Luke Kostohryz Takes Top Honor In Wright Gallery Student Exhibition
The recent Visualization graduate received a $500 scholarship award for his print project “Babel.”
Luke Kostohryz received “Best in Show” honors at the closing reception of the “Fresh Forward III” student exhibition on Sept. 10.
The annual Wright Gallery exhibition features student projects from the Texas A&M College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts and College of Architecture from summer 2024 through spring 2025.
Kostohryz, a recent Bachelor of Science in Visualization graduate, received a $500 Wright Gallery Scholarship Award for his print project “Babel.” The project was created in a directed studies course led by Jill Honeycutt, M.F.A., senior associate academic undergraduate program director for Visualization and instructional associate professor.
“Babel” utilized a risograph, an ’80s-style Japanese printer that was traditionally used for photocopies, Kostohryz said. It prints one color at a time, similar to screen printing. Each color is printed sequentially, requiring each page to pass through different ink drums for each color.
Inspired by the “Tower of Babel” biblical story, Kostohryz created a minute-long animation of images that tell the story of man’s pursuit of “innovation and self-exaltation, ultimately leading to division when rooted in pride.”
“I feel like the ‘Tower of Babel’ has a lot of themes today of us wanting to pursue whatever innovation it may be, almost to our own demise,” he said. “The animation I created is kind of this retro-futuristic style. The scene is of slow construction and has this sci-fi feeling, and it gets distorted halfway through. Towards the end, there is this beautiful landscape scenery that kind of pans out and returns to peace and unity.”
Using a risograph, Kostohryz printed four layers of each frame of the animation and separated them by color: aqua, yellow, fluorescent pink and black. After printing 900 pages, he then scanned them in to create the animation. His final product was a single still print meshed with all the colors together, depicting a scenic environment with mountains, hills, flowers and a tree branch with an orange vine wrapped around it. This symbolizes the community finally bearing fruit together at the animation’s conclusion, he said.
“The animation depicts the spark of innovation, its distortion and the ultimate restoration — shifting from striving upward to recognizing the hope that has come down from Heaven,” he said. “The risograph process reflected this. Animating digitally with new technology, then returning to a more tactile approach that makes the end result more imperfect, but more human.”
Honeycutt said by using a risograph, Kostohryz’s project resulted in a “unique, gritty texture.”
“Luke specifically wanted to achieve this without the use of digital tools; thus, the use of the risograph machine,” Honeycutt said. “The finished animation has a vintage feel with a modern take — a merging of mediums. I was proud when Luke’s work got selected. He deserved the honor and worked extremely hard on the entire project.”
The project was selected by James R. Ball III, Ph.D., associate dean for industry and community engagement and associate professor in the Performance and Visual Studies program. Ball was invited by Wright Gallery to select a winning project for the college’s student work.
Kostohryz said he was honored to win the award, and noted how the Visualization program has equipped him for future projects.
“The program values exploration and experimentation,” he said. “I really felt like in my final semester, this was a great accompaniment to my capstone. I got to explore storytelling and new techniques, and to be able to showcase this with other students doing the exact same thing is just really cool to be a part of.”
Other awards presented:
Jacklyn Nguyen, a junior Visualization student, received honorable mention for a diorama project created in a Principles of Design II class led by Dmitri Koustov, senior lecturer.
College of Architecture students Aidan Burns, Tomas Duque Osorio, Isabella Gonzalez Poveda and Cheli Perez received Wright Gallery Scholarship Awards. The project was selected by College of Architecture faculty teaching second-year studio classes.
College of Architecture students Kate Albright, Carter Cole, Jillian Simmons and Camden Vicknair received honorable mention for their architecture project.
