MGCCC Harrison County Campus to host Student Art Exhibition and Competition

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Harrison County Campus will hold the 2024 Student Art Exhibition and Competition on April 8-24 in the campus Fine Arts building.  The show, which is held annually, will include works from students in Drawing, Design, Painting, and Computer Art courses.

A reception and awards presentation will be held at 11 a.m. on April 24 in the Campus Art Gallery in the Fine Arts building.

Among the students showcased in the exhibit is Kaitlin Borri of Gautier who will graduate in May with an Associate of Arts Degree.  She plans on incorporating this degree into her current career field of Therapeutic Recreation. She enjoys working with people of all ages and abilities and is excited to expand the activities she offers to include the skills she’s learned at MGCCC. She is inspired by Realism and enjoys painting in acrylics, as well as drawing in charcoal.

Another student, Genesis Ulloa Garcia, is originally from the Dominican Republic but currently lives in Biloxi.

“I have always been inspired by other artists’ work, especially concept and contemporary artists such as Karmen Loh, a digital artist from Malaysia, and Ding Yi, a Chinese painter,” she said. “I also love surrealism and the stylization of the human figure; I think it’s a very interesting way of interpreting life and translating it into art form.”

Her goal is to be a freelance artist. “This is my last semester at MGCCC, and I’m hoping to have the opportunity to transfer to another art school so I can finish my four years and get my bachelor’s degree in fine arts,” she said.

Meredith Legagneux is an illustrator from Biloxi. She works on both paper and digital illustration and focuses on drawing people. Attention is paid most to using colors in a meaningful and coherent way and creating interesting compositions. Her interest in goth styles and dark aesthetics is present in much of her art. One of her biggest inspirations is the act of creating itself and finding the process exciting, as seen in her unblended pencil marks and painterly brushstrokes. She is set to graduate with an Associates of Arts in 2025.

Victoria Sanders of Biloxi dreams of becoming a concept artist someday.  “Whenever I start a new painting, I like to develop a story that inspires me,” she said. “My inspiration comes from different sources such as games, books, or even my own imagination.”

Concept art from books helps her to understand what she is doing better. She also experiments with various themes in her creative process, and each theme has its own story behind it, such as nostalgia, grief, or fantasy.  “Painting is my passion, and I enjoy every second of it. My imagination runs free when I paint or draw inspiration from animation, games, and books,” she said. “Without them, I would feel like an empty shell of my personality if I couldn’t put fantasies onto the canvas.”

The exhibit is free and open to the public. The Harrison County Campus is located at 2226 Switzer Rd, Gulfport. The Art Gallery is located in the Fine Arts building, building D.

This year’s show is held in memory of Matthew Steadman, longtime Ceramics instructor at MGCCC Harrison County Campus, who passed away in January.

Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.  For more information, contact Cecily.Cummings@mgccc.edu or 228-897-3909.