A few years ago, low-cost digital tools began to flood the art classrooms of the world. As schools bulked up their "multimedia labs" and Arts programs began offering classes in Photoshop techniques, some declared that painting and other 2-D media were dead-obsolete, replaced by their digital successors. I'm happy to report that this decree was premature.

The Fall BFA show at the Joseph Gross gallery features enough traditional media used in traditional ways to be labeled "conservative." Heavily dominated by painting in oils, largely free from politics or agenda, this strong showing of student work seems almost anachronistic in today's art world. Even when compared to the Fall semester faculty show or last year's MFA exhibition the works of the BFA show seem tightly controlled and composed, with no frantic attempts to grasp a new medium or push a message.

Bachelor of Fine Arts is a very broad program, and the artists featured in the show range from illustrators to photographers to metalworkers. All are Seniors scheduled to graduate either this Fall or in the Spring semester.

Culmination: Annual BFA Senior Exhibition at the Joseph Gross gallery features works by nearly 40 artists ranging from single paintings to wall-size installations. No particular theme or reference dominated the show, a fact that reveals both the diversity of the students and the propensity of the Arts professors to let students run with a good idea. While there were many traditional student approaches to art (portraits, self-portraits, landscapes), few if any works screamed out "class assignment."

BFA candidate Wendy Wilke did provide a telling comment: "You can tell everyone here went to college," she said, with a gentle roll of her eyes. Many of the pieces, after all, are reactively "safe;" personal rather than political and working within existing mediums instead of attempting to break new ground.

Some highlights from the show include Wilke's soft, slightly luminous landscapes {"Birches" and "Out my Window.") Though she belittled them as "no-content paintings," they are interesting formal studies of the thin boundary between realist landscapes and imagined ones.

Leslie Paul did such a brilliant job of rendering the figures in her two untitled paintings that I was able to spot the models in the crowd during the show's opening. With the combination of a delicate use of light and color and broad, expressive brushstrokes her large canvasses have a mesmerizing effect-the dark eyes of her subjects seem to follow the viewer.

Sharing this slightly spooky atmosphere is Amy Carter's "Under the Bridge," a fiery orange composition with subtle details. What seem to be bridge supports slowly reveal themselves to be the knobby, emaciated legs of figures inspired by mummies Carter saw while traveling in Mexico.

Alina Rose Holladay contributed four compositions combining aggressively manipulated photographs with paint and paper. Full of brilliant colors and dense details, these pieces seem tightly controlled and show an emerging mastery of the craft. Also of note are the photographs of Cassandra Costa, surreal double-exposures of a parade in Spain which some may find disturbing.

Two intricate ceramic sculptures by Shawn Hensley dominate the floor. Large and complex, these pieces are remarkable not only in their construction but in the many long hours of work they represent. The toothy grin of the alligator embedded within "Weeds" is worth the trip to the Gross gallery alone. Also worth seeing is the hilarious and action-packed 7-minute short by Alexander Turner, a video with an original soundtrack and a Tucson setting. Fast-paced and well acted, this little clip shows a lot of polish, and promise.

The opening of the show was a huge success, with over 250 people in attendance. Many of the works on display are for sale, some for patently absurd prices.

Culmination is showing through December 13th at the Joseph Gross gallery, located across from the Museum of Art on the northwest corner of campus. Call 626-4215 for details.

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