By Khalida Sarwari
“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.”
Those words by Pablo Picasso are reflected in a new exhibit at West Valley College. The school art department recently opened its annual faculty exhibit, featuring nearly two dozen works that tackle such subjects as cancer and the first silicon chip transistor design.
The faculty exhibit showcases the works of 10 art instructors at the college and includes paintings, sculpture, ceramics, photography and pottery. The collection is comprised of 20 works of contemporary art and includes some two-dimensional pieces, watercolor and large oil and acrylic paintings.
“This is an exhibit of new work,” said Jason Challas, an art instructor who’s exhibiting three new paintings. “We like to have the faculty show at the beginning of the school year just to introduce them to the students.”
Challas is exhibiting a series of paintings that are based on the first silicon chip transistor design created in 1959. He said he chose the subject because he liked their concentric circular shape.
The paintings represent “the continuous idea of technologies that have shaped our lives” and are part of a larger series about the history of Silicon Valley, Challas said.
Instructor Kathy Arnold is showing a large painting that contains diagrams of folding origami and Sylvia Rios is exhibiting a ceramic bust of a cancer survivor.
The other exhibitors are Wes Burns, Heidi Brueckner, Chris Cryer, Mark Nobriga, Dave Ogle, Gary Tolomei, Mitra Fabian and Ron Guzman.
The art department exhibit follows on the heels of an exhibit at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara that showcased the works of art educators in the West Valley-Mission Community College District.
The current exhibit is free and open to the public through Oct. 17. Gallery hours are Monday and Wednesday from 1 to 3:30 p.m., Tuesday from 2 to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The college’s art gallery is in the lower level of the student center, at 14000 Fruitvale Ave., in Saratoga.
For more information, visit finearts.westvalley.edu/gallery.html.
Picasso’s words reflected in faculty art exhibit at West Valley College
