“Art Ready: Selected Work from the Artist Mentorship Program” Exhibition
Smack Mellon
This event has ended.
Student Artists: Gustavo Bahena, Earl Douglas, Rateeba Ghaffar,
Kuburatu Jagun, Jemila Mowarin, Fatima Khamise, Sahara Leung,
Nephtali Madhere, Inayiah McKay
Artist Mentors: Michael Paul Britto, Esteban del Valle,
Natalia Nakazawa, Phillip Shung
Smack Mellon presents Art Ready: Selected Work from the Artist Mentorship Program. The exhibition presents the work of students who participated in the 2014-2015 session of Art Ready, Smack Mellon’s arts mentorship program for high school students interested in pursuing a career in the visual arts. Working with professional painters, installation artists, graphic designers, and video artists, the student artists created an impressive range of work in a variety of media. This includes portrait photography, expressive paintings ranging from self-portraiture to painting on unconventional materials, sculpture, and mixed media collage. One group created 4ourth Quarter, a fashion line featuring unisex tops culminating in a fashion show presented at 7pm on then night of the opening. Other students who worked on the fashion project were Ashley Bencosme, Maurice Charles, Tajani Finnie who created a sub collection called 4ourth Quarter x Sens Profond. Accompanying sketches and written commentary will document all the young artists’ work process.
Art Ready is a mentorship program designed to give students the opportunity to experience firsthand what it is like to be a professional working in a visual arts discipline. Students are exposed to a wide variety of artists and arts professionals, participate in mentorships, and visit museums and galleries. This year, the Art Ready group took field trips to such cultural venues as the Brooklyn Museum and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Individual mentor groups’ excursions included the Museum of Natural History, the New Museum, and Manhattan’s Garment District. Students also participated in a special group workshop on college portfolio prep, led by teaching artist Sonya Blesofsky, and received additional artist talks from Victoria Calabro at Urban Glass, Marci MacGuffie, Jessica Ann Peavy, Saya Woolfalk, Bryan Zanisnik and Christina Draghi and Jack Phillips of Sage and Coombe Architects. To read about students’ and mentors’ experiences, visit the Art Ready blog: smartready.wordpress.com.
Media
Schedule
from May 20, 2015 to May 24, 2015
Opening Reception on 2015-05-20 from 18:00 to 20:00
Fashion Show: 7pm