Forty works from 22 national artists, including that of a current Harper College student and 10 Chicago-area artists, will be on display in the 26th annual Small Works National Exhibition, April 1-22 in the Exhibition Space, Room C200, New Student Services and Art Center (Building C), of Harper College, Roselle and Algonquin Roads, Palatine.

Judged by Chicago-based art critic and curator John Brunetti from slides, the exhibit limits the size of the artwork to “no greater than 22 inches and no greater than 45 pounds.” All media, excluding jewelry, film and video, are in the exhibit, which includes a mixed media work by Kelly Stachura, 20, of Barrington, a current Harper College student, who is probably the youngest artist represented in the national exhibit.

Stachura, a 2001 graduate of Barrington High School, will exhibit “Photosynthesis,” a three dimensional fiber sculpture with photo transfer. “Photosynthesis’ is literally a synthesis between photography and fabric sculpture, playing off the relationship between the clear, defined, ‘tangible’ form of photographic imagery in juxtaposition with more abstract, organic, simplified forms,” she says.

The Harper sophomore, who wants to transfer to either the School of the Art Institute of Chicago or Columbia College and double major in art history and studio art, has “always been interested in art,” Stachura took art classes for four years while at Barrington High School, emerging as the winner of the Barrington Area Arts Council’s Visual Arts Award her senior year.

“I’ve been interested in art my entire life,” she says. “My relatives are either all professional artists or incredibly creative.” Stachura, who displayed artwork previously at Harper College as a high school student in the Area High School Art Exhibit, also won Honorable Mention for a woodcut depicting a Japanese Garden in Texas for the Barrington Area Art Council’s exhibition of “The Art Around Us” in 2002.

Besides taking Sculpture Studio, Printmaking Studio, Ceramics and Photography at the Palatine-based community college, Stachura has also discovered she enjoys professional photography almost by accident.

“My twin sisters, Anna and Heather, dance with Terpsichore Dance Company (a Libertyville-based dance company with professional and student dancers who perform ballet, jazz, modern and tap), and the company was looking for someone to take photos of their shows when their photographer moved to California,” she says. “I just sort of filled in, and now I photograph Terpsichore dancers for their posters, brochures and ads. I really enjoy capturing movement.”

“My work is based in the serendipitous nature of human lives—the truth that often leads us, or drives us, or inspires us as artists to ‘create,’ is brought about by chance encounter,” writes Stachura in her artists statement for the Harper National Small Works Exhibit.

Other area artists also exhibiting are: Mark Adkins Sarah Figlio, Niki Kriese Pauline Kochanski, Sheila Oettinger, and Frank Trankina, Chicago; Judith Brotman, Evanston; Ina Beierle , Glenview; Brian MacAchran, DeKalb; and Sharon Swilder, Skokie. The National Small Works Exhibit can be viewed from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm in the Art Exhibition Space, Room C200 of the New Student Services and Art Center at Harper College. There will be a Gallery Closing presentation by Juror John Brunetti at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22. Admission is free; for more information, call the college’s art department at 847.925.6568.