The Mankiw Family Gallery, located on Waltham's Chapel Hill - Chauncy Hall School campus, is pleased to announce its new art show featuring work from recent alumni Grace Black and Maya Reardon and current AP Studio Art students Stephen Ellias, Ben Hilf, Lizzie Rundell, Jonah Spector, Robert Tiwan, and Matteo Triolo. The show will take place May 21 - August 30, 2013.

 

 

The work on display touches on the perception and understanding of self. Artistic and personal identity is explored in a variety of mediums and points of view. Making art often serves as a catalyst for self- actualization and these young artists boldly bring their inquiries to fruition.

The culminating elective in the visual arts, AP Studio Art requires students to create a series of teacher-initiated assignments, as well as student-initiated assignments.  By concentrating on a particular visual interest or problem, students gain experience in the formal, technical, and expressive means of the artist and at the same time develop a sense of quality in their own art.   

 

Grace Black is currently working towards a BFA in fibers from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.  The Fibers Department of Mass Art includes works from weaving on a loom to the skills of paper making. The work Black displays here is about her relationship with her dyslexia. With this collection of work, she attempts to explore and document her experience of viewing the results of the various tests she took over the years, which that she was not able to view until she was in college. Her work shows us the frustration, confusion and anger she processed as she read the documents. Her collection of work is personal, just like her disability and Grace attempts to show the viewer how she gained an understanding of her disability through making her artwork.

 

Maya Reardon is a graduating senior at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She studied studio arts with concentrations in digital photography and graphic design. She is excited to continue learning about this medium through experience and future opportunities. The work Maya displays here relates to how she regards her hair. Her hair has been a sensitive topic throughout most of her life. As an African-Mexican-American growing up in a predominantly white area, she always felt different from her friends and family. This body of work is the beginning of a new journey about other young black women who also embrace and celebrate their natural hair. Each has her own unique texture and style. Through these portraits, Reardon hopes to share the beauty and courage that these women embody by accepting their roots and proudly wearing their natural hair.