UOG Isla Center for the Arts presents ‘Creative Hands’ exhibition

The UOG Isla Center for the Arts will hold Creative Hands: Selected Works by Pacific Artists from Dec. 5, 2024 to Jan. 24, 2025.

Creative Hands: Selected Works by Pacific Artists is a biennial juried exhibition with Kaitlin Pomerantz serving as the juror for the exhibition.

Pomerantz holds a BA in Art History and Visual Art from the University of Chicago, an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art with a Teaching Certificate from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Ed.M in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

She is a resident critic in the MFA Program in The School of Visual Arts, a Sachs Course Development Grant recipient and instructor at the University of Pennsylvania and is a seminar instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

She has participated in numerous exhibitions, is represented in several collections, and also curates displays. For more information about our juror, see http://www.kaitlinpomerantz.com/.

The Isla Center for the Arts received 184 submissions from 27 artists for consideration. Pomerantz selected 39 works created by 16 artists for the exhibition. After her selection process, she subtitled the exhibition “Surprise.”

As stated in her juror’s statement: “Art serves many functions. It can bear witness to reality, envision new realities, embody self and collective expression, transform materials, document history, predict the future, and more. The selected artworks in this show are united by their capacity to surprise. To be surprised is to be confronted with the unexpected and jolted out of one’s pattern of thinking and expectations. The works in this show are visual and material surprises, leaving viewers with a sense of wonder in the infinite possibilities and permutations of the sensory world.”

The selected artists include: Addy’s Custom Crafts, Alyanna M. Barrera, Trexie Berondo, Judy Flores, Keiko Flynn, Alison Hadley, Raiki Leon Guerrero, Chie Numano, Nine, Madison Orland, Lia Park, Yeon Sook Park, Dawn Lees Reyes, Rioanne Simeon, Julius Sotomayor, and Stanley Verroya.

Pomerantz selected the following as Best-in-Show and honorable mentions:

Best-in-Show:

Pocky Plane (cardboard) by Raiki Leon Guerrero

Honorable mentions:

Wait (digital photography) by Alison Hadley

Blood Rises: Submerge (mixed media sculpture) by Alyanna Barrera To be Determined (mixed media sculpture) by Alyanna Barrera

Challenger Deep, Marianas Trench (mixed media) by Chie Numano

Mae’s Store Inalahan (batik) by Judy Flores

Arriving Manila (acrylic) by Julius Sotomayor

An opening reception for Creative Hands: Selected Works by Pacific Artists will be on Thursday, Dec. 5, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. The event will be held at the Isla Center for the Arts located at #15 Dean’s Circle, on the University of Guam Campus.

Refreshments will be served. There is no admission fee, but donations are appreciated. The exhibition will be on display from Dec. 5, 2024 to Jan. 24, 2025. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10am-5pm, Saturdays 10am-2pm, closed on Sundays and holidays. Admission is free but donations are appreciated.

For more information, call (671) 735-2965 or email islacenter@gmail.com. A link to photos of the Best-in-Show and the Honorable mentions is here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rtnlx5hajr8gQCdOzDHsk5P1_CuD1F5n?usp=sharing. (PR)