The C33 gallery welcomes a new exhibition in the form of “Homage to the Square,” which features pieces made by  “Painting and Drawing II” students and was curated by their teacher Friedhard Kiekeben. The exhibition is inspired by German artist Josef Albers, who came up with the idea of paying “Homage to the Square” in the 1950s. Students studied Albers’ color theories and square systems to make pieces of their own that fit their thoughts, observations and beliefs. 

TRANSCRIPT:

0:04: If you have walked by the 33 Ida B Wells Dr. building in the last week, you may have noticed a new exhibition in the C33 gallery.

 0:12: Since January, 40 students in “Painting and Drawing II” have been working on “Homage to the Square,” an exhibition paying homage to the titular shape.

 0:21: It’s an exhibition about the square,

 0:28: repetition, systems, things that can sometimes be a bit boring.

 0:33: And at the same time, we tried to make it as interesting as possible.

 0:36: So it’s almost like a contradiction there.

 0:39: And I think the students did amazingly well in terms of filling, filling this square content with their own dreams and visions, but also observations and concept art.

 0:52: There’s some concept art here as well.

 0:54: It’s a very rich and varied exhibition.

 0:59: So being in this gallery and being in the window is like just feels really special having people be able to see my work, you know, it’s one thing to make it and show your class of artists who’s like, “yeah, it’s cool, it’s good,” and another thing to have it on a wall for the public to see at all times, which is really cool, also kind of nerve wracking.

 1:24: I was excited when I heard the theme because I’ve been wanting to work in a square format.

 1:29: Most of my paintings are like 3 by 4 ft, so it was really fun to work in a square format like I’ve been wanting to do, but also work smaller, and I think working in a square is also something that you have a little bit more room to play around with composition in some ways because it’s not as tall or not as wide, so I think it was a really fun kind of experiment.

 1:52: Yeah, my first initial reaction was to maybe do something more abstract.

 1:56: I did start doing more abstract work when I was kind of messing around when I was younger.

 2:01: That’s kind of how I got into it.

 2:03: I did want to lean into what I know now though, especially with my experience with more representational work, and I figured the mix between still life with the baby doll head and representational being like a lot of

 2:14: times stealing the portraiture, which is a lot of times that I work with. I kind of went more hand in hand and having a stark background with a central figure in it was pretty impactful for this project.

 2:25: Even 10 years ago when Columbia was still a larger entity, we had twice as many exhibition spaces which we frequently also used for exhibition opportunities

 2:37: for the artists before graduation as well.

 2:42: That’s become a little bit tighter, but working with Cheri Charlton, who is now in charge of organizing this space.

 2:51: The C33 gallery has always been the most student-led kind of gallery.

 2:55: It’s entirely for  student projects, and

 2:59: I just had a discussion with her about this project idea and she was very excited and we were able to create the framework for the project at fairly short notice.

 3:10: Same with the students, it took half an hour for everybody to get really excited that this could happen six weeks later, actually in this gallery, and it made the students produce very professional work alongside various projects that we were working on every session over six weeks, they already started working on these pieces that we see right now.

 3:37: So there’s more professionalism there, because they were really forced to, “I’m only gonna have one or two square pieces in this show, but I want it to be the best work I’ve made since I’ve come to Columbia” kind of a thing.

 3:49: I think it worked out.

 3:51: There will be a student reception on March 21 at 5 p.m. Can’t make it to the reception?

 3:57: The gallery is open until March 28th. So don’t forget to check out “Homage to the Square” while you still can.

 4:03: This is Ali Brenneman for Chronicle TV.

Copy edited by Patience Hurston