On February 5, our community came together to celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
AP Portfolio Exhibit Showcases Student Talent at the Kent Place Gallery
An exhibition of Kent Place’s AP Portfolio student work is now open through May 13 at the Kent Place Gallery. There will be a reception from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 26.
The art represents investigations, developed over the year — individualized, self-determined bodies of work by each artist, focusing on chosen subject areas and specific explorations of their medium. They are formally inventive and carry thoughtful attention to their themes.
Below are statements from the artists.
Jasmine Algarin ’24
My sustained investigation is about my identity, what I feel connected to as a person, who I am, and where I come from. I wanted to explore my inner sentiments as well as locations from my memory.
Kathryn Cepeda ’24
Throughout my sustained investigation, my driving question became: “How can I depict my childhood toys and dive into nostalgia during the late 2000s through color and shape?” I have been able to explore different ways to portray my childhood memories through vibrant colors and symbols, as all of my pieces have various (but bright!) colored backgrounds, each featuring a favorite toy or game as mine as a child. Some of my pieces are 2D and others are 3D, but I wanted my pieces to be up to the viewer’s discretion on why I chose to paint or outline some pieces but not others. My childhood will forever be one of my favorite times, and it has been sentimental painting toys or objects that my friends and peers also had as children as we all start to move on to the next chapter in our lives. I have been thrilled to be a part of the AP Portfolio class this year, and am looking forward to producing a few more new pieces to conclude my investigation.
Celia Kanellakos ’24
How much do the environments we are surrounded by affect who we are at our core? Throughout the course of my sustained investigation, I have explored the intersection of personhood with geography, memory, and transition with this as the guiding question. Many of the pieces experiment with these concepts, whether it be the physical journey the notepad has traveled, the bringing to life of a childhood memory of road signs, or the comparison of taking the material versus the nonmaterial with you when settling in a new place. By taking the time to look at where we are, we can get a better idea of who we are.
Mahrukh Khizar ’24
My works focus on the intersection of Islamic art, culture, and mathematics. I depict symbolic representations of discovery, nature, and cultural traditions through the use of vibrant colors, geometric elements, and perspective.
Annabelle O’Brien ’24
The questions I chose to focus on for my sustained investigation are: How do we cope with the expectations versus realities of growing up and how does nostalgia affect us? These pieces all center on the passage of time and memories from my childhood, as well as grappling with the sentimentality and uncertainty that accompanies it.
Kara Pantozzi ’24
Throughout my sustained investigation, I’ve focused on the question of what originality is. More specifically, is anything completely original, and how has the idea of originality changed throughout time? Using different styles and mediums, my pieces somewhat abide by the following historical and artistic periods: ancient/classical, the Renaissance/enlightenment, romanticism, modern/postmodern art, and the digital age/present.
Sawyer Pappas ’24
I was thinking a lot about the place of art and artists and whether it’s okay to make art just because it’s beautiful. I realized that was a stupid question. In my portfolio I wanted to attempt to answer the following quandary: In what ways do people while they’re young allow themselves to experience more beauty in their day-to-day life than when they grow up, and how is it related to the burdens of the professional world?
Rachel Reiter ’24
In my sustained investigation, I explored the essence of childhood emotion and its profound impact on our nostalgic recollections of the past. Through the employment of the three primary colors, along with black and white, I sought to illuminate how children perceive the world with refreshing simplicity, contrasting the weighted complexity of adult perspectives. I also sought to acknowledge our changing interpretations of our childhood experiences as we reflect on them in hindsight. In order to communicate this, I crafted two distinct styles of artwork. The first is composed of abstract forms characterized by their geometry and precise measurements, serving as examples for the contemplation of associations between color and emotion and their effects within a piece’s mood. The second style embraces a more representational approach, incorporating less rigid and specific shapes. These pieces aim to simultaneously encapsulate the emotions felt in the moment and communicate the bittersweet nostalgia of looking back on moments forever lost to the endless and unstoppable marching of time.
The gallery is on the campus of Kent Place School, 42 Norwood Ave., Summit, and hours are Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Visitors, please check in at the CFI Main Entrance reception desk.
For an appointment with Gallery Director Ken Weathersby, email weathersbyk@kentplace.org.
For more information, call (908) 273-0900 or visit the Kent Place Gallery website page.