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# Recognizing ‘Under the Radar talent
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/recognizing-under-the-radar-talent/
- Published: 2006-06-09T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T18:17:31.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Events, Santa Monica Airport, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

Local students will show off their talent this month after being selected by their instructors for being the cream of the crop.

A collection of work by students in the Santa Monica College Art Mentor Program is currently on exhibit through June 24 at Arena 1 Gallery. The Art Mentor Program is a year-long program for gifted visual art students selected by the SMC Art Department faculty. The program — in many ways similar to a graduate school program — was created to provide an innovative, experimental and interdisciplinary environment for students to explore a variety of art forms, professional practices and critical theory. Students work in small groups with a professional artist or art historian, visit artists’ studios and art institutions, and participate in group discussions and critiques.

The opening reception for the exhibition “Under the Radar” will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, June 9, at the gallery, located at 3026 Airport Ave., in the Santa Monica Art Studios at the Santa Monica Airport. The works in the exhibit includes paintings, sculpture, ceramics, video, mixed media, digital images, performance and installation, and is as diverse as the artists who created it.

The student artists are Gustavo Almeida-Santos, Kathy Chin, Elizabeth Comay, Dante Cox, Julie Easton, Arlene Encell, Jaqueline Friedberg, Nathan Geare, Nat George, Scott Hillman, Stacey Kalkowski, Ed Krzyzaniak, Ophelia Lee, Nuttaphol Ma, Nancy P. Peterson, Christina Pierson, Leslie Porter, Bettina Staib, Agnes Szumski, Ariana Tosatto, Aneg Verdone, David Wexler and Kathleen Zadikian. Coordinators of the Art Mentor Program are SMC art professors Linda Lopez and Sharon Kagan.

Gallery hours are from noon to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. For more information, call (310) 397-7449 or go to www.santamonicaartstudios.com.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 9, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060906.pdf?ref=smdp.com)