Fairfield University student artists open their doors in "Open Studios" exhibit | Press Releases

Fairfield University student artists invite the local community to a presentation of completed and in-progress artworks at the second semiannual "Open Studios" presentation of student artwork. The exhibition, which takes place Tuesday, April 25, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., will feature more than 200 artworks, including charcoal and pencil drawings; sculptures made with cardboard, wood, cloth, paper and plaster; photographs; raised relief paintings; oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings: prints on paper; and other mixed media.

The presentation, located in the ground floor of Loyola Hall on Fairfield University's campus, is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. The first Fairfield University Open Studios presentation was held during the fall semester of last year; it was modeled on the open studio days held by galleries in Chicago; Kansas City; New Haven, Conn.; and other artistic hotbeds.

The exhibition provided an opportunity for student artists to display their work, usually for the first time, and to think about scale, placement, lighting and other factors that affect presentation, said Suzanne Chamlin, program director and assistant professor of Studio Art, in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield.

Based on the success of the first Open Studios, Chamlin decided to organize a second opportunity. "We'd love to see this as an ongoing tradition," Chamlin said. "The students gain a sense of reward and pride in exhibiting their work and the viewer learns more about the range of talent on campus."

On display will be works from nine studio art courses taking place this semester, including Chamlin's own courses, as well as those of Marion Belanger, a photographer who focuses on otherworldly landscapes, and John Mendelsohn, whose paintings and mixed media works have recently been exhibited at the Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts gallery in Tribeca. Also on display will be works from a course taught by visiting professor Matthew Blackwell, a sculptor and painter whose own work was recently reviewed in the New York Times.