“Far From Home” exhibition
The International Student Services Office (ISSO) kicked off the spring quarter with the “Far From Home” exhibition and awards show Friday night at the Fahm Hall Gallery.
The exhibition featured 56 artworks created by international students from the University’s different campuses. There was a diverse selection of work in the gallery, ranging from painting to photography, mixed media to bags and jewelry.
Although there was another exhibition down the hall, this did not stop eager guests from cramming into the “Far From Home” gallery to support their friends featured in the show.
During her opening remarks, Brook Serrano, the Senior International Student Advisor, welcomed students to the event, which also served as the ISSO’s spring quarter reception. She also thanked the SCAD Language Studio for sponsoring “Far From Home,” the professors who served as the jury, and Stephanie Li, the International Student Advisor, who was responsible for coordinating the exhibit.
Li explained that there was a big difference in the selection this year as compared to last year. In 2012, the exhibition was in Montgomery Hall, which had provided them a larger space and allowed them to feature more work. When this year’s exhibit moved to the Fahm Hall Gallery, the smaller space forced the jury to select fewer artworks to be featured.
According to Serrano, there were 127 participants and 304 works submitted to the ISSO. Out of the hundreds of pieces of artwork, the jury selected five winners.
The Merit Awards went to Nuri Kelly, an illustration graduate student from Istanbul, Turkey, Katherine Norsk, a photography major from Denmark and Mariel Gurdián, an illustration graduate student from San Jose, Costa Rica. Amimi Cheng, an illustration student from Hong Kong, received the “Cover Image” award. She told the audience that her work was inspired by her experience riding the subway in Hong Kong. The “Best in Show” award was given to Feng Huang, an animation graduate student from Wuhan, China, who combined traditional Chinese music with her drawings and paintings done by hand in Photoshop.
The “Far From Home” exhibition was more than just an awards show and reception. Serrano explained that SCAD has over 1500 international students, and the exhibit “brings a lot of attention to how talented students are and where they’re from.” She also said that it showed “a lot of diversity” among the students’ talents. Li added that the exhibition helps build the international students’ self-confidence because of their worthiness to have it displayed and their talent shown off to the SCAD community.
The “Far From Home” exhibit runs from March 28 until April 10 at the Fahm Hall Gallery.
