Luna Topete’s divorce was painful. The only place he shows that pain is inside a seven by seven cube, fashioned into a bathroom, embedded with 55,000 upright nails that line the ceiling, floors and walls.

“If you really want to see what a person is about you have to come into their bathroom,” said Topete, whose exhibit, “We Never Talk Anymore,” is on display at the 15th annual Stillwell Student Art Exhibit at SF State.

“These nails are my penance," said Topete, who described the bathroom as a place where transformations occur.

"Inside the medicine cabinet is where people alter their mood by taking prescription pills. Make-up and shaving cream allow us to transform our appearance. The toilet and the bathtub cleanse us,” said Topete.

The second year SF State M.F.A. student correlated the nails to relationships and the baggage, he said, comes with it. For Topete, bathrooms are also a place of solace.

“It is a place where you are the most vulnerable,” he said.

The diverse talent showcased inside the Fine Arts Gallery during this year's event is full of artistic expression. Themes of war, religion and fairytales have a place inside the spacious gallery featuring 60 exhibited works from graduate and undergraduate fine art majors.

For the past four years, Shaun Chun, also an SF State M.F.A. student, has been preoccupied with the 1963 self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk who protested religious persecution from Vietnam Catholics.

In his acrylic painting titled “Fire,” a projector flashes fiery flames underneath a gold painted Buddha, which is a testament to Chun's fascination.

“I’ve been intrigued by things burning, and right now the climate with the war on Iraq just adds to that,” said Chun, who specializes in conceptual and informational arts.

Fine Arts Gallery Director and Instructor Mark Johnson said the Stillwell Art Exhibit exercises student skills in planning, collecting, preparation and criticism of art.

Out of 173 undergraduate works that were submitted for this year’s event, only 60 were selected. Johnson said student judges select art according to presentation readiness and ability to convey mystery and ambition—necessities required in a good exhibit.

For many artists, it is the first time they have had their work juried by their peers and featured in a professional gallery.

Adam Martin, a sculpture and fine arts student, was one of the 15 jurors who voted on which works would be exhibited.

A school desk and chair titled, “Camouflage,” by Anna Smith is one of the works that met the requirements of the exhibit. Martin said he admired Smith’s hand-painted army print. He said that most of the work they judged was complex, but what made Smith's submission so appealing was its simplicity and straightforwardness.

“It has a strong meaning especially dealing with politics. It is not stenciled and looks factory made,” said Martin.

From Nov. 9 through Dec. 2, undergraduate and graduate students of the fine arts program will display painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, printmaking, textiles, video and mixed media.

Awards, monetary gifts and prizes will be given to students during the two-hour opening reception. This is the only event inside the Fine Arts Gallery that displays student works. Many shows are reserved for professional artists.

“Art causes people to puzzle over certain things and give a second look,” said Johnson, who believes government funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, a public agency providing funding to artists in all 50 states, has declined since the Reagan era.

“My sense is that art is seen as progressive. And that can be a challenge to the status quo,” said Johnson. “Art isn't about making money. It is not about capitalism. It is about humanness."

Admission to the event is free. For more information on gallery times, or to find out about upcoming events at the Fine Arts Gallery, call 415-338-6535 or visit their Web site at http://www.sfsu.edu/%7Egallery/.