New exhibition features 52 women artists in Fresno State art gallery

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“Thresholds In Parameters of what it is to be,” features 52 woman artists. There is a second location at available for viewing at the Graduate Studios at M Street on Feb. 2. (Cesar Maya/The Collegian)

By Cesar Maya, Reporter

The Fresno State Phebe Conley Art Gallery hosted a brand new exhibition, which will be open from Jan. 23 through Feb. 16.

The exhibition, titled “Thresholds in Parameters of what it is to be…,” features 52 women artists, both local and international. Jamie Nakagawa Boley, Fresno State lecturer and curator of the event, said this event is meant to highlight “women of all color and all ages.”

The gallery is open Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The opening reception, including an artists’ panel, was held on Jan. 26.

During the panel, the work of internationally recognized artists Nancy Youdelman, Pamela Sneed and Claudia Hart were highlighted, featuring a poetry reading from Sneed.

Within the artists’ panel, each of them expressed their connection to the exhibition and how their previous work has led them to where they are now.

“The Mourning Series” by Pamela Sneed brings visibility and awareness to people who have been erased in history. (Cesar Maya/The Collegian)

Boley, a Fresno State alumna, began the panel by introducing three of her previous professors which are featured in the show and explained why she chose some of the pieces as the curator. She expressed her struggles being a woman and an artist and how the new exhibition is an opportunity to show that.

She said it was a dream to have an exhibit like this and to work with her fellow panelists, thanking Fresno State as well.

“There’s something about this school. Dreams are possible here and so that just struck me today,” Boley said

Hart, who created “Alice Unchained”  in the gallery, told The Collegian why Boley included some of the works of her previous professors.

“We were all her teachers at three different phases. She brought us to speak to her students. It’s the passing on from one generation to the next [and] to the next,” Hart said.

Sneed said her art was also a way to share her history and show a theme of generational impact.

“Part of my point is to basically make visible people who’ve been erased and I think Jamie has also done that in her show. A lot of women who haven’t got the credit or the due…get to be seen,” Sneed said.

Carla Pimentel, a student at Fresno State, was able to connect with some of the pieces on display and found one to be

“It’s really unique. It’s not just like a painting. That’s something I really liked as well,” she said.

To see the exhibit and see all of the 52 women artists on display and their stories, the exhibition will continue to run in the Phebe Conley Art Gallery until Feb. 16. The M Street Graduate Studios Studios in Downtown Fresno will also hold the gallery on display from noon to 4 p.m. on Feb.