Ephemera 7

Posted by Franco Romero in Visual Arts

On the evening of March 25, SFUAD students in the Graphic Design and Digital Arts departments put their work on display for Ephemera 7, the latest in an ongoing series of shows curated by members of the Alexis Collective. Unlike previous Ephemera incarnations, this semester’s show took place on the ground level of the library, next to Necessities, the student store. Many students stopped by to see their own work, as well as the work of their peers.

Student work on display at Ephemera 7. Photo by Richard Sweeting.

“Unlike other shows we host through the collective, Ephemera is more of a general showcase of work within the Graphic Design and Digital Arts’ departments,” Ronnie Garcia, president of the Digital Arts portion of the Alexis Collective said. “It’s always interesting to see how, even without a theme, we’ll somehow end up with recurring patterns in everyone’s submissions. Like when we’ll end up with a lot of work that has bright and highly saturated colors, or with this show, a lot of the work was very detailed and black-heavy.”

According to members of the collective, Ephemera hasn’t changed much since it began. It has always been an open call to any work students have made. The collective’s current president, Caleb Ortega, said that the focus of the show continues to be showing off the top tier work that comes out of the Graphic Design and Digital Arts departments. He said he has always hoped that Ephemera would be a way for students to come together and appreciate the craft they all love. As for what he enjoys most about putting on these shows, Ortega said he is fond of the opening nights.

Student work on display at Ephemera 7. Photo by Richard Sweeting.

“Seeing everybody coming to hang out and see work and just talk,” Ortega said. “It’s refreshing to see everybody enjoy what they do outside the classroom environment.”

This show was Ortega’s last round of curating for Ephemera because he will be graduating in May. He said he is sad to be leaving behind the Ephemera series, but that he will always look back on the Alexis Collective’s Instagram page to see what members are up to. Additionally, he hopes that after he is gone more students will get involved with Ephemera by submitting, curating, etc.

Being that this was Ortega’s final Ephemera show, the Alexis Collective members said they were hoping to give him what they considered a proper sendoff, but that unfortunately they did not get quite the response they were seeking.

“Since this is Caleb’s last year, we were hoping to have a really large turnout of work to send him off with a bang,” Garcia said. “Ephemera, and even the Alexis Collective wouldn’t exist without his unending support and dedication to our departments. But life happens and we have all been caught up in our coursework, so the show didn’t turn out quite as large as we originally hoped.”

Presidents of the Graphic Design and Digital Arts portions of The Alexis Collective, Caleb Ortega and Ronnie Garcia. Photo by Richard Sweeting.

Still, despite a smaller number of submissions than was expected, The Alexis Collective still consider Ephemera 7 a success.

“I’m glad that we still got to hang up what we had,” Rufino Medrano, who will be taking over as president of the Graphic Design portion of the Alexis Collective next year, said. “We were able to put the submissions near Necessities, where everyone can see the great work from our department.”

Garcia and Ortega both said that they are happy with the results of each Ephemera show, as long as they are able to showcase quality work, and watch others be exposed to that work.

“The shows are just for fun and to show everyone the incredible work out classmates are capable of,” Garcia said. “At the end of the day, as long as everyone is doing work they are passionate about, that’s all that matters to us.”

The work featured in Ephemera 7 will be on display in Fogelson library until the end of the month. For information on future Ephemera shows, follow The Alexis Collective on Instagram and Tumblr.