The opening reception for Columbia’s 17th annual “Hokin Honors” exhibition was held on March 4. The exhibition, located in the Hokin Annex of the Wabash Campus Building, 623 S. Wabash Ave., features various work by students who were selected by faculty members.

The room holds 54 pieces of art created by 17 students in majors including photography, fashion design, art and design, interactive arts and media and film and video. Each body of work varied in materials, ranging from silver gelatin on acrylic rag paper to a handmade book displaying codes by artist Laura Thompson that were placed on Chicago landmarks; when scanned by smart phones, the pieces display a brief hisory of the attraction.

The students that were recommended to submit their art were judged by a jury. The jury included Lisa Dorin, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago, adjunct faculty member and renowned artist Sabrina Katz and Lori Waxman, a freelance art critic for the Chicago Tribune.

The first-place winner was film-directing major Jason Gerber, second place was interactive media arts major Laura Thompson, third place winner was fine art major Erol S. Harris II and the fourth place winner was fine art major  Jennifer Hansen.

Matt Avignone, senior photography major, said he was glad his work was featured in the gallery. Avignone has been working on an independent project in which he shoots Logan Square residents with a view camera, a process which he said takes a while but has proved rewarding in the end.

“My idea for the project started about a year ago,” Avignone said. “I was walking down my street, and I had observed in my neighborhood that people literally chill on their stoops during warmer times of the months. I had always wanted to go up and talk with them and take pictures, and finally this past semester, I got up the courage to do it.”

Avignone added he wanted to challenge himself by using the view camera.

“I picked the hardest thing, which would be street photo,” Avignone said. “View cameras are usually used in the studio or for landscapes, not random images of people off the street, so it was challenging.”

Mary Farmilant, one of Avignone’s previous photography professors, said she recommended his art be featured in the gallery because of his exceptional work.

“I teach beginning photography classes, so sometimes you get students interested in the material and students that are not that keen on participating in classes,” Farmilant said. “I try to stay in touch with those students who were responsive and proactive in class. I send e-mails a couple times a month regarding scholarships and different student competitions because I like to get the full 360 view, as opposed to one dimensional view of them as beginning students in my class. I like to continue the mentor and teaching relationship.”

Farmilant said she believes nominating the students to be a part of the gallery boosts their self confidence and will give them a feel for experiences following their graduation.

She said Avignone has established outstanding work as an undergrad and has impressed her.

“He’s really a go-getter,” Farmilant said. “He just sort of does everything from commercial photography to being an entrepreneur, all while being in school full time, so I thought that he really demonstrated what a Columbia student is.”

Another student who has work featured in the exhibit is junior fine arts major EJ Hill. He said he focuses more on performance art where he likes to use his body as his material. His video featured in the gallery was what he called an “endurance piece,” where he stood in a room, blowing into the camera for about six minutes.

“Since I work mainly performatively, I like to use my body in my pieces,” Hill said. “I’m interested in physically testing my body, such as taking a really mundane action as just blowing and seeing how my body would react to blowing over and over again. I just started taking really deep breaths in and out until all my muscles tensed and my legs gave up from under me and I passed out.”

Hill’s work has been featured in four previous Columbia galleries, this being his second exhibition in the Hokin Annex.

“I actually have work featured in the Excess/Access, which is at the C33 Spaces Gallery show right now, so I’m probably going to go over there tonight,” Hill said.

He said he felt honored to be a part of the work featured in the honors exhibition, especially because of all the other artists who were part of the gallery.

“It feels really awesome,” Hill said. “There’s a lot of amazing work here, and I know a lot of the people here, so it’s nice to see all my friends here hangin’ out and showing their work.”

The first place winner,  senior film directing major Jason Gerber, broke the mold for the typical gallery space by featuring short films in the gallery.

The winning film, “The World Within,” a five-minute film that features a fantasy world, won festival acclaim in the past, but had yet to be featured in a Columbia exhibit.  “The World Within” is what Gerber referred to as a “feel good film,” and is about two teenagers stuck in an elevator. The duo envision a fantasy world together and form bond of friendship which follows into romance.  At the conclusion of the film the elevator gets fixed and the two are removed from the  fantasy  world.  They soon after re-enter the world together.

Two other films featured in the gallery were “Hunger” and “The Food Critic.” “Hunger” is what Gerber referred to as a “message film,” bringing attention to homelessness in America. The film focuses on a young Jewish boy on his way to the airport to help bring aid to the poverty in Africa. The young boy sees homeless people on the sidewalk, and as he arrives at the airport, he decides to leave the airport and go help a number of homeless people he saw on the street.

“What it’s kind of saying is to take care of the problems where you’re at before you go off and try to take care of the rest of the problems,” Gerber said. “We actually did feed about 50 homeless people during that shoot. We filmed

real homeless people and told them we’d come back and bring food,  which we did. It was a fun way to serve the community and make a film.”

“The Food Critic,” one of Gerber’s newer films, is about a head chef who is caught sleeping with a food critic’s wife. He is fearful that the food critic is going to come into the restaurant and write a bad review, so he devises a plan with the owner of the restaurant to kill the food critic. With a series of twists and turns, the two end up murdering the wrong man, and a bad review is still written in the end.

Gerber said although he has been recognized in the film festival circuit, he was excited to be featured in a Columbia gallery.

“It’s a really neat thing because it’s kind of my first public recognition at Columbia,” Gerber said. “It’s sort of a very unique venue, and to have won first place was enthralling. I don’t think I’ve ever won a competition ever before, so it’s really neat.”

Avignone also said he is happy that his work was featured in the gallery.

“I’m extremely excited to be in the show,” Avignone said. “I make goals every year and one of my main goals was to be in a gallery and to have made it happen within the first three months of the year. I’m super happy.  Now I gotta make new ones.”