The Delta Sigma Art Competition hosted its annual Wine and Cheese Awards Reception in the Lamarche Gallery in Smith Union on Wednesday.
Every year, the competition offers an opportunity for students to submit their artwork to be considered for cash prizes. "[The competition] is open to all Bowdoin students with work in any medium of visual art," said Craft Center Manager Bonnie Pardue.
From 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., the gallery offered refreshments, live music, and featured a variety of multimedia student artwork. The reception culminated in former Delta Sigma president Peter Simmons' awarding of prizes to four students. This year's award recipients were Tu Anh Dinh '11, Lauren Gesswein '11, William Hatleberg '11 and Caitlin O'Keefe '13.
The winning pieces ranged in medium from photography to drawing to painting to melted crayons on fiberboard.
The judges praised Gesswein's photographs, for their unexpected nature and "narrative quality."
"The photographs depict a spot in the Bahamas where I went in December," said Gesswein. "I was really taken by the lack of infrastructure and lack of people."
She described her style of photography as attempting to "look through spaces and obscure the landscape."
Dinh won awards for the three pieces she submitted and her piece "Self Portrait with Poet James Wright and Lil' Wayne" was praised for its originality. The piece is composed of three Russian nesting dolls—a self portrait of Dinh as the biggest, followed by a medium-sized James Wright and, finally, a tiny Lil' Wayne—painted with acrylic. Dinh has submitted pieces to the competition every year and this is her first time winning an award.
"I love seeing the variety of student work at this show, and it's always good to know that strangers appreciate your work," she said.