The Strauss and Jaffe-Friede Galleries in the Hopkins Center for the Arts are featuring artists at all points of their career, ranging from recently graduated alumni to well established professional artists. Darby Raymond-Overstreet ’16 and Benjamin Albrecht ’16, winners of the Perspectives on Design Award, currently have their art showcased in the Jaffe-Friede Gallery. Next door, the Strauss Gallery features a group exhibition around the topic of “Buoyancy.”
Gerald Auten, director of the studio art exhibition program and professor in the studio art department, is in charge of planning the different exhibitions for each gallery. Auten said that the Perspectives on Design Award is given to one or more graduating studio art majors. The award consists of a cash stipend to support the students’ work for a year. Then, the following summer, the Jaffe-Friede Gallery displays their work in a unique exhibition. The award is provided by an endowment given by Judith and David Collins, who valued studio art and believed that the program should have a great award Auten said.
“It’s a real honor. It’s an endorsement of the strength of these student’s work from last year,” said studio art professor Enrico Riley, who is also involved in organizing exhibitions.
Raymond-Overstreet said she did not originally plan on majoring in studio art, but was inspired after taking a drawing class at Dartmouth. After working with portraits, she said that she began studying Navajo style patterns which began influencing her work. Raymond-Overstreet, who is Navajo herself, said in the past year she has incorporated Navajo type patterns into portraits and hand-made relief prints.
Riley, who was a critic for Raymond-Overstreet’s senior seminar, said she has developed a “very strong visual language.”
During the end of her senior spring, without any advance notice, Raymond-Overstreet learned she was chosen for the POD award.
Raynmond-Overstreet said she plans to pursue art professionally and is considering applying to Masters of Fine Arts programs.
Albrecht’s work features paintings which include miscellaneous objects and colorful detail. Riley also worked with Albrecht during his time at Dartmouth and said that his work showcases “a lot of skillful manipulation of paint” and has moved to embrace more abstraction.
While the Jaffe-Friede Gallery is currently displaying works by emerging artists, the Strauss Gallery is showcasing works by well established artists based on the idea of “Buoyancy.” Each summer, the gallery is dedicated to an exhibition focusing around a single theme and is supported by the Jacob H. Strauss ’22 Memorial Fund Auten said. “Buoyancy” features eight works representing six artists from different parts of the world. The exhibit consists of various media from watercolor to aluminum wire mesh to folded color paper.
A committee, comprised of the nine tenure-track and tenured studio art faculty, chooses a topic, and each member proposes an artist. Then, the faculty discuss the artists and eventually invite them to display their work, Auten said.
“The piece usually comes together around the theme in really remarkable and unexpected ways,” Auten said.
The POD Award Exhibition in the Jaffe-Friede Gallery and “Buoyancy” in the Strauss Gallery will both be on display until August 20.
Elise Higgins contributed reporting.
Amanda Zhou is a junior at Dartmouth College originally from Brookline, Massachusetts. She’s previously been the associate managing editor, health and wellness beat writer at the Dartmouth and interned at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this Fall. She is pursuing a major in quantitative social science and a minor in public policy. At college, she edits the campus newspaper, serves on the campus EMS squad and lives in the sustainable living center. After graduation, she is interested in a career in journalism or data analysis. In her spare time, she can be found running, cooking or trying to rock climb.
