This past March, two Hartford Art School students, Nicole Molinari and Audrey Ryan, were honored in the annual Alexander A. Goldfarb Student Exhibition, which took place in the Joseloff Gallery.
They each received 1,000 dollar from the Alexander A. Goldfarb Endowment Trust. The Trust was created in memory of the late Goldfarb’s dedication to the arts shortly before the first Student Exhibition in 1989.
Goldfarb, a Hartford attorney, is remembered for both his excitement and his generosity.
In total, 279 pieces were submitted for judging with 69 chosen for the final exhibition.
The guest juror was Denise Markonish, a visual arts professional and curator at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts.
Nicole Molinari, a painting major, spoke of her award-winning oil painting “Self Portrait”.
“The piece I entered was a self-portrait that took about 80 hours to complete,” she said. “The piece is rather large for me; I tend to work smaller, however this one is 24 by 36, the reason being that in my painting intro class we were given the assignment and size. This painting came from the theme of recreating a famous portrait. The artist Sargent painted a portrait of a young woman holding a white dog in a black and red dress. The reference I posed for keeps these motifs while having my own clothes and object choices.”
Molinari was very shocked and grateful that she won the award and plans on saving some of the money while using the rest, fittingly, to buy more art supplies.
Audrey Ryan, a sculpture and photography major, received her award for a mixed media sculpture called “Carrot and Stick”.
Molinari and Ryan’s works are now part of the Goldfarb Memorial Collection and on display here at the University of Hartford.
This year’s guest juror will be Judith McElhone, Hartford Art School alumn and director of the Five Points gallery in Torrington, Connecticut.
Her artwork has been displayed in The Painting Center in New York, The Attleboro Museum, Brigham Young University, and Real Art Ways.
The 2016 Student Exhibition will take place from February 25 to March 26 in the Joseloff Gallery. All University of Hartford students are invited to submit their best works. The submission process will take place online beginning in December with Feb. 9, 2016 as the deadline.
For more information, students should contact Lisa Gaumond, Managing Director of the Hartford Art School Galleries at gaumond@hartford.edu.