University of Michigan faculty and families of 2024 Stamps School Art & Design graduates flowed through the Stamps Gallery Friday afternoon for the graduating students’ exhibition: “Commence.” The gallery featured a wide range of student works including photography, film, sculpture, clothing and jewelry, all created by the Stamps Art & Design school graduating class.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Stamps Gallery Director Srimoyee Mitra said this is the first year “Commence” has been held. Distinct from other graduating students’ exhibitions, “Commence” is a non-juried show, giving students the unique opportunity to present either non-academic or academic work of their choosing.
“‘Commence’ is a new initiative for all undergraduate students from Stamps to opt in to present their work,” Mitra said. “It’s an expansion of the senior show, which is curriculum-based. The idea is also that it’s a snapshot of the work that students have made over the last four years, and it doesn’t have to be something that they made (in) a course.”
Art & Design senior Summer Pengelly presented at the exhibition because she plans to graduate with her bachelor of fine arts in the upcoming fall 2024 semester. Pengelly told The Daily the pieces she presented were part of a personal project she worked on outside of her U-M coursework.
“These works weren’t a school assignment,” Pengelly said. “It was more of a project I worked on last summer, and I wanted to experiment with different materials before the new semester and I wanted to have a chance to display non-academic art.”
Pengelly said her work allowed her to explore both a medium and a topic that was specifically important to her.
“I’m really interested in color and emotions,” Pengelly said. “So I charged the different emotions I was feeling over the summertime into each piece.”
Art & Design senior and upcoming graduate Jaelynn Sviglin-Krell presented a sculpture at “Commence.” Sviglin-Krell told The Daily the piece she chose represented her development in a medium she was unfamiliar with before coming to the University.
“To create something three-dimensional was very different for me (because) I’m normally a painter,” Sviglin-Krell said. “I thought it was a big point of growth for me. I’ve never had another chance to show it anywhere, and I’m really proud of it, so I wanted to bring it here.”
Sviglin-Krell said her exposure to historic work in her intro to ceramics course inspired the piece she presented, which commented on traditional symbols of femininity and the meaning of womanhood.
“I saw a bunch of handheld figurines that were a part of Greek and Roman culture given to newlywed couples as a blessing of childbearing for their marriage,” Sviglin-Krell said. “It embodies the archaic value of women in which value is placed on how many children you have. It just kind of solidified the role of women as child bearers, which I didn’t agree with, so I made this to kind of be my response to those.”
Sviglin-Krell said “Commence” offered an opportunity for Art & Design graduates to share important work they have created throughout their time at the University.
“This exhibition gave us a chance to choose what we wanted to be seen, to submit one piece that maybe hasn’t got the appreciation it deserved,” Sviglin-Krell said. “And so, to see what everyone has chosen to represent themselves is really powerful.”
Daily Staff Reporter Anna Javier can be reached at ajavier@umich.edu.