Passion after classes: the annual Alumni Art Exhibition

It is well-known that this quaint little campus has a lot more coming out of it than hourly bell chimes, faint stenches of fried chicken, and the bustling chatter of 2,200 undergrads. This little slice of collegiate heaven has produced countless amounts of incredibly talented scholars, scientists and, of course, artists. While “great” art is something elusive and hard to define, there is no doubt that Muhlenberg has become a creative haven for artists of all kinds. The fantastic pieces displayed at the Annual Alumni Art Exhibition proved this statement, as every piece was filled with an emotional truth and personality that could only be found at Muhlenberg.

The works featured in this exhibition are the fantastically intelligent observations of such alumni as Sally Barbour, Laura Weinhofer, Pamela Souders, and many more. About half paintings and half photographs, all of the pieces were guaranteed to have you wishing you had bought one of those adult coloring books. Pieces that stood out beautifully were Sally Wiener Grotta’s samples from her collection “American Hands Project”. So glorious at first that they appeared to be paintings, these samples display the raw humanity of nature and focus on Navajo Rug Weavers, successfully blockading the Eurocentric ideals of beauty and showing fantastic women at work. Jessie Alcheh’s works had a similar effect; at first glance simple, but in execution unique and thrilling in her use of light and color to portray everyday scenes in these capturing photographs. The photograph of the subway car displays the beauty in everyday routine, and the use of reflection is brave and truly breathtaking.

I talked to Alcheh about how her experience at Muhlenberg affected her art, and she shared her insights with me: “It was the professors I had such as Joe Elliott and Greta Brubaker who always were honest with me and gave me the criticism I needed to grow as a photographer and a person. Muhlenberg as a college made me much more open minded about what I could be passionate about. In turn my art has gone from just something cute or pretty, to being quite meaningful. So I guess at Muhlenberg, I came to just understand that I can’t separate my personal life (the good and bad) from my art.”

An aspect of this exhibition that was not apparent initially was that all of the works were done by female artists. All representation is a good kind of representation, but what stood out most to me about this exhibition was that the representation wasn’t called out. At no point did the gallery display the fact that all of the artists were female, but simply allowed their art to exist in a public space without calling upon its uniqueness. Not only has Muhlenberg given so many of these incredible women the tools to create their art, it also has provided them with a space to present their pieces. This exhibition proves that Thomas Wolfe was wrong: you can go home again.