The annual Eric Show is on view at the Illini Union Art Gallery through April 5th. Take some time to head over to the Union to experience some of this year’s best art from Champaign-Urbana’s most talented high school students.
March 6th’s opening reception was bustling with the family, friends, and teachers of the young artists participating in the exhibition and, of course, the young artists themselves. The atmosphere was busy but welcoming and communal as everyone viewed and discussed their peers’ or students’ works, enjoyed the provided punch and appetizers, and congratulated the show winners as they were announced. Before awarding the winners, the emcees made sure to name all the art instructors present so that they could also receive a much deserved round of applause. It was a night of celebrating art and every person who contributed to the show. The room was full of pride, not only from the students but from their teachers and parents especially.
Re-visiting the show later, on a less hectic day, I was able to better immerse myself in the works and appreciate the care that clearly went into how the many pieces are arranged around the room. The artworks are placed such that pieces of similar style, media, and/or theme are congregated. This delicate organization not only displays the works in a cohesive manner, but creates a viewing experience that evolves as the viewer moves through the room. In one corner, the viewer is surrounded by surreal photography and digital collage, while in another they encounter the more subdued but elegant charcoal and ink drawings.
One of the greatest aspects of the Eric Show is that it displays the work of many artists without restriction of theme or media, procuring an exhibit defined by the intersection of each artists’ individual style, subject matter, and process. Every artist, and therefore every art piece, has their own story and voice.
Winner of Best in Show, Kevin Mikulich, says that his masterful self portrait titled On the Surface – Part I was a “study of oil painting as a medium,” and made it a project which allowed him to explore (and apparently perfect) the use of a new (to him) material. April Vanichtheeranont was similarly inspired to try a new medium with her photograph titled Ghost Light. Vanichtheeranont had “always wanted to get into DSLR photography” but did not have the chance to do so until she took a class on the medium this semester. She was also inspired by her time in theater working lights:
“Basically, for our school, there’s something called a ghost light that you put on stage to ward off theater ghosts. It looks so cool when the entire theater is abandoned and that’s the only light, so I was like ‘I need to take a picture of this.’”
Vanichtheeranont took this photo using long exposure, allowing her to capture the halos of other dim lights in the photo’s perimeter as well as to insert a transparent ghostly figure opposite to the ghost light. Through her experimentation with this medium, she produced a photograph that captures the unique ambience of an empty theater while ingeniously creating a scene within it.
Some students I spoke to were also inspired by the works of other artists. Lallah Davis said that when creating her ethereal surrealist collage she was “just focusing on the aesthetic” and was heavily inspired by Nirvana posters and album art. Similarly, Cece Cahoon’s Cat-Symmetric was created for an assignment in which she was to pick an established artist’s work to emulate. Cahoon chose painter Franz Marc and recreated a photo of her cats with Marc’s characteristic “harsh outlines and bright colors,” a perfect style for this quirky painting juxtaposing the two cats’ polarizing personalities.
In addition to the experimental and the aesthetic-focused, among the diverse array of artworks in the show are ones that evoke a deeply personal sensation. These works have such an effect either by depicting certain emotions of the artist or through the creation of characters that leave the viewer wondering about the larger story in which they exist. One such piece titled Bright Future was created by Evelyn Ficek. Here is what Ficek had to say about her inspiration for this piece:
It’s definitely one of the more personal pieces I’ve done. I’ve been doing art for a very long time and there’s always this expectation of getting better and better and ‘obviously she’s gonna do really well in her future because she’s so good at this at such a young age.’ It just gets kind of daunting sometimes so I thought I would just finally try to express that in a piece.
Ficek perfectly captures the overwhelming weight of great expectations through this painting of a tired young girl. The way she holds her fists over her eyes, momentarily blinding herself the stars surrounding her (which perhaps represent these expectations) engenders the feeling of feebleness which often accompanies the wariness of others’ presumptions.
These artworks just barely scratch the surface of what is to be found at this year’s Eric Show. The Illini Union Art Gallery is chock-full of dozens of other wonderful pieces waiting to be seen by a larger audience and any local art lover would be remiss not to stop by.
Congratulations to the winner of best in show, Kevin Mikulich; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, Alex Olsen, Sam Downs, and Gwen Happ, respectively; and everyone else who contributed to this wonderful exhibition.
Eric Show 2024
Illini Union Art Gallery
1401 W Green St
Urbana
March 6-April 5, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.