AP Portfolio Class of 2025 Exhibit Showcases Student Talent

An exhibition of Kent Place’s AP Portfolio student work is open through May 13 at the Kent Place Gallery. The art represents sustained investigations, developed over the year, that dive into individually chosen areas of form, content, and style. The result? A diverse, dynamic display. The students hosted a reception for the community on Friday, April 4. 

Below are statements from the artists.

Sophia DiSarno
“I focused on the emotions and nostalgia people are overcome with when looking back at objects from their childhood. We often feel guilty for leaving these items behind, so the singular animal cracker being half eaten represents the pains we go through for growing up and forgetting about them, while it seems like everyone around us is unaffected by these growing pains. The bubbles show how all good things come to an end, and the innocence and lightness of a bubble pops as we grow up. It is not your childhood stuffed animals’ fault that you grew up and they no longer come on adventures, and this is represented through the sketch marks left on the canvas to show the past journeys. The colors are soft colors or primary colors, color palettes often associated with youth.”

Alexa Garrido
“My sustained investigation focused on the contrast of adulthood and childhood through the use of color. The two large panels are meant to each be a separate stage of life. The warm-toned one was created with bright colors and the technique of fingerpainting, to imitate the playfulness associated with being a child, while the cool-toned one has much sharper lines and more harsh strokes, representing the more logical stage of adulthood. The third square will be black and white, and will be more up for interpretation, as it could be the beginning of life, the end, or the grayness of the ‘no-man’s land of teenage-hood’ in between.” 

Charlotte Grushkin
“‘What does it feel like to see something?’ This question sparked my sustained investigation, which seeks to reconcile tangible reality and intangible imagination. I wanted to explore how we picture things in our minds, how they’re never quite as clear as reality, yet still feel more perfect. I wanted to capture that feeling with the beaded piece, which obscures the painting underneath so that you can’t quite grasp its entirety and have to fill in the gaps subconsciously.”

Lorelei Gustafson-Johnson
“I focused on my emotional associations and memories with certain foods. For example, the piece showcasing three colored-pencil smiley fries on a painted canvas is entitled ‘Playfulness.’ It represents the joyous, innocent, and fun connection I have with that dish and the excitement I felt whenever my mother made it. However, the scope of my sustained investigation ventures beyond just my light-hearted and fond memories. The piece featuring a purple colored-pencil cake at the center of a collage of nutrition fact labels is entitled ‘Shame.’ This piece highlights the regret I often feel when I eat sweet treats. My sustained investigation exhibits the complex relationship we all have with food and the emotions we may experience — whether it be nostalgia, guilt, comfort, wonder, or something else — when we consume it.”

Elijah Hall
“My sustained investigation analyzes and conveys the world through the lens of a bystander, both innocent and complicit. Using various forms of media, the canvas captures a surface that is both ingrained and fractured, symbolizing life seen through a frosted window. The juxtaposition of charcoal and vibrant, color-filled pieces underscores the fluctuations of the human experience. The frames surrounding each piece subtly suggest that these moments are but fleeting instants in a life defined by love, loss, and the complexities of truth. As the investigation unfolds, it reveals more about the human eye — in both its makeup and the 576,000 fragments it absorbs daily, shaping the perception of our environment and the world around us.”

Ani Mendieta-Frost
“I focused on the intersectionality between the emotions we experience throughout our lives and our self-perceptions. For several of my pieces, I started by thinking about specific feelings, such as sadness and anger, and channeled those raw emotions into my art, yet also connected them to the many ways in which I view myself. I intentionally left these interpretations loose and subjective, as I want the viewer to look at my work and feel something as a result, whether it’s because of how it appears or what they associate it with. The painting of the blue eyes, to me, represents a mix of misery and despair as its color palette is entirely blue, alluding to sadness, while the hanging fabric represents tears — yet the haunting stare hints at something deeper. In comparison, the paper doll is the first of three others, every piece being accurate to my own shape and proportions, and I painted the layer of red underneath its organs entirely by hand. There are several ways to perceive it, but I mainly see it as signifying body dysmorphia along with the many layers of identity. Finally, the hand drawing is meant to symbolize nostalgia, as the smaller hand in mainly warm colors represents childhood and the bigger, matured hand in cool colors represents growing up. As the younger reaches for the older, the older moves away and they are never able to grab each other, additionally supported by the cut-out shapes I created using materials for kids.”

Mia Naggar
“I chose to examine the emotional aspects of neurodiversity through a range of artistic mediums, each chosen to evoke different sides of my own experience. The work seeks to challenge typical representations of neurodiversity, emphasizing the beauty and complexity of thinking and feeling differently, and one that is endlessly expressive.”

Sofia Wanosky
“My sustained investigation focused on natural environments that have played a role at various points in my life and, more often than not, brought me joy. They range from the coast of California or Italy as well as places in New Jersey. When creating these pieces, I made an effort to try different mediums and techniques, such as printmaking, as a way to step outside my comfort zone and create unique interpretations of the landscapes. In addition, while I kept the key elements of the images, the works present my own view of the images.”

You can check out all of the artwork here, and be sure to follow @kentplacearts on Instagram.