Marking the newest installation in the frequent exhibitions of students' work, sponsored by the department of Fine Arts, Dimensions 2: Work from Classes in Drawing, Painting and Printmaking opened for public viewing this past week.

On view through Feb. 26 in Spingold Theater Center's Dreitzer Gallery, the exhibition presents the works of students in a range of Fine Arts classes from the past semester.

The Dreitzer Gallery was staged with a large volume of work that was packed closer than I've ever seen it. From the front of the gallery to the back, each of the alcoves distinguished a different body of works that was organized by medium.

At the front of the gallery, in the first alcove, hangs a collection of paintings on canvas. The paintings' subjects incorporate an array of still life settings, involving stagings of shells, lemons, nude models and metal trophies. Along the inside wall, there is also a series of mounted portraits; the multidimensional colors and layering of paint shades and coats serve to express texture, depth and light.

In the portraits especially, colors range from true-to-life flesh tones to bolder concoctions of primary colors and darker hues that give the works a less realistic, more fantastic feel.

Heading into the next alcove, which was hung with paintings on canvas, I recognized that all of the works depicted scenes from the University's campus-one focuses on a view of Waltham from campus, and several others show glimpses of the Sachar Woods at the edge of campus.

On the next wall, smaller paintings on paper stock are all completed with equally belabored detail as their larger counterparts and show parts of campus during different times of the day.

The paintings in the first part of the gallery contrast pleasantly with the works hung on its outer wall: several large charcoal and pencil drawings, depicting both people and still life scenes. 

Some of the black and gray scale works also incorporate brown and tawny colored pencil, adding emphasis and depth to certain elements of the works.

The pencil gives a greater variety to the depiction of faces and features than in the paintings-some are soft, some hard, some with true-to-life proportions and some dramatized.

Moving into the middle alcove in the gallery, a group of still life pen and pencil drawings on large paper fill up an entire wall. The works use stippling and shading techniques to create scenes that include unexpected details that draw the viewer into the subject matter. For instance, one pen drawing shows an open suitcase, and inside it, there are stickers and notes pinned up, the largest of which reads "self care is a revolutionary act-Audre Lorde." A copy of Angela Davis' Race and Class is tucked inside the suitcase, next to the note.

In the far end of the gallery, several of the larger and more brightly colored canvas paintings are hung, showing an impressive differentiation of style. The works range from using bolder, defined lines and regions of color contrast to softer, layered dabs of paint that evoke an impressionistic style and feel as if they are from another time.

The farthest wall is covered with a smattering of smaller paintings on canvas, each square or rectangular, and much smaller than a piece of printer paper. These smaller works feel more like snapshots into everyday moments for each artist. They depict meals, landscapes, pets and even song lyrics.

Though the exhibition's scheduled opening date-last Wednesday-was delayed because of the inclement weather, none of the works are labeled yet, and plenty of works are still leaning against the gallery's walls, not yet hung up to display. 

Nonetheless, Dimensions 2 wonderfully showcases an incredible versatility of medium within the works of painting, drawing and printmaking in the works of students in the Fine Arts department.
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