Student Artwork Wins Top Awards in Next-Up! Exhibit
Rivers artists garnered First and Third Prize, as well as seven Honorable Mention (HM) awards in the Next-Up! Art competition, hosted by the Page Waterman Gallery in Wellesley. This juried show includes artwork from six schools—Wellesley, Natick, and Needham High Schools and Beaver Country Day School and the Cambridge School of Weston. At the opening reception on Sunday, May 14, awards were announced by gallery owner (and Rivers alumnus) Sturdy Waterman ’74. Alicia Bellido ’17 received First Prize with her painting Wayside Inn Window and Joelle Mentis ’18 won Third Prize with her print Wrinkled Thoughts.
The exhibit, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the gallery located at 26 Church Street in Wellesley, will run through May 21 during regular store hours. A number of the works of art are for sale, with half of the proceeds benefitting Adolescent Wellness, Inc, a non-profit in Wellesley that promotes mental health and prevention.
“This is a very impressive show with lots of quality artwork,” commented Rivers’ Visual Arts Department Chair David Saul. “Rivers certainly has a significant presence in this gallery show of 75 pieces. We were highly selective in submitting artwork from many of our outstanding artists in the junior and senior classes.”
The six senior artists, each of whom completed a college art portfolio, are: Bellido with two additional paintings: Self-Portrait and Tuscan Landscape; Elizabeth Baldini ’17 (photography): Echoes of Time, Liquid Portal (HM), and Tranquility; Sydney Epstein ’17 (photography) : Anxiety, Fear, and Longing; Frank Ferrara ’17 (ceramics): Bottle, Original Sin, and The Tides; David Freedman ’17 (printmaking): Flux Face, My Father, and Tiki Masks (HM); and Kate Knight ’17 (ceramics), Hygge, Reliance, and Sea Bottle (HM).
The four junior artists are: Mentis with an additional print The Underrepresented and a painting Woman in Pink (HM); Emily Smith ’18 (ceramics): Deterioration, Lettuce Share, and Spinae (HM); Hunter Taylor-Black ’18 (printmaking): Karin Posed as O’Keefe, Picasso (HM), and Water Glass with Spoon; and Kendall Zaleski ’18 (pastel): Corn Plant (HM), Tongue and Snake Plant, and Wild Flower.
Jurors for the show were Carrie Megan, artist; Jessica Roscio, Ph.D., curator at the Danforth Art in Framingham; and John Thompson, artist and lecturer at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Click here for the complete gallery of Rivers artwork on display at Next Up!
Click here for the complete gallery of Rivers artwork on display at Next Up!
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