The Fullerton College Art Gallery opened its doors for this year’s Student Art Exhibition on Thursday, May 4.

Art students submitted their best work for a chance to be a part of the student exhibition, but only 141 pieces were selected by art department faculty.

The gallery was designed by students taking the Museum Studies course and designed the wall lay-out, colors, lighting and labeling of the exhibition.

Work entered in the exhibition used a wide variety of different mediums, including sculptures, oil and water color paintings, pencil and charcoal drawings, digital media, color screen prints and ceramic works.

Awards were given to select students whose pieces showed especially high degrees of skill and technique.

Best in Show was awarded to Sarah Perez for her piece “Milky Mouf”.

“I’m so in shock…I honestly didn’t think I would make it in the show.” Perez said regarding receiving the award.

It took the artist three weeks and over 30 hours to complete her painting, working not only inside, but outside of class and often late into the night. She was ecstatic to see her work named best in show with so many other high-quality art pieces featured.

The Dean’s award was given to Andres Martinez for his sculpture “Chucho”, and Mary Rose was given the Excellence in Color Award for her painting “Lucy”.

First place in sculpture went to art 160 student Hannah Dietrich for her piece “Strangely Altered”.

Art 153 student Korbin Creager received first place in ceramics for his piece “Skullpture”.

Vitzania Dominguez won first place in drawing for her pencil drawn self-portrait.

It was the first time Dominguez submitted her work for the exhibition. She considers herself to be a fairly new artist, having only been creating work for the past three semesters. In the future she wants to take more art classes at Fullerton College that cover other art forms.

Excellence in Composition was awarded to Darilynn Tipton for her piece “Beach Afternoon”.

First place in design went to Zoey Avilla for her untitled screen print.

“I’m happy to see more prints this years. I’m excited to see different types of medias.” She was happy to accept recognition for the hard work she put into her reductive relief print. The way in which the print is made is a timely and complicated process.

The student exhibition displays the truly remarkable abilities of Fullerton College’s art students and the school’s ability to challenge students into improving their artistic skills.

The exhibition runs until Wednesday, May 17. Check out the Art department website for more information.