SAAC welcomes Steven E. Ochs from South Arkansas University in Magnolia as judge for this year’s “Viewfinder”, South Arkansas Arts Center’s bi-annual photography competition. The competitive exhibition showcasing photographers’ works will fill the Merkle and Price Galleries from February 5-26, 2020.
Steven Ochs is a Professor of Art at Southern Arkansas University with 37 years of experience in education. He has been serving as the Chair of the Department of Art and Design and is the owner of Public Art Walks, which specialize in public art projects utilizing decorative concrete.
Ochs served as judge for The ViewFinder in 2010 and 2015. “Steven Ochs is an excellent judge for this show,” said SAAC’s own gallery manager, Kelly Campbell, who has taken some of his classes at SAU. “He spends a lot of time looking at the photos before making his decisions, putting them in categories and then judging from that. He looks for the ‘story’ in each photograph, not just the beauty of it. He is an excellent photographer himself and knows his craft well.”
Steven mainly teaches basic and advance photography, ceramics, sculpture, 3D design and is currently serving on the Magnolia Arts Council. He has received awards in both teaching and research. In 2013, Steven was awarded SAU’s Honor Professor of the Year. He has published numerous articles about creating and marketing decorative concrete, photo-documentation, and has been a presenter and artist at the World of Concrete, Concrete Décor Show and Bosch Tool events. Ochs has juried more than a dozen exhibitions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama and has acted as curator for more than twenty exhibitions.
In November of 2016, he collaborated with the Art Professors of Artemisa Cuba to create a large mural on their campus and co-presented this project at the Universidad 2018 in Havana.
Oches holds degrees from the following: B.A. from Eastern Illinois University, Charleston: M.A. from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana: M.F.A. from Ohio University – Athens.
The entry deadline for the competition sponsored by William P. Cook & Associates, PLLC, is February 3, 2020. For information on eligibility and how to enter, visit our webpage at www.saac-arts.org. SAAC is located at 110 East Fifth Street, El Dorado, Arkansas.