Lewis University’s 15th President’s Art Exhibition presented work by 34 students and alumni at the Wadsworth Family Gallery in 2023.
Approximately 100 submissions were reviewed by Art and Design professor Mark Swain before the final selection was made.
Three major prizes across different media
Morgan Vergo won first place for As Above, So Below, a sculpture made from aluminium foil, aluminium wire and mirror.
Jasmine Pryor received second place for the acrylic painting My Brain, while Erika Ornelas took third place for the pencil drawing Focus.
The exhibition also introduced an alumni award, presented to Devin Ingram for an untitled self-portrait made in oil and oil pastel on canvas.
Recognition beyond specialist art programmes
Somuadina Uwaezuoke, a cybersecurity student from Park Forest, received an honourable mention for the clay sculpture Despair.
His inclusion showed that the exhibition was not limited to students pursuing art degrees. The gallery provided a route for creative work made alongside other fields of study.
Further honourable mentions recognised a range of media and approaches.
The Wadsworth Family Gallery regularly hosted student exhibitions, regional artists, high-school shows, faculty presentations and culturally focused programmes.
The President’s exhibition brought those educational and public functions together. Students and alumni competed within one juried framework, while the university treated their work as part of campus culture rather than an activity confined to the art department.
The selection’s diversity, from reflective painting to constructed sculpture, showed how an annual university exhibition can document both technical development and individual ideas across a broad student body.