“Intimacy and Desire: Exposures Gallery Exhibit,” sponsored by Ohio State Student Gender and Sexuality Services, is a mixed-media exhibition featuring various forms of art from 10 local artists. The exhibit explores the concepts and boundaries of intimacy and desire through artists’ works.The office of Student Gender and Sexuality Services wanted to do a program that would link many of the offices in the Ohio Union together by focusing on a theme like relationships and intimacy, director Willa Young said.The 10 artists featured are James Bowman, Lorie Nix, Ame Shunck, Jen Maddin, Shawn Casey, Iris Sandkuhler, Linda Howard, John Henry Blatter, Janet Reger and Kathleen Gerber.M. Alyssa Jones, curator of the event, judged the submitted art works along with Young and Michael Scarce.”We all came to a consensus as far as how the pieces related to the show. We chose the ones with the strongest link to the theme and what we thought the show would visually represent,” Jones said.The selections in the exhibit are very diverse because some artists play with light and form to express themselves, while others use their art to display personal growth and healing, Young said. Shunck will show her work called “Offering,” which is about a big crush she developed on her bank teller, she said. “I was too embarrassed to ask him for a date, so I used that energy to produce this piece of art. Now I can’t go back to my old bank anymore,” she said.Blatter is presenting two photographs from his series “The Painted Nude,” where he uses the body as a human canvas and creates ways of being erotic and sensual, Young said.Sandkuhler will display small hand-made books that contain photos, Young said. Her piece, “Golden Girl,” explores the “state of intimacy and desire, of being in the womb and wanting to both leave and stay,” Sandkuhler said in a written statement.”When we asked for artists to submit their work, we did not know what to expect and were open to any possibilities,” Young said.”I think the works in the exhibit will cause people to explore and stretch what they think of as intimacy and desire. We hope it will cause interesting discussions on campus,” she said.The theme of the exhibit is even more relevant because the reception is on Valentine’s Day weekend, Jones said.The opening reception for “Intimacy and Desire” is Friday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Ohio Union Exposures Gallery. The art works are on display through Feb. 21. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and from noon to 9 p.m. Sundays.