As UNCW welcomed the start of a new school year, the Boseman Art Gallery opened its doors to another dimension. Sculpture students ranging from beginner to advanced featured their work in the new gallery exhibit “Visions in Three Dimensions” that focused on sculptures using mediums such as steel, plaster, rocks, wood and fabric.

Without the notice accompanied with each work, one might not realize the ingenuity put into crafting these works of art out of everyday materials such as walls, boxes, construction, clothing and furniture. Studio art major Janice O’Leary and artist of An Ill Consumed Heart used steel, plaster and acrylic paint in her sculpture.

“I had a lot of fun with the welding process,” said O’Leary while also stating how the “plaster can be tricky and take forever to dry.”

However tricky the sculpture was, the viewer would expect the precision of O’Leary was carried out in perfect deliberation. When looking at An Ill Consumed Heart, the eye is immediately drawn to the red center heart. O’Leary’s concept of the effects of consumerism is displayed in the way she positioned the red center so that it seems to be decaying while surrounded by coiled steel.

Artist Jonny Harris takes on a more vibrant vibe with his two gallery pieces Pick Me Up JINX and Please Touch F@. In both works, he used steel, cardboard, and spray paint, which is an experience he describes with, “inspiration comes easy, hand bending steel does not.”

Pick Me Up JINX and Please Touch F@ are easy and fun to look at, which is just the feeling Harris was hoping to evoke in his audience.

“Everything about this piece is reflective of that moment when we stand in front of a piece of art and awkwardly try to convince ourselves we ‘get it,'” he says. “It’s like a first date when we convince ourselves we always eat three courses and pair wine with our dinner when we are actually the person that binged Oreos and HBO the past three nights. There is nothing to achieve when acting like that; art doesn’t have to be exclusive.”

Whether it is the means of creation or the message behind it, the visions of these artists go beyond conventional. Visions in Three Dimensions “grew out of the desire to highlight UNCW work and a general appreciation for the art of sculpture,” said Lauretta Lawlor, Association for Campus Entertainment (ACE) 2018-2019 Arts Chair and curator for the exhibit. The exhibit was successful at highlighting the variety of talent here at UNCW and offered a view into the dimension of sculpture through relevant perspectives of students.  

“What is interesting about this day and age is that society is starting to catch up on addressing the emotions art has long sought to explore and display,” Lawlor says. “This is evident in the growing push to address important issues concerning mental health. A lot of the pieces in this exhibit are of, in some cases made from, natural elements. This, again, demonstrates an appreciation for the beauty of the natural world.”

Lawlor hopes students will visit the gallery to see the emotional and visual power of the art. “There is no telling what emotional reaction you will have to a piece until it is physically in front of you,” she said.  

Visions in Three Dimensions will be on display in the Boseman Gallery on the second floor of Fisher Student Union until Sept. 14.