The annual Cornelia Hoppe Art Exhibit Award is open for students to submit artwork for exhibition in the HEDCO building and is named after Cornelia Hoppe, who earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1951. Hoppe works as a couples and family therapist and recently included the COE’s Department of Counseling Psychology in an estate gift. 

We sat down with this year's award winner, Yuruhary Gallardo-Garcia (she/her), who is working towards her PhD in Spanish, but received her undergrad degree in Art History, to tell us a little about herself and her artwork. 

Tell us a little about yourself and your background as an artist:

I received my degree in Art History and studied ceramics, but the visual arts have been a part of my life since I was very young. In my family, there are painters, although most of them did not pursue this profession. Ceramics and painting are mediums that I love, where I explore aesthetic processes that I also study theoretically. I dedicated my master's in philosophy to studying Latin American art, and my Ph.D. is also focused on studying art, especially art created by women. For me, it is essential that theory and practice go hand in hand. That's why I've been developing my artistic career for over 10 years. Painting is the medium I use the most for practical reasons. I have moved a lot in recent years, and it's easier for me to create a space for painting than a space for ceramics, for example. So, currently, I am more dedicated to this medium than others.

Tell us about your art, specifically the pieces on display in the HEDCO Education Building? 

These paintings that I am displaying in the HEDCO building are the result of one of the aesthetic interests that I have mentioned: art created by women and its content. I am interested in exploring the female gaze, both expressive and emotional, colorful, and enjoyable. Unprejudiced creative exploration, for me, is an aesthetic and political statement. Through my work, I aim to remind that nature is the source of inspiration, and the art object is fragile and vulnerable, merely a moment of enjoyment and thought, and not the grand monument that our society has pretended it to be. I believe this is the modus operandi of many women artists whom I admire, and I simply join that collective movement of love and respect for the non-human and its integration with our emotional and creative processes. The return to simplicity characterizes my work, and perhaps the acceptance of our fragility but also our capacity for wonder. Painting astonishes me because it is as serious as it is innocent.

These paintings are called 'Homage to Marisol', a woman who, while sitting in her chair, knows how to wait for the heat to pass, enjoys eating mangoes, and rests under the shade of her tree. She knows how to show affection to a cat and dreams that she is also a mango or a little ice cream, in other words, a woman who knows how to live and let time flow, without pressures, without hurry.

How did you hear about the Cornelia Hoppe Art Exhibit Award?

I'm very attentive to the social media of our university's art school, where I find out about talks, grants, and other news. As soon as the call was opened, I applied to showcase my work. I'm thrilled to have been accepted.