The first gallery of the school year came to a close two weeks ago. Advanced Placement Art students displayed their summer artwork in the Brierly Gallery (Room 373) from Sept. 5 to 21. 

Before exhibiting their self-selected piece, each AP Art student was asked to bring their best and worst piece of art from over the summer on the first day of school. AP Art teacher Mark Bowers described it as the class’s version of summer reading.

“It helps introduce them to the community of the class,” Bowers said. “They get to see how they connect with other students. It also gives them the experience to stand up in front of the group and discuss something hopefully they love.”

Bowers said that the gallery also helps get students used to exhibiting their artwork, especially since the art shows tend to get more complicated later in the year.

All students were expected to take an outside art course or complete five pieces at home over the summer. Senior Maya Vanderkamp chose the latter option, and the inspiration for her oil painting came from her own experiences, personal preferences, and everyday life.

“I work on a smaller scale, so I wanted to do a little bit more of an intimate scene, and [the painting] was a scene of cooking,” Vanderkamp said.

Vanderkamp also described how the vibrant colors of the tomatoes and the background made the image stand out to her because she prefers to use brighter colors in her paintings.

“And my mom really loves tomatoes,” she added. 

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Senior Sofija Manojlovski took a summer art class in Chicago at Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts before displaying her work in the gallery.

“There’s a fine arts summer scholarship for $300 [to take the class], and I got that,” Manojlovski said. 

Vanderkamp and Manojlovski said that they were unaware their summer work would be going up in the Brierly Gallery. However, Manojlovski feels that making a piece for something specific, like a gallery, has an effect on her process. 

“I knew it was going somewhere, so I put more effort into those,” Manojlovski said. 

With the first gallery of the year completed, AP Art students are progressing to more creative, prompt-based projects. 

“We just finished our Horror Vacui project, which means a fear of open space. The project was to fill the page so that your eye has somewhere to look the whole time,” Vanderkamp said. “I really enjoyed doing that one.”

Currently, the students are making pieces based on a combination of the word “penny” and a word of their choosing from the dictionary. 

“My word was Apollo,” Manojlovski said. “The story I’m using based on Apollo is about destruction of relationships, so I’m going to do it on destroyed metal, and then the color scheme of copper oxidation. [Bowers] is trying to get us to be creative.” 

As they continue to aim for creativity, these students will complete plenty of art for the New Trier community to enjoy. 

“The group this year is unbelievably talented and passionate about their work,” Bowers said. “I’m really excited about how they’re going to progress this year.”