Yahya Rushdi

I would like to start by saying thank you.

Thank you to the faculty at UMD for inviting me to jury, and thank you to all the students who submitted their artwork to the Annual Student Exhibition. The staff at UMD put in a lot of time and effort to set up this event, and the students did with their work, as well. Be immensely proud of the work that you’ve done. You did it.
 
Serving as a juror of this art exhibit was a very humbling experience for me, considering I walked the halls of UMD 13 years ago. I tried to put myself back in the students’ shoes during this process, with all the classes and credits, the late nights and all-nighters, and the final projects and exams — plus the added challenge of the pandemic climate that we are currently in. I can’t state enough how impressed I am by each and every one of you.
 
Over the course of several weeks, the jurors were asked to narrow down 180 entries! This was an incredibly hard task, as you can imagine. The breadth of skill and passion displayed among all the work was so impressive. There is so much talent oozing out of UMD. I viewed each piece of art countless times, zooming in and zooming out, inspecting every little detail, but also keeping in mind the bigger picture as well as the inclusivity of all the mediums represented. The other juror, Nishant, and I then chose the work that spoke to both of us and deliberated with each other to reach our final decision. In my review process, I looked for a few things, including but not limited to: story/message, technical skill, creativity, style, and individuality.
 
Also, a sincere and friendly reminder that art is subjective. For those who were not chosen to be in the exhibition (and, of course, also for those who were) keep making art. Keep growing and learning. Keep doing you!  

Nishant Saldanha

Thank you too the faculty at UMD for inviting me to jury this show.

It was a privilege to be given this responsibility and it was ultimately a difficult task to survey 180 works from a vast diversity of styles, techniques, and points of view and focus in on a selection of 40. While going through the work what became apparent was the openness of this program to applications from anyone who has taken an Art and Design class and more importantly, the willingness of many students, whatever their background, level or major, to participate and submit work to this competition. I wish to acknowledge this open and democratic aspect of the program as its real strength; especially when art is often branded as exclusive, though it is not.  

I would like to take this moment to explain my personal criteria as a juror for these submissions. Being a practicing visual artist myself, it was hard to look at the works of other artists and not be empathetic towards the artist’s process and imagine the detailed sets of calculated decisions that go into a work of art in order for it to appear effortless and stand on its own. In this final selection are examples of beautifully crafted and defiantly unselfconscious film editing, of photography that chooses to be abstract and mysterious (a difficult task in our image saturated world) even while remaining faithful to the human figure, of drawing that dares to be light-hearted and uses humor as a way to frame a serious topic, and of portraiture that reveals much more about our ‘interior landscape’ as humans than can be with shown with a great command of anatomy alone. All of these works display real artistic skill, a non-negotiable for evaluating art, but are defined by how they go beyond it to foreground something else - very often, facets of our own humanity that are relatable on an intuitive level, even if we don't have the words to explain it. In going deeper and being true to the self, many of the artists seem to have found a way to acknowledge personal trauma or face external or societal impositions and in doing so find a connection outward to community. It is a humbling feat. I will remember many of these images for life. 

Warmly, 
Nishant