The Spring Arts Festival was held this year in concert with the Gala Celebration honoring Ferit Şahenk '83 who graciously donated the funds to build the beautiful new arts center. Concerts, drama, paintings, photography, readings, workshops, and filled the Arts Festival weekend. Below are images from the 2013 Spring Arts Festival.
IB Art Exhibition
Throughout this week the TASIS second-year IB students have been putting the finishing touches on an exhibition in the Şahenk Fine Arts Center. Please stop by anytime to see the work of the year's IB Visual Arts students. A special vernissage will take place at 3:45 pm on Monday, April 22. Student artists instructors will be on hand to talk about and explain their work.
Traditionally the TASIS community has had a chance to see the IB work at a special IB show in March. This show was arranged in part for the visiting IB examiner to see the students' work and to conduct an interview with each artist. For the first time this year, all IB visual art portfolios were sent electronically to be examined. Photographs, documents, and a videotaped interview were part of this new electronic format.
TASIS Student Photographers/Artists Online and in Galleries!
Check out senior Tudor Craciun's photography on 500px. Amazing images!!
Below is an article which was in the Winter 2013 eTASIS magazine about one of TASIS' student artists, Anahelena Arévalo '13. Her friend and student photographer, Taylor Tomasso '12 wrote this article
Portrait of an Artist
“My earliest memories are bringing a coloring book to restaurants during long, boring dinners,” says Anahelena Arévalo, a new 12th Grader at TASIS. For her, art is an instinct and as she lets her mind wander and her hands and emotions do all of the work for her. This is certainly obvious in the numerous paintings she has submitted not only to the TASIS Visual Arts website, but also to the Venezuelan Museum of Art in Carácas, where her work will be part of an exhibition of work featuring young artists.
Anahelena’s
work includes self-portraits in mediums such as acrylics, which she enjoys as
it is easy to control the color, contrast, texture, and light. She claims, “I
don’t follow a style, but my emotion of that day is evident in everything that
I paint. Once, I was feeling off so I decided to paint to take my mind off of
my problems. I picked up at color that relaxed me, it happened to be a
turqouise, and started throwing paint onto the canvas. I used knives to scrape
the paint around the canvas, representing the thoughts going through my mind. I
stepped back and the creation in front of me gave me the chills, because my feelings
were staring back at me. To this day, each time I look at the painting, it
calms me down and it will always remain one my favorites.”
Anahelena
didn’t always want to be an artist, but slowly discovered her talent and
passion. “I decided to break the news to my family that I was not going to be a
lawyer or a doctor. My dad laughed in my face and screamed, ‘Finally!’.
Apparently my entire family had already known, but it had taken me awhile to
figure it out. I understand the hardships such as becoming well-known, no one
liking my work, and other problems, but I love painting and it makes me
discover who I am and how I belong in this world. Whatever the difficulties,
bring them on. I can handle it
For
this young artist, painting is in her blood and with her passion, talent, and
fearlessness she will be able to conquer the artistic world and create a name
for herself.
Comtemporary Swiss Ceramics Exhibition.
The upcoming Contemporary Swiss Ceramics exhibition in Mendrisio will include work by TASIS Ceramics faculty, Brigit Hurst. The opening is this Saturday, March 23, and the show will continue until June 23. Of the numerous Swiss artists who participated in a competition, sixty-six were selected and will be displaying their artwork. Eight of the ceramicists are from Ticino, including Brigit Hurst.
The extensive exhibition includes different sideshows with artwork by local artists and graduate students of Swiss art colleges. There will also be a smaller Contemporary Italian Ceramics exhibit.
The last time this event took place in Ticino was in 1985, so
it’s a rare opportunity to experience a wide range of contemporary
ceramics in different locations in and around Mendrisio. It is a very prestigious and an honor to be included in the show.
If any students are interested in seeing the exhibition, but are traveling during spring break, there will be a TASIS cultural trip on April 17th to visit the main ceramics show in the Museo d’Arte di Mendrisio.
Download the Exhibition Brochure here.
Congratulations Ms. Hurst!
Academic Travel Photography Contest
During the Spring Academic Travel trips students and faculty were encouraged to shoot photographs and then enter up to three images in a photo competition. Over 70 entries were submitted for the Spring contest.
The judges for the contest are TASIS photography instructors Kim Nelson and Frank Long. One grand prize is given and the winner for the Spring contest is senior Lara Hekimolgu for her image taken on the Art History Istanbul trip. The grand prize winner has a choice for their prize - a one-year subscription to David duChemin's online Photography magazine or a batch of Mrs. Nelson's freshly-made chocolate chip cookies.
A similar contest took place for the Fall Academic travel. Below is a gallery of selected images from the Spring contest. More images can be viewed here: Academic Photography Contests 2012-2013
Fine Arts Video
Take a look at a new video about the TASIS Fine Arts Program.
Video produced by Andy Bryant.
Exhibition Opening
Vernissage will take place on Friday, February 1, 16:00 -18:00 in the Horst Dürrschmidt Gallery.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
The artwork will be on display from February 1 - 21, 2013