HopArt 2020

HOPART 2020

I was thrilled and honored to view the student work submitted for the HopArt 2020 show. For over ten years Hopkinton Center for the Arts (HCA) has hosted the Hopkinton High School Honors Exhibit. Year after year, HCA staff and visitors are astounded by the depth of technical expertise, conceptual thought, and energy that HHS students explore in their work.

Art making is such a rich experience. It is an exercise in trust in yourself, bravery, and hard, hard work. It allows us to explore and mine our inner terrain in ways not available to us through speech. We look at the world in new ways, gain new perspectives about ourselves and our relationships to others, we problem solve.

We can become more confident, knowing human beings.

Choosing 55 works of art for this show was very difficult. Ultimately, I chose work whose clarity, honesty, and execution spoke to me. I see self-exploration, reflections on society and politics, and ineffable beauty in these images.

Some are visually charged in their use of form, color, and media: Grace Liu’s evocation of being jarred awake at an early hour, Kate Lagasse’s half female/half male exhibiting confidence and strength, and Emma Steir’s bold depiction of a hand gently holding a tong.

Others explore our world’s current conditions and challenges. Linnea PappasByers’s timely piece portrays life in isolation in an apartment building. But it’s also funny - there are a few outlandish characters: a guy with a carrot nose paints a wall on the second floor while an angry pencil-headed dude glares at us from floor one. Other works look at teen depression, racism, and homo- and trans-phobia.

Looking at what it means to be female in our current society is explored in multiple ways. We get inside glimpses of what it is like to be a Muslim woman (Shuhan Li), a young woman struggling with her public persona (Kate Lagasse), and a high school student full of anxiety about the pressures of “beauty”, “success”, and “employment” (Nora Drechsler).

Many artworks are simply a delight to the senses. Nicholas Torres’s vibrant digital art pulses with color and energy, Lauren Pantazes’s dreamy, ethereal art evokes deep, lovely space, Giulia Marino’s color-saturated photo of a woman drinking coffee is delightful, Alex Munn’s depiction of phobia is hysterical, and Arianna Schaefer’s crazy collage of kitchen objects is transfixing.

And then there are the artworks that speak to the sweetness in our lives, no matter what is going on in the world. In many of the photographs, we witness love connections, innocence, and portraits of young, curious, searching faces.

These images may delight, disarm, or excite you. Thought-provoking art does that.

These are honest, real portraits by high school students of what it is to be living in these times.

Congratulations to the students who made this rich body of work and to the teachers at HHS who fostered their creativity and knowledge.

Kris Waldman Co-Executive Director Hopkinton Center for the Arts

Linnea Pappas-Byers, AP Studio Art

Hop-Art 2020 1

Julia diBenedetto, AP Studio Art

Anthony Rodrigues, Studio Art 3

2

Annalise Curl, Ceramics

An-Wen Huang, Studio Art 2

Casey Torigny, Studio Art 2

Keira Schnur, Studio Art 3

Hop-Art 2020 3

Fashion & Textiles, Group Project

4

Katharine Lagasse, AP Studio Art

Gabe O’Brien, Smartphone Photography

Hop-Art 2020 5

Sebastian Toledo, Fab Lab

Carly Hedstrom, Photography 1

6

Connor Grady, Studio Art 2

Grace Liu, AP Studio Art

Hop-Art 2020 7

Shuhan Li, Topics in Art History

8

Soleil Randall, Studio Art 2

Keelan Boyle, AP Studio Art

Mei Sutherland, Studio Art 3

Hop-Art 2020 9

Eric North, Photography 2

Sean Cahill, Graphic Design

10

Abigail Weinstock, Graphic Design

Lily Vaughan, Studio Art 4

Grace Liu, AP Studio Art

Hop-Art 2020 11

Laser Cut Lanterns, Digital Art Still Life Pen & Ink, Studio Art 1 12

Alex Munn, Studio Art 3

Jacob Sullivan, Graphic Design

Hop-Art 2020 13

Katharine Lagasse, AP Studio Art

Nora Drechlser, Studio Art 3

14

Arianna Schaefer, Photography 1

Lauren Pantazes, Graphic Design

Linnea Pappas-Byers, AP Studio Art

John Wauters, Smartphone Photography

Lucas Nealon, Fab Lab

Hop-Art 2020 15

Abigail Weinstock, Graphic Design

Tomo Oga, Graphic Design

16

Giulia Marina, Photography 1

Delaney Mick, Photography 1

Hop-Art 2020 17

Nicholas Torres, Digital Art

Morgan Micallef, Digital Art

18

Sara Weissinger, AP Studio Art

Annalise Curl, Studio Art 2

Hop-Art 2020 19

Linnea Dean, Photography 2

20

Katie Cooper, Photography 1

Madison Hadley, Digital Photography

Hop-Art 2020 21

Oddara deOliveira, Smartphone Photography

Anna Dionne,Topics in Art History

22

Anjali Ramesh, Digital Photography

Meg Muldoon, Studio Art 3

Hop-Art 2020 23

Emma Steir, Photography 1

Katharine Lagasse, AP Studio Art

24

Emma Lucy, Studio Art 2

Makayla Coffey, Studio Art 2

Linnea Pappas-Byers, AP Studio Art

Hop-Art 2020 25

GUEST JUROR: Kris Waldman

CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

HOPKINTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS

FACULTY:

Christine Enos Colleen Gianino Kris Kellenberger Sara Williams Sterling Worrell

FEATURED WORKS FROM: Art History Ceramics Digital Art Fab Lab Fashion & Textiles Graphic Design Photography Studio Art

COVER IMAGE:

Ryder Peishoff, Class of 2020

Funded by the:

Hopkinton Parent Teachers Association

HHS Art Department 90 Hayden Rowe Street Hopkinton, MA 01748

Follow us on Twitter @HopArts