Local show features student and regional art

Vermillion resident Caitlin Collier is showcasing her private collection of artwork comprised of pieces by former University of South Dakota students and regional artists.

Collier’s collection includes a wide variety of media, including an oil painting, two photographs, a carved and painted wood piece, prints and mixed media pieces.

“The goal is to showcase what Vermillion residents are collecting and that they do support the visual arts by buying original artwork,” Allison Erazmus, director of University Art Galleries, said.

Collier said her influence to begin collecting art started at an early age when her parents hung art in the home she grew up in. Her mother would cut out pictures of famous paintings, mat them, put them up on the wall and tell her and her siblings all about the artist.

Collier’s parents purchased more artwork as she grew up including a piece she now owns called ‘The Dollmaker,’ by David Williams. This piece, purchased by her parents in Arkansas in 1968, shows a Seminole Indian woman in traditional dress creating a traditional grass doll.

When Collier could afford to purchase artwork herself, she bought pieces from student art shows and art auctions at the Vermillion Area Art Council. She started purchasing original art in 1981, but said sometimes it would be a few years between purchases because she might like a piece but not enough to make a commitment to look at it every day for years. She said for her to want to own a certain piece, it has to immediately strike a deep chord within her — a piece she keeps circling around a gallery and comes back to over and over.

She also said not every piece she has purchased is expensive.

“That is the wonderful part about living in a town full of artists and having a university art department, which has talented students year after year,” Collier said.

She is most drawn to portraiture, so many of the pieces in her collection reflect this.

“If you stare at people, they get very nervous, but you can spend a lot of time contemplating a portrait, looking for not only the subtleties of expression that the artist found in the subject, but also how the artist interpreted the color, light, shadow and physical features that he or she found in the subject,” Collier said.

‘Hmong Girl,’ an oil painted portrait in her collection by former USD student Louvada Yang, incorporates strong, bright background colors with the subject dressed in traditional Hmong clothing. Collier said she fell in love with the thickness of the brushwork, which gives the portrait gravity and depth.

Collier’s showcase is located in Gallery 110 of the Fine Arts Building and runs through April 12 with a closing reception that evening from 5 to 7:30 p.m.