College’s National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show Attracts Nation’s Artists for Over a Half-century

His vision has lasted more than 50 years. In fact, the late Joseph A. Cain, who served as a professorand chair of the Art Department at Del Mar College (DM), dreamed of an exhibit in the 1960s that would attract artists from all over the country to showcase some of the nation’s best work.

That dream continues more than a half-century later as the DMC Art and Drama Department hosts an opening reception for the 52nd Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show next Friday, Feb. 16, featuring two- and three-dimensional pieces.

The show opens with a free reception from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Joseph A. Cain Memorial Art Gallery, located in the Fine Arts Center on Del Mar’s East Campus on Ayers Street. The opening includes live music, hors d’ oeuvres and a cash bar. For more information about the reception or the national art show, call the DMC Art Office at 361-698-1216. 

This year’s juried exhibit attracted 197 entries, including 114 drawings and 83 sculptures submitted by 117 artists representing 23 states.

The task to narrow those entries down to the final exhibit was challenging according to this year’s juror, Dora Natella, associate professor of sculpture at the E. M. Raclin School of the Arts at Indiana University South Bend. Natella selected 28 drawings and 24 sculptures for the 2018 exhibit, which represents 39 artists whose works made the national show.

She added, “As I narrowed down my choices, I was drawn to artwork that is evocative, mysterious, and intellectually compelling, where form and content come together to generate meaning and transcendence.”

An accomplished artist in her own right, Natella has participated during the College’s national art show in the past as well.

Raised and educated in Italy, Natella studied sculpture in the classical tradition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. She moved to the United States in her 20s for advanced studies in bronze casting techniques and the opportunity to immerse herself in a new culture with fewer direct connections to a classical past.

Natella’s artwork has been widely exhibited in many venues across the United States, including the most recent juried and invitational shows in South Carolina, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Additionally, her sculptures have won many awards and are part of several private and public collections in Merida, Venezuela; Rome, Italy; and the United States.

While on campus earlier this month, Natella selected purchase awards for the College, which exhibit coordinators will announce during the reception. Every year, Del Mar purchases a few pieces and adds them to its permanent collections, one of which is housed with the Art Program and displayed in Cain Gallery from time to time and the other in the William F. White, Jr. Library in the fifth-floor gallery.

Art collectors may also purchase many of the exhibition pieces.

Take the opportunity to see some of the country’s best artists’ work. The show runs through May 4 with gallery hours scheduled 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 9 a.m. until noon on Fridays.