And the (Senior Show and URECA Art Exhibition) Winners Are …

The Zuccaire Gallery hosted the opening reception of the ninth annual combined Senior Show and URECA (Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities) Arts Exhibition on April 29. Photos by John Griffin.Cheered on by classmates and other students, faculty, staff, university leaders and local museum curators - about 300 in all - SBU students proudly displayed and were recognized for their artistic creations at the Staller Center's Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery on April 29.

The occasion was the opening reception of the ninth annual combined Senior Show - which has been happening for nearly 50 years - and URECA (Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities) Arts Exhibition. It's a tradition growing in popularity and evolving in scale, with this year no exception.

On view through May 22, the Senior Show can be seen at the Zuccaire Gallery Monday through Friday, 12-4 pm and Saturday, May 9 from 12-4 pm. Featuring works by the Department of Art's senior studio art majors and minors and digital art minors, it includes paintings, sculpture, ceramics, prints, photographs, digital media, mixed-media installations and works on paper by this year's graduating class.

The URECA Art Exhibition celebrates outstanding artwork created by SBU undergraduate students selected by the Department of Art studio art faculty. On view through May 13, during the same Zuccaire hours listed above, this exhibition has juried awards and distinctions presented by the Division of Student Affairs and Gallery North in Setauket.

What Made This Year Extra Special?

Department of Art Chair Linda O'Keeffe said a combination of new studio faculty, increased art student enrollment and a more focused curation and oversight process all came together to make the Spring 2026 exhibition particularly exciting.

"The works are more diverse than ever in terms of both subject matter and materials, from chalk painting to sculpture to digital and mixed media," she said. "Plus there is breathing space on the walls despite the vast number of entries, for the optimum visual experience. All of this really pleased me. A lot of credit, as always, goes to the incredible talent and vision of Karen Levitov [director and curator, Zuccaire Gallery, Staller Center for the Arts]."

O'Keeffe explained that there was a stronger focus this year on curating senior art in the classrooms, and drawing a sharper distinction between the Senior Show and the URECA exhibition. "The Senior Show is all about displaying what is meant to be the culmination of a student's artistic expressions and capabilities - their final, completed pieces," she said. In contrast, she said, URECA entries - all by non-seniors this year - dealt more with the creative process that gets artists to that point.

As she told reception attendees, "You see the culmination of research and it doesn't necessarily reveal the years' long investigation of subject matter - investigating through failure, through testing, through methodology, perhaps through collaborating, and through communicating your work to different audiences over and over again. All with the goal of understanding what your practice is going to be by the time you leave here. URECA is that opportunity for us to say, 'This is what it takes to put the energy and concept and playfulness and stress even that brings us to that point'."

Professor of Practice in Drawing, Painting, Mixed-media, and Installation Jason Paradis, who served as the URECA Art Exhibition Coordinator, added, "We asked the departments to nominate students whose work and studio practice were grounded in research - which can be around concepts, material use, or even the rigorous process they use or boundaries they create, like drawing up a schemata for how much work they do on any given day. Painters, ceramicists, printmakers, digital - we all are pursuing new inventions and new materials and new things in our studio art practices. There's lots and lots of discovery and we wanted to showcase students' research capabilities in the URECA exhibition."

From the Artists' Mouths

Senior Show artist Lina Guerriero was thrilled to have two pieces on display, with her digital photograph entitled "8:37 PM" taking home the Vice President for Student Affairs Purchase Award. She said the title of her piece reflected a transformational moment when she had an epiphany about her art.

"I'd been working on so many pictures that just weren't working out," Guerriero explained. "When I created this piece, I realized that its 'childhood wonder' is what I was looking to capture. I looked at the clock and realized this was the moment where I transitioned back to doing what I really wanted to do and express with my art."

Vice President for Student Affairs Rick Gatteau is equally thrilled to be the proud owner of the piece once the show is over. "I saw that piece, with hands making simple shadows on the wall, like birds, and knew immediately it was exactly the kind of vibe we wanted for our Student Affairs office. For students to see when they're sitting in the waiting room. It's whimsical, fun, peaceful and, yes, full of childhood wonder. I just love everything about it."

Adrian Thompson had three pieces on display. Speaking about their striking 73"x109" micron (fineliner, technical pen) on paper piece entitled "Woven," Thompson shared that personal elements embedded in the piece included memories of their grandmother, thoughts about their parents, and more general depictions of "the African American diaspora and culture - with concepts such as overworked women." Thompson was awarded one of the Staller Center Awards for Excellence for that work.

Another piece - soft pastel on paper - entitled "(in the back of my) 2009 grey nissan altima" show the colors of the backseat of a car where they suffered a traumatic experience. Said Thompson, "My work often deals with internal strife and crisis, and my process is to let the pieces speak to me. Working on the larger pieces allows me to release emotions through artistic expression, while the focus on intricate details on smaller pieces is also therapeutic. And, in the end, I hope it's all meaningful for the viewer."

Speaking about the reception as a whole, Georgia LaMair Tomczak, senior manager, Community Engagement and Gallery Operations for Zuccaire, said, "I love the Senior Show and URECA Exhibition. It's such a popular event and it's so wonderful seeing how happy the students are. It's a great opportunity to recognize and celebrate our student artists. It's all about the campus community coming together to support our student artists, and the arts at Stony Brook."

View the full list of Senior Show and URECA Arts Exhibition award winners.

- Ellen Cooke

See certificate presentations to award-winning artists at the reception in the photo gallery below: