Every year the Visual Arts Department at the Loomis Chaffee School proudly showcases the work of our top visual arts students with an art exhibition. The current pandemic has made it impossible for us to celebrate our students' accomplishments in the traditional way, so we have decided to showcase our student artists with a Spring Term 2020 Online Digital Art Exhibition.
Join us in celebrating the Loomis Chaffee art community and explore each collection in the 2020 Spring Term Online Art Exhibition. View artwork from a number of mediums offered in the Richmond Art Center (RAC), and learn more about each featured artist: Kristin Santana '20, Mia Griffiths '20, Ambrozine Daring '20, Margarita Demkina '20, Audrey Zhang '21, Joy Liu '21, Jamie Fiedorek '21, Kyle Ge '20, Haven Low '21, Krishnapriya Rajaram '21, Kristina Huang '22, Declan Coyle '21, Abby Cannon '20 and Sydney Dovi '20 all from the comfort of your own home. We will also see pieces from the 3D Fabrication class and the Digital Art/Media Design class. The Loomis Chaffee visual arts faculty welcomes you to the online art exhibition.
Ceramics and Glass Studio
Our students are incredibly capable and never cease to amaze me. They show grit in the face of failed attempts. They are innovative, imaginative and zealous when given the opportunity to learn new techniques but also given the freedom to design work that is meaningful to them.They are the best part of our jobs at Loomis and this newest generation cares deeply about environmental issues, social justice and equality issues, and each other. The students here are a tiny sampling of those kids we see every day who are enjoying making things with their hands, expressing themselves and communicating through their work.
Jen McCandless — Visual Arts Department Head and Director of the Mercy Gallery
Featured Ceramics & Glass Artists
Kristin Santana '20
Kristin Santana is a senior at Loomis Chaffee. Kristin started creating art at Loomis freshman year when she enrolled in a painting class. Sophomore year she began taking ceramics and thought it was so relaxing and fun. Her favorite types of sculptures to make are called "relief sculptures" because they are so easy to make, and they turn out really well. To Kristin, ceramics is something she never thought she would be good at doing, but she kept trying and liked it very much. She attributes the fact that she liked ceramics so much to why she became such a great ceramics artist.
Mia Griffiths '20
Mia Griffiths is a senior at Loomis Chaffee and has been doing ceramics all four years. Working in the Richmond Art Center (RAC) is one of her most favorite things to do on the Island and she loves the supportive atmosphere. She is currently in the CL Art class and spent 4-5 hours a week in the RAC, and she will definitely miss getting to spend most of her time there.
Painting and Drawing Studio
The beauty of the work I do with students in the RAC is that I can watch them grow from introductory level courses like Drawing, Painting and Printmaking I all the way to the College Level Seminar in Visual Studies. The breadth of interest and development of talent is what motivates me to create an environment of open expression and creativity where each student can partake in their own artistic exploration, be that in learning the most basic fundamentals or creating a body of original art. The students showcased here are all committed to a life in art, and I think that all of their work is a genuine reflection of that passion.
Mark Zunino — Director of the Visiting Artist Program and Visual Arts Faculty
Featured Drawing & Painting Artists
Ambrozine Daring '20
Ambrozine is a senior at the Loomis Chaffee School from Brooklyn, NY. She started doing art in middle school and really honed her skills at Loomis. She took painting junior year and senior year she is currently taking CL Art. She loves art because she gets to express herself and show off her culture.
Margarita Demkina '20
Margarita Demkina is a senior at the Loomis Chaffee School. She has taken many art courses during her time at Loomis including Drawing, CL Art, and Independent Studies. Her preferred medium is oil painting with big brush strokes and bright colors.
Audrey Zhang '21
Audrey is a junior at Loomis. She really loves oil painting and drawing and is currently pursuing an independent study to put together a portfolio of paintings. Most of her paintings are either still life or portraits. Taking art at Loomis has allowed her to improve her technique, challenge her to try new mediums and take more creative risks.
Joy Liu '21
Joy is a junior at Loomis Chaffee who started making art when she was five years old. She creates art to have fun and to express herself. Joy uses all kinds of mediums to create her art including oil painting, brush painting, paper cutting, sketching as well as silk screen printmaking. Most of her art is based on nature, especially birds. She loves doing her independent study in art and is excited that she gets the opportunity to do so at Loomis Chaffee.
Jamie Fiedorek '21
Jamie is a junior at Loomis Chaffee and she has been creating artwork all of her life. Art is her passion and Loomis was a natural choice because of the art facilities and the art faculty. She came in as a new sophomore and took Printmaking and is now taking CL Art Seminar. Her artwork is based off of the 60’s and pop era. She is currently working in the mediums of watercolor and digital art.
Kyle Ge '20
Kyle Ge is currently a junior at Loomis Chaffee. Kyle views art as mainly something he does for fun, and a personal fulfillment for him. He loves being able to draw whatever he wants and things that he thinks are cool. Kyle has been drawing since he was very young. Taking classes at Loomis has really helped him diagnose what he wants to create and how to do it. Kyle draws daily and his medium of choice is pencil.
Photography Studio
While contemporary technology allows us to easily take a "good picture," our photography students think deeply about telling their own complex and imaginative stories with the camera. Crafting compelling images with light and a lens, these photographers have dedicated their time in the RAC in the pursuit of expressively freezing the range of experience in just a fraction of a section. I am continually rewarded to see the refreshing breadth of their creativity.
Christian Ryan — Visual Arts Faculty (Artwork by Christian Ryan: Remove, Reveal - Videography and Photography - 2020)
Featured Photography Artists
Haven Low '21
Haven is currently a junior at Loomis Chaffee, has attended Loomis since freshman year, and has taken a variety of art courses. She is currently doing an independent study where she has the opportunity to design her own course. Haven has come into her own as a photographer. She acquired an old film camera and has been learning to develop rolls of film with the help of Mr. Ryan. Haven loves portrait photography and telling a story through photos.
3D Fabrication and Craft
One of the many great things about our 3D Fabrication + Craft class is that it provides students space to pursue their passion and ideas, regardless of medium. While developing an understanding of traditional craft like woodworking alongside contemporary technology like 3D printing, our students seamlessly combine techniques to follow their limitless imagination. The following students exemplify the kind of independent creative thinking and determination that allow them to fulfill their artistic goals.
Christian Ryan — Visual Arts Faculty
3D Fabrication Artists
Priya Rajaram '21
Priya is a junior at Loomis Chaffee. She has been doing art for as long as she can remember. Mixed media is her favorite type of art. She loves using the resources around her to create something new. Her current artwork is a combination of skateboards and nature. In her 3D Fabrication class they were tasked with creating a skateboard, Priya took advantage of her artistic freedom and created the amazing work you see here.
Kristina Huang '22
Kristina Huang is a sophomore at Loomis Chaffee. When asked about her 3D Fabrication skateboard project she states that it was a "fun and wonderful experience." The process of making this project really helped her appreciate the time and effort it takes to bring the project to fruition. She started creating art in elementary school, but it was mostly two dimensional. Kristina has a new found passion for 3D art and is excited to see where her designs take her in the future.
The following skateboards were designed by students in Mr. Ryan's 3D Fabrication and Craft class.
Digital Arts/Media Design
The Digital Arts/Media Design class is so much fun. The students surprise me every day with their imaginations. It is amazing to assign a project and be able to see the project come to fruition with so many different design solutions. This class allows the students to play off each other’s ideas while challenging themselves at every level. I love digital art because of the fluid nature of the medium. This class is for all levels of designers.
Stacy-Ann "Ro" Rowe — Visual Arts Faculty
Digital Art/Media Design Artists
Declan Coyle '21
Declan is currently a junior at Loomis Chaffee. He originally started creating art in seventh grade by starting a photography club. He knew he wanted to pursue art when he started high school, so when he arrived at Loomis, he started taking photography. While taking photography, Declan was introduced to Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop really peaked his interest just in time for the new Digital Art/Media Design class to be added to the curriculum. He dove in and is a complete natural. Declan continues to thrive in all aspects of digital design and marketing.
Abby Cannon '20
Abby Cannon is a senior at Loomis Chaffee. Abby has worked with video while at Loomis but this year was her first year doing digital art. Digital art was very new to Abby when she signed up for the course, but she has found her niche. She has always loved drawing as a hobby, but never took it seriously until this year. Now she not only takes her art seriously, but it is now a passion of hers. Abby plans on going into journalism in the future and is happy that she has learned so much. She is excited for what the future holds.
Sydney Dovi '20
Sydney Dovi is a senior at Loomis Chaffee. She is an artist that does not have a specific style and loves all types of art media. She is currently working on many new projects and even has taken up sewing as a new method of creation. Many of her projects are experimental or creating things for her family, friends and herself. For Sydney, creating art is for fun. She just happens to have a great eye for design.
The following designs were created by students in Ms. Ro's Digital Art/Media Design class. They were asked to create a doodle for Google using the theme "I show kindness by..."
We would like to thank all of the artists for their hard work and talent. We are proud to share their work with you all and look forward to showcasing even more talent in the future.
The Loomis Chaffee School Spring Term Online Art Exhibition 2020
Credits:
Photo credit Jessica Ravenelle