At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, inside of the Truman T. Lowe Center for the Arts, the University Art Gallery is hosting the 2023 UWL All Student Juried Art Exhibition. The gallery opened on Friday, Feb. 3, and is open to the public through Wednesday, Feb. 22. Art from 38 UWL students was selected by Minnesota-based artists Nicole Havekost and Christ Rackley.

Students were able to submit up to four pieces for consideration, and the pieces had to be made within the last two years. UWL fourth-year student Rusty Norgord submitted “Meatball”, a bird made of steel and recycled silverware from their childhood house. Norgord said that the sculpture took them around 20 hours to make.

On top of the hours put into making the art, the student artists had to send documentation along with their pieces. Norgord said, “If it was a 3D work like mine you had to do up to three pictures of the piece. Then you had to include a brief description of each one. If you were chosen, you had about a four-hour window to bring your piece to the gallery. There is insurance you have to sign in case your piece gets broken. I have some friends who are gallery people who set up the lighting and all of that stuff. And then you wait until the opening!”

UWL junior Leo Chavolla said, “If you’re an art student, most of the preparation is in your studio class with an instructor or by yourself. If you really want to make cool stuff you have to practice and fail a lot before you actually make something good. I spent quite a bit of time outside of class messing around with the materials and getting comfortable with the tools.”

Chavolla submitted a bowl made out of raised copper. He said that his inspiration was the people of Santa Clara de Cobre in Mexico. The style that he borrowed for his piece is the blend of native Mexican techniques and Spanish techniques that he became familiar with growing up in Mexico. He said that he took his technical metalworking experience from high school and combined it with the artistic skills that he learned from Department Chair and Professor Brad Nichols in the UWL art department.

“Everybody comes in at different levels. Brad is really good at bringing everybody up to the same level and then working with you individually to develop your own skills. And then once you get to the advanced classes he helps you develop your own identity and voice as an artist. I feel like I am getting there with the raising. He’s shown me all the skills that I need, but he also gives me plenty of space to practice and make mistakes,” said Chavolla.

UWL senior Sara Hafften has two pieces in the gallery. She said that most of her preparation for the gallery included narrowing down her existing work with the help of her professors. She said, “I asked myself things like, ‘What’s important to me?’ ‘What am I proud of?’ ‘What do I want to put out there?’ Because it’s not just my photo class who’s going to see it.” Hafften also said that they need to consider how many horizontal pieces versus vertical pieces are being submitted in order to preserve the visual flow of the gallery.

Hafften has a minor in photography, and she said that she learned a lot while preparing for the gallery. One of her pieces is scanned images of food packaging. She said, “I’m really comfortable behind the camera, but for this class, we were pretty much using anything but digital cameras, so we used these Holga film cameras, scanners, and cyanotype chemistry to produce images. It got me thinking about art and photography in a different way, and it was nice to have a break from doing digital photography because I do it a lot.”

The three UWL student artists agreed that there was mental preparation required in the days leading up to the gallery. Chavolla said that the judges did not select a piece that he submitted and loved. He said, “You have to know that the people who are judging the art are professionals, and they are not judging your person. When you submit you have to be aware that they aren’t judging you, they are judging your work.”

Norgord said, “Only so many can get chosen in total, so it’s a mind game of telling yourself that it’s okay if none of your work gets in and trying to prepare yourself for potential disappointment and hopefully being pleasantly surprised. It’s the same while the gallery is open. You need to prepare yourself for the fact that things could go wrong. You ask yourself, ‘What’s everybody going to think?’ ‘What are people going to say about it?’”

Hafften said that she had friends who didn’t have their pieces selected for the gallery and that she knows how discouraging that can be. She said, “You should take a leap of faith and put yourself out there because you never know what people will respond to. My favorite part was watching people come up to the scanned images, get up close, point at it, and try to find things. I thought that was so cool to be outside of a photo class but still see people be interested in what you’re doing. It’s more than just the pieces, you have to believe in yourself.”

Chavolla said that he hopes that people come to see the UWL All Student Juried Art Exhibition to appreciate the talent and work ethic of the student artists. “There is something for everybody. I have a really elegant bowl, but there are also some prints that strike such a visceral reaction from viewers, at least from me. There is some photography that takes you to places that feel familiar,” he said, “and I should emphasize more how much time it really takes. I think that’s one thing that people outside of the arts don’t understand about the arts in general- it takes time. It takes so much time.”

The 2023 UWL All Student Juried Art Exhibition is taking place in the University Art Gallery inside of the Truman T. Lowe Center for the Arts through Wednesday, Feb. 22. Admission to the gallery is free. Gallery hours are 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday through Sunday.