Located in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center, The Pollock Gallery exhibits Robert Moskwitz’s “Works on Paper.” (Sidney Hollingsworth/The Daily Campus)

Vast open skies of different colors and intensity, paired with shadowed skyscrapers, smokestacks and birds.

All of them in contrast with the small paper they are painted and drawn on.

The Pollock Gallery introduces “A Shower of Forms: Works on Paper by Robert Moskowitz,” the new installation located in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center.

Bursts of spray paint interrupt the paintings, blackening the open sky filled objects of man’s design and creation. The Empire State Building is stripped of any detail leaving only a rectangle tapered to a point.

“I find myself drawn to the gallery as an escape from my daily activities. There I am reminded of the bigger picture in life through the creativity and beauty of art,” sophomore Brianna McIntyre said.

A New York native and contemporary artist, Robert Moskowitz brings his abstract expressionism combined with minimalist inspired art to the students of SMU. There is no need to turn your head when viewing the art, simply let the art reveal what there is to be seen.

Dark, austere and poetic are common trends revolving around Moskowitz’s paintings fashioned in mainly oils and pastels.

”When people look at my work,” Moskowitz said, ”I want them just to discover it in a quiet way — not unlike when you’re walking down the street and see something and then realize it’s just there, in a very physical or literal way.”

Moskowitz sometimes described “an artist’s-artist” made it in the art scene in the early ‘60s at the age of 25. He is well-known through the New Image Painters, a collective name for artists after the 1978 Whitney exhibition. The Whitney exhibit influenced a return to a figurative style of painting with an incorporation of minimalism.

Notable works of Moskowitz include: “Stack,” “Skyscraper,” “Empire State Building,” and “Untitled.”

“Art teaches students about life. That is why it’s imperative that students visit the gallery. Life without art is like reading a story with no plot. Just pointless wandering and thoughtless babble,” sophomore Paz Beatty said.

The Pollock Gallery was designed as an extension of the studio classroom.

With the location set in Hughes-Trigg, students, staff and faculty can view the carefully selected art on display.

“The Pollock Gallery is great as it reminds students how passionate SMU is about art,” sophomore Kian Hervey said. “With easy access in the Hughes Trigg Student center, the gallery brings students, the arts, and culture together in a great, interesting way.”

The Pollock Gallery is open to the public free of charge. The Robert Moskowitz exhibition will be on display through March 17, followed by the “Master of Fine Arts Qualifying Exhibition.”