Semivan (left) and Schwert (right) are currently displaying artwork at Peggy´s Cafe through February. An opening will be hosted Wednesday Jan. 20thfrom 7 to 9 pm.
Peggy’s Caf is now featuring student artwork by Sandra Schwert and Lauren Semivan. Schwert, a junior studio art major in the studio of Joe D’Uva, has displayed 8 oil paintings while Semivan, a senior studio art major in the studio of Julie Lindemann and John Shimon, is showing a photography series of self-portraits. Peggy’s approached the Lawrence Art Department this past December in hopes that students might be interested in showing their work in the caf. Schwert took up the offer with the intention of doing a shared showing with Semivan whose style, Schwert felt, complimented her own.
Sandra Schwert’s oil paintings, often initially inspired by works of music and poetry, capture a subdued class that looks very appropriate on the brick walls of Peggy’s. Her paintings are mostly still-lifes that range in subject from humans to pears to glass bottles. Although the artwork was originally completed as part of her studies here at Lawrence, Schwert emphasizes, “This is not by any means a culmination of what we’ve learned at Lawrence. This is merely a sampler of our artistic interests.”
Lauren Seminvan’s exhibit “Lampsound: The Silent Narrative” is only part of a larger body of work for her Honors Project. Semivan developed her self-portraits using the historic process of Palladium Printing in which the photograph is exposed to UV light. This creates an aged or washed out effect appropriate to Semivan’s subject matter of abandoned and unused places. The photographs, which were taken in the attic of her campus residence, are framed in sets of three, each individual photo exploring a possible moment in a fluent narrative and creating a “visual etude.” Through the subject matter of her involvement with her environment, the photos give a sense of breathing new life back into the old.
All the student artwork is for sale and ranges in price from 50 to 300 dollars. On Wednesday, Jan. 20, Schwert and Semivan will be hosting an art opening and Peggy’s from 7 to 9 pm. The opening will include a discussion of their work as well as a question/answer session. Walk-ins are welcome.