The kiwi was not ripe and the wine was for grown-ups, but we managed to have fun anyway at the opening of the annual Student Art Show at Montgomery Gallery last Thursday. The whole gallery is filled with works done this year in Pomona’s various studio art classes and selected by the professors of these classes. The show will be on display until April 25, so you still have some time to check it out. It definitely has a lot of works worth seeing.

Some pieces of work are decidedly less sophisticated than others, but this criticism seems inevitable in a show which exhibits pieces from introductory classes alongside pieces from advanced classes. I was impressed with the fact that people are brave enough to display their works–even if not traditional masterpieces–to the whole college. In studio art classes I’ve taken, I’ve always been embarrased to show my work to the whole room–it would take a lot more for me to show it to all of Pomona.

The Student Art Show is a great way to give even inexperienced students a safe, encouraging, and exciting arena in which to begin showcasing their art. By not just picking out the crème de la crème, Pomona encourages students to pursue art, which is really the most important thing. Openings are swanky and fun, and I’m sure even more so when one’s own work is included.

Michael Parker ’00 has a lot of great work in the show. My favorite piece of his is called "A Conversation with Popou." The "conversation" is between a man and an elephant standing on its hind legs, and it definitely made me smile. Peter Boothe ’00 has a working bronze fountain in the show into which everybody dipped their fingers (sorry). Jeffrey Parker’s ’00 "Reclining Figure, Homage to Moore" is only one of his many wonderful sculptures in the show, all of which display his obvious talent. Christina Guerrero ’01 intrigued me by playing off of cultural and feminist traditions with her "Toy: A Mood Doll and Her Luggage," in which she decorated wooden boxes with Tarot cards, paint, and shiny scraps of metallic paper.

The exhibition is rather photo-heavy, but many of the photographs are quite good. Erika Gamst’s ’01 project called "The Gun in America," juxtaposed pictures of children with pictures of guns, including one of a G. I. Joe doll. One striking picture is of a child who appears to be working in a rifle shop. I also really enjoyed Scott Turner’s ’01 pictures of a girl who was very, very naked. Many people at Pomona are really succeeding in their pursuit of art.

One thing that is unfortunate about the Student Art Show is its exclusion–presumably due to lack of space and preparation time–of artwork produced for the installation art class which Mercedes Teixido is teaching this semester. Students in this class each installed their work in the PoSA gallery earlier this semester, so they had an opportunity to display their work, but it is unfortunate that the range of art covered in the Student Art Show must be limited by the walls of Montgomery Gallery. A traditional museum space may be forcing us to limit the ground that we cover in this yearly art show, and I wonder if there might be a way to solve this problem. It would be interesting and fun if performance art were done outside the gallery on the grass during the art show. Without rethinking the ways in which the space of the gallery might be used, we may be fated to only have art shows which year after year show only traditional–though, of course, wonderful–art forms such as painting and small-scale sculpture. It would be wonderful if Pomona were able to find a way to get beyond the walls of Montgomery and expand the definition of art with its Student Art Show.