The Friends Select Portfolio Exhibit, organized by the Portfolio Class and Deborah Caiola, Chair of the Art Department, is now open for the third year in a row to display Friends Select Seniors’ artwork. For this exhibit, each student in the Portfolio class designs a wall in the Select Gallery where they display their work.

Participating artists are Nat Abramson, Quaye Agoyo, Kayla Alston, TJ Hampton, Tiana Johnson, Ava Liddy, Simone Singler, Zion Todd, Coleman Wampler, Stefan Widdicombe, and Alessandra Yang.

The show gives students the opportunity to choose how they display their work to the community and allows the students to explain what they are communicating through their work in their artist statements. Deborah says It also is a great opportunity to celebrate the students’ art and all the hard work that was put into it over the course of high school. She says, “I hope the viewers take away something from the art and learn more about our students and their marvelous artistic talents.”

Everyone in the class had a different timeline for how long it took to prepare for the show. “The time that it took us to put our portfolios together varied. Some people had everything they needed in terms of the work they made but some had to create more this year. It took a couple of years to build up a good portfolio but it only took about two weeks to photograph everything and put the portfolio together,” Nat Abramson said. 

The students then gathered and photographed these pieces over the course of the art class. They put what they feel is their best work in the exhibit. Ava Liddy, a student in the Portfolio class, said, “Throughout the process of choosing what to put in the show, I focused mostly on which pieces showed my dedication and which pieces I was most proud of.” 

Last year, the exhibit was virtual, so the class created a website to display their work. This year, the exhibit is in person but the website is still being used because according to Deborah, the seniors thought it was a good idea as it creates a record of the exhibit each year. This exhibit shows a wide variety of art styles and technicality in artmaking, as well as the progression of the artist’s work over the past couple of years. The website and exhibit allow viewers to see many different pieces at a time; a very different experience from seeing one piece alone.

The exhibit is up until Tuesday, February 1. There will be an official closing celebration today, Friday, January 28th, from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm.