The 56th Juried Undergraduate Exhibition

WCU Bardo Arts Center

Exhibition: February 20 – March 22, 2024

Western Carolina University’s Annual Juried Undergraduate Exhibition is one of the longest-running Catamount art traditions. This exhibition is an extraordinary opportunity for WCU undergraduate students to share their artwork with a larger public and to enhance their skills in presenting artwork in a professional gallery setting. Entries are reviewed by an outside art professional who selects the works for exhibition at the WCU Fine Art Museum. Selected works will be on view at the Museum from February 20 through March 22, 2024.

Entries are reviewed by an outside art professional who selects the works for exhibition at the WCU Fine Art Museum. This year, the exhibition juror is Erika Diamond, a textile-focused artist, curator, and educator based in Asheville, NC. Born in Germany to two ballet dancers, she grew up backstage and touring across Europe in her adolescence. This gave her early insight into the ephemeral nature of touch, the expressive qualities of the body, and the transformative capabilities of costume. In 2000, she earned a BFA degree in Sculpture at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), experimenting with bronze, honey, performance, and chocolate. For the next 12 years she maintained a studio practice while working as a freelance artist assistant and art preparator in NYC, Los Angeles, and Charlotte.

Diamond received her MFA in Fibers from the Craft/Material Studies department at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where she learned how to weave tapestry and commemorate her physical encounters through objects. Several residencies and grants have facilitated her recent projects focusing on the politics of queer safety and visibility. Most recently, she has exhibited at Dinner Gallery, Form & Concept Gallery, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, and Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh. She has been reviewed in Metalsmith Magazine, Glasstire, and Whitehot Magazine. In the summers, as Associate Director of Galleries at Chautauqua Institution, she curates and manages exhibitions that blur distinctions between the genres of art, design, and craft.