PHS artists showcase their talents with end-of-year art show

On June 5, PHS hosted its annual End of Year Art Exhibition. This exhibition has been a tradition for 25 years, with every art student receiving the chance to display their best work. It is a large collaborative effort between art teachers, students, and art clubs, who work throughout the year to prepare pieces that showcase their artistry.

At the gallery, students showcased artwork media including watercolor paintings, ceramics, printmaking, installations, and sculptures. For students taking 2D art classes, they mostly worked on illustrations and paintings. Students on the 3D art track focused on artwork with ceramics, plaster, wood, and textiles.

One of the biggest sections in the Numina Gallery featured Studio Art 3D III students’ collection installations, which involve creating art from a collection of various items, such as aluminum cans and receipts. Another installation in the exhibition displayed books made by students taking the Art of Craft elective.

In recent years, the gallery has expanded to include not only the Numina Gallery, but the art classrooms as well. The 3D art program has expanded to triple its former size, so opening the gallery to include the art classrooms helped ensure that each student’s work was highlighted.

“Adding that extra room has helped house a lot of the sculptures. And that evolution of actually taking a gallery walk from one classroom to the next and then down to Numina or the other way ... transforms the whole scope of the exhibition,” said 3D art teacher Bridget Schmidt.

Aside from getting to see their work on display, participating in the exhibition teaches students the value in curating pieces for the collection, reflecting on the process, and critiquing their work.

“Being able to critique your own work and decide what’s most important to actually display and put out there to a bigger audience is really an important life skill,” said Schmidt.

For some students, the process of creating these pieces of art for the exhibition was a way to express their emotions and past experiences, even delving into parts of themselves that they had previously forgotten.

“When it was COVID, I had a really bad depression. [My installation is] just a bunch of random things that I kind of fell in love with again [after the pandemic. But] then there’s still some black fragments throughout the piece. And to me, that kind of symbolizes [that] there’s always gonna be dark times in life, but it’s the rest of the things around it that really makes life worth living,” said Anya Haeberli ’25, an artist who worked on a personal installation.

Some students used the exhibition as a place to connect their favorite stories and hobbies, which helped to bring their passion to life.

“My installation was very much inspired by one of the classic science fiction movies. Sci-fi has meant a lot to me since I was very young; I think it represents this certain kind of optimism. So I wanted to sort of pay homage to this genre that has meant so much to me, and all these classics,” said Ann King ’25, an art student with an installation in the show. “I feel like I’ve uncovered something really wonderful from my childhood that I wouldn’t have otherwise without this installment.”

However, one of the main challenges that students faced was the time constraint. Though students may have had numerous ideas about what to include in their art pieces, there simply was not enough time to incorporate it all.

“I think, for all of us, the installations are something that we really want to put our everything into. So ... I want it to be fully realized in my vision. And I know I don’t have the time for that, especially with everything else going on right now. So it’s like even though you present something, it’s not fully finished,” said Haeberli.

Through the exhibition, the teachers hoped to not only showcase their art students’ talent, but also to celebrate their hard work.

“The biggest part [of the exhibition] is that [the artists] get to see their work on display, which is a big part of the art process ... Having your art displayed and performed is kind of the end of the creative process. So it’s really good for them to celebrate their hard work,” said 2D art teacher Matthew Pembleton. “[The exhibition] is another example of the diversity of our school and [the different] ways of celebrating student achievement beyond academics, beyond athletics, beyond other clubs and accomplishments.