Annual RRC Art Show and Auction showcases student work for their benefit

KD Kaus, CONTRIBUTOR

Some of the artwork on display at RRC Graphic Design Students’ Art Show. THE PROJECTOR/ KD Kaus

Over 100 people packed into the cafeteria in the Roblin Centre at Red River College’s Exchange District Campus on the evening of March 3, 2017, for Red River College’s Graphic Design Students’ Art Show and Auction.

Second-year students completed over 50 pieces of original artwork to auction off at the event, while guest auctioneer Dean Cooper called the bids. A preview of the artwork up for auction started at 6 p.m., and the event began at 7 p.m. with seating at capacity.

Tonya Martin, 23, attended the auction last year as a first-year Graphic Design student.

“Last year it was packed, and quite a lot of people were standing,” Martin said.

Martin is excited to contribute her own artwork to the auction this year as a second-year student. Our Lost Ancestors is an outdoor scene laser burned on wood. Painted with watercolour, it features intricate geometric shapes burned into the surface to add texture and depth. The scene shows a log cabin with smoke escaping the chimney into the night sky.

“I had the whole outline of my piece before done today, but I hadn’t finished the rest,” Martin said.

Twenty-year-old Hannah Beil, also a second-year student, contributed Simply Deerlicious to the auction. The piece is an acrylic on canvas painting of two deer in the forest at dusk. Beil’s surroundings contribute to the ideas she finds for her art.

“I just take a look or walk around and I see things,” Beil said. “Then I realize I can use them for inspiration.”

Students worked on the layout of their art pieces in the week leading up to the auction. They had to complete at least 80 per cent of the assignment before the day of the event. They worked from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the cafeteria on the day of to finish up in time.

The artwork from all students varied in mediums. Some were acrylic on canvas, gouache on 300 lb. paper stock, oil pastel on Canson paper, mixed media, and black India ink. Money raised from the auction will go toward graduation funds for Graphic Design students this spring.

RRC, Artists Emporium, Fleet Gallery, and the Exchange District Biz sponsored the event. It was also part of First Fridays in the Exchange, a free art event in Winnipeg’s Exchange District that runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the first Friday of every month.