VCUarts undergraduate students lined the hallways with their art on March 16 in hopes of being selected for this year’s undergraduate juried exhibit. Nick Seitz was one of the talented artists whose work was accepted into this year’s show.
Seitz is a junior in the Photography and Film department with a concentration in photography and a minor in Craft and Material studies.
Seitz is originally from Harrisonburg, Virginia. He said that after visiting Virginia Commonwealth University, he fell in love immediately. VCU became the first and only school he applied to. Since coming to VCU, he’s grown to love the diversity of the people and activities around campus.
Seitz began his photographic journey sometime in the middle of his high school experience. He was initially drawn to photography “just for fun.” His experimentation and interest in photography really grew, and Seitz said he spent many afternoons after school and weekends photographing the countryside and mountains surrounding his hometown. With an increasing interest in photographing these areas and some commercial photography experience, Seitz decided he wanted to pursue a degree in photography.
Like all students pursuing a fine arts degree at VCU, Seitz spent his first year in the Art Foundation Program. During his time in AFO, he worked on several projects including building a small house/shed out of found wood and a project that involved walking 28 miles in one day.
“The AFO program opening my eyes to what actually making art felt like,” said Seitz.
And while he no longer considers these projects to be as profound as he thought they were when he was working on them, they were still an important part in his development as an artist.
“I’ve got a pretty nebulous cloud of inspiration that I draw from- mostly the themes of fallenness and redemption from the Bible and how I see that play out in society,” said Seitz.
His work is also inspired by his own personal stresses and struggles. When it comes to actually photographing however, Seitz said that he works intuitively. These ideas are always in his mind, but the conceptual aspects of his work develop over the duration of the project. His artistic inspiration comes from photographers like Robert Adams, Robert Frank and Richard Misrach, but these photographers only begin to scratch the surface of the artists who inspire him.
In a word, Seitz describes his art as serious. He works a lot with underlying themes of dread and suppression which give his work a heaviness. While the majority of his work has these grave elements, he likes to introduce hints of playfulness to the work as well.
This is not Seitz’s first acceptance into the undergraduate juried show. Last year, he was selected for the show as well. In addition, he’s been a part of a few shows at the Depot over the past two years.
“Also, last month, I was included in Page Bond’s photography group show, View Find, which was very exciting and humbling- definitely a huge honor,” said Seitz.
His work in the 2016 Undergraduate Juried Fine Arts Exhibition stems from a project he’s been creating in his location lighting class. The project combines a use of artificial and natural light. Seitz has worked with night photography over the past several months, making photographs in near darkness. He considers the work to still be in its early stages so he is not ready to delve into what the work is really about. The show began March 24 and will close on April 3.
For now, you can find Seitz making jewelry for his crafts class and doing some freelance editing. In addition to art, he spends his time working for Rec Sports in their marketing department and delivering food by bike for Quickness RVA. He hopes to one day teach college art and work as a practicing artist.
To see more work by Seitz, visit nickseitz.com.