What do a knife-wielding corn cob, a colorful catfish and a green globular alien all have in common? They can all be found on canvas in a new art show in the LSU School of Art Gallery. Playground Psychotics features work by four undergraduates, Sarah Cancienne, Robyn Denny, Stuart Kimbrell and Nyssa Juneau, and recent alumnus Jonathan Mayers. The show opened on the 15th and the reception will be Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. in Foster Hall. Assistant Gallery Coordinator and recent painting graduate Hillary Lowry said the gallery space is mostly used by visiting artists and Masters of Fine Arts thesis shows. “An undergraduate show is unusual,” she said. The five artists have been painting together since they were freshmen, and last fall they decided to exhibit their pieces together. “They were all made in the same room over the period of a semester. So I like to think that [the paintings] are all friends,” Cancienne jokingly said. Given their youth, the close-knit quintet of artists chose “playground” as part of the show’s title, according to Cancienne. The “psychotic” part becomes self-explanatory upon viewing the show. “I think Jon is very pertinent to the psychotic part,” Cancienne said, as JonÕs paintings are the ones with knife-wielding corn cobs and naked aliens. “It is a really diverse group of work … really colorful and fresh,” Lowry said. Cancienne said the show is very fun and positive. “We’re not trying to make any huge overarching social commentary, so people shouldnÕt be intimidated,” she said. Benjamin Rogers, a painting graduate student, said that Playground Psychotics is just as good as any of the MFA shows held in the gallery. “Undergraduate art is all about figuring out what you want to do, and I see some of that here,” he said. Both Rogers and Lowry picked Cancienne’s “Cafeteria” painting as one of their personal favorites, but her work also recieved an equal dose of welcomed criticism from Rogers and professors. “The whole idea of a show is to get that kind of feedback from a lot of different people,” she said. Associate professor of art Denyce Celentano has taught all of the artists and commended them for self-organizing and hanging the show. “It demonstrates a strong motivation on their part to confront what it means to be a practicing artist, which is to put your work out to be viewed and judged,” she said. She also encouraged students of all majors to go see the exhibit. “It’s a good example of what’s going on in the School of Art,” she said. “For painting students, particularly students beginning the program, it’s a dazzling display of what they can later become involved in.” Playground Psychotics will run until Jan. 29.