Of course there are a few clunkers in the 8th Annual Student Art Exhibit at South Puget Sound Community College, but there are plenty of impressive works as well. Most impressive of all may be a large cardboard forest against the back wall of the gallery. It's a collaborative work by students in the 3-D Design class.

Also impressive is a small figure drawing in sharpie and vine charcoal by Colin Johnstone. It's a reclining nude with a nice blend of expressive and lyrical contour drawing and flat shaded areas. The drawing and the position of the figure suggest exhausted collapse. It reminds me a lot of drawings by Rodin.

And then there is a group of three plaster sculptures by students Melyssa Wilder, Ashley Gunderson and Caitlin McDonald. With realistic heads and rough arms and hands, these figures hang on the wall and each is doing something thoroughly contemporary: talking on a cell phone, playing a Nintendo, napping with head on the keyboard of a netbook - good work both individually and collectively.

Read Alec Clayton's full review of the Student Art Exhibit at South Puget Sound Community College in Northwest Military's Music & Culture section.

STUDENT ART EXHIBIT, through June 6, noon to 4 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and by appointment, South Puget Sound Community College, Kenneth J Minnaert Center for the Arts Gallery, 2011 Mottman Rd. SW. Olympia, 360.596.5527