Weeks and months of hard work paid off as the work of 13 Shaker High School art students is displayed in the Esther Massry Gallery at St. Rose.
North Colonie had the highest number of student work, of 21 area school districts, displayed at the Annual Regional Juried High School Exhibit in the College of St. Rose gallery. An awards ceremony Thursday, Feb. 12, at the college saw five students received Juror’s Choice Awards, including North Colonie’s Jessica Warren.
In its 16th year, student artwork is judged by a panel of three jurors, including Esther Massry Gallery Director Jeanne Flanagan, professor of art and Center for Art and Design Chairman Paul Mauren, and associate art professor Kris Corso Tolmie. The judges looked at 425 pieces, 25 from each district, and chose 105 pieces overall by 104 students.
Teachers chose five to 10 of the best work from students, which are then narrowed down by anonymous voting among the art department teachers. This year, Shaker High submitted a range of self-portraits, acrylic still-life paintings, ceramic sculptures and digital media.
Among the chosen artwork was an installation piece made from clear packing tape. Installed in the main lobby of Shaker High School, students no doubt saw the woman hanging from the second floor railing with Spiderman attempting to save her.
The piece was a collaboration between four students, Maya Lewis, Jason Cotugno, Marissa Rogers and Kyle Donnelly for a class. Two of them were wrapped in the tape and cut out for cast-like creation that was then hung from wires at the front of the school.
“The sculpture itself was more based on the location we chose over the project,” said Donnelly.
Stephen Jean-Pierre’s digital piece focused on prejudice and breaking stereotypes, while Malerie Muratori created a collage of magazine pieces focusing on body imagine in social media and pop culture.
While their artwork was largely different, all of the students had one thing in common: pride mixed with a bit of shock. After learning of their acceptance into the exhibit, many of them said that their first reaction was surprise.
“I was really proud of myself,” said Warren, recipient of a Juror’s Award. “Especially since I had one last year. And to have three in this year, I felt proud that I was able to get the same accomplishment. It was definitely a huge honor to receive this.”
With the exhibit being announced over the speakers, the department has been getting more recognition.
“I’ve been getting a lot of congratulations,” Cotugno said. “Surprisingly, other people knew before I did. I got a lot of comments from my football team, so my teammates knew about it…. I was just really happy that the art department got this much showing for this type of thing.”
The exhibit will be on display until Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the Esther Massry Gallery on Madison Avenue. For more information can be found at http://www.strose.edu.
