This February, Southwestern University opened the doors of the Sarofim Art Gallery to welcome the Annual Student Art Exhibition. The gallery, located in the Fine Arts Building, is where students were given the opportunity to have their artwork from Fall and Spring courses put on display. The featured artwork included ceramics, paintings, sculptures, and many other art mediums. The works included were all done by Southwestern students in studio art classes from 2024 to the present.

     In most professional art museum and exhibition settings, there is an art juror; one who serves as the expert and art virtuoso of the gallery. This year, Southwestern University welcomed Jessica Halonen as the juror for the Annual Student Art Exhibition. Jessica is an Associate Professor of Art at Trinity University. Jessica played a large role in the opening reception of the exhibition, providing the audience with a look into how the artists curated their pieces and what the whole process looked like.

     The exhibition featured a very wide range of artworks, from a ceramic teacup to oils on canvas. Some pieces took much inspiration from the self and human emotion, such as senior Sophie Vogel’s mixed media on canvas titled “Depression.” Other pieces, like Mia Matos’ Operation (2025),  included tactile aspects that drew inspiration from existing work (like the board game, Operation!) Mia’s artwork also included an interactive display of human anatomy, with slides and a telescope provided alongside their artwork. Amongst The Megaphone’s favorite pieces were “Center of the Mind” by Maeve Lloyd ‘27, as well as “Family Heirloom” by Emily Olivarez.

Open from February 12 to the 25th, the art exhibition was a decadent display of the creativity and artistic flair that flows through Southwestern’s studio art students.