Elmhurst College art students present Capstone Exhibition
Nine senior art students will explore a variety of compelling and often personal themes, from a fascination with the supernatural to creating the identity and marketing materials for an R&B band, during the Elmhurst College Art Department's Spring Capstone Art Exhibition.
The high point for every graduating art major, the exhibit requires students to create a body of work in their area of concentration, then plan their exhibition and design all of the promotional materials for it.
The exhibition opened Saturday and runs through June 1 in the Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace, 200 W. Park Ave., and the Founders Lounge of the Frick Center, 190 S. Prospect Ave.
Here's a look at the artists:
• Taylor Lutz of Decatur Michigan, loves outer space and the supernatural, so her project was a marriage of the two - a space-themed deck of 22 tarot cards, along with packaging and branding.
• Kristina Olsson of Oak Brook created a custom Monopoly board game around the theme of literature.
• Tara Flatley of Frankfort combined her passions - art and music - to create the concept and marketing materials for an alternative/R&B-inspired band.
• Brookston Perschke of Angola, Indiana, redesigned the book covers for eight of her favorite novels, also creating a publishing company logo and deliverables for the publishing company.
• Kera Bjerga of Lombard created five art pieces - using recycled and donated materials - inspired by experiences from her life, and related to her efforts as a young adult to live independently.
• Hannah Palmer of Bloomingdale decided to create the identity, branding and merchandise for a camping music festival.
• Julia Madrid of Carlsbad, California, created a climate change organization whose goal is to educate the public about the negative effects of climate change. She created a logo, magazine, website and posters for her organization.
• Nicholas Klein of Glenview designed creatures based on the 12 zodiac signs, focusing on "the worst and most terrifying" aspects of each astrological sign.
The other participating student is Joseph Barrette of Valparaiso, Indiana.
The exhibition is free and open to the public.
The Accelerator ArtSpace, built around a 20-foot-high particle accelerator dating to the 1950s, is open from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The Accelerator ArtSpace will be closed May 26 to 31.
The Capstone Exhibition is one of about a dozen art shows Elmhurst College hosts each academic year in two campus venues. In addition, the college's A.C. Buehler Library permanently houses the school's collection of Chicago Imagist and Abstractionist Art, which explores the vibrant, often outrageous, yet precisely crafted works of Chicago artists between 1950 and the present.
For more information, call Suellen Rocca, curator and director of exhibits, at (630) 617-6110 or email srocca@elmhurst.edu.