Senior showcase

Photographs, oil paintings, videos, mini furniture, and a sculpture made out of colorful cough drops are among the artwork on display at Gallery 360 in a new exhibit featuring the work of talented Northeastern University seniors.

The annual Art + Design Senior Exhibition is now on display through June 1 at Gallery 360, located between Ell Hall and the Curry Student Center. The exhibit features works from 36 students in art, digital art, studio art, and graphic design in the department’s joint program with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

“You have everything from work in the medium of the Web, next to an oil painting, next to a bronze casting,” Nathan Felde, chair of the Department of Art + Design in the College of Arts, Media and Design, said at the exhibit’s opening reception on Friday afternoon. “The variety of media is really important. It’s lovely work.”

Seniors were asked to submit three pieces of work to a selection committee comprised of Art + Design faculty, which decided what would be featured in the show. The committee then worked with each student to determine the best way to display each piece.

“There are certainly a wide variety of disciplines in the department,” said Thomas Starr, a graphic design professor who served on the selection committee. “We recognized great work when we saw it.”

Students, faculty, staff were among those who attended the new Gallery 360 exhibit's opening reception on Friday, April 25. Photo by Mariah Tauger.

Students, faculty, staff were among those who attended the new Gallery 360 exhibit’s opening reception on Friday, April 25. Photo by Mariah Tauger.

Sophie Greenspan, AMD’14, has a number of pieces in the exhibit including her senior project in which she designed stickers, posters, a T-shirt, and an annual report for Bikes Not Bombs, a nonprofit in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood aimed at using bicycles as a vehicle for social change.

“This was essentially what I would do if I could reimagine the organization’s visual outreach,” said Greenspan, who volunteers there. Though the organization hasn’t seen her posters or stickers yet, it is printing the T-shirt she designed for its bike-a-thon in June.

Greenspan also won a competition among Northeastern’s graphic design students to design the Senior Exhibition poster, which is also on display in the gallery. Greenspan used chalk to make the design, which was then photographed by Mettie Ostrowski, AMD’14.

“We felt an open competition was great because it added another element to the students’ final semester,” Starr said.

Aaron Tenbuuren, AMD’14, also drew inspiration from his senior project for his piece in the exhibit. Tenbuuren, a graphic designer major, created furniture pieces that can be easily disassembled and stored so they don’t take up space when they are not being used.

A miniature version of a stool, desk, and bookshelf Tenbuuren created are in the show. “The thing that really sparked this was not having enough space in my apartments over the years,” he said. “With furniture, everything is created as art. I wanted this to be functional and artistic at the same time.”

One of the pieces featured in the exhibit is titled "Table" and was created from tulle, brass, fasteners, candy, wire, sand, water, cellophane, felt and foam. Photo by Mariah Tauger.

One of the pieces featured in the exhibit is titled “Table” and was created from tulle, brass, fasteners, candy, wire, sand, water, cellophane, felt and foam. Photo by Mariah Tauger.