Sweet Briar College art exhibit runs through May 16

An art exhibition of works by students in the Sweet Briar College studio arts senior seminar runs through May 16 in Pannell Gallery.

Titled “Magnificent Seven,” the show will include works by Carolanne Bonanno, Jadrienne Brown, Meghan Kaminski, Reda Masincup, Alexis Parker, Blair Sutton and Brook Schulze.

With each student exhibiting several works, viewers will find a breadth of subjects and emotions expressed in the art. Some, such as Bonanno’s photography, are intimate and personal. Her images deal with the concept of “beautiful isolation,” she said, meant to project a sense of longing and loneliness.

They were hard to create, Bonanno said, because they are drawn from her own experiences. “They’re not sentimental, but they are nostalgic,” she said.

Masincup looks to many sources for inspiration, including pop culture and the political world. “But the one element they all have in common is that they feature some kind of animal,” she said.

“Tuned Out” is an oil pastel drawing that depicts a tiger listening to an iPhone. “I’ve always felt an affiliation and innate curiosity to the natural world and the creatures inhabiting it,” Masincup said. “Color is very important to me too, and the vibrancy to which pure color evokes upon a canvas or piece of paper.”

A self-described enthusiast and clown, the studio art major said she tries not to take her work too seriously. “I do what I do because I enjoy working with the medium and ultimately because I am an illustrator at heart,” she said.

Other works she plans to show are “Playtime’s Over,” an oil pastel drawing with a bull bank and a teddy bear holding a hammer, and, in a nod to Sweet Briar’s mascot, “Vixen with a Pearl Necklace.”

Brown’s art is “about the need to read between the lines and to dig a little deeper,” she wrote in an artist’s statement. Although the notion of humanity runs through her work, she said the black and white photographs will be very different from her paintings in the show.

Gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Friday and 1 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Admission is free. For information, e-mail or call (434) 381-6248.