By Lauren Siegel ‘23, Arts and Entertainment Editor (April 2022)

For the past two years, artists from Newark Academy’s IB and Advanced Visual Art classes have worked tirelessly to develop beautiful, unique, and thought-provoking art portfolios. Now, with their time at NA coming to an end, these senior artists are exhibiting their work in the David Teiger Arts Gallery for the NA community to enjoy. 

From February 16th to March 8th, IB Art students Anika Verma ‘22, Selah Dungey ‘22, Serin Hwang ‘22 and Avi Parameshwar ‘22 showcased their work in the Gallery. The colorful exhibition included pieces ranging from sculpture to digital art, each reflecting the individual artists’ distinct styles. Explaining which pieces she decided to include in her exhibition, Selah Dungey says, “I chose the ones I love the most and the ones I had the most fun making.” She considers her pastel piece The Campfire – which depicts a group of people sitting around a bonfire –  a personal favorite, explaining, “Before I made it, I had never used oil pastels before, so I was really proud of how it turned out because of my inexperience in the medium.” 

According to students, the flexibility to experiment and explore different artistic mediums is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the NA art experience. “Having the opportunity to come up with a crazy idea and not having any restrictions on it is really amazing,” says Lauren Freed ‘22, an Advanced artist. “It has allowed for four years worth of classes where I really learned a lot about art and also had fun doing it.” By the time the exhibitions are completed, the gallery will have showcased a diverse collection of student work consisting of paintings, drawings, ceramics, mixed media, digital art, and even a Minecraft World.

The IB and Advanced Art programs challenge students to be more thoughtful in their art-making and tap into their creativity. According to Dungey, the IB art program has “definitely made me think about my artistic process. I feel like sophomore year I would just go ahead and make a piece, but now I feel like I’ve made connections to my pieces, and I’m more attached to them.” Similarly, IB artist Jessie Luo ‘22 says, “I’ve had so many opportunities in IB art with Ms. Brodie, like looking into artists of influence which I hadn’t done before. Now I analyze artists’ style and see how it can inspire my own work.” 

Jessie’s art was showcased in the gallery from March 11th to April 8th alongside the work of IB Art student Adrien Chouraqui ‘22 and Advanced Art students Amaani Jetley ‘22 and Tess Kesler ‘22. This showcase was a vibrant display of stunning pieces that varied in subject matter and medium. Discussing how she approached developing pieces for this exhibit, Tess Keseler comments, “ I knew I wanted to do something unifying. I realized that I had two paintings from the year before that had similar colors, so I decided to focus my senior year on painting pieces with the same color palette.” This unity can clearly be seen in her exhibition and represents one method our artists took when choosing how to display their work.

Despite what people may think, creating an exhibition is not easy. Kesler explains, “Having my work up in the gallery almost feels like a performance—maybe similar to how the cast of Mamma Mia felt during theirs. It’s of course a lot different and a lot less stressful for me, but this senior show is the culmination of a lot of time and effort spent painting and learning, and I’m definitely proud that I get to share it with the school.” 

The NA community is just as proud of our IB and Advanced artists, who have worked passionately to express their love for art and have made our community more engaged and colorful in the process. These exhibitions affirm that NA students are well-rounded and creative, and there is always a space for them to cultivate their passions within our community.

The final exhibition took place between April 12th and April 29th, and showcased the wonderful work of Advanced Art students Lucas Alland ‘22, Lauren Freed ‘22, Kaya Patel ‘22, Alana Akiwumi ‘22, and Vittoria Socolof ‘22.