Pieces in Zoller's featured student Juried Art Exhibit raise interesting questions about the way art is viewed by a newer generation of artists.

But when you see the exhibit, be ready to have your ideas challenged because most of the works challenge or destroy all traditional concepts of art.

This year's juror, Charles Garoian, education director of the Palmer Museum of Art, selected 75 works in painting, drawing, ceramics, photography, sculpture, graphic designs, printmaking and metals. The pieces were chosen from over 350 submitted artworks from undergraduate students who took art courses in the School of Visual Arts and Penn State's commonwealth campuses over the 1988-89 academic year.

Garoian often selected more than one painting or sculpture by an artist.

"I was looking to see if there was any consistency," Garoian explained. "Two or three works demonstrated that there was a process of exploration."

The mastery of the artists' tools was also a consideration for Garoian, who feels that an artist who masters his materials is free to have greater thoughts.

"I considered the amount of thinking students have been doing outside of class. I feel the idea of how materials got together represent a truth in the piece. Knowing materials so well they can break away from the materials and create a great statement. . ." Garoian said.

One artist who impressed the juror in this way was Ron Avillion. Through the artist's mixed media inventions, he disturbs the viewer with harsh images. In "Purity and Faith" Avillion has a real ceramic bathtub with nails attached all over the inside.

One wonders what the creator had in mind while making the structure. Is it that if you jump in the tub you'll be purified and your faith strengthened? Or will you be purified by having faith in the artist himself, not questioning the nails or his intentions?

Another picture by Avillion is called "Radial" which presents another everyday item, a tire, framed in an all white wood frame. He tries to deceive viewers into thinking that they are seeing a simple image, but instead we see modern life coming back to us, as if even in art we can't escape it.

"I put a lot of emphasis on inventiveness, and new and bold ways of using material," Garoian said.

Christopher Zweig is another artist whose impact is felt by the viewer of the exhibit. His pictures in the exhibit are images created by inscribing words across untouched canvases in real blood. The three pictures are titled, "Scab", "Blutflech", which in German means blood stain, and "Rasserein" which in German means racially pure. This last picture concerns many people, and raises harsh questions as to whether Zweig is defending or criticizing racial purity, Garoian said.

"I liked Barb Weaver's scrapbook because it told a story from childhood to adulthood, and I thought that people could relate to it," Kristen Tentaras (sophomore-art) said.

Marcian Dank also makes a great impression through her hazy dark figures and handprints all over the paintings, which are haunting images of strong emotions. In addition Lance Shield's work titled "Deodorant" is a touch, listen, and feel approach to art, including an opportunity to spray deodorant on anything that you feel that stinks. Including, of course, yourself.

"I like the exhibit because it's different from any other exhibit at the Zoller Gallery," Kristy Bain (sophomore-art education) said.

Garoian admits that the show is not exactly typical, but explained why he chose it that way.

"It is an intense show and it ain't pretty, but those pieces touched a deeper part of me. They are provocative, because they make you think," concluded Garoian."They reflect a lot of questions about life and about the impact of art in our lives."