UCF Art Gallery showcases art from 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow'

There are many themes that artists can attempt to grasp through their work. Though time itself can be a difficult concept to capture from an artistic perspective, artists gave it their best shot at an art exhibition opening today.

The UCF Art Gallery, located in the Visual Arts Building, will open its first ever open-call, juried art exhibition today to showcase artwork from dozens of Orlando artists.

Taking on the theme "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," the free and public exhibit will feature 50 to 60 pieces of art from 47 artists, including several local Orlando artists and many UCF students and graduates.

"There are a good number of UCF students that actually got accepted. We're really excited about featuring their work as well," said Elise Frost, an art gallery specialist at the UCF Art Gallery. "It's good to see that they're engaged in UCF and also just doing their own thing and getting their artwork out there."

Today's 6 p.m. opening reception of the exhibition will also feature live entertainment from musician Joseph Keebler and a dance routine from the Hemisphere Dance Company.

In addition to live entertainment, the opening reception will also announce winners for first, second and third place.

Tiffany Sanders, the juror of the exhibition who selected these winners, feels that the broad theme of "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" offers the artists a plethora of fresh ideas.

"The theme ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow' suggests an abundance of subjective points of view as it relates to creative interpretations," Sanders said in a press release for the event. "It's an overall impressive body of work and engages the viewer in a way that leads them through a tunnel of time with reference points that resonate with anyone regardless of race, sex or geographic location."

Whitney Broadaway, a 2010 UCF graduate who majored in fine arts with a focus in drawing and print making, chose to interpret her own idea of the theme through a work she made in 2009: a small foldable book titled I Used to Wear Diapers.

Broadaway explained that the book is made up of three layers, with the back layer consisting of a linocut pattern, the middle portion being made of several printed etchings cut out with an X-Acto knife and the front layer consisting of frames and hanging texts, which give statements about Broadaway's life.

"The whole left side of the book deals with my past and the whole right side deals with my projected future. The book as a whole is meant to be an autobiography or a snapshot of myself at the time I made the book," Broadaway said. "The events work toward the front of the book, where it accordions out to the front, which is kinda where the past and the present meet to make that current moment."

The exhibition and its vast theme not only encourage a variety of ideas, but a wide spectrum of mediums to practice it in. With everything from symbolic epoxy sculptures to autobiographical handmade quilts, the exhibition seeks to broaden what you'd expect to see at an art gallery.

"We have a pretty plentiful selection of mediums here, but we didn't put any limits in our call," Frost said. "So be it. If someone wanted to do something that came out from the wall and moved mechanically and it was accepted, we would display it. That's just how we saw it. We didn't want there to be a lot of limits to this."

Beyond this exhibition, the UCF Art Gallery also plans on hosting a BFA and MFA showcase for students this spring.

Also on the horizon for the UCF Art Gallery is exhibiting a project called STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics), which seeks to depict the importance of science and technology through artistic expression.

"My hope is that we can expand our outreach in terms of community and our outreach to students," Frost said. "In general, it's about community, outreach and getting people to understand that UCF values art and values community and wants to be involved with both."

The "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" exhibition will be on display from Jan. 26 to Feb. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. For more information on the exhibition and the gallery, visit gallery.cah.ucf.edu.