Staff photo by Gage Cureton A ceramic sculpture by Beth Hamilton, a Minnesota State University, Mankato, art graduate student, stands center-room in the Four Pillars Art Gallery at The Grand Center for Arts and Culture Tuesday.

NEW ULM — The Grand Center for Arts and Culture is set to host an opening reception Thursday in the Four Pillars Gallery for its new exhibit “Femmes: An All Women’s Grad Exhibition Gallery.”

The gallery features work by Minnesota State University, Mankato, graduate students Beth Hamilton, Sarah Huttner, Liz Stensland and Roberta Zamma-Gallarati.

The artists exhibit their work across a variety of mediums including ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, installation and drawing.

Beth Hamilton, a graduate student specializing in drawing, said most of her work centers on femininity – particularly a trio of life-drawings depicting women.

“The life drawings show women in an unflattering way,” Hamilton said. “They’re about empowering women in a sexual manner and not so much for the pleasant viewing of exhibit-goers.”

Some of Hamilton’s work on display also includes ceramic towers and a multimedia painting created from an old family portrait.

Anne Makepeace, Executive Director of The Grand Center for Arts and Culture, said the exhibit is brought in part by a partnership with Minnesota State University, Mankato’s department of art installation classes.

For this exhibit, she said the artists have full control over installation and which works are displayed in the gallery.

“It’s diverse,” Makepeace said. “They [the artists] basically did the entire set up. I didn’t help hang anything. So for them, it was deciding what works get shown, what works will be hanging and they did it all themselves.”

The Grand’s partnership with Minnesota State University, Mankato’s department of art is an ongoing relationship with exhibits featuring artists’ work annually at the Four Pillars Gallery.

The opening reception for “Femmes: An All Women’s Grad Exhibition Gallery” will be held Thursday, March 14, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Gage Cureton can be emailed at gcureton@nujournal.com.