Twenty-seven Riverside-Brookfield High School Advanced Placement Studio Art students will have their work displayed at the Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery from Friday through April 11.
The students’ work – ranging from drawings to 3D sculpture to photography – is provocative, avant-garde and in some cases, surrealistic, like senior Rebecca Dosek’s acrylic paint and marker drawing of a lion getting its mane permed.
“Honestly, big cats are some of my favorite animals, and I thought it would be funny,” said Dosek, who is headed off to Illinois State next year. “I was experimenting with how humanity treats animals.”
Senior Bella Dematteo developed a dress made out of common materials like plastic grocery sacks, but look deeper. The dress is mounted on a mannequin she built with recycled fabric.
“The dress I would characterize as fashion, but I built the mannequin itself so I consider that sculpture,” said Dematteo, off to Illinois Wesleyan next year. “The mannequin took me a month and the dress itself took me a week.
Senior Audrey Hostrawser isn’t sure where she will study graphic design next year, but her portrait of a girl walking a dog along a busy city area, complete with diverse shops and restaurants, will be the second time she has exhibited at RAC.
“I think last year it was an amazing experience to see other people viewing your art,” she said. “It was a really good opportunity and made me feel like I have a voice with my artwork.”
The students are under the tutelage of Suzanne Zimmerman, and she said departing RAC gallery director Joanne Aono has been instrumental in the exhibition, in its 16th year.
“We’re lucky to have her expertise,” Zimmerman said. “She’ll talk to my students about how the gallery is curated, and we’ve had students yearly that intern there.”
Friday’s opening night reception will run from 5-7 p.m. and will include pizza donated by Paisans Pizza of Brookfield. Gallery hours are 1-5 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
