Young Contemporaries 2019

April 25 - May 11, 2019
Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 24th, 5:00 - 7:00PM

Painting of a person under water in a pool
Arden Sanchez, Just Keep Dreaming, 2018, acrylic on canvas, courtesy of the artist

Each spring, current LMU art students are invited to enter Young Contemporaries to have their work judged by two professionals from Los Angeles's art world. The Laband's annual juried student show features works of art in all the disciplines taught in LMU's art program including drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, painting, ceramics, graphic design, and new media. This exhibition—the 35th Juried Student Art Exhibition hosted by the Laband—provides an excellent first professional experience for students and celebrates our students' boundless creativity and the mentorship provided by LMU's art faculty.

Generous support for the exhibition is provided by The Friedman Family in memory of Andrea Kingaard Friedman '66.

Meet the 2019 Jurors

  • Sinéad Finnerty-Pyne is an LMU alumna (2000) who is currently the Project Strategist at Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects [LOHA]. She is part of the LOHA leadership team responsible for identifying future projects and cross-disciplinary collaborations and oversees the firm's public relations outreach which includes the production of exhibitions and publications. Sinéad has over fifteen years of experience in curatorial practice, exhibition production, and studio management at small and midsized institutions throughout the region. She is the former Gallery Manager/ Assistant Curator at Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena and the former Artistic Director of Gallery825/LA Art Association. She completed studies at University College, Dublin, Ireland, and received her B.A. in Art History from Loyola Marymount University. Sinead earned an M.A. in Museum and Curatorial Studies at California State University, Long Beach, where she received the College of Art Outstanding Thesis Award for her paper "Outward and Boundless: Painting in the Age of Expansion."

  • Steven Y. Wong is the curator of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the longest running institution in Los Angeles devoted solely to exhibiting art. Previously he was the Interim Executive Director and the senior staff curator at the Chinese American Museum (CAM) in Los Angeles. Prior to his work at CAM, he was the Director of Digital Literacy Initiatives at the Little Tokyo Service Center, and has lectured at UC Santa Barbara and was adjunct professor at Ventura College and Pasadena City College in Asian American Studies, History and Art Studio Departments. Still an artist at heart, Steven manages to create visual art and has exhibited in museums and galleries in Los Angeles and New York. Steven holds a Masters in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (1998) and a Master in Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2000).

2019 Jurors' and Director's Awards

Jurors' First Prize

Yiwei Lu
Chinese Factory 02, 2018
Inkjet print

Jurors' Second Prize

Abigayle Gill
Self-Portrait, 2019
Acrylic on canvas

Jurors' Third Prize

Yue Wang
Belonging, 2019
Cotton satin, poly cotton, silk

Jurors' Honorable Mentions

Kelli Nagasawa
Grandpa Riichi, 2018
Screen print

Ashley Armsby
Sand Dwellers, 2018
Color photograph

Laband Art Gallery Director's Award

Henry Cragg
Crown of Crow, 2019
Dry-point etching


Installation Images

A series of images from the exhibition