By Katie Webb Arts & Entertainment Editor
The FORM gallery, a mecca for the talented artists who count Calkins as their second home, is being reincarnated.
Alvia Urdaneta, junior fine arts major with a concentration in photography, spent her summer working tirelessly to bring attention to the gallery, room 117 in Calkins.
FORM is a club as well as a gallery. The space thrived in years prior, but last year Urdaneta learned that due to a lack of student interest the faculty were running FORM.
“Professor Laurie Fendrich put it to me to help bring back the club,” said Urdaneta, ”so that students could control what art work would go up and learn what it’s like to work in a gallery.”
Every week the space showcases a new burgeoning artist or group of artists. Currently, FORM is housing the final projects of Fendrich’s beginners drawing class from last semester. A collection of famous impressionist paintings as interpreted by the students, evokes movement and light. The challenge was translating the masterpieces from color paintings to simply black sharpie works.
“With the mark making utensil, you kind of relive the original artists process, feeling what the impressionist feels – fast, quick, loose, gestural movements,” said Dan Jones, a junior fine arts major.
He recreated a Claude Monet garden scene.
Next week FORM will showcase senior fine arts student Kerry Ann Castoria’s paintings.
“She does these fabulous paintings of Geisha like women, characters with a graffiti like dimension on top,” Urdaneta enthused. “It’s very unique!”
Another highly anticipated show for the club debuting in October is fellow senior fine arts student Henry Fuller’s work.
“He paints a lot of celebrities and famous people in pop art style, and people will love it,” said Urdaneta.
To further enhance the students work, the club plans to repaint the space, fundraise with art fairs and fuel their public relations efforts.
“We want to make it a beautiful blank canvas, and get the information out so students know about us,” said Urdaneta.
The gallery will have new artists each week.
“It’s not just paintings or drawings,” explains Jones. “I’ve seen film installations, sound installations and works from all different mediums.”
Urdantea is elated at the clubs growth from no students only a year ago to twenty this semester. The FORM members plan to hold their own group show, which promises to be decade themed. Perhaps, a Gatsby party with full-blown 20’s costumes and champagne flutes is in the clubs future. After all, they have much to celebrate.
Non-Fine Art majors are more than welcome to attend meetings and submit art, the semesters calendar is not quite full.
“We want people to really start paying attention,” said Urdaneta. “Some great artwork is at this university. People do love art; they just don’t really realize that it’s happening here. “