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Masters of the craft: DMA exhibit showcases Plano students' art
Photo courtesy of the Dallas Museum of Art - Plano West junior Nakita Naik’s 3D newspaper sculpture recently won an honorable mention award at the Dallas Museum of Art. The museum recognized 19 area high school students with awards last month for their selected work, which is currently on display there through April 8.
By Kelley Chambers, kchambers@starlocalnews.com
The Dallas Museum of Art's O'Donnell Foundation recognized five Plano high school students for their selected work that is currently being exhibited in the museum's 14th annual Young Masters Exhibition this month.
For Plano West junior Nakita Naik, the honorable mention was a pleasant surprise, as simply having her work showcased in the museum was a tremendous honor in and of itself.
"It's kind of crazy to think my piece is in a museum that houses some of best artwork from some of the best artists ever," said Naik, 17, who won an honorable mention award for her 3D paper sculpture entitled, "Newspaper."
The exhibition is on view in the Concourse Gallery at the museum now through April 8.
Other Plano honorees included Alexis Doll of Plano Senior High School in the studio art category and Adeleye Omotosho of Plano East, who won third place for his art history essay. Amy Jenkins of Plano East also received an honorable mention award for her work in the art history category. Charles Blake of Plano Senior High also won third place in music theory for a composition piece.
"Three or four centuries ago, artists were asked to start their apprenticeship at the age of 10 or 12, and it was a full time job," said Olivier Meslay, senior curator of European and American Art, at an awards presentation on Feb. 28 at the museum.
"Artists now start later, but it seems that you are able to learn in two or three years what was taught and learned in nine," he said. "I'm very impressed by your imagination, your ability to invent, to make something different from everybody else."
Naik spent two weeks and worked through the following weekend to complete her masterpiece, which is built almost entirely out of newspaper.
"We basically had to make a project out of paper and I knew I wanted to do something with newspaper," Naik said. "And I really like using the human form a lot. I try to incorporate it in a lot of my projects."
To make the torso of the body, Naik wrapped her sister in saran wrap and tape before cutting it out and covering it in newspaper. A lot of her time was also spent making paper rolls, cutting and manipulating them and arranging them with paper mache in some spots.
Although Naik had a piece on display at the Houston Museum of Art last year, she said having her artwork on display in Dallas has been more meaningful to her because of its location. Having started her artistic career in the ninth grade, Naik is not sure on what the future holds, but said she will more than likely minor in art thanks to the confidence she has gained through her teachers.
"I really have had really great teachers, it's my favorite class to go to every year," Naik said. "It's kind of like my only fun class where we can actually do things we want to do, and the atmosphere is very calm. Ms. Shelton is always supportive of what we want to do and doesn't restrain our creativity."
Aside from her original masterpieces, Naik's commitment to her vocation and the amount of time spent in Shelton's studio have not gone unnoticed said Plano West AP and 3D studio teacher Suzanne Shelton.
"She is a model student and has a tremendous work ethic," she said. "She works at home, she stays after...our class is a two-hour block and she stays after to work. She is kind of a leader and is real involved."
The Young Masters Exhibit is a high profile event for budding artists, and a lot of times serves as a high school student's first taste of what a juried art show is like. Just getting a piece accepted into the show is difficult, since as many as 600 pieces were submitted to be displayed this year, Shelton said.
"It's an extreme honor for [Naik] to be in this museum, but I know from watching her work that this is definitely the caliber of art that would be chosen, she's just phenomenal," she said. "Until you do it, you don't understand what it means to be a part of the process. She's going to be doing this the rest of her art life, and this was her first opportunity to do it."
For information about the Young Masters exhibition, visit www.apstrategiesarts.org.
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