Gallery West in the McKinley Arts & Culture Center is proud to host an exhibition featuring works from students in the 2022 Portfolio Emphasis Class at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC). The exhibition includes three parts: “Calm Spaces” by Julianna Horvath, “Head Case” by Ryan Hartman, and “Morte by Maggie Pollock.”

The Portfolio Emphasis class is the capstone class to a fine arts degree at TMCC, where students learn to create a body of work and host a professional art exhibition from start to finish. The exhibition will run from December 19, 2022 to February 10, 2023 in McKinley Arts and Culture Center, Gallery West. The public is invited to attend the artists’ reception on Thursday, January 19, 2023 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

“Calm Spaces”

In “Calm Spaces,” Horvath looks to evoke feelings of calmness, rest, and relaxation. Using collage and painting, she creates imagery that invites the viewer to feel peace and quiet. The world today is chaotic and overwhelming. Her goal is to create art, with imagery that allows for detail-oriented introspection, through images filled with nature, neutral tones, floral patterns, embellishments, and intricate details. Her hope that when viewed, these pieces give someone a moment of rest.

 “Head Case”

“Head Case” is a collection of sculptures that focuses on showing mental disorders through anthropomorphized and abstract characters. Individuals with mental disorders commonly attempt to cope with their problems and mask themselves to fit into “normal” social environments. This collection is meant to teach the audience about these issues through details and mannerisms portrayed in each character that symbolize coping mechanisms and side effects caused by certain disorders. It’s natural to anthropomorphize objects, animals, and other arts in order to relate their issues so that others can relate to them. Hartman’s focus in these sculptures is to imagine these characters in physical form but not make them realistic. His art style is semi-realistic with rustic coloring, proper portions with exaggerated expressions, and details to emphasize my symbolism. Hartman wants his audience to be drawn in by the exaggerated details.

“Morte”

Maggie Pollock’s goal with her series, “Morte,” is to provoke conversations about loss and grief through her art. Each of her paintings is a reflection of a person close to her who has passed. She is painting to imitate the Italian renaissance style, using oil paint on canvas. She set up each still life to have small things that are full of symbolism and meaning that point to her grief without it being obvious. For example, she includes flowers in many of her paintings. Plant symbolism has been used to convey particular meanings going back to the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, and into the Victorian Era. Today, not as many are familiar with the messages of flowers, but through her interest and research, she includes their hidden meanings to portray her emotions about the person she is mourning. She wants to show that even after someone is gone, she can still hold love for them. Pollock would like the viewer to try and understand each pieces meaning and to reflect on their own experiences with loss. She would like to bring light to some of the more beautiful aspects of grief, as it can make one see the beauty of life and make us appreciate it more. Overall, Pollock hopes to create a sense of sadness and wonder in each piece. We all will experience grief in our lives, it is an unavoidable thing, but we can also celebrate the beauty of each person for who they were and the life they got to live.