Spring 2026 Art Exhibitions

By ARI CASE

While the weather may have been gray all the way into May, the Arts Center’s artworks have been blooming in bright colors all semester. More than a dozen artists hung their work in student exhibits, several of them senior showcases. 

For many art students, a senior show is the culmination of years in a program. Countless hours, dozens of iterations, and immeasurable growth all distilled into one room–it’s personal and incredibly meaningful. 

“Trivial Matters of Girlhood”

Senior art education student Allie Angiolieri’s senior show entitled, “Trivial Matters of Girlhood,” centered around the idea of girlhood, womanhood, and the transition between them. 

The exhibit examined both the good and the bad of womanhood in today’s society; themes of togetherness and joy within femininity, but also control, toxicity, and societal oversexualization.

Angiolieri’s pieces stem from questions about these issues. In the case of the painting used for promotional materials,“She Stands on Business,” the question was: Why do people view a woman who is assertive as confrontational?

For Angiolieri, the creative process behind the show was sudden and “transformative.” After beginning painting last semester, she described a feeling of “something unlock[ing].” 

One of these images, a broken CD behind her head, carried a lot of weight in its symbolism.

Angiolieri explained that the piece mimics the classic Byzantine halo over Madonna.

“Mary has such a solemn look on her face. I think that really represents the power of speech, of being able to express yourself and speak up for yourself and others,” Angiolieri stated. 

According to Angiolieri, the broken nature of the disc serves as a metaphor for her own experiences, doubling as a “broken record, I often feel like a broken record, with lots of ‘I’ statements in my life, never feeling quite heard.” 

Faced with the difficulties of life–especially womanhood–sometimes people need a different kind of help. For Angiolieri, her cat Clover has been an important part of her life as an emotional support animal. Taking care of him has helped her take care of herself.

Clover joined her for the interview, as “Per Doctors Orders,” and contributed greatly to the conversation even beyond his portrait cameo. 

The piece examines the idea of support and “who’s helping who” in human-animal relationships. 

Similar to the Madonna imagery in her other work, it contains heavy influence from a lot of traditional Western portraiture and how women were depicted.

She explained that the pop-culture-default dog name, “Fido,” comes from Latin meaning “fidelity.” Over time, some artists began to replace dogs with cats in traditional portraits as social commentary. 

When creating a body of work for a show, those transitions and changes are incredibly impactful. 

“Clown Conversation Pit” 

For Sophia Beck, a graduating art therapy major, one piece stuck out in their process as well.

Although poured acrylic was a relatively new method for Beck, it had only been done in its sole form for months until “Divine Return to Nature.” The piece–displayed in the “Clown Conversation Pit” exhibit–incorporated adding other media on top of the initial poured acrylic on raw canvas.

“I had hit a point of stagnation. I went into it okay with messing it up, but as I worked I realized that I loved what I was doing,” Beck stated. “It created results I didn’t expect.”

The canvas pour works, large enough to tower over anyone–one even suspended from the ceiling–are very powerful pieces from start to finish.

The theme inspiration for “Clown Conversation Pit” came from an interesting, but fitting, place. 

It originated with a Turkish proverb that gained traction online a few years ago: “When a clown moves into the palace, he doesn’t become a king–the palace becomes a circus.” 

What began as a humorous inside joke of referring to their shared dorm space as “the circus,” eventually evolved into the central theme of the exhibit.

Senior Art Therapy student Lauran Sauka highlighted that her piece “Circus Freak”was a clear example of  the clown motif of the exhibit. 

For Sauka, it was a very impactful piece despite the humor involved.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations about it that influenced my art,” she said. “I feel like this was a piece I needed to make.”

The senior artists, Sophia Beck, Lauren Sauka, and Delaney Woynar,  worked together to create one piece, “3 Clowns in a 2 Small Conversation Pit.” The piece represented much of what the exhibit was from development to finalization.

For Beck, the joy was found in “getting to see all of our stuff together, and sort of ‘dress up’ the room. … Then getting to sit down in these chairs, in this space, that felt great.” 

“I don’t think we realized how close our themes and artworks were to each other until we really put them all together,” Sauka stated. 

As Woynar described, simply standing in the hallway and seeing the finished product made everything click: “This makes sense. This was worth all of the hard work.”

“I just want people to know that they’ve got a space to go to. You should cherish these moments you have in college, and cherish the friendships you have, and remember that you’re allowed to be a clown sometimes,” Beck stated. 

Sauka added to Beck’s message: “Find the people who can be weird with you, and embrace the aspects of your identity that you might be embarrassed about. There’s a lot of vulnerability in this space, and we want people to feel like they can be vulnerable safely.” 

“No Place Like Purgatory”

Not all galleries are made to be warm and cozy, though. One exhibition in particular, Sara Lincoski’s exhibition, “No Place Like Purgatory,” was crafted to disturb some as part of its charm.

Lincoski, who will graduate in the fall from the graphic design program, described the space as interactive and full of character–but meant to make the viewer uneasy.

“Like you’re not supposed to be there,” she explained. “[It’s] something that entices yet also tries to push you away.”

The exhibit was a glimpse into her ongoing narrative animation project “Breakroom,” including the pilot episode playing on a television screen.

No matter the angle an artist approaches their show, it’s a meaningful experience to be part of an exhibition. 

“To be able to have a discussion with people that are as interested in this as you are [in] making it, it makes everything worth it,” Lincoski said.

And for those moving on from Seton Hill, sharing the culmination of years of growth is beyond important both professionally and personally. Especially because we bared our hearts and souls.”