Minot State University Juried Student Show
Minot State University Juried Student Show
April 17 through May 15, 2020
Minot State University
Online Exhibition
Open to all Minot State University students, the Juried Student Show has been a campus tradition since the early 80s. Normally exhibited in The Walter Piehl Gallery, the JSS gives students the opportunity to participate in a professionally styled exhibition where a qualified external juror selects and designates work for artistic awards of distinction.
With the global COVID-19 pandemic, countless art and education institutions have found themselves forced to rapidly adapt their operations to the new reality of social distancing and online teaching. The decision was made to move our Juried Student Show online in order to still present an opportunity for students to participate and reclaim a sense of normality in the face of the current crisis.
The competition invites area and regional artists, educators, and other art professionals to serve as jurors each year. Serving as juror for 2020 is Ian Mabry, Assistant Professor of Art at Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND.
Artists and Works Selected:
Juror's Statement
To embark on the design and execution of a work of art involves great effort that includes motivation, inspiration, decision making, problem solving, labor, analysis, and trial and error. It also involves the emotional toll of bringing a personal aspect into realization, and then subjecting it to public scrutiny in the hopes of communicating something about oneself or the world, as understood by the artist. Everyone who submitted work for this exhibition should be acknowledged for undertaking these efforts and commended for proactively seeking to enhance the visual arts while being enhanced by them. It is regretful that I could not select every work of art that I felt ought to be recognized in this exhibition and rest assured that the selection process was a daunting task.
The process involved three days beginning with a preliminary list of selections, (which I slept on), a shorter list (which I slept on, again), and the final selection. When considering works of art in such a context, I reflect on my own experiences to try to understand the technical, aesthetic, and conceptual challenges the artist had encountered. I look beyond my personal preferences, the types of art that I am generally drawn to, and consider composition, handling of media, craftsmanship, and the personal/conceptual strength of the final product.
I want to express my gratitude for being invited to jury this show and to all of the students who entered the show. I would encourage you to continue pursuit of the arts. It is the enthusiasm and effort in those endeavors that make the humanities an essential part of life.
Ian Mabry
Juror Biography
Ian Mabry received his BFA in Ceramics in 2009 from Tennessee Technological University’s Appalachian Center for Craft. He earned his MFA in Ceramics from the University of North Dakota in 2015, where he remained as an Artist in Residence and part-time instructor until 2018. From 2018 – 2020, Ian served as Assistant Professor of Art at Dickinson State University and director of DSU’s art gallery. In August of 2020, he will return to the Appalachian Center for Craft to serve as Artist in Residence in Clay. Ian’s Ceramic work has ranged from textural, atmospheric-fired figures to sleek, non-objective sculpture. His latest work explores different embellishment techniques on the surface of his abstract forms.
