By Miguel Zarate
Students walking through Tawes Plaza on Tuesday evening might have noticed the abnormal amount of vehicles parked throughout the plaza. Those vehicles were a part of the Road Work art exhibition, curated by graduate student Ava Burke, which debuted the same night as the car show.
From daily commuters to Maryland Department of Transportation work vehicles, Road Work sought to display a wide range of vehicles with stories and purposes.
Burke’s art exhibition was part of the 2026 John Dorsey Prize exhibition which is being displayed in the Maril gallery within the Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology building.
“I applied with the theme roadwork and I applied knowing I wanted to throw a car show alongside the exhibition,” Burke said. “I didn’t even dream of putting it on Tawes Plaza.”
Burke said her inspiration came from her own experience as a commuter student.
“The theme is basically beloved vehicles and working vehicles,” Burke said. “I commute from Baltimore, and I spend a lot of time looking at work trucks and looking at peoples old cars that they’ve rigged up. I love how cars and vehicles sort of become like an imprint of the owner in a way.”
The car show featured vehicles from University of Maryland police department, Fleet Services rentals, Maryland Department of Transportation and other UMD vehicles like the Clarice production van. “It was very important for me to have vehicles from the institutions that maintain our roads,” Burke said.
Ryan Knapp, the facilities administrator in the College of Arts and Humanities, helped bring the show to Tawes Plaza. He brought his shiny red 2008 Chevrolet Corvette.
Knapp grew up as a Ford loyalist, and his step-father was a Chevrolet fan. When his step-father passed away, his mother gave him the car, which has been named “The April Fool.”
“It’s really opened my eyes as almost, how much of a waste of time I was in regards to being brand loyal to Ford, when in reality [the Corvette] is absolutely fantastic. Super fun to drive,” he said. “So my step-father taught me a lesson even in his passing. It’s called The April Fool because my father was born on April 1.”
Andzelika Berestko, a graduate student, brought her 2012 Ford Econoline 350 XLT that she has named “SundarVan.”
“Road Work is focused on the experiences connected with the road and especially the practice of maintenance that happens to literally maintain our roads and maintain safety for them,” Berestko said.“SundarVan is a play of the words coming from Sanskrit. Sundar means beautiful, and van is a forest, but it’s also a van and it’s meant to be an off-road vehicle that is in nature and takes us into the middle of nowhere.”
Jonah Brock, a first year master’s student in the studio art program, brought his 2002 Saturn S200 “Cruiser” that seemed like a normal sedan, until viewers got a closer look. The driver’s side window had a cloth draped over it with a hole in the center. The words “T-Girl Glory Hole” are stitched into the side. A surplus of sex-related paraphernalia were strewn across the back seat.
“It’s kind of about the history of the car as a mobile queer hookup spot,” Brock said, “Because public sex is so intimately integrated in queer life. Back when it was illegal to have gay sex and we would have to find these subversive little places to have these illicit hookups.”
While Brock turned his beloved, personal commuter into a piece of art, another vehicle, constructed across years of effort, was proudly showcased among the vehicles.
Doug Wood, a Parkville resident and drag racer, brought “Freaky Tiki,” a 1948 Fiat A/Competition Coup, a vehicle designed for drag racing. “Freaky Tiki” shook the bones of guests in attendance when Wood started up the engine.
“When I was about 22, I started wanting to build a car like that,” Wood said, gesturing to the vehicle. “When I had the money to do it, the car came to me in pieces … I accumulated all the parts, and we built it in my garage at home.”
Freaky Tiki is an active race car and can reach a quarter mile in seven and a half seconds, according to Wood.
“I thought the side window looked like the eye of a tiki, yeah that’s how I named the car,” Wood said.
While the car show has passed, the Road Work exhibition will be available for viewing in the Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, Room 1309, in the Maril Gallery. The exhibition will be open until Oct. 2.
Featured Image: Students gathered outside Tawes Plaza for the Road Work art exhibition on Tuesday, Sept. 15. Photo by Miguel Zarate.