From February 26 to March 16, the Stamford Art Association had its 44th Annual Student Show, which allows students to display their work in their gallery space. The Stamford Art Association is a non-profit organization whose members include painters, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers. The organization’s mission is to provide a forum where emerging and professional artists can exhibit their work to the community and compete in juried shows.
The Association’s townhouse gallery holds eight consecutive shows each year, six of which are juried exhibits, with prominent jurors from art schools, galleries, and institutions in New York and surrounding areas, including the Whitney Museum, Bruce Museum, and Museum of Modern Art. Seven of the exhibits include cash prizes for winners.
The Student Show was made of juniors and seniors from Fairfield, Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Wilton, Weston, Westport, and Ridgefield. These students submitted artwork from five categories separated by medium: portfolio, painting, drawing, sculpture, and print.
Students from all over Connecticut submitted their art to this competition that celebrates young artists. Among them are Westhill students Frantz Gabriel (’17) and Crysthel Larriviere (’17), who each won award at the Student Show. Frantz Gabriel was awarded with second place in painting at the art competition. Crysthel Larriviere was given a honorable mention in drawing. Michael Clark, Adam Zacharewicz, Rose Dorval, Meghna Sharma, and Eli Nova were selected by the fine arts teachers at Westhill to represent the school and participate in the art competition.
“After I won second place, I was actually surprised because when I entered, I did not think much of it. I just thought it was a competition where everyone gets a gift card or something,” said Gabriel.
Gabriel felt confident in his artwork and entered the competition to improve his skills as an artist by learning from other people at the competition. Gabriel submitted art pieces that focused on a specific ideas. “My inspiration was part of my concentration in AP Studio Art, which revolves around Dante’s Inferno. My art focuses on the image of the city as well as traveling through the city. This is supposed to reflect the idea of an underworld or hell. That house in my artwork is supposed to be purgatory and everything around it is supposed to be chaos in the city,” said Gabriel.
