Artwork by ARS 390 Five College Advanced Studio Seminar

On View November 11 – 21, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 16, 2024 at 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Special Viewing and Q&A with Artists: Fridays, November 15 and 22 at 1:15 – 2:00 PM

This group exhibition features artwork by students enrolled in ARS 390 Five College Advanced Studio Seminar, titled “Socio-Ecological Relationships and Decolonization in Studio” and taught by Naoe Suzuki. This exhibition features 12 student artists from across the Five College Consortium whose work addresses solastalgia, the feelings of distress and anxiety caused by our global climate crisis. Each student artist has one work on display, along with select examples of nature journals from their homework assignments. Additionally, this exhibition will feature handmade paper and anthotype photographs that were produced during in-class workshops held in collaboration with The Botanic Garden of Smith College.

Contributing Artists: Bela Achaibar, Fernanda Amagasaki, Emma Brenner-Slagle, Teddie Charleceus, Ilana Diddams, Victoria Faulkner, Veda Hedgepeth, Emily Kung, Vale McCaffrey, Reid Pitman, Dominique Smith, Caly Van Leeuwen

About Five College Advanced Studio Seminar and the Exhibition
The Five College Advanced Studio Seminar is offered annually and rotates between Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This year the course is being hosted by Smith College. Students are junior and senior art majors who were nominated by the faculty at their respective schools for demonstrating advanced ability in art-making. This year’s thematic focus is on socio-ecological relationships and decolonization. Students spent the semester learning about how global capitalism and colonial extractivism are causing current climate crises around the world. From discussions about deforestation to fast fashion to the importance of seed banks, students had
the opportunity to choose how to respond to this heavy subject matter through the creation of their individual artworks.

Students also undertook planning the exhibition as a whole. They split into teams that focused on curating, publicity, programming, budgeting, installation, and more. The class emphasized community building through this exercise, collaborative workshops, and peer critiques.

Rich with artwork centered around environmental relationships and transformation, the goal of this exhibition is to call attention to how our everyday actions impact the world around us and to encourage a more reciprocal relationship with our planet. Each artist explores these themes in a unique way, evidenced in the diverse array of pieces decorating the gallery. More information about specific artists’ work is available in a catalog accompanying the show, located in the Jannotta Gallery.