The San Jacinto College North Campus art gallery will host a show beginning March 11 to showcase a series of paintings and drawings by three Lamar University students.

The group exhibition, titled Drawings and Paintings of the Human Figure, will run through April 13 and feature the work of Grace Chadwick, Travis Walthall, and Mary Catherine Wilbur.

According to North campus art professor Joe Clark, also the director of Galleria del Norte, showings began at the gallery in 2004 as small, intimate gatherings but have since grown to garner as many as 200 attendees.

“A typical art show at North gallery can consist of paintings, sculpture, photography and film, created by working artists from Houston and across the United States,” Clark said. “We offer great art, live music, and free food and refreshments.”

The gallery regularly invites both professional and amateur artists to show their pieces along with the work of San Jac students. Although the gallery is meant as an “educational resource” for art students, Clark explained it serves a greater purpose for the College.

“Our mission is to entertain and challenge the viewer to explore art in new and exciting ways,” Clark said. “We want to be a standard of culture to our community.”

In addition to showing the work of San Jac students and faculty, and that of outside artists, he noted the gallery also spotlights the artwork of local high school students to present a collection of “diverse and entertaining exhibitions.”

“Our most recent show, for example, was an amazing story of survival created by a talented woman named Kristen Ruby Woodward who used art as therapy throughout her battle with cancer,” he said. “We love what we do, and we want to share it with as many people as we can.”

Drawings and Paintings of the Human Figure will be on display March 11 to April 13 at Galleria del Norte in the Grant Fine Arts Center (N1) on the North campus.