Mesa Community College Student Art Show showcases student artists’ talent
Student artists at MCC showcased their recent work in a variety of mediums at the annual Student Art Show for a chance to receive compensated prizes for their creative talents.
The college’s Art Gallery will host 142 of over 300 student submissions from April 14 to May 8. Students must be taking an art class with an ART or AVC prefix to be eligible for their works to be displayed in the show.
This is the biggest Student Art Show in terms of works on display in the event’s history, according to Art Gallery coordinator Tracey Blocker.
“It has been going on much longer than I’ve been here, much longer than the gallery’s been here,” Blocker said. “The art department has been doing this for as long as I think they’ve been an art department, so maybe upwards of 60 years.”
The event, which occurs at the end of each academic year, gathers a panel of independent jurors to judge the accepted art submissions and presents the awards during a ceremony. One award, the Presidential Purchase Award, is worth $300 and is decided by the college’s president, Richard Daniel, according to Blocker.
“Traditionally, the President’s Award is a purchase for the college and goes into our permanent collection,” Blocker added.
A variety of mediums were used to create the artworks, some more commonly found in artistic media than others. Minerva QiQi Capati, an art and IT double major, successfully submitted a framed digital animation and a digital art print with a yarn frame. Showing off her art and her participation in the event gave her a boost of confidence in her abilities, according to her.
“I first started off at MCC very scared, very shy, not wanting to share any of my art,” Capati shared. “Only recently, I’ve been showing it more often.”
This is Capati’s second consecutive Student Art Show. She also added that being present helped her confidence in her submissions from last year.
“I didn’t really win any money, but I really think that wasn’t the point because I think I won a bigger prize,” Capati said. “And that bigger prize was noticing that no one’s here to fight, no one’s here to do bad things, but just to just show art and to show our community–like, people are happy!”
Unlike last year, Capati ended up taking home an award for her digital animation.
At the award ceremony on April 16, 24 awards were given, among those awards eight honorable mentions.
Art department chair Gingher Leyendecker presented the awards, which were judged by Interim Dean Leanna Hall, last year’s Best in Show winner Rachel Kennedy and Martha Rader, a MCC alumna who donates two $500 awards each year. Uniquely, the Best in Show Award was a unanimous decision this year, according to Leyendecker.
The awards in alphabetical order by last name from lowest to highest monetary value are:
- Juror’s Award ($250)
- Riley Baillie, “Dirty Thirty,” 2025, photography
- QiQi Capati, “Fragment of Qiqi’s Mind,” 2025, animation
- Kai Emerson, “echoes of us, fading in the bottle,” 2025, sumi ink on paper with found objects
- AJ Frank, “Vincent,” 2024, ceramics with steel
- Mercedes Kim, “Praise Martha,” 2024, oil on canvas
- Alizarin Maney, “THE FLESH AND THE MACHINE AND OTHER HORRORS SLASH DELIGHTS,” 2024, medium undisclosed
- Lake Provencher, “In the Gutter,” 2025, fiber arts
- Francisco Reyes, “Topolito,” 2025, polymer clay and hand-dyed textiles
- Michael Velez, “Exit,” 2024, digital photography
- Junko Wakabayashi, “TAKOTSUBO-Octopus Pot,” 2024, ceramics
- Presidential Purchase Award ($300)
- Sierra Parker, “Porcelain Grip,” 2024, pastel
- Third Place ($350)
- Elise Hill, “Clowning,” 2025, digital photography
- Second Place ($400)
- Angelique Bailey, “Eat the Patriarchy,” 2025, liquid light on bananas
- Martha Rader Excellence Award ($500)
- Elizabeth Bierwagen, “Predator,” 2025, ceramics and mixed media
- Jariana Lewis-Perez, “Incisors,” 2025, magazine collage
- Best in Show ($600)
- Zoie Rossnagle, “EGRESS,” 2024, animation
All artworks and any awards they receive will be on display in the Art Gallery on the Southern and Dobson campus until the end of the semester.
