An annual art-exhibit that highlights the talent of Cuesta College’s students is teaching them to market and exhibit their art.
At the opening weekend of the 2024 Cuesta College Students Annual Art Exhibition, spectators engaged with each other in hushed conversations.
The exhibit is held on campus at the Harold J Miossi Gallery. It showcases a mix of drawings, paintings, and sculptures that explore human form and figure.
Timothy Stark is a coordinator with the gallery. He said the community college hosts the student led exhibition every year to provide a platform for up and coming student artists at the college.
“This is a chance for new artists, students who are just dipping their toes into the arts to have their work handled and displayed in a professional-level gallery,” Stark said.
Every year Stark selects a new juror who is entrusted to curate a brand new exhibit. This year, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo professor Makia Sharp was chosen to be the juror.
Sharp was recently hired as the new professor of photography at the university.
“We’re looking for students that are not perfect at everything but have the potential to make some really great things,” Sharpe said.
She selected 60 Cuesta College students out of 200 applicants to showcase their art at the exhibit.
“It was really difficult. There was a lot of great work. It was an organic process,” Sharp said.
Sharp said it's exciting to be the juror of the exhibit. She loves to connect with the students to see what their future plans are.
During opening weekend, Sharp gave out a handful of awards such as ‘Best in Show,’ and ‘Honorable mentions’ in categories for painting, sculpture, photography, digital art, and more.
Tasha Steinmaus (she/they), is majoring in art studio at Cuesta College.
They won the "Honorable Mention in Painting" award for their piece ‘Bunnies.’ It portrays a naked human body covered in three human-like bunnies.
The body is sitting on one of the creatures’ backs and the others are embracing, and biting the human. They say they have found it easier to describe and portray people in a more figurative way.
“I find it easier to have creatures, multiple creatures, figures and animals describe a person because you can’t have just one thing describe a person,” Steinmaus said.
Steinmaus said they are still figuring out what the painting means to them.
“A group of people touring the campus walked in while I was in open lab doing this piece and they crowded around my painting and said ‘This is so cool! What does it mean? What inspired it?’ I’m still figuring that out myself,” Steinmaus said.
They said presenting their work to the public has been a learning process for them. Its tricky to balance their artistic vision while pleasing curators and viewers.
“I’ve been scared of this for a long time. I was worried that if my work was shown to a lot of people, I would start making work for other people. But I also think there is a lot of benefit because without risk, its hard to grow as a person and as an artist,” Steinmaus said.
That was the goal of the art exhibit, according to Timothy Stark. He said providing students with opportunities to showcase their work is a pivotal step in their artistic pursuits. It helps the students experience both rejection and praise.
“On average, when you are participating in the arts and submitting to shows, you are not going to get into the majority of shows. It’s not always about selecting the best work but the work that best fits within the show.” Stark said.
Stark said he also hopes to reduce barriers at an early stage in the student’s artistic careers. He does this by exempting fees in the application process.
“Everything is streamlined and done specifically to get as many students to be able to submit as much artwork as possible so we can see everyone’s talent,” Stark said.
The exhibition is ongoing until May 17th.
Hours of operation for the 2024 Cuesta College Students Annual Art Exhibition are posted here.
The KCBX Arts Beat is made possible by a grant from the Community Foundation, San Luis Obispo County.
