On Friday afternoon, The Gund opened the doors of its latest exhibition: the 2025 Senior Studio Art Show. The monthlong show, which features the work of 16 senior studio art majors, included but was not limited to paintings, photography, multimedia collage, multiple types of prints, quilts and installations. The senior art show is always a highly anticipated event, but this year’s opening and exhibition marked the last full show that will be held in The Gund, a decision that has been a major source of controversy with the student body this year. However, the opening itself was joyful as many visitors brought flowers to congratulate the seniors on the completion of their capstones.

According to an email from Wynne Morgan, the coordinator of engagement and public programs for The Annex, 579 people attended the two-hour opening of the exhibition. Many of the seniors reflected on the opening and on their projects in interviews and emails with the Collegian. 

For her capstone, titled baby blue jean heart, Isabel Connor ’25 created a series of three quilts that each had a corresponding poem. For Connor, the medium was essential to her work. “Quilting is a labor of love. I don’t think there’s an inch of fabric on any of the quilts that my hands haven’t cared for or fretted over,” Connor wrote in an email to the Collegian. “The process is repetitive and meditative and there’s a lot of patience involved. So I think the biggest challenge was truly being patient and trusting in the process.” In her artist’s statement, Connor explained that every fabric in each quilt was chosen with care and its narrative and history contributed to the final product.

Another artist whose work was rooted in story and lineage was Emma Jin Ah Kang ’25. Kang’s Weedflower 풀꽃 Dynasty is a collection of prints meant to visualize the narrative of her grandmother Paol Young Hee’s life. “Until I started asking questions, she had not spoken about much of what had happened to her at this time to my father or aunt,” Kang said. “By integrating my grandmother’s history with my practice, we all face her unresolved traumas and joys together, thus converging our temporalities. Halmoni’s bittersweet account is part of a cumulative history that embodies the destruction of a nation. Engaging with her personal history aids in the reckoning of collective trauma, magnifying the spectres of the Korean War.”

Beyza Aydın ’25 largely focused on the process of creating her works for Bâtın, Zâhir, a collection of 11 pieces of Ebru or Turkish water marbling. “The point of the project was letting go of perfectionism and ideas that I have in my head of what should be, and just letting the work be whatever it needs to be,” she explained. “Finding those technical errors was really fun. One that I really loved that ended up in the final show is the black and pink. People love that one. And if you look at it, the black kind of drags. And that’s a technical error.”

Emilia Thompson ’25 also emphasized the role of creative process on her capstone. For Thompson, late nights in the studio she shared with fellow studio art major Lauren King ’25 were a vital part of her project, Somewhere Between a Dream I Had and California, a series of self-portrait dreamscapes. “Sharing the studio this year allowed us to grow closer as friends, but also work in tandem as artists developing a personal practice. We are always bouncing ideas off of each other, sharing painting advice, and asking ‘can you take a quick look at this?’ at least a few times a day.”

The theme of portraiture continued with Collecting Myself, a collage and mixed-media project by Sophia Sprague ’25 that used materials such as rhinestones and ribbons to suggest portraits through objects. For Sprague, the exhibition was a culmination of all of her work this semester. “For me, the opening felt really frightening because I wasn’t feeling super sure about my work. The week before the exhibition when everyone is putting up their amazing work is the perfect time to compare yourself to everyone else and feel inadequate,” she explained. “On the one hand I felt proud to have made what I made, but on the other I was obsessing over what I could’ve done better and what I didn’t like. It also just feels really weird to be done with something you’ve been working towards for an entire year, which is the longest I’ve worked on any artwork.”

The seniors also shared some reflections on the end of Senior Exhibitions being held in The Gund. Shea Wilt ’25, whose project is an untitled collection of five collages featuring organic intertwined glass, was disheartened by The Gund’s decision: “The fact that this showcase is the last nauseates me. My artist friends graduating after me are putting their hearts and souls into creating work that deserves to be seen. I also feel that the Senior Exhibition brings in the most visitors of any event at The Gund. Kenyon is changing.” 

King also expressed her dismay at the decision. “I love Kenyon, and I have had a great four years here, and so it disappoints me greatly that the school is prioritizing prestigiousness over the experiences of its students,” said King, whose work, Domestic Horror, is a series of paintings depicting eerie household scenes. After lengthy deliberation the committee, which was formed to decide where future senior exhibitions would be held, settled on Gund Commons as the new location. Students will also be allowed to display just one piece in The Gund the week of graduation. 

The Annual Senior Student Exhibition 2025 showcase will be up at The Gund through May 16.