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The exhibition, held in Lamarche Gallery in Smith Union, featured over seventy student entries. Contestants and guests at the show’s April 19 reception perused a wide variety of student art.
Each year for the past quarter century, the former Bowdoin fraternity Delta Sigma/Delta Upsilon has supported a juried art competition for students, funded by a foundation set up after the fraternity sold its campus house. Top artists receive a cash prize.
From film photographs to sculpture and drawings, the show included a range of media. The entries were judged by three Bowdoni alumni in the art world: Jeanine Sobell Pastore ’81, Enrique Mendía ’20, and Sarah Haimes ’15. Midway through the event, Assistant Director of Student Activities Emma Gould announced the winners of the exhibition.
“I expected Bowdoin student artists to be good,” she said, “but I did not fully realize how extraordinary our students were until I started to receive the physical submissions and see each piece in person.”
Several of the award winners said they did not expect the acknowledgement. “I was very surprised when I was informed of the recognition,” said Runqin Chen ’26, creator of Temple. “I was impressed by all the art created by other polar bears and by the ideas behind their pieces.”
“I was ecstatic,” said Isa Cruz ’27, creator of Bodies of War. “My initial response was surprise—especially considering that I’m a first-year, it seemed unlikely. I’m still overjoyed and deeply grateful for it, and I don’t plan on letting the momentum stop here.”
Gould said the the entries this year set a high bar for quality. “It was very clear to me that students were intentional with their techniques and chosen media, down to each brush stroke and photograph,” she explained.
Bowdoin students seek a wide range of sources of inspiration for their art. Rie Du ’27, who won a prize for her piece Urban Blessings, said she uses photography to document time. “I have a poor tendency to live outside of the present and for memory suppression, so by taking photos often I leave a breadcrumb trail for myself to look back on in the future,” she added.
Olivia Miller ’27, a student photographer who had work in the show, said that taking pictures allows her to explore and experience new things. “As a first-year I’ve used taking photos as an excuse to explore Brunswick and greater Maine with my camera at my side.”
Cruz emphasized the intentional nature of their work. “The themes I take up in my expression, whether poetic or visual, tend to—in the broadest of terms—contemplate the self in relation to others and the lived environment.” Speaking specifically about their award-winning piece, Bodies of Water, they said, “[The piece] is a reflection on gender fluidity as an identity I came to embrace through immersing myself, literally and figuratively, in bodies of water.”
And Chen credited chemistry class for motivating her artistic expression. The interactions of atoms, molecules, and their buildup of the universe informed her prize-winning sculpture, Temple, she said.
Many artists said they were grateful to Bowdoin for fostering an environment in which artists can thrive. Du acknowledged her mentors and friends, whom she said inspired her artistic process. “My artistic expression—and this likely holds true for many others—is a mosaic of everyone I’ve loved and admired, from seniors at Bowdoin I look up to, to friends from back home, to artists whose works resonate with me.”
Cruz noted how much Bowdoin academics influences their artwork. “An interesting process of cross-pollination occurs as the academic content seeps into the art,” they said, adding, too, that the precision and intentionality demanded by art-making also informs other academic disciplines.
Gould noted the variety of artistic media, class years, and experiences behind the diverse display at Lamarche. “Walking through Lamarche Gallery on the night of the reception, I felt overwhelmed with pride as I met the artists behind the entries and gushed over their art with them,” she said.
Miller echoed the praise. “This show completely blew me away,” she said. It was great to see my own art on the wall, but seeing others’ work and the amount of talent on display was my favorite part.”
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