Murder mystery art covers the glass gallery showcasing the graphics of talented UTEP senior artists.  

The senior lecture is holding its annual end-of-semester gallery, “Clue Killer Portfolio Exhibit,” to showcase all designs made this semester. The audience will solve the murder mystery through the student’s designs.  

Distinguished professor Clive Cochran lectures Graphic Design 9, a senior portfolio class.  

The idea of an end-of-semester exhibition was pitched by Professor Jean Julio in 2009.  

This was an opportunity to view their students’ progress and provide helpful feedback. 

“We look at the work in the student show, we can see where students are doing well and perhaps where they need to improve a little bit,” Cochran said. “The students always put up their best work, and the shows have been pretty successful.”  

Every exhibition is run by the students in the graphic design class. Each student is responsible for working with one another and coming up with a theme, what art they are going to showcase, how the gallery will look, catering and even the dates the show will open, including reception day.  

“It’s a complete mystery to me what they’re going to do because again, the students are responsible for doing this,” Cochran said. “Now, very often they throw ideas by me, they ask for a certain amount of help in putting everything together and I can provide advice, but they decide how the show is going to be hung.”  

Senior Jes Rivera, a double major in graphic design and metals, is one of the many students taking Cochran’s class.  

“We’ve had a pretty easy time, mostly because a lot of us have very similar mindsets and can kind of bounce ideas off of each other pretty quickly,” Rivera said.  

The student-run show takes many hours of their day to prepare for the exhibit. Many of the students are going to showcase their packaging, posters and other elements related to the popular board game Clue.  

Austin Esparza, a senior in graphic design is the one who has taken charge by helping guide his classmates through this process.   

“It’s been lots of fun, but it’s been a lot of work,” Esparza said. “We started back in the beginning of the semester, and we cemented a theme and whatnot, but just trying to get kind of little nuances together to make it seem collective and put together, it’s a lot of work.”  

Senior graphic design student Alyssa Robles shared her experience throughout the semester.  

“It’s been pretty stressful, but it’s been a long time coming with all the work that we’ve been doing throughout our career and learning graphic design, it’s family coming to like an end,” Robles said.  

The journey has not ended just yet as these students will be meeting May 30 to set up the whole exhibit.  

The Clue Killer Portfolio Exhibit reception will officially open May 1 through May 12 in the Glass Gallery. At 6:30 p.m., May 8, students will host the reception where attendees will be given a Clue game sheet where they will be able to solve the murder mystery with the stories provided by the student’s artwork. Many of these guests are artists who want to network with the students and offer multiple different job opportunities.  

Make sure to join in on the fun and solve the murder mystery. For more information about the exhibit, visit the Instagram @utep_doart.  

Avery Escamilla-Wendell is the staff reporter and may be reached at [email protected] or on Instagram @by_avery_escamilla.