AP Studio Art exhibit features work from greatest number students ever

The AP Studio Art (APSA) exhibit featured a collection of artworks from the largest group of APSA students ever, taking place in Nichols Hall yesterday during long lunch.

The artworks of 23 students represented the approximate halfway point of their work on their concentration portfolio for the APSA exam in April. Concentrations include 2D, 3D and drawing. Each artist’s portfolio will ultimately contain twelve pieces, and at this point, the featured artists have around six pieces finished, according to fine arts teacher Pilar Aguero-Esparza.

“We like to do an exhibit because it’s a really good opportunity for them to put up their work and to write their artist statement and put it down on paper,” she said. “For some artists, it’s very difficult to do. Some struggle with writing. Some have more of a facility with writing and for those who do not, it can be a little daunting. This is a dry run; besides having the half of the series, they also need to have their concentration idea.”

Students, faculty and parents received the opportunity to pace the upper and lower levels of Nichols Hall to see work from APSA students. Drawing students include Hannah Bollar (12), Doreene Kang (11), Kevin Ke (11), Sheryl Liu (12), Sophia Luo (11), Archana Podury (12), Kelly Wang (12), Rachel Wu (12) and Jessica Yang (12). 2D art students include Avni Barman (12), Emma Doherty (11), Matthew Ho (12), Jeffrey Hsu (12), Ramzi Jahshan (12), Shay Lari-Hosain (11) and Madelyn Wang (12). 3D art students include Christina Andrus (12), Eric Cheung (12), Craig Neubieser (12), Shannon Richardson (11), Nephele Troullinous (12) and Eric Wang (12).

The range of works featured included mixed-media art, photography, paintings, drawings and photography cut-outs.

Photography teacher Joshua Martinez commented on the differences in process between the “wet-media” students and the digital media students.

“While students working in more traditional mediums accumulate works slowly, the digital process is that of refinement and replacement: my students create a base portfolio and then gradually add and subtract works to refine it conceptually,” he said. “The output of the works happens towards the very end.”

Featured APSA students also discussed the exhibition of their artwork.

In previous years, the number of students featured in the exhibition have been around 12 to 14, making this year a record year for APSA classes. In the past, APSA exhibitions have filled only one floor of Nichols Hall, but this year both the lower and upper floors have artworks featured within.

Martinez emphasized the importance of the exhibition for the student artists, as the visible “edge” of their underlying concept links the works and leads them to think about sequencing, titles, and writing statements.

The poster advertising the exhibition was designed by Ramzi.