At Lander University, students of all academic levels are given real opportunities to showcase their work. Sophomore visual art major Cathryn Burger’s 7-foot sculpture, “Helga the Viking,” won the coveted “Best in Show” honors at Lander University’s 2025 Student Juried Exhibit awards presentation and reception held Thursday, February 27, at the Art Gallery in the Abney Cultural Center.
Her entry also won first place in the sculpture category, and she was named the “Most Promising Student in Sculpture.” Burger also took second place in Drawing with her entry “Smile.”
“To create Helga the Viking, I used cardboard to build everything, acrylic paint, spray paint and yarn for the hair,” Burger explained. “This piece was for the puppet project in my sculpture class.” As for her inspiration, the Greenville native said, “I wanted to create a fierce puppet that I could wear and feel proud about creating.”
Burger said she hopes to teach high school art in the future and will enter the MAT program after earning her degree in visual art.
This annual exhibit features outstanding student work across six artistic disciplines: ceramics, sculpture, photography, painting, drawing and graphic design. The winners in each category were:
Ceramics: 1st Place – Carol Poltorak; 2nd Place – Shine Kim; 3rd Place – Sydney Lafayette; Honorable Mention – Faith Holmes.
Sculpture: 1st Place – Cathryn Burger; 2nd Place – MG Morrow; 3rd Place – Amber Whetstone; Honorable Mention – Maren Penn.
Photography: 1st Place – Alyssa Bowen; 2nd Place – Elaina Woodard; 3rd Place – Nicolas Manalich; Honorable Mention – Mason Stone.
Painting: 1st Place – Lauren DaRe; 2nd Place – Maren Penn; 3rd Place – Kylie DeLeo; Honorable Mention – Sydney Kemp and Nicholas Manalich.
Drawing: 1st Place – Logan Cooper; 2nd Place – Cathryn Burger; 3rd Place – Eddie Herron; Honorable Mention – Brynn Cook.
Graphic Design: 1st Place – Grace Childers; 2nd Place – Morgan Littlejohn; 3rd Place – Mason Stone; Honorable Mention – Kimberly Duclos.
Additionally, 21 Merit Awards, chosen by the faculty, were presented.
Lauren DaRe, who won first place in Painting along with two Merit Awards described her winning painting, “2 Friends Walking.”
“Ultimately, this work captures a second in time that is revived with movement and human interaction, through light, line, color, and rhythm,” she said. DaRe, who is also a member of the Lander Women’s Soccer team, graduates in May and hopes to open an art studio in Charleston.
Logan Cooper won first place in Drawing and was also a Jane King ’02 Award winner. A senior from Florence, Cooper said her drawing on wood entitled “Late Bloomer” is a reflection on her own life. “I relate to it a lot,” she said. “I am a late bloomer – people develop socially at different times in their life.” Reflecting on her choice of medium, she added, “The wood grain and color just worked together to create a beautiful contrast.”
Maren Penn, a sophomore from Easley, won four awards including second in Painting, Honorable Mention in Sculpture, the Raven Gray Colt Award and the Dirtish Award.
“I love experimenting with as many mediums as I can get my hands on, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be clay,” Penn said. “It was an honor to be in an exhibit with so many amazing and diverse pieces. I'm so grateful to be a part of such a fun and creative community.”
This year’s guest juror was Zach Rogers, director of exhibitions at The Bascom Visual Art Center in Highlands, N.C. After earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Metal Design from East Carolina University in 2013, Rogers went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Western Carolina University in 2018. He has instructed art history lecture classes, 3-D design studios and sculpture courses.
The exhibition, sponsored by Self Regional Healthcare, will remain on display through March19. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For further details, about Lander’s Art program visit www.lander.edu/art