laughing on the Subway, with the rest of the painting blurred.
“I was in a coffee shop, and I started looking around me and there were people from everywhere,” she said, explaining how she got the idea for the paintings. “There was one reading at a coffee table, another one laughing, and another one just watching the sunset. And I was like, ‘that’s it, I have it.’”
“My idea for these pieces was everybody has their own problems, everyone’s doing their own thing, but if you sit around and just look at people, everyone’s in their own world,” she added.
Although Jackson Harris’ B.F.A. is concentrated on graphic design and painting, he has an exceptional eye for photography as well. During the spring break of his junior year, he studied abroad with the Department of Art and Art History in Japan.
Taken by his Fujifilm X-T4, Harris’ piece “Conductor” proves that some of the best artwork is spontaneous.
“It was very cool to me seeing how clean everything was [in Japan] and how everything was conducted,” he said. “It was just one of those spur of the moment pictures, which worked in my head. I just worked quickly to capture the moment.”
Harris also has a second photograph on display in the exhibition, “Cali Cow,” which shows a cow during sunset in a rugged Californian terrain.
“Our Rights, our vote, our future”, one of the “Life, series” paintings, “Conductor,” and other pieces are available for in person viewing in the hallway between the Office of the Dean and the Center for Academic Navigation and Success in the Ashe Administration Building. Harris’ “Cali Cow” is among the artwork on display in the center’s hallways. The other “Life, series” painting decorates an office space in Suite 140 in the Ashe Administration Building.
The only submission criteria for future years are that students must have taken one class in the Department of Art and Art History during their time at the University, and they must be currently enrolled.
Nathan Timpano, the chair of the Department of Art and Art History, encourages students to apply:
“Regardless of whether they're majors or minors, or if they've only taken one art class, if they think that they produced a work of art that they're really happy with and believe it is a strong representation of the liberal arts education that we strive for at the University of Miami, then we encourage them to submit.”
