Student Curated SOTA Art Exhibition

SOTA Presents
Curated by Ashly McBride & Brandon Hendricks
1102 A Street – Old Post Office Lobby Display Cases
Jan 16 -April 23, 2014
www.elementsofeducation.org

Botanical mandala by Stephanie King, Mixed-Media on Paper

The Northernmost wing of the main hallway in the Historic Post Office contains a series of large, wood framed display cases. Over the last 100 years these cases must have been filled with countless displays of valuable content. With the new push to transform the building into a hub for the arts, Spaceworks was charged with keeping these cases alive. This means you can expect to see a new, dynamic exhibition every 4 months. The current exhibition features the work of students from Tacoma’s illustrious School of the Arts (SOTA). Fellow students Ashly McBride and Brandon Hendricks are curating this exhibition which includes elaborate mandalas, plus featured work from select individual artists.

A group of elaborate mandalas bring life to the Old Post Office display cases.

Ashly and Brandon have provided the following curatorial statements: “SOTA Presents is a team of students who help advertise SOTA through a series of films, putting on showcases, and providing visual artists with the space to show their artwork. The main purpose this year was to reach out to the greater community of Tacoma. We found that Spaceworks was the best fit for what we were looking for. We obtained the display cases in the Old Post Office downtown Tacoma. The art we have put up range from mandalas, to photography.”

“The mandalas were made by SOTA artists. These beautiful pieces of art are spiritual symbols in Buddhism and Hinduism that represent the universe.”

A series of photographs by SOTA alumni Tess Bentley.

“The photographs shown in the display cases in the post office are photographs done by a SOTA alumni Tess Bentley. Tess did her senior project on movement through photography. Her vision was to capture movement and action through dance and photography. These images are stunning and when looking at them you can feel the creativity and motion through a still image.”

Detail of photographic series by Tess Bentley.

“Our featured artist is Chase Kolby, he is currently a SOTA senior and an aspiring artist. His art is very abstract in a unique and different way. In our first case his art in purely octopi, accompanied by black and white shreds of paper and wire to capture an edgy feel to this display. The other display is more colorful. The featured art is an interesting concept, portraying animals being controlled by humans. Chase has a unique style that is visually pleasing to look at.”