Cerini Wins Awards at Long Island's Best Exhibit
The Heckscher Museum of Art came alive last Saturday night for this year's Long Island's Best Young Artists opening reception and awards presentation. Five Huntington High School students had their work selected for display at the show, which runs through April 21.
An opening reception crowd of about 250 saw Huntington High School senior Andrea Cerini presented with an Achievement Award in Digital Media along with the Renzo S. Bianchi Scholarship Award.
Ms. Cerini was honored for her digital illustration, Equine. She is a student in graphic arts teacher Kasmira Mohanty's class. Inspiration for Equine was derived from noted artist Fritz Glarner's work, Drawing for Tondo, a 1962 charcoal and crayon on paper piece. Glarner's work was from the exhibition "Absorbed by Color: Art in the 20th Century."
"I was drawn in immediately by the circle in Drawing for Tondo, but then noticed the rectangles filled by bold pigments; my eyes could not focus on one spot," Ms. Cerini said in her artist's statement. "Drawing for Tondo's artist, Fritz Glarner, was a revolutionary who fathered the optical-effect terms, 'pumping planes' and 'relational painting,' and I was inspired to merge these techniques. I incorporated the idea that the eye never settles on a fixed location, which I accomplished by placing 'eyes' throughout the piece (pumping planes). I incorporated red into the grey color scheme in order to distinguish between the horse figure and the organic shapes in the foreground (relational painting). There are more aspects of Glarner's art that influenced me, though overall his technique was my true inspiration."
While Ms. Cerini is a gifted artist, the teenager intends to begin studying mechanical engineering at Stony Brook University in the fall. She is an thoughtful and articulate young woman capable of speaking intelligently on a variety of topics.
Huntington High School student-artists Brian McConnell, Julianna Barca, Ben Nikodem and Nina Flores also have pieces on display at the Long Island's Best exhibit. A total of 288 works were submitted for jurying. Curator Lisa Chalif selected 80 pieces in various media for inclusion in this year's exhibit.