January 21, 2014

By Em Donald

The George Caleb Bingham Gallery is adorned with a brilliant mix of collaborative and solo pieces for this year’s graduate showcase, “Idea: Ideals.”

“‘Idea: Ideals’ encompasses what we’re working toward, what our individual goals are with our work — essentially, our ideal of what that is,” says Tamryn McDermott, vice president of the Association of Graduate Art Students and the curator of this year’s exhibit.

The exhibit represents graduate students at all different stages in the three-year program, and thus allows for a rich diversity of artwork. The exhibit is also non-restrictive on medium or perspective used, so there’s work of many different disciplines and styles. Each piece has a great sense of individuality while still being cohesive and seeming to fit a less tangible idea.

“When you walk around the space, you really get to see the common threads between the work,” says association President Charlie Thompson, who also has work on display this week. “There are nice themes and nuances when shows like this are curated.”

The experience as a whole works with each individual piece, despite the pieces being created for different projects. Throughout the gallery, there isn’t any piece that seems out of place. The works are beautiful both independently as well as in their coordination with each other, making the experience that much stronger.

Thompson recommends coming in prior to the reception, which will take place from 5-7 p.m. Thursday in Bingham Gallery.

“If you get in here when it’s quiet, that’s the best time,” Thompson says. “Maybe you want to stand in front of something and look at it for 20 minutes. Coming here when it’s quiet affords you that opportunity.”

Thursday’s reception for the “Idea: Ideals” exhibit will include refreshments and will allow visitors to come in, look at the pieces and speak with the artists.

“This is a great opportunity for many viewers to just get to come in and ask questions, speak with the artists and get to see what we’re doing in our studios,” McDermott says.

Later this semester, many artists from this exhibit will be doing a thesis showcase as well, which is either solo or in collaboration with another graduate artist. These will be for the collections the artists are currently working on.

A list of all upcoming events and artists is available at [binghamgallery.missouri.edu](http://binghamgallery.missouri.edu/index.html).