The James Kaneko Gallery is currently hosting a regional art competition between Sacramento sculptors to decide which sculpture will be built and placed in front of the Student Services building on the American River College campus.
Fifteen sculptures are part of the competition and a panel will decide the top three sculptures of the gallery in the show.
“There is going to be a drawing between those three pieces,” said Chanse Hood, a student who was working at the Kaneko Gallery.
Mick Sheldon said a former student was initially going to design the statue in front of ARC’s Student Services building, but the Fine Arts Committee organized a meeting that eventually decided to host a regional contest instead.
Sheldon compared the contest to how the Winnie the Pooh sculpture by Jeff Koons was chosen to be placed outside of the new Golden 1 Center downtown. He said he did not like that the arena’s statue was not by an artist from the Sacramento area.
“One of my colleagues said there is nobody in Sacramento that could do an 18-foot tall sculpture, and I went, ‘bull—,’” Sheldon said when he was arguing about the decision about the Koons’ statue.
Hood said the sculptures range in price between $1,200 to $10,000.
Hood said there are three other art pieces that are being exhibited that the artist requested for the gallery, so that attendees are not allowed to take pictures them.
“That is because the artist doesn’t want their pieces to be misrepresented,” Hood said. “They are just worried about someone taking credit for it or something, I’m sure.”
Kalina Hunt, a student who was attending the event, said that one of the exhibits she particularly liked the pieced titled “Eye on the Prize.”
“I loved the way he rusted the gas tank,” Hunt said. “It reminds me of fall, and leaves.”
The gallery will remain open until Oct. 15.
