FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Northridge — The University Student Union (USU) Student Art Collection officially opened its new gallery Tuesday, Jan. 30, on the second floor of the Sol Center in the USU. The new art space was completed and curated by Ariel Mazariegos, Art Curator, and James Matzen, Graphic Designer, with the help of the USU maintenance staff. Currently, The USU's Collection holds more than one hundred original artworks created by CSUN students. With several other pieces of student art already on display in the Oasis Wellness Center of the USU, the same team is now working on mock-ups for installing additional art from the Collection in the USU's Northridge Center and East Conference Center. The USU Collection is the result of its ongoing partnership with the CSUN Department of Art, established years ago by USU Executive Director Debra Hammond and Department Chair, Edward Alfano.
"The USU believes it's important to have gallery spaces here dedicated to student art," said Ariel Mazariegos, USU Art Curator. "Thousands of people from the CSUN campus community - students, faculty, staff and visitors- regularly use our wide range of facilities and centers. Exposing them to these works in the USU Student Art Collection supports creativity and intellectual stimulation. In addition, this collection acts as an archived history of the CSUN student experience."
When selecting the pieces for the gallery, Mazariegos and Matzen kept in mind how they wanted to reflect the variety of art processes used by CSUN students. With pieces dating from 2001 up to 2017, the gallery includes student works from several mediums such as sculpture, painting, ceramics and photography. In a photo taken in 2001, Ringo Chiu captured the aftermath of the World Trade Center destruction, titling it Ground Zero of World Trade Center. Created in 2011, Bianca Guerra's Dusk is an arrangement of porcelain vessels painted in the hues of the evening sky. When grouping the works for placement in the gallery, the USU team's focus was on having pieces that worked well visually and conceptually within the art space. They then worked with the maintenance staff to properly hang and display the artwork.
The USU Student Art Collection's new gallery is committed to reinforcing the University Student Union's mission of optimizing the CSUN student experience through its imaginative and thought-provoking works. For more information about the USU Student Art Collection, the new gallery in the Sol Center and the University Student Union, please contact Ariel Mazariegos, USU Art Curator, at .
