CANYON, Texas — Five West Texas A&M University student artists who’ll soon begin making their mark on the world will offer one last look at their work in an upcoming exhibition.
“The World Is Our Oyster,” on view May 2 to 18 in the Dord Fitz Formal Gallery in Mary Moody Northen Hall on WT’s Canyon campus, will feature the work of five May graduates, all studio art majors: Kayla Monds of Pampa, Chit Pu of Amarillo, Cristal Chavez Saavedra of Amarillo, Anna Vongkaysone of Amarillo and Andrea Hernandez of Amarillo.
The show will open with a 5 to 7 p.m. May 2 reception in the gallery.
Monds makes paintings that bring Greek Mythology into modern times. Pu takes digital sketches and blows them up into large-scale abstractions. Saavedra’s paintings explore nontraditional renderings of sugar skulls. Vongkaysone makes nostalgic paintings that fuse hyperrealistic imagery with abstracted symbols. And Hernandez makes ceramic sculptures that focus on everyday objects and food.
“This exhibition is the final step before these students graduate and displays the high-water mark of their growth during their time at WT,” said Jon Revett, art program director and Doris Alexander Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts in the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities. “We are proud of these five young artists, and we look forward to seeing how they make the world their oyster.”
Fitz Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and by appointment Fridays and Saturdays. Email [email protected].
Fostering an appreciation of the arts is a key component of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised nearly $160 million.
Top Photo: Chit Pu, “Multi Vitamins,” acrylic on canvas
Anna Vongkaysone, “Food tastes better when there are roaches on the ground!,” oil on canvas
Kayla Monds, “Hell of A Bath,” acrylic on canvas
