Guzman’s “Got Your Nose” pair paintings pictured on the bottom row.
LAILI SHAHRESTANI / THE QUADRANGLE
Laili Shahrestani Editor-in-Chief
Manhattan University’s (MU) Sanctus Artem club recently held an art exhibition on April 9, located in Smith Auditorium, where students and alumni were able to showcase their artwork in a gallery that emulated the same “high-end” environment as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The MET MU” provided Jaspers with an opportunity to have the ultimate museum experience, without traveling 163 streets downtown on the 1 train.
Whether it be 2D or 3D art, paintings or sculptures, acrylic or digital media, the exhibition is planned to showcase all types of artwork from various media.
Prior to the event, Lucas Haas, a senior environmental studies major and president of Sanctus Artem, spoke with The Quadrangle about what attendees can expect from the event.
“We’re going to be dressed up nice, and make it kind of a formal event,” Haas said. “We’ll have some light refreshments that we will be serving. And you could walk around, have some finger foods, and look at all the art. You can also expect to chat with all the artists and talk about the meaning behind all the artwork.”
While Sanctus Artem has previously hosted art shows dating back to 2017, Haas emphasized that this year’s event will be different. This time around, the exhibition was being revamped to become “bigger than ever.”
The purpose behind the event stems from a variety of factors; one of the most prevalent being to place the spotlight on many Jaspers who possess a high level of artistic abilities. While MU is labeled as a liberal arts institution, Haas claims that the majority of recognition is usually given to those in the School of Engineering or in the O’Malley School of Business. Haas shared that the art exhibition is especially important, as it not only showcases a gallery of art but also provides the well-deserved recognition to student artists who may have been previously overlooked.
“I think that here at MU, there’s not a ton of arts programs, or the ones that we have are not super widespread or highly shown off at the school … So we want to be able to showcase everyone’s work, ability and talent … It’s important to show the arts and culture of the school, not just things in business and engineering.”
The event received a high number of student attendees and over 12 artists who came in to showcase their work. A majority of the planning for the exhibition was carried out with the help of the events coordinator for Sanctus Artem, sophomore Aine Kolpa. Kolpa expressed how she and the rest of the team put in a lot of thought and behind-the-scenes work into revamping it this year.
“I think early February is when we started discussing our plans for the art show,” Kolpa said. “We got it [the planning] done pretty fast … And I believe there were 12 people, including myself, showcasing their art. I think that’s a pretty good turnout.”
Sienna Gallus, a junior psychology major, was one of the many student artists showcasing her work. She shared a bit about what she chose to present and where each of her pieces came from.
“I have a mix of everything I’ve done creatively at Manhattan University so far,” Gallus said. “So I have LOTUS Magazine shoots that I designed for, and sometimes modeled in. I have two different zines that I’ve created … and then I have 36 pages of poetry that are all published or going to be published within the next few months.”
Gallus went on to express how she has been a part of the creative field ever since she was a kid. While she joined fashion-related clubs such as LOTUS Magazine in college, she has still had experiences in sewing and writing from a young age.
“I’ve been doing fashion oriented things since the beginning of college,” Gallus said. “I learned how to sew when I was a kid, and it just came to fruition here. And then for writing, I would say some of these pieces are probably from high school, and the poems have been built up, because I studied literary arts in high school.”
While Gallus had a number of different pieces on her table, she gave insight as to which piece is most meaningful to her.
“I think this zine is really powerful, because it contains a lot of different people from all over campus, and it’s very political, so there’s a lot of statements about the world in here,” Gallus said.
Another student artist, Ivon Guzman, a freshman psychology major, also showcased her work at The MET MU. However, rather than through poetry or zines, Guzman expressed her artistic abilities through acrylic and tempura paintings. Each of her pieces had their own unique twist, yet were all classified under the same theme: “uncanny” and “dreamscape.”
“This piece is an apple with a face on it and a worm coming out,” Guzman said. “I really wanted to do something ‘dreamscape’ esque, like something that you’d see in one of your dreams or a nightmare … I wanted to make it uncanny. I like to make a lot of my works uncanny. It’s just more fun.”
Guzman emphasized her interest in making “uncanny” style art, as it appears to be a style that is unique in nature, and out-of-the-box. She spoke about two of her other paintings, which were “pair” pieces, meaning they told a story together.
“My last two are pair drawings,” Guzman said. The title is, ‘Got your nose,’ and you can see there is a part one and a part two, so it tells a story.”
The painting on the left demonstrated a nightmarish, pale face, with bulging eyes and a bloody hand that appears to be covering the nose area. The second photo, to its right, is of a blue, shadow-like face, grinning eerily while holding what appears to be the nose of the figure in the left painting. These pair paintings were a physical representation of the phrase “got your nose,” but with an uncanny twist.
Sanctus Artem has high hopes in continuing these types of exhibitions going forward. While Haas is graduating this spring, he is sure that the rest of his board members will carry on the tradition in the years to come.
“All of our current E-board members are highly interested in being on the E-board again next year, so I’m sure that they’re going to take the reins and continue this next year,” Haas said. “Maybe making it even bigger and better than this time.”