The Los Medanos College art department’s latest virtual gallery has gone live. The gallery is titled Role Call, and displays various works from LMC faculty and staff. While COVID-19 restrictions have made displaying artists’ works in an in-person setting difficult, the art department is providing the next best thing, a fully virtual gallery experience.

The gallery is hosted on a virtual gallery platform known as Kuntsmatrix, which fully emulates the gallery experience. Visitors can walk around the gallery using the arrow keys and drag the mouse to see the artwork placed on the wall. 

A live virtual reception was hosted via zoom Sep. 30 in which the faculty and staff artists had a chance to discuss and explain their artwork featured in the gallery. Curtis Corlew, a former LMC photography and graphic design professor, served as the event’s MC and introduced artists. 

The reception began with a message from LMC Gallery Director Carol Ladewig, who is responsible for bringing the Role Call gallery into the virtual space.

“I do miss having the physical work, because being able to encounter work face to face in the reality of the room that you’re standing in, I prefer that,” said Ladewig, “But I think this works really well, and I’m really pleased because I think it showcases the staff and art departments very creative, and very wonderful work.” 

The gallery features works with many different mediums, and none stick out more than LMC sculpture and ceramics professor Lucy Snow. Snow submitted three works in total, and had a chance to talk about the creation and inspiration for her two sculptures. 

“I have a lot of cellar spiders around my house, and they are pretty amazing creatures when you look at them,” said Snow. “And I was experimenting with porcelain paper clay, which is a really interesting clay body that allows me to break a lot of the rules that you would normally have to follow.”

Another standout set of works in the gallery were from Photoshop and Photography professor Jaime Tamrakar, who submitted a set of four photos titled “Don’t ask Questions.” She also had a chance to talk about the background and composition of the photos.

“When I was in Germany I got to visit a lot of old World War 2 sites and it made me feel how the state of tyranny at that time kind of expected that aesthetic and architecture of the places,” said Tamrakar. “I just did a little piece like, let me reflect on that.” 

The Roll Call virtual gallery will be available online until Oct. 31.The gallery can be accessed here.