New Senior Capping Exhibition “In Time” Highlights Student Work

Capping students stand with their displayed work for the exhibition in the gallery. Photo via Lucy Baldino '25

Steel Plant’s most recent art exhibition, “In Time,” consisted of innovative student work from studio art professor Dr. Malgorzata Oakes’ spring capping course. 

The mix of art mediums, such as photography, animation, graphic design and paintings, allowed for a creative showcase of who these students are and what they came to Marist College for. 

The exhibition was organized by Diana Kazarian ‘24, a digital media student who has curated the gallery twice before. Kazarian has curated work done by professors before but working with classmates was a new experience. 

“The best part about working with other students is the different visions that everyone brings to the table,” said Kazarian. “These students brought so many different ideas and unique backgrounds that everything melted together into one pot to create something so fabulous. It’s hard to compare it to any other shows I have done because the artists are so different.” 

Kazarian was not the only one working with all the students in the show. Digital media majors Caroline Robitaille ‘24 and Emma Denihan ‘24 created the catalog for the show, which included all of the artists’ headshots, statements and an image of their art shown in the exhibition. 

“The trust that the class, as well as the professor, had in us to [market] our capping class as a whole was a really good feeling,” said Robitaille. “I really enjoyed collaborating with a different artistic style on my part of the exhibition because Emma and I are similar in a lot of ways but also very different, so I think being able to find common ground that we both really liked was great.” 

The artwork displayed in the exhibition consisted of many different artistic styles. “I created a painting that is supposed to represent a 17th-century style painting,” said Kylie Williams ‘24, an art history major. “It’s a still life painting of symbols of death and vanity and the reflection on how when you die, you can’t bring those things with you.” 

Other artists, such as digital media major Evan McMullen ‘24, created two photographic pieces that are each 12 feet long. 

“I wanted to do a progression from light to dark, and there's a little motion blur between each of the photographs to give more motion as the person is walking through the exhibition themselves,” said McMullen. “I wanted the viewer to walk with my piece as they viewed it in the exhibition, so being more in time with the present moment when viewing my work.” 

Reflecting on her first year teaching this capping course, Oakes said, “Looking back and seeing how the exhibition is not only diverse and represents each individual student and their personalities, it also looked into their creative minds as individuals, and it has been very rewarding.”