In pieces ranging from bizarre to beautiful, the UW School of Art celebrates student work in the Jacob Lawrence Gallery’s Annual Juried Student Show.

Those entering the gallery are immediately greeted by the clash between two large and imposing ceramic figures, a matador and bull, by graduate student George Rodriguez. Further into the exhibit, pieces range in mediums from the usual paintings and photographs to collages, acrylic prints, and even a 5-foot (approximately) sculpture of a goose made from clay and latex gloves. Of the 150 art students who entered their work, 54 are represented in 200 diverse pieces.

Standing out amid the varying selections are senior Rebecca Destello’s piece, “Home of the Brave,” which holds sheet music of the “Star-Spangled Banner” with a drawing of a gun superimposed over it, and “Meat Metal and Dreams,” a series of oil on canvas paintings by graduate student Hugo Shi. For the former, it was the glaring and remarkable contrast presented, whereas with Shi, it was in the artist’s vivid portrayal of meat packaging workers that will catch your attention.

In “Dirty,” a piece by junior Lucas Spivey, one can see the level of distinctiveness required of the artists to be chosen to display. The artist described his selection as “an invitation to come and play.” He created a piece akin to a large-scale magnet set on a kitchen fridge. Brick tiles with varying words written on them are placed in front of a bathtub for the audience to rearrange as they see fit.

“I don’t want to be the only artist in this. I want people to get dirty, to laugh and to have fun,” Spivey said.

Playing on the theme, Spivey noted how all of the words are ones generally considered inoffensive, but when placed with others in the set, they could be considered rude, even insulting.

“Innocent words, but with certain connotations they can be made dirty,” Spivey said.

The juror this year was Howard House owner Billy Howard, who said that it took him nearly three and a half hours to judge the pieces, and that the winners were those who “could be seen to have challenged themselves.”

Juror’s awards were given at an opening reception Tuesday, and were presented by Howard and Christopher Ozubko, the director of the School of Art. Senior Jason Hirata, fifth-year student Kathy Liao and graduate student Zack Bent all received honors for their pieces. The majority of the $500 divided among the finalists was given to top winner Hirata.

For Hirata, a photography major, the idea for his two works came from an installation art class in which his teacher had given him an assignment to take risk in art.

“Basically all you need to know is I buried myself in the sand, it was freezing and I hallucinated,” Hirata said.

One of his pieces features a video of the incident. In the second, the artist recreated the event in sculpture form, using 1,000 pounds of sand and an animal ventilator purchased from eBay.

The exhibition is curated by graduate art history student Kris Anderson and senior photography major Kamiana Gangnes, and will be on display through March 16.