Exhibition showcases art by high school students
Artworks by high school students from Chinook School Division are currently on display in an exhibition in Swift Current.
This annual exhibition in the West Wing Gallery is organized by the Art Gallery of Swift Current (AGSC). It represents artworks by students participating in visual art programs within the Chinook School Division.
The School Art Show has for decades provided an opportunity for students to have their first chance to participate in a public show of their work.
AGSC Director and Curator Kim Houghtaling said the gallery considered thematic names for the show over the years, but in the end it simply became known at the School Art Show.
“That's how everyone refers to it, and that's historically what it's been,” he noted. “This kind of exhibition format has been going on for decades and it's always good for a young artist to be a part of their high school art show. It's their first time typically showing work to the public and even understanding what that meant, what a gallery setting might be, and how the people who came to look were there to enjoy the work and think about it, and they feel appreciated as artists, which I think is very good for a young artist.”
Students, family members and teachers attended a public reception for the show at the gallery, May 7. Two works by Morgan Hill, a Grade 11 student at Swift Current Comprehensive High School, are displayed in the show. She drew both images in graphite on paper.
“I feel I have the best control over it with smudging,” she said. “I feel like it's one of my strengths. So I figured I'll try to play into that.”
Her drawing Forest Spirits, which shows a mythical figure in the woods, is a self-initiated work that was inspired by her love for nature.
“I really like the greens and nature, but I'm better with graphite than colours,” she said. “So I was trying to invoke all of the greenery and lushness of nature without adding the colour to it.”
Her other drawing, Contradiction, shows a female figure in a raincoat and with an umbrella standing under the blazing sun in a desert. This work was created for the Art 20 warm-up theme about contradictions at the start of the semester.
“I was trying to figure out a theme, and I was actually in Vancouver at the time and it was raining all the time,” she said. “So I figured I'll play into the raincoat, but the opposite with the desert.”
She felt it was great that art students were provided with a forum at the exhibition to display their talents.
“Art really doesn't get that much of a chance to shine,” she said. “So I think this is really good to give it that exhibition that it deserves, because so many people here are amazing.”
She was excited and a bit surprised when she learned her works were selected by the AGSC to be part of the exhibition.
“I didn't know if I was really any good, especially because both of them are just on sketch book paper,” she said. “It was just something that I love to do and just being recognized for that is great. It's a wonderful feeling.”
She enjoys doing art, because it provides her with a way to express her thoughts and feelings.
“It's just hard to express myself in front of other people, and it's a good way to put all the internal things that I'd like to say and to show them to people without having to directly say it,” she said.
Emjay Gallanosa, an Art 10 student at Swift Current Comprehensive High School, was happy to have one of his works in the show for a second year. He finds it enjoyable to create art.
“This makes me feel good about myself,” he said. “I just like doing it.”
His untitled work in this year’s exhibition shows an apartment building with a courtyard and large decorative container plants. It was created in mixed media in the realism style for an assignment about perspective drawing.
“It's kind of overwhelming, to be honest,” he said about seeing his work in an actual art gallery. “There are other stuff that are good and I think better than mine. That's why I feel it's overwhelming.”
According to Houghtaling the selection of the artworks for this exhibition is done without giving any consideration to the assignment requirements provided to students by their teachers.
“We don't judge the assignment at all, that's for teachers to do,” he said. “What we're looking at is the expression itself. How well the young artist has made their form meaningful in terms of the visual experience or how the story is being told and the commitment overall to making a good work, but we're not looking at the best illustrators or the folks with the most dexterity. Those folks certainly do get into this show, but we're looking at artwork that really is made from personality. Everybody has their own touch and their own humour and their own sentiment and that comes across.… So we're looking at all kinds of art and we're really choosing the ones that have the greatest impressions.”
He emphasized an artwork is not complete until an artist has an opportunity to show it to a broader audience.
“So giving that opportunity to students is really very good,” he said. “They're in a relationship with their teacher and their school, and they're carrying out assignments and trying to learn their way through a curriculum, and this kind of opportunity takes their work out of that context and treats it like serious artwork and present it in a professional way. Then audiences who knew nothing about the assignment or their relationship with their school or anything come in and just appreciate the work for what it is.”
The School Art Show at the West Wing Gallery takes place until June 2. The gallery is located at Kinetic Exhibition Park in the Airmen’s Billet building. Admission is free and gallery hours are 1-5 p.m. from Friday to Sunday.