The objective of my exhibition is to present viewers with a collection of works that accumulate to one's individuality, even though it may not seem like that on its surface level. As my works revolve around loved ones, my room, and my favorite music, I hope to highlight how influential one's environment is on their sense of expression, and even their personal beliefs, as humans truly do see the world around them through the eyes of others alongside themselves. With the vibrant color palettes alongside the organic and soft forms present throughout my exhibition, I attempted to capture a snippet of my adolescence with artwork, as I have always been interested in documenting fleeting moments like youth.

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I arranged my works in chronological order to reveal how my perception of myself has shifted throughout time, and with age. I noticed a common theme between my early works, and how I always gravitated towards creating portraits of my friends, as they were the most important figures of my life when I was 16 and creating these compositions, and I believed this was the perfect way to capture myself in an unconventional way. With my portraits, ‘Emily’ and ‘Aniyah’, I highlighted the external image of youth that I see in my current generation. The subject matters of both works are the most detailed of the composition, with special attention paid to texture and color. Additionally, the contrast of the detailed focal point against the simple background is intentional, as all eyes should be on what makes each person special, especially their facial expressions. No longer are these teenage girls confined to artificial smiles, but are painted with glares and looks of confidence, to provide a more authentic image of the women I have been surrounded by in my adolescence. These works aid my exhibition as it provides context into the people I have chosen to surround myself with and share my beliefs with. 

 

Serving as the third piece of my exhibition, my self-portrait demonstrates the rapid growth individuals experience in adolescence, which for me included the confidence to experiment with my external image. In this portrait, I depicted a version of myself with heavy eyeliner and blush, to highlight minor changes in one's appearance that can evoke extremely strong feelings, but it of love or insecurity, which reflects my personal experience. The intentional brush strokes and uneven lines used as eyelashes reflects how unpolished one's identity is in their adolescence, as it is wavering and subject to change. 

 

The triptych of photographs that follow my self-portrait bring in a material aspect of youth, one's comfort space, in my case being my bedroom. I sought to explore the theme of the individual versus the collective, and these photographs follow the timeline of personal growth continued throughout my exploration. While it has a similar approach to color as my previous works, for example, the soft, or the juxtaposition of light and dark, this triptych was created during a very intimate moment in my life. I created this when the pandemic hit and hoped to convey the sense of solitude most teenagers, and adults felt in the world. The imbalance of the work, for example, the cluttered backdrop versus the simple human silhouette reflects how the chaos of one's environment bleeds into their personal life and identity. At this point in time, most people had a shared experience regarding the fear of the future, and this work attempts to bring that vulnerability into my exhibition. 

 

While my first triptych peered into the sentiments of fear regarding the future an individual feels in their youth, my second triptych, ‘An Ode To Friendship’, highlights the beauty of the past. Ideally, the audience should view this collection of photomontages under the first, in order to see how rapid and significant change is in adolescence. While the works were created only months apart, the juxtaposition of the neon colors in my second triptych versus the muted colors of the first, create the link necessary to understand the timeline of change present throughout my exhibition. To further the sentiments of youth, and tie my exhibition together, these works yet again depict loved ones, yet instead of glares on their faces evident in my first two pieces, we see smiles  alongside organic and free flowing lines, to emphasize the comfort impressionable teenagers may feel at the end of their journey of discovering who they are, or who they could be.